The Destiny 2 Dawning event has returned, granting all the snowballs and cookies Guardians could want. However, if you’re new to the game, understand that The Dawning is a Destiny 2 tradition of merriment and cheer. Led by ‘space grandma’ Eva Levante, the event involves collecting unique materials and recipes, baking cookies in Eva’s oven, and gifting them to Guardian allies throughout Sol.
If you want to know more about the Dawning in one of the best free PC games, we have you covered with our guide covering everything from rewards to cookie recipes.
Destiny 2 Dawning overview, event dates, rewards
Destiny 2 Dawning began with the weekly reset on December 13 and will run for three weeks, ending on January 2, 2023. That gives players plenty of time to gather materials, bake cookies, and give them to various players in the Destiny 2 game narrative.
Players can earn a stunning armour ornament set and several speciality ghost shells. They’ll also have the chance to earn this year’s Dawning weapon, the Stay Frosty PR7 Legendary pulse rifle. Players can also collect previous Dawning weapons, which include:
- Avalanche Legendary machine gun
- Glacioclasm Legendary fusion rifle
- Cold Front Legendary submachine gun
- Zephyr Legendary sword
Delivering baked goods will also sometimes grant A Gift in Return boxes, which players can eventually focus toward rewards of their choice. You can also use Legendary Shards to purchase several Gifts of Dawning Past.
Players can also throw snowballs throughout the event and will find piles of snowballs throughout in-game activities. Some of the event challenges will involve defeating opponents with snowballs, so use them to your advantage.
Destiny 2 Dawning Event Card and rewards
This year’s Dawning event now grants players access to an Upgraded Event Card, which costs 1000 Silver ($10 or £8). The upgraded Event Card will immediately grant players access to the Downhill Skiing Exotic emote, Forward Erebus Exotic sparrow, and Noble Rime Legendary shader. Event card challenges will earn tickets that will also unlock the following:
- Mountainside Exotic Ghost shell (7 tickets)
- Action Figure Showdown Legendary emote (5 tickets)
- Gift Stack Entrance Transmat effect (3 tickets)
- Warm Hat Ghost projection (1 ticket)
Destiny 2 Dawning event quest steps
To kick off your Dawning experience, start by visiting Eva Levante in the Tower. She’ll grant you The Dawning quest, asking you to bake a holiday gift. She’ll also give you Eva’s Holiday Oven, which allows you to mix ingredients. You’ll also now be able to collect Dawning Spirit, used to purchase upgrades from Eva throughout the event.
Note that all Event Card and Triumph challenges remain hidden until you complete Eva’s quest.
Collect such ingredients by completing activities. Specific ingredients primarily drop from particular enemies or activities. For example, Vex Milk will drop most frequently from Vex kills.
Along the way, players will also unlock recipes. Eva first directs players to make the Gjallardoodles, so after performing activities to earn the requisite ingredients, click on Eva’s Oven in the Quests menu of the Director, to combine ingredients. You’ll then have Gjallardoodles in your inventory. Return to the Tower to give them to Zavala as directed.
Upon doing this, you can redeem your first Event Card first challenge and unlock the rest of the challenges.
You’ll then return to Eva, who will reward you with Dawning Spirit and offer a variety of Dawning Spirit upgrades to increase the amount of spirit you can collect or focus your rewards. She’ll also have bounties available, which award various ingredients.
You’ll also now have the quest Cookie Delivery Helper, which lists ingredient combinations for each vendor. However, you may wish to follow the order or cookie rewards in the helper quest, as it will help you maximise the use of your materials.
Dawning event challenges and triumph
For quick reference, the Dawning event challenges are as follows:
- Adept Baker – Bake each of the cookies in the Dawning Oven (6)
- Amateur Baker – Bake each of the cookies in the Dawning Oven (13)
- Expert Baker – Bake each of the cookies in the Dawning Oven (20)
- Shopping Spree – Purchase all 12 Dawning upgrades from Eva with Dawning Spirit (12)
- Snowball Dares – Defeat combatants with snowballs in Dares of Eternity (100 final blows)
- Snowball Ops – Defeat combatants with snowballs in the Vanguard Ops playlist (100 final blows)
- Thundersnow – Defeat combatants or Guardians with Arc weapons or abilities (% bar)
- Snowmelt – Defeat combatants or Guardians with Solar weapons or abilities (% bar)
- Deep Freeze – Defeat combatants or Guardians with Stasis weapons or abilities (% bar)
- They call it sNOw – Defeat combatants or Guardians with Void weapons or abilities (% bar)
- Vanguard Eternity – Complete Vanguard Ops or Dares of Eternity activities.
- Competitive Spirit – Complete Crucible or Gambit matches (% bar)
- With Light Comes Dawn-ing – Complete activities in Savathun’s Throne World (% bar)
- Nightmare Seraph Before Dawning – Complete Nightmare
- Contaminants or Heist Battlegrounds (% bar)
- Bake-Stravaganza – Bake cookies in the Dawning Oven (50)
- Star Baker – Earn the 2022 Dawning Seal
The Dawning Triumph seal requires a few additional challenges. Completing all event challenges will grant players the Star Baker designation. These challenges are as follows:
- Frozen Doom – Defeat combatants with snowballs (% bar)
- Joyous Spirit – Spend Dawning Spirit (500)
- Reason for the Season – Give Dawning gifts to vendors (100 cookies delivered)
- Cheerful Destruction – Defeat combatants with Dawning weapons (2000)
Specific Dawning tasks also count toward the game’s Moments of Triumph Seal and grant rewards, which include the following:
- Moments of Triumph Emblem Token (Bungie Store reward)
- Moments of Triumph T-shirt Token (Bungie Store reward)
- Stories we Remember Emblem
- Memorialized Emblem
- Gallant Ward Shell
- Blistering Slipstream Sparrow
Destiny 2 Dawning cookie recipes
Since it can be kind of a pain to look up the ingredients required for each vendor delivery, we’ve listed them here for quick reference:
- Gjallardoodles (Zavala) – Ether Cane (1), Delicious Explosion (1), Essence of Dawning (15)
- Vanilla Blades (Lord Shaxx) – Cabal Oil (1), Sharp Flavor (1), Essence of Dawning (15)
- Traveler Donut Holes (Ikora Rey) – Cabal Oil (1), Flash of Inspiration (1), Essence of Dawning (15)
- Chocolate Ship Cookie (Amanda Holiday) – Cabal Oil (1), Null Taste (1), Essence of Dawning (15)
- Candy Dead Ghosts (Spider) – Dark Ether Cane (1), Flash of Inspiration (1), Essence of Dawning (15)
- Telemetry Tapioca (Banshee-44) – Vex Milk (1), Bullet Spray (1), Essence of Dawning (15)
- Ill-Fortune Cookies (Petra Venj) – Dark Ether Cane (1), Impossible Heat (1), Essence of Dawning (15)
- Eliksni Birdseed (Hawthorne’s Falcon) – Ether Cane (1), Personal Touch (1), Essence of Dawning (15)
- Strange Cookies (Xur) – Taken Butter (1), Electric Flavor (1), Essence of Dawning (15)
- Gentleman’s Shortbread (Devrim Kay) – Ether Cane (1), Perfect Taste (1), Essence of Dawning (15)
- Lavender Ribbon Cookies (Saint-14) – Vex Milk (1), Personal Touch (1), Essence of Dawning (15)
- Infinite Forest Cake (Failsafe) – Vex Milk (1), Impossible Heat (1), Essence of Dawning (15)
- Hot Crossfire Buns (Ada-1) – Ether Cane (1), Balanced Flavors (1), Essence of Dawning (15)
- Ascendant Oatmeal Raisin Cookies (Eris Morn) – Chitlin Powder (1), Finishing Touch (1), Essence of Dawning (15)
- Lucent Crunch (Fynch) – Chitlin Powder (1), Perfect Taste (1), Essence of Dawning (15)
- Etheric Coldsnaps (Variks) – Chitlin Powder (1), Electric Flavor (1), Essence of Dawning (15)
- Blueberry Crumblers (Shaw) – Ether Cane (1), Bullet Spray (1), Essence of Dawning (15)
- Bittersweet Biscotti (Crow) – Dark Ether Cane (1), Balanced Flavors (1), Essence of Dawning (15)
- Bright-Dusted Snowballs (Tess) – Chitlin Powder (1), Multifaceted Flavors (1), Essence of Dawning (15)
- Classic Butter Cookies (Eva) – Taken Butter (1), Superb Texture (1), Essence of Dawning (15)
- Starwort Thins (Exo Stranger) – Dark Ether Cane (1), Dark Frosting (1), Essence of Dawning (15)
Delivering each of the ingredients will grant a reward from the vendor. Note that once you’ve baked all cookies at least once, you can upgrade Eva’s oven to a Masterwork for increased rewards.
That’s everything you need to know about Destiny 2’s Dawning event. If you’re returning to the game after a break, check out what’s new with our Destiny 2 season 19 guide, and see what’s coming with the Destiny 2 Lightfall expansion in our favourite space game out there. Make sure you also check out our guide to the Destiny 2 Final Dawn quest.