• Guide

How to play The Reckoning in Destiny 2

Learn how to play The Reckoning, as well as some helpful tips that will help you survive the onslaught of enemies that await you.

Josh Hawkins

March 8, 2019 3:30 PM

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Knowing how to play The Reckoning is going to be key if you want to unlock all of the special armor and gear that Joker’s Wild has to offer. If you want to master this new Destiny 2 game mode, then we’ve got the information you need to do so. Below you’ll find all the tips and strategies you need to know to stay alive and take down the boss in The Reckoning.

How to play The Reckoning

Like Gambit Prime, there are a lot of things you need to know as you dive into The Reckoning. First, before you can start playing the new game mode, you’re going to need to complete a quest for The Drifter and get a Weak Synthesizer. Once you have this item, you can start crafting Motes, which you can then use to wager in The Reckoning. You can only hold one Mote at a time, though, so try to stick to the kinds of Motes you need to complete the armor set that you’re going for.

If you don’t know how Motes work, then make sure you check out our guide on how to get Gambit Prime armor. That will tell you all about the different armor sets, what perks they have to offer, and the set bonus that each gear option brings to the table. If you want to acquire Gambit Prime armor, then you’re going to have to play The Reckoning and wager your Motes.

How to enter The Reckoning

Once you have acquired your Weak Synthesizer, use it and a Synth—like the Collector, Invader, Reaper or Sentry Synth—to create a Weak Mote. You can then head into The Reckoning event from The Director.

After loading into The Reckoning, you’ll either be thrown into a match that is already underway, or you’ll be able to start your own match. If you are thrown into a game that is already active, help defeat the enemies and then defeat the boss. After this, you’ll be returned to the launching area, where you can wager your own Motes to try to earn some of the Gambit Prime armor that was added with Joker’s Wild.

You don’t have to wager your Mote to play The Reckoning, though. In fact, you can simply load into the mode and help out your friends or whoever has their own Motes to activate. This makes for an easy way to farm for tCollector Synths or other types of Synths, which will in turn allow you to acquire even more Gambit Prime armor pieces. Once someone in your Fireteam has wagered a Mote, wait for the portal in the center to activate and then hop inside. This is where the real fun begins.

How to win in The Reckoning Tier 1

If you want to win in The Reckoning, then you’re going to need to understand how the game mode works. First, make sure you pay attention to the Modifiers active when you select this activity from The Director. For example, at the time of this writing, The Reckoning has Void Singe, Blackout and Heavyweight Modifiers active. These attributes will greatly change how you need to approach each match of The Reckoning, so keep these things in mind.

After you drop through the portal and into The Reckoning proper, you’ll have roughly six minutes to reach 100% Dominance over the enemy. There are a few things you need to know about Dominance, though.

• Firstly, each death that you suffer will lower the percentage of Dominance. This means staying alive is key to victory in The Reckoning.
• The percentage of Dominance you have will go down with every passing moment, so pay attention to the number.
• There are two main types of enemies in The Reckoning. First, there are normal enemies. When killed, these grant you a small percentage of Dominance. There are also Powerful Enemies, which when defeated will grant you a much larger amount of Dominance towards your percentage. It is currently believed that the Dominance ticker will start counting up if you ignore the larger enemies, so try to keep them cleared out as much as possible.

Once you reach 100% Dominance, you’ll then spawn the boss of the match. At this point you will need to shift your focus.

How to defeat the boss in The Reckoning Tier 1

This is by far one of the most difficult portions you will encounter as you play The Reckoning. Not only do you need to worry about the boss, but the timer that you started with continues to count down. Because of this, burning the boss is going to be extremely important. However, you will also need to pay attention to the area around you, as adds will continue to spawn too.

If you aren’t careful, you can easily end up dying to the adds, or the boss. Try to focus as much attention on the boss as you can—remember that you have roughly six minutes total—but also keep an eye on the adds so that you don’t end up wiping during a crucial burn moment.

Completing a round in The Reckoning is all about teamwork, and you’re going to need to pay attention to a lot of things at once. Come well equipped and ready to fight when you decided to partake, and make sure you return to our Destiny 2 complete strategy guide for more help in Joker’s Wild. Make sure you also check out Destiny Item Manager if you need help moving items to your Guardian or Vault on the fly!

Josh Hawkins

Guides Editor

Joshua holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Creative Writing and has been exploring the world of video games for as long as he can remember. He enjoys everything from large-scale RPGs to small, bite-size indie gems and everything in between.