Destiny 2 - "Challenge Accepted" & "The Life Exotic" - How to earn trophies quickly

[ryuji_sakujo]

I started playing Destiny 2 on the 27th of June, 2020 (2 weeks ago as of writing this forum post).

I'm currently only missing the "Leviathan raid" and "Leviathan raid on Prestige difficulty" trophies to earn my platinum.

 

The trophy guide is very much outdated at this point in time, so I relied on figuring stuff out to my best ability, googling and asking an experienced friend.

Here's how I rushed through the trophy list and how I earned the 2 grindiest base game trophies as of the current patch.

 

Challenge Accepted

The trophy requires you to complete 30 challenges.

 

Regular game content

The challenges appear weekly, and you start of at power level 750, only having access to 4 NPC challenges in the tower and 1 clan challenge (so make sure you join a clan!).

The 4 NPC challenges are something like (complete 8 bounties in The Crucible (PvP), Vanguard (Strikes), Gambit (PvE/PvP), General weapons bounties) for the NPCs Lord Shaxx, Commander Zavala, The Drifter and The Gunsmith respectively.

There's a bunch of other challenges too I believe, like completing The Dungeon (which recommends power level 1060) and another one at the Moon (which requires the DLC), so those are out of your league for now (if you only own the F2P base game).

 

End game content

Once you reach power level 1000 you'll unlock additional challenges, such as:

• Running 3 Strikes with the same subclass element as the Singe in this weeks Vanguard Strike playlist
• Running 3 Nightfall: The Ordeal
• Simply playing 3 Gambit matches
• Simply playing 3 Crucible matches
• Completing the Flashpoint, which also earns you a trophy if it's on one of the planets described in the trophy
• ...and a few more

These are usually way easier than the "regular game content" ones and add up to your challenges completed once you finish them and turn them in.

One thing to mention is that it will refresh your "old regular NPC challenges", but whether these count towards the 30 completed challenges or not is hard to know.

Read more below on my own tracking of completed challenges.

 

There's more endgame challenges than the ones I mentioned above, look around in the Destinations tab by holding down the "touchpad button" and look for the yellow orbs.

Just keep completing these challenges and the trophy will pop eventually.

 

 

 

The trick

If you're impatient like me you can rush to earn this trophy.

Create the same class of characters, so if you're a Titan main, create 2 more Titans or even just 1 more if you have another character.

Hopefully you're not in a position where you can't or don't want to delete your other characters, because this method only works if you make room for more of the same class.

 

Once you made your other character, transfer items to them (armor and weapons) through the vault.
It's even easier and quicker to do it through the official Bungie Destiny 2 companion app on iOS or Android, which allows you to move items between the vault and characters even when you're not in-game or in the Tower. As well as creating and searching for fireteams, finding raid groups, checking to see which NPC is waiting to have reputation turned in and more. It's highly useful and recommended to use!

 

So if you have a new Titan then you can move armor and weapons from your main Titan to it.

Weapons can be transferred between classes but not armor.

Hopefully you will have saved some "spare" weapons/armor for your main character so you can move all the "good stuff" over to your new character.

 

Now, on your new character, go through some quests/bounties, talk to the NPCs a few times.
It'll be something like talking to Lord Shaxx, playing a Crucible match, talking to him again, doing some bounties, then talking a final time to unlock the "endgame challenges" for that particular game mode and NPC. Once you're done with your second character, do the same process of moving items over to your third character and repeat.

 

I haven't done the exact counting but with this method you will have around 7-10 new challenges to do per week, per character, so it's easily doable if you have 3 characters at lv1000+ to do all 30 challenges in one week, if you rush for it.

 

My tracking

The trophy popped for me when I had the following amount completed.

Please note that I started tracking when I was done with about 10 challenges, but I can't say for sure, so I might be 2-3 counts off.

 

• Total challenges completed (when trophy popped): 38
• Titan 1 (main character, trophy popped playing this one): 18
• Titan 2 (alt character): 7
• Titan 3 (alt character): 13

 

 

The Life Exotic

The trophy requires you to collect 15 Red War exotic weapons or armor.

 

 

Note that it's either exotic weapons or armor (or a mix of both), but it has to be Red War.

So.. how do we get Exotics?

According to this eurogamer.net article from 8 July 2020:

• Acquire and decrypt Exotic Engrams.
• Random rewards (drops) from Public Events, chests, Crucible matches and other activities.
• Purchase from special vendors, such as Xur.
• Specific exotic quests and missions.
• Bright Engrams (for cosmetic Exotic items)
• Increasing your drop rate with Three of Coins.

 

1. I haven't found a reliable way to earn Exotic Engrams, other than running high level endgame activities like raids on higher difficulties, so skip that for now.
2. Random drops are random, but I got a few this way (maybe 2-3) by doing Heroic Public Events, Gambit Prime, Crucible, etc.
3. Buying them from Xur is by far the best and most consistent way, just cross your fingers and hope he's bringing RW exotics.
   1. Xur appears weekly (Friday to Tuesday) in a random location. You can find him here: https://whereisxur.com/
   2. He has 4 or 5 equipment for sale I think, and you should buy RW exotics even if they're not for your class. Look for the RW logo (scroll up a bit to find it or click here) in the top-right corner of the equipment you're buying.  Actually, if you have enough Legendary Shards (which you should have from dismantling low-level purple gear as you level up), buy some duplicate RW exotic equipment as I believe they count towards this trophy, which we will see in just a moment.
   3. Also just grab other items if you can afford it as they might be useful for raids.
   4. Finally buy the Exotic Engram if you can afford it from Xur for 97 Legendary Shards, which is required to complete some quests (activate them before you buy the engram) and you get another exotic item to boot, hurray!
4. You can do some Exotic Quests for RW exotics.
   Here's a list of Exotic Quests: https://d2.destinygamewiki.com/wiki/Exotic_Quests
   And here's a list of Red War Exotic gear: https://www.light.gg/db/legend/498211331/badges/3241617029/exotics-red-war/
   Additional info: https://www.ign.com/wikis/destiny-2/Exotics#Destiny_2_Exotic_Quests
   1. ( I'm not 100% on this info so take it with a grain of salt )
      Complete the original Red War locations World Quests to unlock Exotic Quests that will reward you with RW Exotics.
      The world quests are on: EDZ, Titan, Nessus, Io, Mars.
      The quest names are: "Enhance!", "Enemy of My Enemy", "Exodus Black", "Dynasty", "Data Recovery".
      Keep doing these and perhaps other quests on these destinations to unlock RW exotics, and of course check other quests that you have and find out what the final reward for them is.
5. I never really looked into Bright Engrams for exotic cosmetics, just got 1 exotic ornament randomly.
6. I've no clue what Three of Coins is, so look elsewhere for this info.

 

The trick

There's 2 steps to this:

1. Keep buying RW exotics from Xur (even if it's duplicates!) when he brings them until you have 15 or more total RW exotics.
   The trophy won't pop just yet..
2. Acquire other types of exotics, RW or not by any means, either waiting for Xur to appear again with new items, or farming random drops, or doing exotic quests.
   Once you have 15 unique exotics in your Collection, the trophy should pop.

 

 

My tracking

My trophy popped when I bought a RW exotic from Xur.

I had a total of 15 or more RW exotics for a long time (some duplicates), but once I acquired the 15th unique exotic item, the trophy popped.

These are the unique exotic items that I had acquired at the time when my trophy popped:

 

Red War

• Sweet Business, Auto Rifle
• Graviton Lance, Pulse Rifle
• Risk Runner, SMG
• Hard Light, Auto Rifle
• Borealis, Sniper Rifle
• Mask of the Quiet One, Titan Helmet
• Lucky Pants, Hunter Leg Armor
• Lunafaction Boots, Warlock Leg Armor

 

Other

• The Huckleberry, SMG
• Witherhoard, Grenade Launcher
• Helm of Saint-14, Titan Helmet
• Eternal Warrior, Titan Helmet
• Armamentarium, Titan Chest Armor
• Mk. 44 Stand Asides, Titan Leg Armor
• Jade Countenance, Grenade Launcher Ornament

 

RW exotics (total at time of trophy pop): 15 or 16, maybe a few more. Had them in storage for around a week without the trophy popping.

 

RW exotics (unique): 8

other exotics (unique): 7

total unique exotics: 15

 

exotic weapons (unique): 7

exotic armor (unique): 7

exotic ornaments (unique): 1

 

 

Additionally a friend told me his trophy popped and provided a screenshot of him buying exotics from Xur.
He bought Warlock gauntlets that weren't RW exotics. At the time he was 17 unique exotics collected in his Collection, 2 of which are Forsaken and 1 is something else.

So it seems the trophy popped for him when he had collected 14 unique RW exotics.
Hopefully it means that sometimes this trophy is glitched in a good way.

Today another friend got it the same way, had 14/15 unique exotics and he got duplicates from Xur until he had exactly 15 RW exotics in total.

When he got his next unique exotic (Rat King) the trophy popped.

So for us 3 this method worked.

 

 

Time estimates & My Stats

The time it took me from starting the game 2 weeks ago to unlocking these trophies is detailed below.
Keep in mind that idle time is counted into these stats, which I would estimate to be about 3-5 hrs of stepping away from the console or looking stuff up on the internet.

 

PS-Timetracker - counts total time PS4 application has been running (if you appear as online), including idle time
Time played: 115 hrs, 44 mins

Wasted on Destiny - counts only the time on destinations (excludes time in orbit or social hubs like The Tower, Farm, etc.), probably includes idle time

(active) Time played: 63 hrs, 50 mins

 

 

Edited July 12, 2020 by ryuji_sakujo

[FilooGaroo]

Wow great guide ??

[heatrod86]

Amazing guide !! thanx a lot, just started this game, this guide will be really helpful !!

[Tyrantraxus]

These two trophies are quite easy. But does this method of buying the same exotics from Xur works for dlc trophy? Forsaken exotics are super rare, only got one from around 26 exotics I have. Hope some day Xur will sell them, so I can check this method. Actually the most annoying trophy in the game.

[whittle181]

On 11/07/2020 at 6:08 PM, ryuji_sakujo said:

Challenge Accepted

The trophy requires you to complete 30 challenges.

 

My tracking

The trophy popped for me when I had the following amount completed.

Please note that I started tracking when I was done with about 10 challenges, but I can't say for sure, so I might be 2-3 counts off.

 

• Total challenges completed (when trophy popped): 38
• Titan 1 (main character, trophy popped playing this one): 18
• Titan 2 (alt character): 7
• Titan 3 (alt character): 13

Is there anywhere you can track how many challenges you've completed?

[ryuji_sakujo]

On 10/3/2020 at 0:41 PM, Tyrantraxus said:

These two trophies are quite easy. But does this method of buying the same exotics from Xur works for dlc trophy? Forsaken exotics are super rare, only got one from around 26 exotics I have. Hope some day Xur will sell them, so I can check this method. Actually the most annoying trophy in the game.

Not sure, this guide is for base game only.
If Xur ever sells exotics then feel free to try the method and report back if it worked.

 

On 10/4/2020 at 3:58 AM, whittle181 said:

Is there anywhere you can track how many challenges you've completed?

Nope, that's why I started writing it down with pen and paper (or computer/phone memo notes) about halfway through the total 30 completions.

[Tyrantraxus]

On 10/8/2020 at 2:01 AM, ryuji_sakujo said:

Not sure, this guide is for base game only.
If Xur ever sells exotics then feel free to try the method and report back if it worked.

 

Nope, that's why I started writing it down with pen and paper (or computer/phone memo notes) about halfway through the total 30 completions.

I can confirm this doesnt work. 7 forsaken exotics to go for me.

[ryuji_sakujo]

16 hours ago, Tyrantraxus said:

I can confirm this doesnt work. 7 forsaken exotics to go for me.

My friends that have the DLC also confirm that this "buying duplicates and getting an extra exotic" method doesn't work.

So it seems indeed like you'll have to legit get 10 Forsaken Exotics, good luck.

[KingGuy420]

On 11/07/2020 at 2:08 PM, ryuji_sakujo said:

Random drops are random, but I got a few this way

 

Oddly enough, that's not 100% true. There's a hidden point counter and each enemy is worth a certain amount of points. When the counter hits a specific number, boom, exotic. 

 

This might have been changed but I know this was 100% confirmed when Forsaken came out. Even if it was changed, it is probably still some variation of this.

 

There's actually no such thing as random in video games so there's always some backend system like this.

[Pottercito_]

Do you think servers will be up even on PS5 era? And is it true that trophies might be unobtainable or can be earned by doing other tasks?

[ryuji_sakujo]

18 hours ago, KingGuy420 said:

> Random drops are random, but I got a few this way

Oddly enough, that's not 100% true. There's a hidden point counter and each enemy is worth a certain amount of points. When the counter hits a specific number, boom, exotic. 

This might have been changed but I know this was 100% confirmed when Forsaken came out. Even if it was changed, it is probably still some variation of this.

There's actually no such thing as random in video games so there's always some backend system like this.

Didn't know there's a pity counter, that's good to know.

Whether a game implements counters or not is up to the developers of the game, so while most games with "randomness" implement increased probabilities for rare drops this is not something that is true by default in every game ever made, but I get your point. Then there's the discussion of true randomness and properly seeding pseudo random number generators, but that's off-topic.

 

18 hours ago, Pottercito_ said:

Do you think servers will be up even on PS5 era? And is it true that trophies might be unobtainable or can be earned by doing other tasks?

None knows (response to both of your questions) and this is not the place to speculate about it.

 

I urge all commenters to stay on-topic, strictly discussing either the guide or nuances as to how trophies can be earned quickly in the current patch of Destiny 2.
Should discussion stray too far off topic I'll lock the thread, thanks.

[mumik08]

Wow! I wasn't finding any good information and here you put everything I need thanks

Edited November 23, 2020 by mumik08

[ryuji_sakujo]

On 11/16/2020 at 3:19 PM, mumik08 said:

Wow! I wasn't finding any good information and here you put everything I need thanks!

Thanks ?

But please dont put the whole guide in quotes, if you can do me a favor and edit that out, would be great ?

[mumik08]

ok I did yeah that's really long when it's in quotes.

[Gefro-On-Defro]

Have they changed it again? I can’t see any challenges?

[mrzizich]

14 hours ago, Gefro-On-Defro said:

Have they changed it again? I can’t see any challenges?

Challenges will only show up this season once you are Light Level 1200+. You can find them on the director as yellow circles, hover over the vendors or activity to see the requirements.