*Sits backwards on chair*. So. You’ve decided to shoot for a player title in Destiny 2. Perhaps you’re looking to make the most of the two-month extension to the current season. Perhaps, in the nearly two years since titles were introduced, you’ve simply ticked off enough triumphs through normal play to make that one final push.
Whatever your motivation, it sure would be handy to have a list of every currently achievable title in the game, sorted by overall challenge but subcategorised by grind and skill-based difficulty, with a brief assessment of the key obstacles involved in attaining each. Wouldn’t it?
Let me present, then, just such a list. For those who don’t already know, titles are the little purple italicised epithets you see under some players in Destiny 2. To earn the right to wear one, you need to complete all the in-game ‘triumphs’ listed under that title’s seal in your triumphs submenu. They all take a great deal of work, but some are far easier than others. If you’re just looking to wear one and want to know which is the least effort overall, while still retaining a degree of social proof (that is, showing-off value), look no further.
One final note. With several relevant locations being vaulted, we all expected that certain titles would be unattainable after the launch of Beyond Light if you were missing anything from those locations. What came as a surprise – to me, at least – was that, if you haven’t earned those titles by Beyond Light, they’ll be vaulted and rendered unattainable even if you could complete them by playing on still-current locations, but that’s what’s happening according to Bungie. So even if you’ve got all the lore collectibles you need from Io, Mercury, Mars, and Titan, you still won’t be able to get Chronicler if you can’t complete it before Beyond Light due to, say, the time gates on the Truth to Power lore book.
That kinda sucks, but there we are. The titles that will be axed in this way are Shadow, Reckoner, Blacksmith, Wayfarer, Chronicler, and every seasonal title from seasons five to 11. If you’d like to complete any of these before Beyond Light, and time gates will permit you to do so, this is your last chance – at least for a while. Bungie says your progress towards unearned titles will be saved even after they’re vaulted, but we’ve no idea if they’ll ever be unvaulted again.
In descending order of difficulty, here is every title currently available in Destiny 2:
The hardest title in Destiny 2 is: Unbroken
Grind rating: varies with skill from 5 to 10
Difficulty rating: 10
RNG or time gates? Several seasonal time gates, no RNG
Fun rating: -1 to lots depending entirely on how much you like PvP
Hit the top Glory rank, Legend, three times. That’s pretty much all you need to know about this seal. Five Valor resets in a single season will mean some grinding (though there’s no better time than now thanks to the extension to Season of Arrivals), but anyone can do it with enough dedication as Valor can’t be lost. Glory, however, can, so hitting Legend in competitive PvP even once is simply beyond the reach of many players.
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You get bonus Glory from winning games in a row, so if you’re good enough to keep a streak going – or can party up with others who can – then the grind can be much reduced. But if your plan is to hop into the Survival Freelance playlist and just give it your best shot solo, then prepare for your skills to be brutally exposed. The fact that you can lose Glory will make it a practical impossibility for some, while the importance of streaks will make it a brutal slog for those who are just about good enough (though it’s certainly possible – a player named Dawncraftian, who got every title in the game, says he’s “fairly average” at PvP). Managed it once? Congratulations! Now do it again twice more.
Yuck.
Flawless
Grind rating: 2
Difficulty rating: 10
RNG or time gates? Weekly time gates for maps and fixed (no RNG) loot
Fun rating: see Unbroken, but more so
Trials of Osiris, in case you somehow don’t know, is Destiny 2’s endgame PvP activity. Because of the way its incentives are set up it tends to filter out all but the most dedicated PvP players: in order to get anything that’s actually worthwhile – like pinnacle gear or rare upgrade materials – you need to ‘go Flawless’, which is to get seven wins and no losses in the same run, or ‘ticket’. On PC right now, it’s a sweaty mess of super-hardcore PvP streamers, paid carry and account recovery services, and a depressing number of cheaters. Even among those who play the rest of the game with dedication, there are many who have resigned themselves to never touching this game mode.
Bear this context in mind when I say that, in order to get this seal, you need to: go Flawless on four different maps during the current season, go Flawless on a Passage of Confidence, assist another player in going Flawless who never has before, win games even after recording seven wins on a ticket (ten times), and get all the Trials loot. Theoretically this is all possible in just four runs, albeit with a little time gating for the loot to come up in rotation, so it’s hardly a grind at all. It’s just insanely difficult for anyone who isn’t an astonishing PvP player with two equally good friends.
Blacksmith
Grind rating: 8
Difficulty rating: 8
RNG or time gates? Significant RNG (rare bounties and shaders) and time gating (on weapon frames, weekly forge rotations, raid challenges, etc)
Fun rating: 2
In terms of monotony, arbitrariness, and general pointlessness, some of Blacksmith’s triumphs are borderline insulting. Forge 100 Black Armory weapons? Excuse me? Get 500 kills at different forges with Jötunn, Threat Level, Le Monarque, and Izanagi’s Burden? Why on Earth would I want to do that?! That obviously means acquiring all those weapons first, and Izanagi’s is one of the longest Exotic quests in the game.
You also have to do a flawless Scourge of the Past – a much easier and shorter raid than Garden or Last Wish, true, but to do it without anyone dying is still bloody tricky for most teams, and even the best are obliged to work around the arbitrariness of the Sparrow section. You’ve also got a bit of RNG to contend with as rare bounties, and weapons with the necessary shaders, are all random drops. Thus Blacksmith is technically easier than Rivensbane but so much grindier that it sneaks above it as an overall chore – it’s an unholy alliance of grind, RNG, and difficulty, but not quite the worst of any.
Rivensbane
Grind rating: 4
Difficulty rating: 9
RNG or time gates? Significant RNG (some raid loot is ‘smart’ and fills in gaps in your collection, some isn’t), some time gates (raid challenges)
Fun rating: 6
Petra’s Run – which is to say, beating Destiny 2’s longest and probably hardest raid without a single member of the fireteam dying – would be enough by itself to put Rivensbane beyond the reach of all but the most dedicated PvE clans. If you’re capable of that then everything else in this seal is child’s play, though getting all the raid loot and completing every challenge will take several completions.
For the rest of us, the triumphs stipulating elemental subclasses and Guardian class restrictions will filter out a lot of otherwise willing teammates if you’re looking for a pick-up group, making a dedicated clan a big help. Based on pure skill, this is probably the hardest PvE challenge you can attempt, but it’s not too much of a grind and the raid itself is awesome, hence the high fun rating – even if the thought of having to reset the entire raid after a single bullshit death during the Queenswalk gives me shivers.
Shadow
Grind rating: 7
Difficulty rating: 8
RNG or time gates? Significant RNG (mix of smart and random loot), some time gates (Menagerie and raid challenges)
Fun rating: 5
It’s just as well the Menagerie is fun, because the Shadow title will make you play a lot of it. Forget completing all the Menagerie encounter challenges – they’ll probably happen anyway during all the runs you’ll need to complete the Opulence collections badge and consume 200 runes in your Chalice. It’s a less onerous grind than Blacksmith, but nothing to sniff at.
Read more: we rank every Destiny raid in the series’ history
The second major component of this seal is the Crown of Sorrow raid. As with Blacksmith and Rivensbane, you need to complete all of its challenges as well as a flawless run. Again, that’s very difficult for most, but Crown of Sorrow is so mechanically driven, with less tendency for arbitrary bad luck, that it’s probably the easiest of these raids to clear without dying. In my view this is the best of these raid-and-season titles: if you must grind a seasonal activity, Menagerie is the most fun, and if you must attempt a flawless raid, Crown of Sorrow is the quickest and most consistent. Shadows are dedicated players but not so much that they punish themselves. You’re alright, Shadows.
Reckoner
Grind rating: 11
Difficulty rating: 3
RNG or time gates? Significant RNG (random weapon drops)
Fun rating: 1
This is probably the grindiest title in the game, though I’m giving it bonus points because the grind probably feels even worse than it actually is since it’s based entirely around two of the least popular activities in Destiny 2. You need to acquire a full set of Notorious-level armour for each of the four Gambit roles – which already means playing more Reckoning than anyone should in one lifetime – and to do a ridiculous number of awkward little tasks in Gambit Prime with each of the four roles’ auras. Stuff like sniper and linear fusion kills as an Invader, marking Invaders as a Sentry, killing 50 high value targets as a Reaper, and summoning 40 Giant Blockers as a Collector (bleurgh).
Some find invading tricky, and you also have to do the Thorn quest, which finishes in a very difficult version of the Savathun’s Song strike, but it’s not too bad in terms of difficulty. It’s just grinding Gambit Prime and the Reckoning which puts so many people off – according to the excellent Destiny tracker site BrayTech, this is the rarest non-seasonal seal in the game, with only 5.33% of registered users owning it at time of writing. Bragging rights are another factor, of course – if you’re Unbroken, people will know you’ve basically reached the pinnacle of Destiny’s PvP. Whatever Reckoner says about you, it’s not quite so impressive.
Harbinger
Grind rating: 5
Difficulty rating: 7
RNG or time gates? Significant RNG (rare and random Moon loot)
Fun rating: 4
We’re now getting into the tier of challenges that are achievable for the dedicated, but not hyper dedicated player. The hardest part of Harbinger is probably completing all the Nightmare Hunt time trials on Master difficulty, but that’s never been easier than now, when we’re at a high power level that’ll only get higher as our artifacts level up during this very long season. The Pit of Heresy solo and flawless (that is, without dying) completions are also tricky, but at least you don’t have to do it solo and flawless on the same run. Otherwise there’s a meaty grind with a side of RNG for all the Moon’s loot, and a couple of the game’s easiest Exotic weapon quests. There are parts of this that look intimidating at first glance, but may prove achievable if you can apply yourself and find reliable teammates. A respectable and not too grindy seal to aim for if you’re an aspiring PvE player looking to test yourself, and one that’s relatively rare.
Enlightened
Grind rating: 3
Difficulty rating: 6
RNG or time gates? Modest RNG (smart raid loot, one random shader), some time gates (raid challenges)
Fun rating: 6
This is the Garden of Salvation raid seal, but unlike previous equivalents, it doesn’t require a flawless completion (thanks to a somewhat controversial change in March 2020). There are still a number of tricky challenges that’ll need you to find a committed team (ideally all from the same clan for the Clan Night triumph), and to complete the raid multiple times in multiple strange ways, but compared to Rivensbane this is a cinch. A respectable achievement, yet not excessively punishing in either skill or grind.
Conqueror
Grind rating: 2
Difficulty rating: 6
RNG or time gates? Need to wait for strikes to become available each season, otherwise none
Fun rating: 5
To get the Conqueror seal, you have to complete all six of the Grandmaster difficulty Ordeal strikes that are scheduled for the current season. These are rated at a savage 1100 power level, covered in modifiers, and stuffed full of champions. Note that you only have to complete them – you don’t need a good score or anything – so if you don’t care about getting the best rewards you can bypass some of those champions to make it go a bit easier. You’ll still need a superb general-purpose PvE build, so getting properly equipped requires a fair bit of work, but the strikes themselves can be done in 30 minutes each if all goes smoothly. *Cackles.*
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The Season of Arrivals schedule includes Lake of Shadows and Strange Terrain, which are among the easiest strikes in the game. Unfortunately, it also includes The Corrupted – a miserable, overlong strike in which frankly far too much can go wrong – and A Garden World, which features a bastard of a final boss in which there is very little cover.
Chronicler
Grind rating: 4
Difficulty rating: 3
RNG or time gates? Major RNG (random lore drops), severe time gating
Fun rating: 6
Even more so than Wayfarer, this is the most inconveniently time-gated seal in the game. Finishing the Truth to Power lore book means visiting Mara Sov’s throne room on 11 separate occasions, and it’s still only possible when the Dreaming City’s curse is at its peak every three weeks. That right there means if you haven’t started this yet, it’ll take you at least 33 weeks!! To that, you can add the Man They Call Cayde and Variks the Loyal lore books, entries in which drop randomly from specific sources that aren’t always available. That adds a bit of RNG grind, too.
On top of this, you’ll need to acquire Wish-Ender and destroy all corrupted eggs. That means at least dipping into the Last Wish raid and all six Ascendant Challenges, which, of course, rotate on weekly cycles. At least Shattered Throne is available all the time now, making the Wish-Ender quest and egg hunting a lot simpler. Other than this and a pain-in-the-neck Gambit triumph, there’s nothing too bad in Chronicler – just a lot of lore collectibles to hunt down. Stick on a podcast and follow one of the many video guides out there. It can be quite a relaxing process, and you get lots of lovely lore to read as a reward – Dawncraftian says he enjoyed getting Chronicler more than any other title. It’s highly achievable, but you’ll need to stick with it for a while.
MMXX
Grind rating: 4
Difficulty rating: 4
RNG or time gates? None (though two triumphs are yet to unlock)
Fun rating: 5
The 2020 Moments of Triumph seal, like last year’s, is a victory lap around all of this year’s available content. There’s not much to worry about in terms of grind – maxing the season pass and levelling your Solstice armour is a bit of a slog, I suppose, but all other core content requirements (Gambit, strikes, Crucible, etc) are quite reasonable, and alleviate any risk of monotony through their sheer variety.
This seal’s grind rating comes not because any one task is excessive, but through their sheer volume. There are 30 possible triumphs to unlock, which take in all of the game’s high-end PvE and PvP activities. You need to complete the Prophecy and Pit of Heresy dungeons, every raid currently in the game at least once apart from The Last Wish, and – here’s the kicker, especially if you’re on PC – win seven matches in the Trials of Osiris. Because of that last requirement I’d rate this higher for difficulty if it weren’t for the fact that the seal unlocks at 28 out of the 30 triumphs. This is handy if you wind up missing Solstice of Heroes, but also if you fancy skipping Trials (which we advise). An enjoyable and achievable seal for jacks of all trades.
Cursebreaker
Grind rating: 5
Difficulty rating: 2
RNG or time gates? Significant amounts of both (rare and random Dreaming City loot, time-gated Ascendant Challenges)
Fun rating: 2
This was a bit rough when Forsaken first came out and the Dreaming City and the Shattered Throne dungeon were more challenging. But now that we’re overpowered for that stuff, Cursebreaker is really just a slog with a few time gates, much like Wayfarer.
Getting the Dreaming City collections badge means a bit of grind and RNG for the location’s rarer drops, and getting all the Ahamkara Bones means following video guides and waiting for Ascendant Challenges to come up in rotation. The Wish-Ender quest is also lengthy and needs a couple of runs through the Shattered Throne with a willing party, which might take a bit of a search on LFG or some helpful clanmates. This is why Cursebreaker is still slightly more difficult than Wayfarer, but less of a grind. Pretty close between the two, in my view. After grinding for the Braytech Osprey, the thing that most puts me off chasing Cursebreaker is the idea of grinding the miserable Corrupted strike for Horror’s Least.
Wayfarer
Grind rating: 7
Difficulty rating: 1
RNG or time gates? Severe RNG (multiple sources), significant time gates
Fun rating: 2
There’s some debate over whether Wayfarer or Dredgen is the easier title to acquire, and if your sole criterion is the technical difficulty of in-game tasks, I’d give it to Wayfarer. It doesn’t ask you to anything that’s actually tough, nor that you’d need a team to help with (see Protect the Runner, below). The BrayTech Osprey – a requirement for the Warmind collections badge – only drops from Nightfall strikes, but you can get it from running Nightfall: The Ordeal at its lowest difficulty (source: me), which is barely harder than a playlist strike. That’s the toughest thing you’ll have to do for this.
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But oh my word, the grind. And the RNG. And the time gates. The Osprey has a very low drop rate – it took me 30 strikes before I finally got it to drop, and I’ve seen players complain of it having taken far longer for them. This was only the worst of many grindy and RNG-dependent tasks. Other highlights of the Wayfarer journey: spawning into Mars repeatedly until a group stuck with, and repeated, level seven Escalation Protocol every week until all the IKELOS weapons and armour dropped; forging all the Lost Prophecy weapons on Mercury; waiting for flashpoints to pop up each week to complete Heroic Adventures. It’s for these reasons that Wayfarer squeaks in above Dredgen in terms of overall inconvenience to obtain. I certainly feel as though I see more Dredgens than Wayfarers, and the statistics support this – at time of writing, 40.6% of BrayTech users have Dredgen, while 28.5% have Wayfarer.
Dredgen
Grind rating: 4
Difficulty rating: 2
RNG or time gates? Minor RNG (loot, quest elements)
Fun rating: depends how much you like Gambit
Dredgen used to require the Gambit collections badge, which required the Gambit Ghost shell, which in turn required three Infamy resets. That would’ve kicked the Grind rating up a notch or two, but now only one Infamy reset is required, which isn’t too bad – keep an eye out for bonus Infamy weeks and focus on Gambit Prime (matches are faster and you get more bounties to cash).
As far as difficulty goes, the Malfeasance quest isn’t as bad as it used to be since it was tuned, and wiping the enemy team in a single invasion is achievable for most players if you equip yourself for it properly. The one that might take a while, though, is the secret ‘Protect the Runner’ triumph, which requires your team to win a Gambit match in which one player banks 75 motes and loses none. If you can find a coordinated team that’ll protect one player from invaders while letting them scoop up every single mote, it’s quite readily possible, but it’s pretty unlikely to happen in the matchmaking queue. Best of luck on those LFG sites.
The easiest title in Destiny 2 (now) is: Forerunner
Grind rating: 5
Difficulty rating: 1
RNG or time gates? Weekly time gates to max the Prismatic Recaster (and two triumphs are yet to unlock)
Fun rating: 3
There are still two Triumphs that haven’t officially released for Forerunner, the Season of Arrivals title, but datamining indicates that they are finishing the Traveler’s Chosen Exotic quest and defeating Savathun’s Supplicant in the Interference mission. It’s very unlikely that either of these things will be difficult or grindy.
The other 19 triumphs in the Forerunner seal are pretty simple and unlocked merely by playing this season’s core activities. You have to max the Prismatic Recaster, create all its focused engrams, get all its mods, and finish every encounter in the Interference mission and Contact public event. If you’ve been playing much this season, chances are you’ve already done most of this. If you haven’t, it’s a bit of a grind, with a bit of time-gating for the Recaster, but thanks to the lengthy season you’ve still got plenty of time. You also need to get Ruinous Effigy, but it’s one of the easiest Exotic quests out there. The only thing that’s even a tiny bit difficult is destroying all Savathûn’s eyes as there are five in the Prophecy dungeon, which is endgame content – but you don’t even have to complete it, and there are plenty of willing sherpas on LFG services all over the internet. If you’re playing a lot this season and you just want a title, this is the one to aim for.