Destiny 2: Shadowkeep – Iron Banner pursuits and pinnacle bounties guide

The Iron Banner returns in Destiny 2. This will be the first time that the event goes live for the Shadowkeep expansion and there’s a lot to take in. You’ve got a new pursuit, or questline if you want to call it that. It’s character-specific and will continue to track progress throughout the Season of the Undying. You’ll also be able to obtain the Iron Will armor set and pinnacle rewards via four bounties that are available.

Destiny 2: Shadowkeep – What happens if I haven’t completed the Iron Banner pursuit?

Obviously, you’re not required to finish the entire pursuit in one week since the Iron Banner is expected to return in Destiny 2: Shadowkeep for a couple more weeks in the future. But, there are a few very important caveats to consider as mentioned in our previous article. Here’s what you’ll be missing out on if you haven’t completed the pursuit yet:

• You won’t be allowed to turn in your Iron Banner tokens via Lord Saladin just yet.
• Iron Will armor pieces will, at first, only be obtainable per each pursuit step that you complete.
• Last but not least, all rewards at the end of matches or via pinnacle bounties will only provide weapons, and there are no new weapons to boot.

That last part is extremely important especially if you’re focused on Destiny 2: Shadowkeep‘s endgame progression. As I addressed recently, the chase for pinnacle rewards in the endgame is quite a mess. There’s a good chance that you’ve had a similar experience as I did — getting lots of 951 power raid weapons but barely any armor pieces. As such, it’s imperative to finish the Iron Banner pursuit just so those four pinnacle bounties have a chance dropping 951 armor pieces.

Anyway, let’s move forward and check out the Iron Banner pursuit quest steps.

Iron Banner pursuit quest steps

Step 1: Spectacle

• Defeat 30 Guardians (assists are counted).
• Get 3 super kills/final blows.
• Capture 10 zones.

Step 2: Intent

• Complete 6 Iron Banner matches.
• Capture 20 zones.
• Get 25 final blows with pulse rifles.
• Note: Bygones and Blast Furnace would be great for this part.

Step 3: Timing

• Defeat 100 Guardians (assists are counted).
• Capture 30 zones.
• Get 20 final blows with fusion rifles.
• Note: Jotunn, Erentil-FR, and Wizened Rebuke would be great for this part. You can also earn some easy medals if you get multi-kills with fusion rifles, perfect for one of the requirements to get Randy’s Throwing Knife.

Step 4: Execution

• Capture 40 zones.
• Get 15 super kills/final blows.
• Get 15 final blows with submachine guns.
• Note: The Recluse is great for this part.

Step 5: Conviction

• Complete 15 Iron Banner matches.
• Capture 50 zones.
• Bugged: Get 10 final blows with grenade launchers/supers.

Return to Lord Saladin when you’re done and you’ll have completed the full Iron Banner pursuit/questline. You’ll have your Iron Will armor set as well. Guess it’s time to switch to your alts now, eh?

Note 1: Some pursuit tallies carry over to the next one. For instance, if you’ve completed two Iron Banner matches and captured 10 zones already prior to step 2, then your progress will be carried over once you reach the next step. The only ones that won’t carry over are weapon final blows. In this case, step 2 will show up as: 2/6 matches completed, 10/20 zones captured, and 0/25 pulse rifle final blows.

Note 2: There seems to be a bug with step 5. Neither grenade launcher nor super kills would add any progress. However, submachine gun kills should do the trick.

Pinnacle reward bounties

Pinnacle rewards are the only means of going from 950 to 960 power (ignoring the bonus from your artifact). Sadly, you only get +1 power increases each time which means it can be quite a slog.

The Iron Banner event in Destiny 2: Shadowkeep does have four bounties available, and they’ll give you pinnacle drops as well as 50 tokens. On top of the Garden of Salvation raid encounters and the 100k score in the Nightfall, you’ll now have nine sources of pinnacle rewards. Anyway, here are the Iron Banner bounties:

• Defeat opponents while assisted by another teammate.
• Defeat opponents (bonus progress for kills with energy weapons, power weapons, and opponents with higher power levels).
• Capture zones (bonus progress for each additional teammate you have).
• Defeat opponents/final blows (bonus progress for opponents with higher power levels).

Note: It seems there’s also yet another bug, this time related to bounties. These Iron Banner pinnacle bounties are supposed to be weeklies. Instead, if you check back after finishing the first four that were available, you should have a couple of new extras that weren’t part of this week’s rotation. These additional bounties (“kills while having zone advantage” and “matches played/wins add more progress”) also provide pinnacle rewards.

The Iron Banner event will run from today until the weekly reset at 10 a.m. Pacific on October 22. Destiny: Shadowkeep is available on Steam. For more information, check our guides and features hub.