Guardians are expressing frustration with the annual Destiny 2 Festival of the Lost event, claiming that the celebration is underwhelming, full of bugs, and constitutes little more than a minor reskin of last year’s event.
This year’s event is functionally the same as last year’s. It involves collecting Spectral Pages throughout the Destiny 2 universe, which players can then convert into Manifested Pages by defeating Headless Ones in Haunted Lost Sectors. Bungie added a new Haunted Lost Sector to this year’s event, but all enemy models and types are functionally the same.
While players have been outspoken about the cost of the game’s Event Passes, suggesting the cosmetics aren’t worth the 1,000 Silver fee, their broader complaints go to the core of the celebration.
Not only does it feel like the team simply imported the activity from the previous year, they say, but certain aspects of it also don’t seem to properly reward the players’ grind.
The festival caps how many Headless Ones a player can clear in each Lost Sector at 15. If a team clears the first 10 quickly, they must wait through a timer for the activity’s boss to spawn, which can take up to two minutes. This arbitrary waiting period doesn’t seem to serve much of a purpose beyond prolonging the activity.
Not only is this an issue, but it’s a known issue that impacted the activity last year. Players are upset Bungie apparently didn’t consider that a priority in fixing before releasing this year’s event.
Further, to earn the game’s Ghost Writer Triumph, which is tied to the event, players must complete 35 total runs of the four Haunted Lost Sectors. Even spread out over the event’s three weeks, that’s a heavy commitment for any player.
Players also report that leaving too early means the Haunted Lost Sector won’t count toward their progress. Other bugs and oversights with the event include a since-corrected bug where players were not being awarded the correct amount of candy for completing their bounties and another issue where Spectral Pages are not becoming Manifested Pages after Haunted Lost Sector runs. If you encounter this issue, Bungie says to clear your cache, equip a mask, confirm you have space in your inventory, run a strike, and then run a Haunted Lost Sector to see if that fixes the issue.
Some players have even drawn comparisons to the Haunted Infinite Forest, the setting for the game’s previous Festival of the Lost activity before Bungie introduced Haunted Lost Sectors last year. Unlike the Haunted Lost Sectors, the Haunted Forest rewarded players for the speed at which they could complete it.
The developers may have wanted to limit the time they spent updating the event as they finalised the forthcoming Lightfall expansion, set to launch in February 2023. Still, players expect fresh and engaging content, so it’s no surprise they may have frustrations about the event.
If you’re looking to grind Festival of the Lost Haunted Lost Sectors, check out our best Destiny 2 Warlock builds, best Destiny 2 Titan builds, and best Destiny 2 Hunter builds for some strong kits that to help you breeze through the activities with ease.