Festival of the Lost is one of Destiny 2’s many seasonal events and stands in for that world’s Halloween. While there are masks to be worn and candy to be gathered, the primary purpose of the celebration is to remember those that have passed and honor their memory. As such, a lot of the decorations combine traditional Halloween and Day of the Dead trimmings. The holiday is a favorite event among Destiny 2 players, with Festival of the Lost first beginning back in 2015.
RELATED: Destiny 2 Players are Grinding to Get Bungie’s Weirdest Ship Yet
Festival of the Lost 2018 - 2020
The first Festival of the Lost actually skipped the first year of Destiny 2’s release and picked up in 2018. Noticeably absent was Destiny’s grandma Eva Levante, who normally plays hostess to such events. Instead, shipwright Amanda Holliday took up the reins and tasked guardians with the quest of finding cryptarch Master Ives’ murderer. The quest eventually led players to a section of the then-quarantined Cosmodrome and saw them rewarded with the exotic weapon, Thunderlord. Aside from that, players were able to collect candy to purchase paper mache masks and the new assault rifle, Horror Story.
Players were also tasked with entering the Haunted Forest on Mercury. The Haunted Forest was a reimagined version of the Infinite Forest on Mercury, clad with all sorts of delightful Festival of the Lost decorations. There was never a lore reason given for how the Infinite Forest became decked out in such a manner, so players are left to their own imaginations. Either way, guardians had 15 minutes to get as far into the forest as they could. Completing a path would throw additional modifiers and tougher enemies at guardians. Along the way, they would also be pursued by an intimidating and invulnerable hive knight.
Year 3 saw the return of Eva Levante as hostess for the 2019 event. Along with her return, guardians had a slew of new masks to collect including the exiled Cabal Emperor Calus, the Drifter, Eris Morn, a Scarlet Keep themed member of the hive, and more. Giving the Horror Story auto rifle a run for its money, another auto rifle called the Braytech Werewolf made its entry.
Much like the colorful skeletal Eververse armor guardians could don, the Braytech Werewolf sported its own skeletal paint job, showing a unique view of the inner workings painted on the side. Perhaps the most popular addition for the event that year was the return of the broom sparrow. Long-time players would recognize it from a quest to retrieve the Sweeper Bot’s missing broom in Destiny.
Year 4 is when Festival of the Lost really began to grow long in the tooth. The big question regarding the event was if it would include the Haunted Forest for a third year, since Mercury was one of the vaulted planets as part of the Beyond Light expansion. Much to players’ dismay, the Haunted Forest was back. 2020’s Festival included classic horror monster armor for guardians; with Hunters becoming a werewolf, Titans becoming Frankenstein’s monster, and Warlocks donning some dashing vampire garb. There were also a mummy-inspired ghost, sparrow, and ship with some heartwarming lore featuring Osiris and Sagira.
The first three years of Festival of the Lost revolved around exploring Mercury’s Haunted Forest. While initially fun, it became a tedious chore quickly and players were quite vocal about wanting something different moving forward. Even the vaulting of the host planet couldn’t stop the horror that was the activity from reappearing year after year. It was looking like the real terror was a lack of variety for the spooky holiday celebration.
RELATED: Destiny 2 Players Praise Gjallarhorn’s New Perk
Festival of the Lost 2021
For 2021, Eva Levante returned with a host of new treats, masks, and rewards to earn. Eramis, Ada-1, Taniks, Pyramid Ship, and Honkmoon joined the paper mache family. Aside from earning the required candy to purchase the new masks, there was also a Book of the Forgotten to be filled out. The book told the stories involved with this year’s primary bad guys, the Headless Ones. The player’s ghost took a backseat this year and Glint stepped in, while his own guardian, Crow, sorted things out following this season’s story.
This year, the Haunted Forest was finally vaulted and replaced with a brand new event. The new event was Haunted Sectors. Taking place in three different lost sectors on Mars, Nessus, and Europa, players must summon and eliminate Headless Ones (powerful Hive knights with pumpkin heads). If players ran out of time or killed 10 mini-bosses before time was up, a boss would spawn.
It was a pretty generous system and much faster to run when compared to the Haunted Forest. There were a huge number of enemies on the relatively small maps, which made for a lot of frantic action when trying to complete the objective. Even better, there was an actual story tied behind each location with different rumors behind the headless ones that were tied to completing the Book of the Forgotten. So, now, players had even more reason than ever to keep doing runs. This kept players engaged longer without it necessarily feeling like a chore.
Earlier that year, Bungie held a costume contest with concepts for the upcoming holiday. The choices were between classic monsters like the Creature from the Black Lagoon and a cyclops versus dinosaur-themed outfits. When voting was done, team dino won out and a pulse rifle, Jurassic Green, joined the prehistoric Eververse set.
At the end of the day, Festival of the Lost is still a good time for guardians and helps to break up the monotony and grind that otherwise plagues a great game. Bungie doesn’t always get it right and sometimes reuses content more than it should. But eventually, as was seen this year, they get it right and do something new. So, like the ghouls and nightmares of the event, this history lesson is put to rest until a new chapter is ready to be written next year.
Destiny 2 is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
MORE: Destiny: What is the Nine Horse?
