Destiny 2's Iron Banner Event Is Changing Frequency, Happening Twice This Season

Bungie has made it quite clear that the next time Destiny 2 players play Iron Banner, one of its recurring competitive game modes, it will look and feel different. With Destiny 2's Season of the Haunted, Iron Banner is expected to feel more like an event, and that begins with its frequency.

In the developer's latest This Week at Bungie post, it reiterated that Iron Banner would be taking place twice this season, on May 31 and again on July 12, as opposed to the usual three occurrences. Instead of taking place once every month throughout the season, the move reflects Bungie's intention of "amping up the ante" behind Iron Banner. To match the grandiosity, Valus Forge (formerly Iron Lord Saladin) will now be front and center in the Tower where event vendor Eva Levante typically stands, rather than be shoved in a corner players often forget about.

As previously outlined by Bungie, Iron Banner will also feel almost entirely different. Iron Banner no longer has bounties to complete or tokens to turn in, and will instead have a similar reputation system and reward track to Shaxx and Saint-14 for Crucible and Trials of Osiris, respectively. While Iron Banner was the first competitive mode to enable Power level advantages, it is now disabling them in order to make it a more inviting event for all players. Iron Banner has also received its own set of new Triumphs and an accompanying seal that'll unlock the Iron Lord title upon completion.

Additionally, this season of Iron Banner events is reintroducing Rift, a game mode first introduced in Destiny's first expansion, The Taken King. Rift will be exclusive to Iron Banner through Season of the Haunted and can be played on the new PVP map Disjunction, which was designed with Rift in mind. Rift will become available outside of Iron Banner during Season 18, which is tentatively launching in August.

Iron Banner isn't the only event getting a facelift this season, as Bungie has also detailed changes coming to the Solstice event this summer. It also stated that similar changes could be coming to the rest of Destiny 2's seasonal events, though all of these changes won't necessarily happen this year.