Defiant Battlegrounds

Overview

Defiant Battlegrounds are three-player Battlegrounds activities introduced with Destiny 2: Lightfall in Season of Defiance. Fireteams infiltrate Shadow Legion prisons to free captives, including the pilot Amanda Holliday. They were later folded into the Vanguard Ops playlist with Destiny 2: The Final Shape.

Access

Complete the first Lightfall mission, where Nimbus hands over an Ascendant Scepter (a gift from Mara Sov) and starts the related quest. Each battleground can be launched from its destination map, or randomly via the Battlegrounds playlist at the H.E.L.M. (a harder version). ProGameTalk lists power 1600 for destination launches and 1770 for the playlist (Season of Defiance values; outdated now).

The three missions

• Defiant Battleground: EDZ - boss Warden Vincu'us, European Dead Zone.
• Defiant Battleground: Cosmodrome - boss Zatocc, Devoted to the Witness, Cosmodrome.
• Defiant Battleground: Orbital Prison - boss Bracus Kravaum, orbital prison near The Farm.

Mechanics

You use the Ascendant Scepter to enter the Ascendant Plane, bypassing the Pyramid defences, fight Shadow Legion and Taken, and light Balefire to create safe zones. Bosses retreat into the Ascendant Plane; defeat Ravenous Taken, collect Taken Essence, consecrate it at the Balefire, and throw it at the boss to make them vulnerable (repeated several times).

Rewards

Glimmer and Legendary gear; playlist runs give Defiant Engrams plus a bonus chest opened with a Defiant Key (earned from Gambit, Crucible, strikes or destination battlegrounds). Loot includes six Legendary weapons (swords, auto rifles, grenade launchers, bows; e.g. Perpetualis and Royal Executioner) and Techeun-themed armour.