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With the release of Act II of Episode Revenant,Destiny 2reprises the Prison of Elders, a once-beloved activity in the firstDestinygame, into a new activity called Tomb of Elders.
Similar to The Coil or Riven’s Lair in Season of the Wish or Savathun’s Spire in Season of the Witch,Tomb of Elders is a three-player, roguelike arena activity with randomized challenges and modifiers, escalating its difficulty the longer you play for increased rewards.
Impress the Warden, and you’ll earn amazing rewards.Disappoint the malfunctioning AI, and you’ll earn nothing.
This guide is written under the assumption that you are a casual or relatively new player and that you have hit the 2000 power level soft cap.
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How To Unlock Tomb Of Elders
Tomb of Elders can be unlocked by reachingAct 2 in the Revenant questline. After you complete the first act of the Episode,return to the Last City and speak with Mithrax to start the quest.
Tomb Or Contest – What’s the Difference?
When you pull up the Destinations tab and hop on to the Last City, you’ll find two nearly identical nodes: Tomb of Elders and Contest of Elders.
The only salient difference between the two is thatthe difficulty in Tomb of Elders is static; it’s easier and quicker but rewards less loot.
Meanwhile,Contest of Elders has an escalating difficulty and takes significantly longer–approximately 30 minutes on average.
It has four reward sections that give you loot based on how much Favor you’ve earned from the Warden. In Contest of Elders, your goal is to make the Warden happy.
Warden’s Favor And Punishment
The core mechanic that dictates how much loot you get isWarden’s FavorandWarden’s Punishment, each stacking up to three times.The buff or debuff will appear at the top center side of your HUD.
You earn favor bycompleting randomized, timed bonus challenges along with the main objective.Failure to do so will result in you disappointing the Warden, lowering your favor with the AI.
The higher your favor, the more loot you get, but enemies also become tougher.The lower your favor, the less loot you get, but the difficulty becomes easier. The better you play, the more the game challenges you.
Once you finish a round of encounters, the Warden will judge you. If you have theWarden’s Punishmentdebuff, you’ll be taken to the airlock to fight the Warden, where you’ll get a chance to remove a stack of Punishment.
Limited Revives
Contest of Elders has limited revives, starting with 20. Because of the “Full Extinguish” modifier, wiping when you’re out of revives results in failing the activity, forcing you to start over.
If you’ve played any endgame activity, then you know that Limited Revives means the stakes are higher, so you need to play smart. Thankfully, you start with a healthy number of revives, so as long as you have any semblance of self-preservation, wiping shouldn’t be a problem.
Killing “Model Prisoners” grants you a single revive token,kind of like how killing a Champion gives you one in a Grandmaster Nightfall. Whenever you’re running low on revives, just look for a miniboss with a yellow health bar and melt it down.
Once you enter a main encounter, a random modifier will activate, usually meant to give you a disadvantage. Some of them have negligible effects, while others might be more threatening if you like jumping around.
Here’s a list of modifiers that might activate:
Description
Combatant’s splash damage is increased
Your health is massively increased but will not regenerate. Defeating challenging combatants will recover health for you and nearby allies.
Chill Touch
Being hit with a melee attack slows you.
Counterfeit
When defeated, combatants can drop explosives disguised as familiar items.
Ammunition drops are significantly reduced.
Damage taken while being airborne is greatly increased for the player.
Moving quickly regenerates your health. Standing still slowly deals damage.
Melee attacks from enemies are significantly more powerful.
These modifiers are only present during arena encounters before resetting. Modifiers likeGalvanized, Elemental Surges, Elemental Threats, and Banes are always active.
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Encounters
Encounters in Contest of Elders can be divided into three types: normal encounters, traversal encounters, and boss encounters.
You’ll encounter four possible enemy factions: Lucent Hive, Taken/Dread, Scorn, and the Cabal. Each encounter has a unique objective for you to complete before you may move on.
Once you complete a main objective, you’ll be instructed to eliminate any stragglers, so completing the objective doesn’t mean you’re all done.
After completing a faction encounter, you’ll go through a traversal encounter where a random objective will appear, giving you less than a minute to complete. I’ve so far encountered four challenges:
Bonus Objectives
As well as the main objectives in each encounter, the Warden will demand you complete a random side objective.
I strongly advise thatyou prioritize completing the side objective before completing the main objective, as there is a short time limit.
These are the side objectives we’ve found so far, along with any tips I have:
Walkthrough And Tips
Here’s a typical order of a single run in Contest of Elders:
If you’ve completed all four rounds and performed well, the Warden will tell you to return to the central airlock, where a hatch will open. Go down, and you’ll get four extra chests, giving you tons of loot.
Build Recommendations
While I don’t have to follow any strict guidelines for builds, I do recommend prioritizing adding clear and roaming supers regardless of your class. Since ammo drops are more frequent (along with ammo crates and rally banners),running double special also doesn’t hurt.
Contest of Elders is also a great place to stress test your experimental builds - the stakes aren’t as high as Grandmasters or Raids/Dungeons, but it’s also challenging enough to see how well your builds fare against tougher enemies.
Here are some builds I’ve been playing with that performed well in Contest of Elders (and yes, this is an excuse for me to post my Guardian drip):
While these are just some suggestions, I would recommend just focusing on sticking to a build that you enjoy playing the most. Destiny content creators on YouTube have helped me find my favorite builds.
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