Season 17 of Destiny 2 starts May 24, leaving just a single week and a single reset between us and whatever new story Bungie wants to tell. We don’t know which Light subclass will be reworked, who our enemies will be, or what activity we’ll enjoy. We do know about quite a few mechanical updates, however, and with those in mind, we can reasonably assume there are five good ways to prepare for Season 17.
Stack Bounties
A new Season means a new Seasonal Artifact. Take some time now to collect as many Bounties as you can hold — Vanguard, Gambit, Crucible, Guardian Games, Gunsmith, Destination-specific — and save them. Once you get your hands on Season 17’s Artifact, pop all of them at once. You’ll level up your Season Pass, unlock the first few Artifact mods, and increase your Artifact Power. If you didn’t reach the Pinnacle cap of 1560 in Season 16, you should also pick up the Powerful rewards from Zavala, Shaxx, and the Drifter. You’ll even get an essentially free 360 Bright Dust per character. The more Bounties you hoard now, the bigger the headstart you get in Season 17.
Spend Iron Banner Tokens
Iron Banner is getting a significant rework next Season. Tokens will be phased out entirely on top of a slew of other changes. If you have any Tokens banked from previous events, now is the time to turn them in, as any armor pieces you receive are guaranteed to have a high roll, almost always 61 or above. You’ll also want all the armor for Armor Synthesis if you like the watery aesthetic. You won’t be getting any additional rewards if you have leftover Iron Banner tokens, as Saladin won’t accept them when he returns in Week 8 of Season 17. You’re only choice at that point will be to dismantle the whole stack for a reward of an extra inventory slot.
Farm weapons leaving the loot pool
With all the changes coming in Season 17, Bungie will also be refreshing the loot pool for three of its pinnacle weekly activities: the Nightfall, Trials of Osiris, and Iron Banner, as mentioned. If you’re reading this on May 23, when it goes live, there are only a few hours left to acquire the weapons leaving: the Occluded Finality Sniper Rifle and Finite Impactor Hand Cannon. Trials of Osiris returns for the final week with both Freelance and Capture Zone, and it will be your last chance at the Shayura’s Wrath Submachine Gun and The Messenger Pulse Rifle. Lastly, both the Comedian Shotgun and Palindrome Hand Cannon rotate out, so farm those if you have a chance.
Complete all Season 16 challenges
Every Season brings ten weeks of Challenges you can complete for XP, currency, and Bright Dust. Season 16’s offerings will disappear on May 24, replaced with a new set. Anything you don’t complete before then will be lost forever, so do as many as you can in the week that remains.
Bank Neutral Deepsight Energy for new weapon crafting
Come Season 17, Deepsight weapons, the ones with the red border, will only reward Neutral Energy, and Reshaping at the Relic will only cost Neutral Energy. Use the Guardian Games’ generous Medallion reward structure to bank as many Deepsight The Title SMGs and other Deepsight weapons as you can so you’re prepared to create and upgrade the new weapons that will be available.
