Welcome to the Bakery!

I’m a sucker for the seasonal events in Destiny 2: Solstice, Guardian Games, Festival of the Lost, and Dawning. They are some of my absolute favorite times to be a Guardian. I even wrote an adorable love story between my Titan and his beau, involving the Tower decked out for The Dawning (https://archiveofourown.org/works/43782450, if you’re interested and no, no smut).

Speaking of The tower, during these events it’s always gorgeous.

(Image from Solstice 2025)

Another perk is our beloved Space Grandma comes back to visit.

There is usually a ton of fun armor, weapons, and cosmetics (the time is not now to delve into the topic of the Eververse store). And then there are the activities that comes along with each event. However, this time, Solstice was a bit different.

Edge of Fate brought with it many quality of life and system changes (at some point, I will be doing a review on the DLC as a whole). One of those changes was the addition of The Portal. Aside from an entirely new launch screen, along with it an attempt to breath life into old content. Want to run strikes solo? You can! Want to add silly, fun, or difficult modifiers such as low gravity, healing buffs, or making all your foes invisible from a distance? You can! And while that is just a helping of what can be done within The Portal, there are a whole lot more boons and buffs, modifiers, and the like that can be used (or not). There is a solo category as well as matchmaking options and the ability to load in with friends. The activities range from lost sectors to strikes, exotic mission to the replacement for grandmaster nightfalls. As of this time there is no raid or dungeon content. Again, I will get into the nitty gritty of The Portal and my thoughts at a later time, but felt the need to describe it just a little bit in case someone is not familiar with it.

When Solstice rolled around, I expected the return of Bonfire Bash. Personally, I enjoyed it despite some of the challenges, but it was fun, it was a limited time area, and the lighting was perfect for photo shoots of your Guardian. However, when I loaded in I was gutted to find that Bonfire Bash did not make its return and instead I was relegated to….The Portal. While the Tower was again dressed up and Eva was there to grant you your quest, there is no specific activity tied to the event itself. Instead, you loaded into The Portal where you likely have felt trapped for weeks now depending how deep into The Grind you’ve delved. While there are Portal modifiers that are quite fun – can you say fire dripping everywhere? – it’s still the same strikes, lost sectors, etc. And after the initial picking up of said quest, you no longer need Space Grandma. Crafting the armor and imbuing it can all be done from the menu while in space. Yes, this cuts down on unnecessary trips to the Tower. However, to me, there is no soul to this event.

I’m expected to grind for the armor, imbue it, and once a full set is imbued if I want better perks I grind more and hope the piece I want drops with the perk set I want – all while in the same activities I have been playing since 2021 when I started the game. Was Bonfire Bash monotonous? Sure. But it comes around once a year for two weeks and is gone. Instead, I’m running K1 Logistics for the 635th time by myself because that’s the fastest and best way to level. Where is the celebration? And if you want the juicy loot, you better hope you grinded mindlessly to 300 light level or above prior to the event for those higher tier drops with multiple perks. I hit 300 during the first week of Solstice and haven’t played since reset.

I know there were other issues such as Solstice engrams not dropping in Trials or being locked to one or two activities in The Portal, further limiting what you could play should you want applicable event drops. Oddly enough, Solstice also drops a memento, an item that can only be used on crafted weapons…a functionality that is not used for any new weapons in Edge of Fate. While I have plenty of crafted weapons, it seems odd to get a cosmetic item that isn’t useful for the newer weapons and is a part of an older system that is, for now, not being utilized. And while the screen will show you just how cool armor looks with the memento shaders, I do recall seeing a post stating that that is not an intended functionality that will be in the game.

Overall, I kind of forgot Solstice was going on the times I have played. The new armor and perks are lovely (solar Titan has been the love of my life since I started D2 and I am happily running Lorely once again), but I do not feel as if I am playing a special event. And while the new weapons are really cool (and those holofoils look sweet), I won’t use them aside from that glorious SMG so there is no incentive on my end to play and play and play for drops. Past Solstices I’d just play Bonfire Bash because it was something I didn’t get very often. Now, I load into The Portal, run Caldera three times, stare blankly at the screen, and log out. The magic for me that I felt in these special events is not there because nothing really feels special.

I will say that I am in no way a game developer and while taking coding classes cried multiple times over my code not running because I was missing a parenthesis…suffice to say, while it is fun, I am not cut out for that line of work. So I can’t pretend I understand ANY of the backend work it requires for a game to run at all. I know it isn’t easy. I know it takes talent. And I know I will NEVER blame the devs as these decisions often come from above them. I still love Destiny 2. I am just lamenting the loss of a feeling I miss and fear for the future events. I’m going to miss Glint’s campy comments while I chased Headless Ones around if Festival of the Lost is anything like Solstice. Again, yes, Haunted Lost Sectors can be repetitive but way less so then content I run daily, weekly, and for some years now. All I can say is, I am bummed.

But let’s wrap up on a positive. The armor this year is incredible. The summer theme was leaned into incredibly hard and I hope for this to continue with future events. Here are my beloved Guardians, Ariande – Hunter, Maximus – Titan, and Rhemy – Warlock, dressed to the Nines (get it…the NINEs?) in their snazzy summer ‘fits. I also love that the armor perks buff solar builds as I am quite the solar Titan and Warlock fan. Shoot, give me a good ability-spam solar build on a Hunter and I am a happy camper.

Love it or not, I hope you have a happy solstice!