The second week of seasonal challenges always hits like a double espresso after a long night of patrol-grinding--suddenly you have ten fresh objectives, and each one is a little treasure chest of XP, Bright Dust, and War Table upgrades. I've been a Destiny 2 player since before the Red War, and even now in 2026, the rhythm of these weekly checklists is as comforting as running your favorite strike for the hundredth time. If you want to push your Season Pass rank and fully power up the H.E.L.M.'s War Table, you'll need to tackle at least a handful of this week's challenges. Here's how I blitzed through them, with some off-meta advice and a couple of strange analogies I've picked up along the way.
Against the Shadows is the narrative glue of the week. So long as you finished the first part of the "We Stand Unbroken" quest, you can hop into the H.E.L.M. to kick things off. The quest itself is simple: run a Defiant Battleground, then chat with a few NPCs. It's the videogame equivalent of checking your mailbox--brief, essential, and you feel weirdly satisfied afterwards. Completing this awards a War Table Upgrade and a solid 25,000 XP.
Favored Liberator, on the other hand, is like trying to fill a communal tip jar with your fireteam. You need to generate 30 Favors in seasonal activities, and the more seasonal armor you wear, the faster it goes. I unlocked the 'Exemplar of Justice' War Table upgrade and strapped on a melee-build that made Favors pop like confetti. Hunters can dance through mobs with Arcstrider's Combination Blow, Warlocks shred with Arcane Needle, and Titans just keep throwing their Sunbreaker hammer like an immortal blacksmith. If you treat every powered melee kill as a tiny firework, you'll finish this challenge before you realize you've been in the Battlegrounds for twenty minutes.
Rohan's Legacy ties into the exotic machine gun Deterministic Chaos. After the Lightfall campaign, speak to Nimbus to start "Unfinished Business," then you'll need 50 precision final blows on Neomuna. The challenge asks for Machine Guns, but I found that using a slow-firing bow felt like threading a needle from a skyscraper--each precision hit was a tiny burst of dopamine. If you can pair a stability-focused Machine Gun with a boss-spec mod, you'll get bonus progress and feel like a turret that's finally been unshackled.
The Full Set had me scampering across Neomuna for action figures like a magpie collecting shiny trinkets. You need to place four of these little collectibles, and while there are nine in total, only two become available each week. I won't spoil the locations here (we have a guide for that), but I will say that searching for them turned Neomuna into a neon-drenched Easter egg hunt. It's a welcome break from the usual \"kill everything\" loop.
Cosmodrome Activities felt like a homecoming. I grabbed bounties from Shaw Han and sprinted into the Exodus Garden 2A Lost Sector until my weapon levels were begging for mercy. Farming bounties and Lost Sectors is the fastest route, and 75 Bright Dust is a nice cherry on top. Lost in the Legend, however, is a beast. The Legend Lost Sector Power requirement has always been a moving target, and right now you want to be at least 1,810 before you step in--entering underleveled is like bringing a butter knife to a sword fight. Check your Power level, wait until you're over the hump, and then melt the champions with a proper loadout.
For Flourish of Power, Mayhem is your playground. Popping 25 Super kills sounds daunting, but with one-and-done Supers like Blade Barrage or Thundercrash, it's more like skipping stones across a lake--each toss lands with a satisfying splash. Don't overthink it; just grab every Orb of Power and let your abilities fly.
Bank, Kill, Repeat calls you to Gambit. You need 250 points from banking Motes, killing Blockers, or defeating Guardians. I focused on Blockers because they're chunky points and easy to incinerate with a good fusion rifle. Treat blockers like weeds in a garden--pull them fast and your Gambit match blooms into a quick completion.
Hive Slayer and Close-Range Calibration are straightforward horde-clearing: kill 200 Hive in Vanguard Ops, then 200 close-range enemies in the Cosmodrome. I paired an SMG with a glaive and blasted through the K1 Revelation Lost Sector on the Moon, which felt like mowing down a field of chitin with a combine harvester. If you want efficiency, stack rapid-defeat bonuses and never stop moving.
By the end of the week, my War Table was upgraded, my Bright Dust stockpile looked healthier, and I'd climbed several Season Pass ranks without ever feeling like I was grinding. The challenges are designed to nudge you into different corners of the game, and with the right mindset, they're less a chore and more a guided tour through Destiny 2's greatest hits.