Destiny 2 Season of Plunder: How it Works

Destiny 2 just released its new season titled Season of Plunder. Your Guardian is tasked with heading up a fearsome crew of Eliksni to combat the newly returned Eramis. 

The new seasonal loop can appear quite confusing at first, with a lot of activities and moving parts. From Atlas Maps to Hideouts to Ketchcrash, there are a lot of new things to learn.

Here’s how the seasonal loop works in Destiny 2’s Season of Plunder.

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How To Start

To begin your pirate captain adventure, simply log in to Destiny 2. When you do, you’ll enter into a story mission where, aided by Drifter, you must travel to Europe and find out what has happened to Eramis, the Ship-Stealer.

After this mission you will be taken back to the Eliksni Quarter of the Tower, a location we last visited in Season of the Splicer. It’s gotten a make-over since then, and a few new inhabitants in the form of the Spider and his followers. You’ll be coming back here a few times over the story to converse with the Spider or Eido.

You’ll then be let loose on the seasonal activities that Season of Plunder has to offer.

A toast

Seasonal Activities 

Season of Plunder has a few core activities that players will be returning to week after week. The primary two are Ketchcrash and Expeditions. There is also a third activity known as Expeditions but these seem to be once-a-week ventures.

Ketchcrash

This is the new 6-man match-made activity that allows you to live out your pirate fantasy to the fullest. Ketchcrash has both a Legendary difficulty mode (1520) and a Master difficulty (1600).

In this activity, you and 5 other Guardians storm an enemy Ketch to raid it for loot and clear it of Eramis’ influence. This is a relatively long activity with a lot of different phases.

You’ll enter this activity to collect a currency called Map Fragments. These Fragments are then used by an item called the Captain’s Atlas. The Atlas will allow you to get bonus loot in the second core activity.

However, you need something else alongside Map Fragments. Treasure Coordinates are an item obtained from doing Strikes, Crucible, Gambit and other core activities. You need a decent amount of both resources to continue to the next stage.

Ketchcrash

Expeditions

Once you have the Atlas, inspect it on your quest menu to enter the treasure map screen. Here you can spend your resources to purchase Treasure Maps – these items give you bonus loot in the Expedition activity. 

You begin with just a basic Treasure Map which costs 5 Map Fragments and 50 Map Co-ordinates to purchase. Once bought, you can get an extra chest at the end of an Expedition for bonus loot. Other Maps are also available to earn, such as the Glimmer Treasure Map at Savvy Rank 4 in the H.E.L.M (which awards bonus glimmer alongside the usual rewards). 

These bonus chests are also how you Plundered Umbral Energy which is how you purchase new Umbral engrams in the H.E.L.M.

Expeditions themselves are a 3-man matchmade activity where you escort an Eliksni drill that searches for treasure. Defend it from rival crews and the reward is yours.

This is how the usual seasonal loop will go and what you will be doing week-to-week. 

1. Complete a Ketchcrash to gather Map Fragments.
2. Complete Core Playlist activities to gather Map Coordinates. 
3. Create a Treasure Map at the Captain’s Atlas.
4. Go into Expedition with a Treasure Map to get bonus loot.

The Captain’s Atlas

Hideouts

There is another component to these known as Hideouts. These are once-a-week missions similar to the Severance missions from last season.

While they don’t tackle the same kind of grim and traumatic subject matter, they do task us with killing a high-ranking boss of Eramis’ pirate crew. These bosses have Darkness Relics which we want to keep out of Eramis’ hands. In terms of mission structure, these are essentially self-contained lost sectors filled with unique enemy combinations and encounters (such as Cabal turrets being paired with Fallen Shanks). 

Complete the mission, get some loot, hear some story and you’re done. These appear to only be once a week: how many there are isn’t exactly clear right now. You will be awarded a Pinnacle at their conclusion, as well as the main seasonal story progression.

A Pirate’s Den

The Star Chart

In the H.E.L.M you will find The Star Chart, which acts as your seasonal vendor for Season of Plunder. Here you can access the upgrade of the Pirate Crew grid, umbral engram decoding, bounties and Savvy ranks.

This is very much like vendors of the past so if you played the previous seasons, I doubt you will be too out of place.

The Pirate Crew Grid

The 3×9 grid has returned in Season of Plunder and it is the place where you will acquire season exclusive upgrades. Completing seasonal challenges and the weekly story will award you with Repute, a currency which unlocks upgrades on the Star Chart.

This time the grid is known as the Pirate Crew, mostly due to the allies you can recruit through the upgrade tree. These rewards include:

• Eliksni Pirate allies who you can spawn in during certain moments in Ketchcrash and Expeditions.
• Earn bonus Glimmer during Expeditions.
• Focused Armour and Weapon decoding for Umbrals.
• Earn Umbral Energy from Core Playlists.
• Unlocks special Treasure Maps.

Pirate Crew Upgrades

There are a few more upgrades to unlock but this is very similar to upgrades of the past. The most interesting are those which grant you new Eliksni allies, who will help you when fighting enemy crews. 

Savvy Rank

Savvy is the progression name tied to all of Season of Plunder’s activities. You earn Savvy rank by completing Ketchcrash and Expedition missions. The more ranks you earn, the more loot you get. 

Each rank gives you a free Spoil of Plunder which contains any random Plunder seasonal weapon or armour piece. The weapons included in Season of the Plunder are: 

• The Tarnished Mettle Scout Rifle (Arc, Lightweight Frame)
• The Blood Feud Submachine Gun (Stasis, Aggressive Frame)
• The No Reprieve Shotgun (Stasis, Slug)
• Sailspy Pitchglass Linear Fusion Rifle (Arc, Precision Frame)
• Brigand’s Law Sidearm (Arc, Rapid-Fire Frame)
• Planck’s Stride Machine Gun (Arc, Rapid-Fire Frame)

Upon each major rank up you get a Powerful Spoil of Plunder. The Savvy rank rewards include a Treasure map, Eliksni Treasure Beacons (which award Buried Treasure or an Exotic Accessory), Map Fragments and an Ascendant Shard.

The Star Chart

Umbral Focusing

Once you have unlocked the required upgrades at the Pirate’s Crew grid, you can decrypt Umbral Engrams into Season of Plunder gear. These upgrades are the Focused Weapon Spoils unlock and the Hire SCUR-V The Servitor unlock.

Upon unlock, you can decrypt an Umbral into either a weapon or an armour piece of your choosing. 

• Random Armour of Plunder: 2 Plundered Umbral Energy
• Random Weapon of Plunder: 6 Plundered Umbral Energy
• Focused Armour of Plunder: 5 Plundered Umbral Energy
• Focused Weapon of Plunder: 12 Plundered Umbral Energy

A Pirate and their tools

That is the main gameplay loop of Season of the Plunder and how it all works.