It was a mistake to refer to Destiny 2 and its ilk as 'games-as-a-service'. 'Service' implies  consistency and a smooth user experience. 'Service' tries to hide the limitations of the team delivering it. Destiny 2 is something else. Destiny 2 is games-as-an-infrastructure—a subway system that gradually builds into something bigger and more sprawling; that needs to be constantly maintained; that will sometimes keep you waiting because such projects are big and complicated and the people running them can't do everything at once.

With Shadowkeep, Bungie is redrawing the map. The expansion adds a revitalised tourist destination—the Moon, returning from the first Destiny with a handful of new attractions and a fresh coat of paint—but also spearheads a more fundamental shift in purpose. A series of small tweaks and changes that add up to something that feels at once far-reaching and, paradoxically, not as dramatic as it first seems.

Players return to the Moon in search of series regular Eris Morn, the Destiny character voted most likely to keep a LiveJournal. Shadowkeep's campaign manages to highlight both the best and worst of Bungie's storytelling. The specific objectives are tiresomely monologued by Eris before you head out; the mystical technobabble ensuring I rarely ever know what I'm actually doing. The broad strokes are that you need to forge a new, special armour set, but the delivery is rendered obtuse thanks to the density of arcane Hive rituals and mystical macguffins.

And yet! On a wider level it's a triumph, thanks to an overarching threat that feels grand in both its menace and in the way Bungie has seeded it throughout the last two years of the game. As someone who's read my fair share of Destiny lore collectibles, coming face to face with the thing that hides beneath the Moon felt dramatic and shocking. Oh shit, I have to deal with one of those? I felt unprepared, which speaks to how successfully Bungie has teased the Destiny universe's larger antagonist.

As a collection of missions, Shadowkeep's campaign is largely business as usual. You'll fight your way to an arena and kill a big ogre. You'll fight your way to an arena and kill a big Captain. You'll fight your way to an arena and kill a big Wizard and then run away very fast. There isn't the same thematic playfulness as, say, Forsaken's campaign, which used the skillset of each Baron as the basis for how you'd beat them. Instead, Shadowkeep works in part because of the reason Destiny always works—it feels good to shoot the guns—but also because, as an environment, the Moon is dripping with atmosphere and nostalgia.

The Moon has always been one of Destiny's most evocative locations, but the new areas in Shadowkeep—the Scarlet Keep in particular—are astonishing in their beauty. The red tower looks almost like a painting, looming dark and ominous in the distance. As for the returning parts of the map, Bungie deftly avoids the disappointment that can come from retreading old ground. It helps that this is the Moon's first appearance on PC, but—even for people like me, who spent hours farming Helium Filaments in the first game—Bungie has shown enough restraint when it comes to resurrecting old content that here the return feels novel and exciting.

I get a kick out of revisiting destinations like the Traitor’s Ketch, where Taniks once challenged players in the ways of old, or from navigating the tunnels under the surface using nothing but memory and guesswork. Most of Shadowkeep's guns are tied to quests that require tracking down trinkets throughout the world. While many will likely turn to Google, I've enjoyed getting lost underground, refamiliarising myself with the strange sights of the Hive's stronghold. It helps that, even for the returning locations, enough has been subtly changed that it feels like time has passed—a rare thing in a game that's largely about doing the same things over and over.

The campaign's ending may be abrupt, but, as always, the expansion's story is more of a tease of things to come—some of it through the next year of seasonal releases, the rest likely further out still. In the meantime, the familiar and steady rhythm of Destiny 2 resumes after players have hit the relatively easy-to-reach soft power cap of 900. The slower journey to the hard cap of 950 may have been remixed, but the notes are largely the same—relying on the weekly drops of powerful gear from three-player Strike missions, Crucible PvP matches, the still-brilliant competitive PvE of Gambit, and the new raid, which challenges players with a series of puzzle-like encounters among the vibrant, Vex-infested greenery of the Black Garden.

There's a renewed focus on bounties now, with each vendor offering a powerful reward if you complete a set number within a week. Thanks to the XP awards now granted by bounties, which award progress along a season pass full of goodies as well as powering up the new seasonal artefact, the steady tick of treats keeps things moving at a nice pace. That said, I'd love a central bounty board that collected them all up for easy access. Nothing delays a fireteam like having to bounce between vendors hoovering up bounties for every activity that might be on the cards for that evening.

As for specifics additions and changes, yes, there's a new Nightfall variant—The Ordeal, which has curated modifiers that increase in number as you up the difficulty. Yes, the Crucible playlists have been retooled, giving players more control over what mode they play, (and letting you earn Glory score without ever having to suffer through a round of Countdown). And yes, there are new Strikes and a couple of Crucible maps from the first game that make their PC debut. But there's also a lot of repeating the same things that we've been doing for over a year. You will run the Pyramidion strike and earn a Ten Paces. You will play a Control match on Vostok and be rewarded with a Does Not Compute.

The lack of new world or vendor loot isn't a surprise—if Destiny 2 game director Luke Smith's essay on the state of the game pre-Shadowkeep had a single throughline, it was the limitations of what a development team can reasonably produce. Nevertheless, I was surprised how much being awarded the same old guns hurt my excitement for the year ahead. Ah shit, here we go again: another year of dismantling Go Figure.

That isn't to say there aren't new guns. Both Shadowkeep and the Vex Offensive activity that headlines the Season of the Undying (which runs in parallel to the expansion's release), each have their own new weapons. If anything, though, they're a too generously awarded. Ever since seasons were separated from DLC with Season of the Forge and the Black Armoury, each has had a different approach to awarding weapons. Last season's Menagerie felt like it hit the sweet spot: letting players decide what weapons or armour to chase. The Vex Offensive approach appears to be all guns, all the time. I've played maybe eight rounds of the event to completion and have somehow amassed nine scout rifles. It feels like overkill.

The frequency of new drops, and the lack of a vendor refresh, hides a deeper problem: there's less incentive than ever farm new guns. I'll pick one of the new Undying weapons at random: Loud Lullaby. It's an aggressive frame kinetic hand cannon, and thus up against the tried-and-true Duke Mk. 44 of which, if you've played for any length of time, you'll have dismantled hundreds of times.

I have good aggressive hand cannons already, although it's an archetype I rarely use. More broadly, I have good versions of every type of hand cannon. My desire to chase the specific set of perks that would make the Loud Lullaby distinct among its peers—subsistence and rampage, for instance—is low. Even discounting exotics, do I need a new hand cannon when I've got a curated Kindled Orchid? Do I need a new submachine gun when I've got The Recluse? Preference is still a factor: I enjoy the feel of the auto rifle Pluperfect enough that it's earned a spot in my loadout. But—unless new loot is paired with a host of interesting new perks—farming for the best version of your favourite gun just doesn't feel as vital.

On the other side of the loot pool, the chase for new armour sets does at least have more obvious purpose. Shadowkeep brings new armour stats and a new, ostensibly more flexible mod system. Instead of consumables, mods are now unlocks—free to be switched in and out into any armour piece of the same elemental affinity. Any armour you collected before Shadowkeep will remain tied to the old mod system, but will also—in my experience, at least—have been assigned some woeful stat rolls as a heavy-handed incentive to switch.

Your mileage will vary with the new system. Being able to easily experiment with different mods is a change for the better, but the elemental restrictions feel rooted in old-school MMO design in a way that will likely be at odds with how some play the game. Personally I like a little friction when it comes to theorycrafting builds, although the foundations of Shadowkeep's armour system aren't as solid as I'd like. The biggest issue is that, if I'm using a solar helmet, for instance, I can only see the solar mods. The system desperately needs a Collections tab that lets me see both the mods I've earned and where to unlock the ones I haven't. The theorycrafting potential is interesting, but that only works if you can easily see the possibility space.

For this reason the seasonal artifact is a much stronger addition. With it, you can unlock a selection of mods that will only be available throughout the Season of the Undying. As someone who remembers Destiny more as a series of metas—the year of being killed by Graviton Lance, the year of being killed by Luna's Howl, the hilarious weekend of being killed by Prometheus Lens—I'm excited by the idea of formalising it. That said, this season's inclusion of an enhanced submachine gun loader perhaps wasn't the most interesting way to shake things up given The Recluse's continued dominance in PvE.

Where Shadowkeep was billed as a bold new template for the third year, the reality is messier. Nowhere is this more clear than for 'New Light', the new user experience that puts the emphasis on repeatable activities and playing with friends. It's great in theory: certainly the amount of stuff you get for the newly free-to-play base game is incredibly generous. But it also does a bad job of onboarding new players. After a short introductory mission, you arrive at the Tower only to be inundated with quests. It's confusing and unhelpful, to the point where I've had a couple of friends who are trying out the game ask me how you even find the campaigns. For reference, they're with the shipbuilder. I don't know why either.

To be clear, Destiny 2 is still an engaging shooter that—when you step back and take stock of all it has to offer—is absolutely packed full of stuff to do. Shadowkeep is both an entertaining assortment of new activities and a solid base from which the game at large can build and improve. But Shadowkeep also doesn't feel like Destiny 2's final form, and there's a real sense that there's still much left to be tweaked and tightened.

The subway is being refurbished slowly, one station at a time. That doesn't stop me from enjoying the ride.

My Name is Byf has been producing videos on Destiny's lore since the beginning of the series. Here, we've asked him to tell the story of the Guardian who's had the greatest impact on the universe's recent history: you, the player. For more detailed lore dives into Destiny's story, visit My Name is Byf's Twitter, YouTube and Patreon pages.

Since launching back in 2014, Destiny’s story has evolved as much as its world has—the player’s actions sparking stories of revenge, war and discovery. From killing the Hive gods to returning the Iron Lords to their former glory to avenging Cayde-6, Destiny’s players have experienced a vast number of adventures in the last five years. However, new players arriving with New Light or lapsed veterans who are looking to return with Shadowkeep might be looking to catch up on all the story they’ve missed.

As far as the story and lore are concerned, Destiny can become surprisingly deep, so it’s easy for a player to get lost when new expansions are released. Here's my brief guide to help you catch up with what you might’ve missed.

While Destiny's story goes back eons, humanity's role in it starts in the 21st century with the discovery of The Traveller. After sending an expedition to Mars, we discovered that the planet was being terraformed by The Traveller—a mysterious force for good. Humanity subsequently enjoyed a golden age for centuries, and proceeded to colonise the entire solar system. Human life spans tripled, technology advanced, and life as a whole was peaceful. Humanity even sought to prepare for potential danger with the creation of an advanced artificial intelligence called Rasputin, a Warmind.

Eventually, the Traveller’s ancient enemy—known only as The Darkness—arrived in our solar system and, in spite of humanity’s defences, caused an apocalyptic event known as The Collapse that left humanity in ruin. The Traveller was able to defeat its enemy, but in the process was left crippled and dormant. With its last dying breath, The Traveller released the Ghosts, small autonomous drones capable of gifting the power of The Traveller to those capable of wielding it. These champions would be resurrected as light-bearers who were immortal as long as their Ghosts also survived. In the later stages of Destiny’s story these chosen champions would come to be known as Guardians.

Destiny

Our personal story started in Destiny 1, back in an old cosmodrome when we were resurrected as a Guardian by our Ghost. After making our way to The Last City we were directed by the leader of the Guardians, The Speaker, to push back The Darkness and its minions. In the process of our adventures we went to the moon and encountered both The Hive and The Exo Stranger. The Hive are an ancient enemy race that worship The Darkness and share its beliefs. Even though we learned that The Hive were planning to invade Earth, The Exo Stranger directed us to meet her on Venus so we could learn of an even greater threat.

Upon arriving we discovered The Vex, who are best described as a microscopic race that pilot larger, humanoid mechanical frames and who are capable of time travel. The Exo Stranger directed us to find The Black Garden, where The Vex were born, and to defeat its dark heart. This led us to the Awoken, a group of humans forged into a new race by Darkness and Light, who live mostly in The Asteroid Belt. After discovering The Black Garden’s location from the Awoken our journey led us to a massive Vex gate on Mars. After gaining ingress we found and defeated The Heart of The Black Garden—a presence of The Darkness that The Vex of The Black Garden had taken to worshipping so as to become more powerful.

Later that same year we also undertook two more adventures in the The Dark Below and House of Wolves DLC packs. In The Dark Below we prevented the Hive god Crota from conquering Earth with his army of Hive, and with the help of the fan favourite character Eris Morn were able to defeat him permanently in the Crota’s End raid. In House of Wolves we assisted the Queen of the Awoken in tracking down the House of Wolves. The House of Wolves came from a race known as the Fallen, who commonly opposed humanity and who had previously even tried to invade the Last City en masse. We were able to track down their leader Skolas, who we eventually killed within The Prison of Elders in The Reef during a Trial in “the ways of old.” After this trial by combat, The House of Wolves was left shattered and leaderless and the relations between The Last City and the Awoken began to improve.

The Taken King

A year after our resurrection as a Guardian, Crota’s father, Oryx, The Taken King, arrived in our system and bringing his army of Taken soldiers with him. The Taken were Oryx’s main force and they still exist in the system today although they are now commanded by Oryx’s sister Savathûn. The Taken are enemies that have been ripped out of our dimension, empowered by darkness and returned as compliant slaves of their overlord. The expansion also began with a battle over Saturn that saw Mara Sov, the Queen of the Awoken, supposedly die. Oryx would have overrun the system were it not for the efforts of you, The Hunter Vanguard Mentor Cayde-6 and Eris Morn. With their help you invaded The Dreadnought, discovered a way into its depths and defeated Oryx in his physical form. After taking time to prepare and weakening Oryx’s armies you also went into The Dreadnought’s heart and killed Oryx within his throne world, ending him for good. 

A year after the events of the Taken King, Lord Saladin, one of The Iron Lords returned to an old mountaintop fortress called Felwinter Peak, where The Iron Lords had previously had a base of operations. The Iron Lords were an order of light-bearers that pre-dated the Guardians, and were some of humanity’s earliest saviours after The Collapse. However, when they ventured into an area of The Cosmodrome to the north east, they were all slaughtered by SIVA, a mysterious nanite-based technology that was controlled by a fragment of The Warmind Rasputin. Lord Saladin and Lady Efrideet were the only survivors of this event, and only Saladin would remain a warrior after the matter. However, a Fallen House known as The House of Devils discovered SIVA and used it as a means to become cyborgs. Given that the Fallen worship machines, becoming a cyborg was akin to becoming a demi-god. However, their plans would be doomed to fail as Saladin invited us to Felwinter Peak to aid in defeating The Fallen. We destroyed SIVA, defeated the Fallen Devils and became the first of a new generation of Iron Lords, ushering in an age of triumph, where briefly The Last City was at peace.

Destiny 2

That peace was shattered by Dominus Ghaul, the leader of The Cabal, another race that had invaded our solar system. Him and his Red Legion arrived in force at the start of Destiny 2 and took The Last City by force. They caged The Traveller and stopped its light from reaching the Guardians and their Ghosts, effectively making them both mortal and powerless. 

This left us to reclaim our powers from a shard of The Traveller in the European Dead Zone on Earth, before reuniting the Guardian leaders of the Last City known as the Vanguard to take back the Traveller. After finding the Titan Commander Zavala on Titan, the Hunter Cayde-6 on Nessus and the Warlock Ikora Rey on we you concocted a plan to retake The Last City and assassinate Ghaul, whilst also disabling a super weapon called The Almighty. The Cabal had aimed it at our Sun to destroy it and the solar system should their plans fail. We made it to The Last City and fought against Ghaul, who wished to be chosen by The Traveller as its champion. He had empowered himself with stolen Light and used its power to battle us on the deck of his ship. After defeating him, we saw him temporarily manifest as a giant avatar of himself before being destroyed by The Traveller as it awakened. This awakening sent a pulse of light radiating out across the universe which sparked the events of the Curse of Osiris and Warmind campaigns as well as reawakening The Darkness out at the edges of the Galaxy. 

In the Curse of Osiris campaign, we went to Mercury and helped the Warlock Osiris and his Ghost Sagira defeat a Vex Mind known as Panoptes. Panoptes was the overlord of a Vex simulation engine called the Infinite Forest and had used it to calculate a method by which The Vex could conquer the universe if they were not stopped. Ikora Rey assisted us in this adventure and after we defeated Panoptes, she was reunited with Osiris who had been her teacher and mentor long ago. Osiris now watches over The Infinite Forest and safeguards it so that The Vex cannot use it against us again.

In the campaign of Warmind, we returned to Mars and met up with Ana Bray, a legendary guardian who had long been thought to be dead. She had discovered The Warmind, Rasputin’s main hub as well as a Hive Worm God known as Xol beneath the Ice of the Hellas Basin region of Mars. We had to defeat Xol, as well as his herald, Nokris, Oryx’s exiled son, to save Rasputin who launched a new series of Warsats into the system and declared itself to be a defender of humanity once again.

Forsaken

All of this leads us to the previously most recent expansion in Destiny, Forsaken, which saw us return to the Prison of Elders to stop a prison riot with Cayde and Petra Venj, a character who had aided us in the House of Wolves expansion. This all went wrong when Cayde was murdered by Prince Uldren and his Scorn Barons. 

Prince Uldren was the brother to the Queen of The Awoken Mara Sov, who had died at the hands of Oryx. Uldren had fallen into madness thanks to the actions of an Ahamkara (space dragon) called Riven. Riven had been taken by Oryx before his death and she was now manipulating Uldren in a complex plot that led him to turn on his people. 

Uldren planned to destroy the Awoken with the use of The Scorn, resurrected Fallen created by Uldren’s second in command, The Fanatic. We returned Cayde’s body to The City but then went on a quest for revenge, hunting down Uldren and his Scorn with the aid of Petra and a Fallen gangster known as The Spider. This eventually led us to an Awoken watchtower where we discovered Uldren. He had been consumed by a powerful taken entity that we had to destroy and upon killing it we were able to face our friend’s murderer. 

We don't know whether it was us or Petra who killed Uldren but his death would only be temporary as he was later resurrected as a Guardian and has not been seen or heard from since. Following this we were asked by Petra to enter The Dreaming City, one of the most sacred sites of The Awoken. We received a communication from the Awoken Queen who had in fact survived Oryx’s attack and who wished us to kill Riven as revenge for her betrayal of The Awoken. In doing so we released a curse onto The Dreaming City and its inhabitants that still lingers to this day.

In the last year we also met new character such as The Drifter and Ada-1 who respectively had seasons expanding upon their stories and lore and we even got a season dedicated to Emperor Calus, the former leader of the Cabal. All of this leads us to the events at the start of Shadowkeep, where we will return to The Moon and reunite with Eris Morn to face an even greater threat. 

For an even deeper overview of Destiny's story, consider watching My Name is Byf's four-hour rundown of the complete Story of Destiny, embedded below.

The Destiny 2 Fangs of Shun’gath is another item to be plundered as part of the: Shadowkeep expansion. Now that the Essence of Rage is live in the game, you have the chance at a god-rolled One Small Step, a legendary shottie that packs a serious punch.

To find the Fangs of Shun’gath in Destiny 2 you need to visit a specific part of the World’s Grave area on the Moon. If you don’t know Earth’s barren satellite like the back of your hand yet, we’re here to show you exactly where you need to go. If you’re a Essence-collecting veteran you’ll be familiar with the process already, so let’s get stuck in.

How to get the Destiny 2 Fangs of Shun’gath in World’s Grave

To start your latest Essence scavenger hunt, make your way to the Temple of Crota entrance. You'll have started a fair few Shadowkeep main missions here, but if you're unsure, take the eastern path away from Eris in the Moon's Sanctuary area towards Anchor of Light. Continue on past the distinctive dish-shaped building and head right through the narrow valley to the temple.

Go straight ahead, drop down and turn back on yourself. When you hit the collapsed room at the bottom of the stairs, head through the structure in the middle, and turn left. That sees you descending more stairs: turn right when you get to the room at the base of those.

In the next room, go straight ahead. The way isn't immediately obvious, so go forward and bear right a little to progress to World's Grave. Head straight ahead again and then turn left after jumping onto the raised platform. Now you should find yourself in a room with a circular altar at the centre. 

It's here that you should find a Thrall called Shun'gath. Kill it for its pointy pearly whites and the item you need for the One Small Step shotgun will be all yours. Enjoy, and point it away from us, if you please.

What is the Vex Offensive? The Vex have invaded Bungie's space MMO once again, and in addition to the Destiny 2 Garden of Salvation raid, this time we're beating them back in a new activity called the Vex Offensive. This is a six-player matchmade horde mode accessed via a playlist on the Moon. 

It's a 750-Power activity, so everyone can participate provided they own Shadowkeep and the Season of the Undying season pass (which are bundled together). Bungie says the activity will evolve throughout the season—with a mysterious 'Final Assault' planned for later this Fall—so it should become more difficult as the season progresses. 

Vex Offensive is one of the most enjoyable and rewarding activities in Shadowkeep and Season of the Undying—once you've unlocked it by completing the Eyes on the Moon quest, that is. It's sure to be a mainstay grind before it disappears at the end of the season. So I've put together a guide in making the most of the Vex Offensive, how to beat it, what gear to use, and the best loot to target.

How to beat Vex Offensive 

As a horde mode, Vex Offensive sits somewhere between Reckoning and the Menagerie in terms of difficulty and complexity. It's split into three rooms: two full of enemies and one with a boss inside. Naturally, all three rooms are overflowing with Vex, including Barrier and Overload Champions, which are weak to special modded ammunition accessed via the seasonal Artifact. This affects what gear you'll use and how you play, but we'll go deeper into that in a bit. 

To start the encounter, use the 'Hack' prompt at the designated Vex node in the first room. Loads of enemies will spawn in: kill them to fill a progress bar. Packs of enemies will appear around the nodes in the area, so once you clear out one pack, rotate to a new node. 

After you reach 100% progress, more enemies will spawn with multiple Minotaur Gate Technicians and six floating Oracles among their ranks. The Minotaur Gate Technicians will drop Void lasers on death, and you'll need these lasers to break the Oracles. Kill the Gate Technicians, pick up the lasers, and zap the Oracles. You can usually break three Oracles per laser, if you're careful. Repeat until all six Oracles are dead, then collect your loot. 

The second room follows the same pattern, but with two key differences. First, 12 Oracles will spawn in the second round of enemies, so you'll need to pick up and use more lasers. Second, you'll encounter multiple Barrier and Overload Champions, and the amount of each Champion type varies between runs. Sometimes you'll get mostly Barrier Hobgoblins, and sometimes you'll get tons of Overload Minotaurs. 

Ensure that someone in your party will have the right weapon mod equipped to deal with them, but equally, you can hedge your bets by keeping a weapon with Anti-Barrier Rounds handy. You can also use the Season of the Undying rank one exotic Eriana's Vow as an Anti-Barrier stand-in if you haven't unlocked special rounds on your Artifact. In any case, just shoot the baddies, break the Oracles, and grab that loot. 

The final room is a boss fight which puts a slight twist on the laser mechanic. Again, start the fight by hacking the central node, but place and use a raid banner before you do. Keep an eye out for all the heavy ammo and Super energy you can get and take a moment to memorize the layout of the room. There are three nodes: near the area's entrance, one in the back-right, one in the front-right, and one in the middle. This orientation will come into play later, so commit it to memory.

When you initiate the fight a big Minotaur boss spawns in the centre of the arena. It'll be immune when it spawns, so ignore it for now. Instead, head to the back-right node and start killing the enemies that spawn around it. While you're killing them, the boss will walk toward the back-right node. Once it gets there, more Gate Technician Minotaurs will spawn in. 

They drop lasers when they die, but this time, use the lasers to break the boss' immunity shield instead of shooting Oracles. Depending on your aim and what buffs you have active, it'll take five to seven lasers to break his shield. Once you break it, the boss will be vulnerable to DPS. This is your cue to burn him down. 

You'll have about 30 seconds of DPS each time you break the boss' shield, as indicated by the timer on the right side of the screen. When it runs out the boss regains his shield and head to the next node. The boss moves between nodes in the following order: back-right node first, front-right node second, middle node third. 

You should have no problem killing the boss within three nodes, or even two if you've got a good mix of Supers and heavy weapons in the party. Kill enemies, dispatch Technicians, break the shield, and melt the boss. Repeat this cycle until the boss goes down and you can loot the final chest, which doubles the loot. 

Vex Offensive best weapons and gear

Now onto the and abilities and best Vex Offensive weapons to use. The faster you kill things, the faster you'll get loot and materials, so optimize your loadout accordingly. 

You can pretty much use whatever primary weapon you'd like for Vex Offensive (as long as it's not a sidearm). However, the Recluse submachine gun is especially good here. It chews through normal enemies like nothing, and its Void damage will make short work of the shields on the Gate Technician Minotaurs. Sunshot is also strong given the density of groups, and weapons with Dragonfly-type effects—like the curated Nation of Beasts hand cannon or Ace of Spades—are great for the same reason. Thanks to its new Exotic Catalyst, Cerberus +1 is also very strong.  

Pair your primary with an appropriate special weapon. Vex Offensive features basically every type of Vex enemy. In other words, there's a mix of close-range and long-range enemies, so you need a way to deal with both. If you're using Recluse, a sniper rifle like Izanagi's Burden is great for handling distant Cyclops and for sniping the final boss' weak spot. If you're using a scout or pulse rifle, a shotgun or fusion rifle will be great for the Gate Technicians and other close-range enemies. Loaded Question is effective, and any One-Two Punch shotgun will do the busines. Or just about any shotgun, really. It's hard to screw up a shotgun. 

For your heavy weapon, you can go full add-clear with a machine gun or focus on boss DPS with a grenade launcher. Old favorites like Delirium 21%, Wendigo GL3, Outrageous Fortune, and Swarm of the Raven, as well as exotics like Anarchy and One Thousand Voices, will do just fine. Tractor Cannon is also very strong, as it will weaken the boss and straight-up delete the Gate Technicians. 

If you don't have a well-rolled heavy weapon and your choice of exotics is limited, you can get a great machine gun (A Fine Memorial) or grenade launcher (Love and Death) through the Essences available at the Lectern on the Moon. For A Fine Memorial, Feeding Frenzy and Rampage is the dream roll, and for Love and Death, you want Spike Grenades with Field Prep and Full Court. Any rolls in that range will do just fine. 

I normally wouldn't recommend using a rocket launcher since rockets are just bad, but there is one notable exception: the new Deathbringer exotic, which excels at pretty much everything in Vex Offensive. There's tons of vertical space to give its projectiles time to build up Void damage, which rips through Gate Technicians, and you can pre-fire it overhead to insta-kill waves of Vex as they spawn. 

Now let's move onto the ideal subclasses. Vex Offensive is a six-player matchmade activity, so unless you're running with a full team, you won't have any control over your class makeup. Fortunately every class performs well in Vex Offensive, and no matter what one you use, you'll get there in the end. This isn't like Reckoning where you have to have a Warlock running Well of Radiance or you'll just be miserable. That said, some subclasses are stronger than others in certain situations, so here are my personal recommendations. 

Hunter 

Most of Vex Offensive consists of big waves of enemies, so AoE is the name of the game. That said, bottom-tree Nightstalker is the way to go here. Moebius Quiver and Heart of the Pack got huge buffs in Shadowkeep, so bottom-tree Shadowshot is now good for boss damage and wrangling groups. It has more utility than Celestial Nighthawk and Golden Gun, and its add clear is comparable to a fully loaded Arc Staff.

Warlock 

Well of Radiance was nerfed in Shadowkeep, but it's still plenty good, so middle-tree Dawnblade remains a fine choice for Vex Offensive. That said, between Well of Radiance and Ward of Dawn, you really don't want more than two support Supers in your party, so plan accordingly. Outside of Well of Radiance, top-tree Stormcaller is great here. Its Arc Web grenades devour dense groups, and Stormtrance—plus the free campaign Exotic Stormdancer's Brace—will delete everything in sight. Top-tree Voidwalker, with its charged Void grenades and splitting Nova Bomb, is also great for obliterating waves of enemies and Gate Technicians. Nova Bomb also provides a hefty chunk of damage in the limited boss DPS window.

Titan 

Titans are also spoiled for choice in Vex Offensive. On the one hand, Ward of Dawn is the best Super in the game on top-tree Sentinel. On the other it has one of the best add-clearing Supers in bottom-tree Fists of Havoc. However, I would lean toward top-tree Sentinel because it lets you use Sentinel Shield in the first two rooms and Ward of Dawn against the boss, plus you can support your allies with Defensive Strike during the whole activity. And again, its Void abilities are great for the shields on Gate Technicians. 

The best Vex Offensive loot

Vex Offensive isn't just fun: the loot is pretty generous, too. Every completion nets you at least four drops from the Vex pool of gear: two weapons plus two pieces of armor. You can also purchase cheap, easy, repeatable weapon bounties from Ikora to farm specific weapons, making the grind even more rewarding. There are too many armor rolls to count thanks to the Destiny 2 armor 2.0 revamp, but we can nail down some recommended rolls for the Vex Offensive weapons.

Imperative scout rifle

Recommended PvE roll: Outlaw + Multikill Clip (or Rampage) 

Recommended PvP roll: Eye of the Storm (or No Distractions) + Snapshot Sights (or Multikill Clip)  

Optative hand cannon

Recommended PvE roll: Rapid Hit + Kill Clip (or Demolitionist) 

Recommended PvP roll: Rapid Hit + Kill Clip (or Zen Moment)

Adhortative pulse rifle

Recommended PvE roll: Feeding Frenzy + Multikill Clip (or Rampage or Dragonfly)

Recommended PvP roll: Feeding Frenzy + Multikill Clip 

Subjunctive submachine gun 

Recommended PvE roll: Threat Detector + Multikill Clip (or Surrounded, Rampage, or Swashbuckler)

Recommended PvP roll: Threat Detector + Multikill Clip (or Swashbuckler) 

We'll update this guide as Vex Offensive evolves throughout the Season of the Undying. It's possible we'll see new weapons added to the loot pool, or new bosses and mechanics added to the activity. For now, it's a fun and rewarding grind which will keep you busy for hours, so get shootin'.