Undying Banner

Yesterday was the beginning of the very first Iron Banner of the Shadowkeep expansion and more specifically the Season of the Undying. Now I have a weird relationship with Iron Banner as a whole, because I have never really been much of a Crucible Rat… but I generally look forward to participating in the Banner each time it rolls around. It might be something about Lord Saladin that I like in particular or the concept of the Iron Lords… or it could just be that there are a lot of interesting weapons associated with it that you can earn. Whatever the case it is an event that I tend to look forward to and last night was no exception as I was anxious to get home and started.

This time around Iron Banner was a Control map, which probably adds to my enjoyment as that is generally my favorite game type. Ultimately you complete matches of Iron Banner and collect tokens that you then turn in for packages and ultimately gear drops. There are bounties you can complete this time around that reward Pinnacle gear and they all seem to be themed off of the original Iron Lords. This also means that it seems like there is a limited quantity of them that you might be able to complete. Before you can get started turning anything in however you have to complete a quest chain called Scour the Rust. The First step requires you to:

• Capture 10 Iron Banner Zones
• Kill 30 Enemy Guardians
• Get 3 Kills With Your Super

Your reward for the first step is the Claws of the Wolf and a piece of Iron Banner armor… I believe I got the arms first. I am not sure if this weapon is a curated roll, or if I just got lucky and wound up with one that was super easy to complete the next step with. My roll in particular included Full Auto, Snapshot Sights and Appended Mag. When you complete one step you get the next part which involves the following:

• Complete 6 Iron Banner Matches
• Capture 20 Iron Banner Zones
• Kill 25 Guardians With a Pulse Rifle

Once again you get a new weapon to play with and a new piece of armor, this time the Fusion Rifle the Wizened Rebuke. I believe the armor piece was the legs. I got a perfectly cromulent roll, but then again I have no clue what a good roll on a fusion actually looks like given that I don’t run one often. I should note that the quest chain objectives appear to be cumulative during the course of this particular Iron Banner period. Quickly you wind up in a situation where all you need to finish the next step is to get the weapon kills. Everyone seemed to be on this step of the quest which ended up with some interesting gameplay. To move the chain forward you need the following:

• Defeat 100 Guardians
• Capture 30 Iron Banner Zones
• Defeat 20 Guardians with Fusion Rifles

Your reward for this step is another Iron Banner weapon and another piece of armor… I believe it was the Helm this time around. I should note that I am not 100% certain on the order I got any of the pieces of armor, I just know that each time I got a weapon I got one. Again I have no clue if this is a curated roll but I got a pretty solid Hero’s Burden including Kill Clip, Zen Moment and Appended Mag. I was able to melt face in the Crucible completing yet another series of objectives based on the weapon you just got. To move the chain forward again you need the following:

• Eliminate 15 Guardians With Your Super
• Eliminate 15 Guardians With Your SMG
• Capture 40 Iron Banner Zones

Now is where things get really weird. First off I got a reasonable roll on the Grenade Launcher including Rampage, Snapshot Sights, and Thermoplastic Grenades. The challenge of course in any Crucible match is getting Heavy Ammo. I noticed at first that for some reason I was showing 2 launcher kills without having picked up any purple bricks. When I did get launcher kills… it didn’t seem to move the quest chain forward. This lead me to do some googling and find out that apparently this step in the quest chain is bugged…. and that SMG kills will progress the Grenade Launcher step. In theory… this makes the quest way easier and you should probably go ahead and push through to this point just in case Bungie patches it. You are going to need the following:

• Capture 50 Iron Banner Zones
• Complete 15 Iron Banner Matches
• Kill 10 Guardians With Grenade Launchers (if still bugged SMG instead)

After completing this step you get your final piece of armor which for me was the chestpiece. However the REAL prize of hitting this step is being able to turn in all of the medallions that you collected along the way. If you got the various bounties associated with the Iron Banner you should in theory also have several of those to turn in as well. It was a fun grind and I am hoping to get back in tonight and run a bunch more matches. Ultimately for my trouble I got a full suit of the brand new Iron Banner gear and four really good weapons. This makes me want to run through this on my Hunter as well.

In the grand scheme of things I am seemingly way better at the crucible than I give myself credit for. It could be that we still have an influx of brand new players thanks to the PC launch, but in my best match for the night I wound up with a 3.5 Efficiency score, which I realize is not exactly the same as a KDR but I will take it regardless. The boost in valor gained took me up to Mythic II for the season which also had its own share of crucible rewards associated with it.

Another thing that you should absolutely not sleep on is the fact that Iron Banner seems to be worth a nonsense amount of XP for your seasonal grind. I entered the night part of the way through 33 and closed the night sitting at 40. So that is a little over seven levels from what felt like casually playing Iron Banner and knocking out quest steps. It probably was a lot more matches than I realized… in fact looking back at Destiny Tracker it was apparently 17 total matches throughout the course of the night. Ultimately if you enjoy Crucible at all I suggest you at least participate to get some levels. If you don’t like Crucible… the rewards are good enough for you to maybe stomach it regardless.

Closing thoughts… the armor looks really sweet. Additionally it seems to be a good source of some light levels as I managed to get 8 during the course of the evening. I am a big fan!