The story of Destiny 2: The Witch Queen has been center stage in the lead-up to the massive expansion’s release. One of the major updates Bungie has planned is adding a Legendary difficulty to the story mode, meaning more aggressive and powerful enemies, additional activity modifiers, and of course, more loot.

Legendary Campaign Rewards

The February 10 This Week At Bungie post revealed the rewards Guardians will reap for tackling the additional challenge Legendary provides. They discussed how each story mission would have between one and three “major encounters” that have a unique boss fight and requisite reward chest at the end. Completing these encounters at Legendary will spawn two such chests, doubling the amount of gear, upgrade materials, experience, and currency you receive. Players will also earn Throne World equipment faster, making the story integral for grinding the perfect roll on all the new toys.

Should Guardians decide to tackle all of the story missions on Legendary, they’ll receive a complete, eight-piece set of armor at 1520 Power, 20 points above the soft cap of 1500 attainable through regular play. Any leveling beyond 1500 has to come from Powerful gear sources, so there’s a real advantage to taking on Legendary story missions early, especially if you want to attempt the new Raid activity on day one.

Completing the Legendary story also awards a Triumph, an emblem, eight upgrade modules for infusing gear, and new The Witch Queen Exotic armor usually reserved for Legend and Master Lost Sector loot. There are also Bungie rewards on offer, though the post doesn’t go into exactly what those would entail. If history is any indication, it will be an in-game coupon for something purchasable at the Bungie Rewards Store.

How Difficult is the Legendary Campaign

Guardians shouldn’t expect to have themselves tested to the limit in The Witch Queen’s Legendary story missions, but they won’t be easy, either. Bungie notes, “…the Legendary campaign is designed to be harder than a Legend Nightfall, though it is easier than a solo dungeon or running a Grandmaster Nightfall.” Master Nightfall difficulty then, with a few caveats? It’s a little unclear, but that level of challenge would make sense for the additional volume of rewards.

Bungie ensured every encounter would have a maximum Power rating to maintain this challenge across the expansion, so there’s no way to over-level, regardless of grinding. Being below a recommended Power cap will only make this harder, of course, but that’s what the Legendary setting is all about. Guardians can jump straight into it from the get-go, and those who do will deal with the horrors of being gear checked.

The Legendary story missions are playable solo or with a Fireteam and scale accordingly. It’s not a one-to-one shift, considering new Guardian abilities and equipment options, but the higher difficulty should be plenty doable with a team of one.

Depending on the campaign’s length and the complexities of the missions, it will be a good idea to run through it on Classic difficulty to get a feel for the flow. The additional experience, gear, and ability knowledge will come in handy once the real fighting starts. And best of all, completing a mission creates a node on the Director map, meaning any Guardian who wants to face the horrors of Savathun’s Throne World again can do so at any time.