Navigation

Navigating between the planets and the Moon takes place in the Director.

Using the Director

Whenever you return to orbit, click Set Destination to bring up the Director screen. This shows which areas are accessible to you at the moment. At first, you can only choose between Earth and the Tower, but as you progress through the game, more options appear. Choosing a planet brings up a map of that location, along with its available missions. Once you have chosen your next destination and set up the difficulty, if applicable, click the Launch button to fly to the landing zone.

An exclamation mark appears on a location if there is something new available or an objective to complete. The Director also displays whether your friends are currently playing at each site. Next to the Tower, another icon lets you know if there are items waiting for you at the Postmaster.

Mission Types

Within the Director, you can select from a wide variety of gameplay modes: Story, Patrol, Strike, Raid, and PvP (Crucible).

Story Missions

Fireteam: 1-3

Cooperative

Story missions take place on Earth, the Moon, Venus, and Mars. Story and Patrol missions make up the single-player portion of Destiny, but they can be played with up to three players cooperatively. Major nodes must be played so you can understand the story and advance the fastest. Minor nodes are voluntary missions.

Patrol Missions

Fireteam: 1-3

Cooperative

Access one of the many Guardian Beacons on a planet’s surface to acquire a mission from the Tower. You can acquire Patrol missions by locating beacons that friendly Guardians placed on the surface of each planet. Use your Ghost’s Navigation overlay to locate nearby Patrol Beacons.

Several Public Events also occur on each planet. If you see one pop up while you’re exploring a public area, simply join in to participate. Help your fellow Guardians with the objective, and earn a Bronze, Silver, or Gold Tier based on how well the group does.

Be sure to grab a reward from the Vanguard for completing your first Gold Tier Public Event each day. You can collect this from the Postmaster up at the Tower.

Strike Missions

Fireteam: 1-3

Cooperative

Strikes are challenging PvE missions, and you can select them in a few ways. Each planet has Strikes that can be accessed, and there is a special category of Vanguard Strikes visible on the main Director screen that lets you tackle a random Strike at a fixed level: 18, 20, 22, or 24.

You may also have access to a special Strike that has additional difficulty settings enabled and distributes bonus rewards if completed. This shows up on the Director beside other daily missions.

Raid Missions

Fireteam: 6

Cooperative

Raids are the toughest PvE content in the game, and they require a full Fireteam of six players to tackle. Raid content is timed in the sense that your progress resets weekly, so you have a full week to complete and earn the rewards from a Raid.

Raids contain checkpoints that store your progress after each major encounter. You can use checkpoints to tackle a difficult Raid over the course of several play sessions. Bring your best buddies for Raids, since you must be coordinated in order to complete them!

The Crucible

Fireteam: 1-3 or 1-6

Competitive

The Crucible is a single entry in the Director that leads to a set of playlists for competitive PvP. You may also occasionally encounter special time-limited PvP events, such as the Iron Banner PvP sessions. There are multiple PvP modes; see the Crucible chapter for more details on each.

Public vs. Private Zones

While exploring planets, you may pass between areas that are public or private.

Public areas are almost all planetary surface areas, though a few are set within interiors. In a public area, you can encounter other friendly Guardians roaming the world. Private areas are typically interior areas that are used for various Story and Strike missions. Within these, only players in your Fireteam are present, and you won’t encounter other Guardians.

Fireteams

You can create Fireteams by joining another player on your friends list, or by having a friend join you.

Fireteams are normally limited to three players in most mission types, but Raids and PvP both allow you to enter with up to six players.

You can invite new players to your friends list directly in-game. To do so, target another player, and bring up the Options menu to send a friend request. The Fireteam leader decides which missions to launch, as well as their difficulty.

Travel

While on the surface of a planet, you can travel anywhere you want during any mission. However, some areas are inaccessible if you are not on the specific Story mission, Strike, or Raid that involves them.

Story, Raid, and Patrol missions all start you at different places on the surface of the planet. If you want to meet up with friends, it’s easiest to join their Fireteam while they are on the surface of the planet, or join a Fireteam in orbit and launch a mission together. Use your Sparrow to travel quickly across the surface of the planets!