Onslaught is the featured activity in Destiny 2 Into the Light. The activity is horde mode with waves of enemies that you need to defeat to gain rewards. Each new wave has increased difficulty and better rewards. In this Destiny 2 guide, I go over everything you need to know about Onslaught, including how you can unlock the legendary difficulty and get shiny weapons.
Everything You Need To Know About Onslaught In Destiny 2 Into The Light
Launch Destiny 2 after the update and you will be greeted with a short cutscene. You will then load into the new social area called the Hall of Champions. The area has a lot of cool easter eggs that are worth checking out. This is also where you will find Lord Shaxx.
How To Access Onslaught In Destiny 2 (Normal And Legend Difficulty)
Talk to Shaxx to gain the quest called Feats of Bravery. This is a seven step quest. The first step of the quest is to get to power level 1810. This is not a problem, since you can claim the chest called Gift of the Thunder Gods towards the left of Shaxx, which includes gear that will get you to the required power level.
The chest not only includes weapons and gear but includes exotics as well including:
- Cuirass of the Falling Star (Titan)
- Liar’s Handshake (Hunter)
- Getaway Artist (Warlock)
- Thunderlord (Light Machine Gun)
- Dreaming City Armor Set
- 5x Weapons (Kinetic, Energy, Power)
The second part of the quest is to defend the Last City in Onslaught. Before you do this, I recommend taking some bounties from Shaxx and other vendors, so that you can complete them while in the activity. Arcite 99-40, who is next to Shaxx has some bounties as well that you can take and then complete. Completing the bounties for Shaxx and Arcite 99-40 will increase your reputation with them and once you have these maxed out, you can then get the Superblack shader. Completing these bounties also reward you with BRAVE Engrams.
When you are ready, you can open the directory, select the Into the Light node, and then select Onslaught to launch the activity. There are two options for Onslaught. The one on the left is the matchmade activity that is limited to 10 waves of enemies. So you only get one set of rewards per instance. The one on the right is the full-fledged activity with 50 rounds and increased difficulty with each round but also better rewards. The right option is going to take longer to complete, so you will need 45 to 60 minutes and the mode also has modifiers such as Escalating Difficulty and Delayed Extinguish.
When you choose the right option, you can also select the map that you want to play on and the difficulty. The mode also has a unique weekly boss at Wave 50.
The legend version of Onslaught is harder but it also offers double the rewards compared to the regular version. Both versions of the mode have different champion types, so you need to make sure that your team has the right gear to deal with the champions.
Once you have completed your first run of Onslaught, you will need to return to Shaxx in the Hall of Champions and talk to him. He will ask you to spend BRAVERY Tokens via the chest beside him. Return to Shaxx again and you will progress to step six of the quest which requires you to add Elsie’s Rifle to your Brave Arsenal and completing the quest called “Stranger Danger”.
Head over to Arcite 99-40, standing next to Shaxx to get the quest. Complete this quest and talk to Shaxx to get the special edition curated roll of Elsie’s Rifle. You will also get a message that you have unlocked Attunement. Attunement grants an increased drop chance of a specific weapon from Onslaught and Brave Chests.
I also recommend completing the other quests that Arcite 99-40 has available so that you can unlock Attunement for other weapons as well. According to the devs, the Attunement increases the drop chance by 50% but testing the game reveals that there is still RNG at play.
How Does Onslaught Work?
Onslaught is a three-player wave-based horde mode in which you need to defend your ADU against enemies. You need to make sure that enemies do not shoot the ADU or stand in the zone around it. Both of these will hurt the ADU.
Pyramid Ship Portal
Every 6th wave of a set will open up a portal to a Pyramid Ship where you need to defeat enemies and Sparkhoarders. This is an offensive wave rather than a defensive one. Once you defeat a Sparkhoarder, the enemy will drop a Spark that you need to pick up and deposit at the end of the room. When the Spark is dunked, all the enemies in the room including the boss will die.
This room can be very challenging but an invisible Hunter can be very useful since it can pick up the Spark, go invisible, and deposit it without being detected, killing all the enemies in the room. Depositing the Spark will open up another portal that will take you back so you can continue the Onslaught activity in Destiny 2.
Augments
Augments are challenges that you need to complete to progress in Onslaught. These are not optional like the bonus challenges and appear under the activity timer. On Legendary difficulty, these objectives are very important since some of them have timers. If you do not complete the objective in time then your whole team will die.
Regenerate ADU Health
If your ADU loses health, then you can regenerate its health using batteries. More challenging enemies drop batteries which you can pick up and then throw at the ADU to regenerate a portion of its health. If you use a batter on your ADU while its health is full then you will get three times the scrap for a limited time. Scrap is the currency of the Onslaught activity that you can use for purchasing and upgrading ADU defenses.
Scrap And ADU Defense Systems Explained
Scrap is the Onslaught activity currency which is dropped from enemies. It can be used to deploy defenses for your ADU and upgrade the defenses. At the start of a match, you are given 2000 scrap, which you can use to buy defenses. You can use scrap before the start of wave 1 and after waves 3 and 6. After that you can use scrap before the start of wave 11 and after waves 13 and 16, and so on.
The defenses that you can purchase include:
- Decoys: Pull enemy aggro and distract them.
- Turrets: Shoot enemies.
- Tripwires: Damage enemies that walk through them.
Each of these defenses can be upgraded twice. The basic defenses have a blue glow. Upgrade a defense once and it will get a purple glow. Upgrade it again and it will get a yellow glow. Each upgrade costs more scrap and can be very expensive but they do offer a significant advantage.
These defenses can be attacked by enemies and they will be destroyed if they take too much damage. So not only will you need to defend your ADU but you will also need to defend your defensive systems once they are online.
If a defense type is destroyed then you will need to purchase it again and the upgrades that you invested in will be lost.
Secret Heatwave Encounter
There is a secret encounter that can pop up after every 10 waves called Heatwave. This is a rare and random encounter. Multiple Tormentors will spawn during this wave and each one you will will reward you with a Trophy of Bravery. I recommend keeping a precision weapon to help you deal with the Tormentors. Weapons like Leviathan’s Breath can be very helpful against them.
Bonus Challenges
As you progress through the waves in Onslaught, you will often get bonus challenges. Completing these bonus challenges will reward you with an ammo box near your ADU. Ammo boxes include:
- Bonus Scrap
- Ammo
- Trophy of Bravery
- Shaxx Reputation
These bonus challenges can be worth considering depending on how well you are doing and how coordinated your team is. Make sure that at least one guardian is defending the ADU is you are going for the bonus challenge.
How To Get Shiny (Brave Holo-Foil) Weapons In Destiny 2
The new shiny or Brave Holo-Foil weapons in Destiny 2 are not the same as the curated rolls. These weapons are unique and rare since they have double traits and will be upgradable with the release of Final Shape. This is the first weapon type that has multiple enhanceable traits on the same weapon.
The drop of shiny weapons is random and you can get them from kills or chests in Onslaught. To get a higher chance of getting shiny weapons you need to get Attunements. Complete the quests for the BRAVE weapons to get Attunements for each one. For more details, check out our dedicated guide on Attunement in Destiny 2 Into the Light.
Onslaught Tips And Tricks
The following are some tips and tricks that you can use to make your Onslaught runs a bit easier.
Loot Heavy Ammo Crates With Your Team
Loot the heavy ammo crates but let your team know when you are going to do so since they have a timer and will disappear once the timer hits zero. Your team will not get ammo unless they also loot the crate.
Rally Every 10th Wave
Every 10th wave, a portal will open up and you will have the option to rally. So you should not pick up all the special and heavy ammo that is on the ground before heading into the portal. After you have rallied and defeated the boss, you can come back and then pick up all the ammo that is dropped on the ground.
Swap Builds
You can have two loadouts ready before heading into the activity. One loadout can be for clearing enemy waves while the other one should be optimized for DPS and bosses. This will allow you to switch between builds when you are at boss encounters. Since you can rally every 10 waves, before the boss, you can swap your builds.
Avoid Spending Scrap From The Start
You can avoid spending scrap right away. You can get by the first 10 waves pretty easily. Once you do start using the currency, you can start by spending on turrets since they can defend themselves and your ADU. Decoys and Tripwires cannot defend themselves and will require you to protect them.
This is what you need to know about the new Onslaught activity in Destiny 2 Into the Light. For more content, check out our Destiny 2 guides hub.
