Destiny 2 Proving Grounds Strike: Find All VIPs And Complete The Seasonal Challenge

Proving Grounds is a new Strike in Destiny 2 that acts as the culmination of the story of the Season of the Chosen and the Battlegrounds activity. The Strike provides Triumphs essential to the Chosen seal and title and comes with its own Seasonal Challenge. There are a lot of easy-to-miss elements in this Strike, especially if you are moving quickly, and there is a lot to do.

Here's a rundown of what you need to do in Proving Grounds to unlock the Proving Grounds Trifecta Seasonal Challenge and Eliminate Caiatl's Cabal Triumph.

Proving Grounds Trifecta Seasonal Challenge

The Seasonal Challenge for the Proving Grounds Strike is pretty simple to complete, although you'll need to do the Strike multiple times in order to knock it out. It contains three objectives:

• Complete the Proving Grounds Strike 3 times
• Defeat 150 enemies in Strike
• Deposit power cores in the undercarriage of the land tank

Mostly, you just need to run the Strike multiple times in order to hit all three objectives. You can complete all requirements on the "Normal" difficulty version of the Strike that's accessible from the Nessus map in the Director, which means you don't need to wait for Proving Grounds to show up while playing in the Strike playlist.

While the first two objectives are straightforward, the last is the one that might give you a little trouble. Once you've fought your way into the land tank, you'll pass through its vehicle bay--and fight two Goliath tanks, along with a bunch of enemies--before descending into the bowels of the vehicle. When you reach the bottom of the maintenance area, you'll fight through a section where you can cross over the land tank's moving treads. Your goal here is to find two Power cores, marked on your HUD, and use them to overload the tank's controls by depositing them in the control room.

The trick here is to be the person who picks up and deposits the cores, which are similar to the glowing, explosive orbs found in the Arms Dealer Strike. Take these cores from cylindrical dispensers set into the wall of the tank and bring them to similar deposit spots next to large control screens in the central area of this fight. The trick here is to avoid dying; let your teammates clear the way to the deposit for each power core so you can successfully dunk them.

You need to deposit two cores in total, which isn't too tough--provided your teammates don't get to them first. Just run the Strike again if you miss out. Once you've got both cores, killed enough enemies, and completed the Strike three times, the Seasonal Challenge will be yours. If you need more information on the Seasonal Challenge requirements, check out our running Seasonal Challenge guide.

Eliminate Caiatl's Cabal Triumph

There's an extra caveat to Proving Grounds that sets it apart, somewhat, from other Strikes. Because you're fighting through Caiatl's land tank, you go up against some of her best soldiers. There are 10 total named enemies who show up throughout the Strike, including its final boss. To unlock the Eliminate Caiatl's Cabal Triumph and complete the Season of the Chosen's seal, you need to kill all 10 of them.

The good news is that you don't have to kill all these enemies in one run. The bad news is that if a teammate kills them before you realize where they are, you'll miss out and have to run the Strike again. Still, the requirements for this Triumph are pretty relaxed. You don't need to land the actual final blow on the named enemies--you just need to shoot them a few times, as with other mini-boss and boss characters throughout Destiny 2. That just means that, so long as you find each enemy before your teammates have a chance to kill them, you can hit them once or twice and get credit for contributing to their deaths. That contribution seems to be enough to get the Triumph.

The 10 enemies are tough Centurions, Incendior, Phalanx, or Psion enemies, and you'll generally know them by their orange and yellow health bars. They're usually also shielded, which is also a good giveaway. Two of the VIPs you can't miss: Ignovun, the final boss, and Val Ozysas, the mini-boss who guards the entrance to the tank. The rest you'll find in two major battles, first in the Vehicle Bay (where you also fight two tanks), then in the Maintenance Area (where you have to dunk power cores into control consoles).

It's worth noting that it seems you might not get every VIP in a single run through the activity. We found Val Vinca'ar in the opening of the Maintenance Area in one Strike run, and Val Cempas in the same place in another. It also seems like Optus Taxaat and Optus Vocca might not show up every run, so they can be tough to find. It also seems that Taxaat and Vocca in particular can escape if you kill too many other major enemies in the area, like Halphas Honor Guards, before you take them down--so make sure you've cleared out the named enemies before you get rid of the other orange- and yellow-bar baddies.

Vehicle Bay Enemies

Look for several Vals to show up in the back of the room, near where the Goliath tanks enter the battle. These guys are easy to spot because of their shields; they're usually Centurions, Colossi, or Incendiors. A few hits on each one will handle the situation.

There's also one tougher-to-find enemy, a major Psion called Optus Taxaat. He likes to hang out in the middle of the room on the narrower walkway. He's also generally weaker than the other VIPs, so he can be killed by your teammates before you ever spot him. Keep an eye out for Taxaat early in the fight, before or around when the Goliaths show up.

Vehicle Bay VIPs

• Optus Taxaat
• Val Kladior
• Val Cunqu'us
• Val Trekitus

Maintenance Area Enemies

Your last batch of VIPs show up when you drop all the way down to the Maintenance Area, near the land tank's enormous treads. As soon as you drop to the bottom of the room with the metal scaffolds, you'll go through a door with a bunch of Cabal stacked up on a narrow walkway. Fire away into this group, as Val Vinca'ar is among them.

Look for more shielded Vals as you make your way through the central area. Optus Vocca, the second VIP Psion, is located on the far side of the control area, near the treads. You'll have to jump across to reach the second power core; look for Vocca running around with the other Cabal guarding the core, often hiding behind the big crate on the right side. Again, he's easier to kill than the Vals, and so you want to try to be the first person over to this area to guarantee you hurt him before he goes down. For a little insurance, try area-of-effect weapons like grenades, and rapid-fire guns such as auto rifles, so you can at least hit him once or twice before he's knocked out.

Maintenance Area VIPs

• Optus Vocca
• Val Vinca'ar
• Val Veorthus
• Val Cempas

It's worth noting that there are no VIPs in the boss chamber other than Ignovun himself, so if you're just running through the Strike to mop up these enemies, you don't necessarily need to complete it before starting your search again.