How to complete the festive season's Iron Banner quests and objectives

The week-long Crucible event for Destiny 2 has returned again for players to earn exclusive Iron Lord themed weapons and armor.

Lord Saladin can be found in the Tower at his usual spot on the second floor of the Tower courtyard, above Shax. 

Before any excess tokens from last Iron Banner can be handed into Saladin for rewards, a lengthy quest must be completed within the Iron Banner playlist.

An important note with these below quest steps is that the weapon final blows objectives can only be completed while on that current step, all other objectives are completed concurrently. As an example, the first step requires 10 zones to be captured while the second step requires 20 zones. Once the first step is completed and the players move on to the second, their quest will read 10/20 zones captured. 

Another important note is that many players are reporting a bug that they are losing their progress towards current quest steps if they go to Orbit after the game finishes as the scoreboard is being shown. Due to this its best to let the timer tick down to zero to be automatically queued into the next game. A second bug that has been discovered is that if a player joins an Iron Banner match that is in progress then they will not receive any progress towards the quest step they are on.

Here are the Iron Banner quest steps along with some handy tips to quickly complete them. To start the quest simple travel to the Tower and talk to Lord Saladin on the upper level of the Tower courtyard.

Light the Fires

• Defeat 30 Opponents - The keyword here is ‘defeat’ which is simply another word for ‘assist’. Stick close to teammates to use combined fire to quickly take down enemies. Each enemy killed by a teammate that you damaged within the last few seconds will count as a ‘defeat’ and progress this step.
• Capture 10 Zones - Assist in the capture of 10 Control Zones. You must be within the capture circle once the progress reaches 100 to be awarded with a capture. Be sure to quickly run to the closest Zone, usually A or C, when the game first starts to be awarded with an easy capture. While playing the match you must be constantly rotating around the map in order to constantly capture enemy Zones to quickly progress this step.
• Defeat 3 enemies with Supers - Use a roaming Super such as Arcstrider, Fists of Havoc or Dawnblade to maximize the number of kills you can get. With one of these above Supers, it can be fairly easy to complete this step within a single Super use.

Iron Sight

• Complete 6 Matches - Simple enough, play a total of 6 Iron Banner matches. Matches completed before getting to this step count towards this step
• Capture 20 Zones - Follow the steps listed previously.
• 25 Scout Rifle final blow - This step requires ‘final blows’ which means the killing shot must come from the player to receive credit towards this step. On long-range maps or maps with longer sightlines, it's best to use High Impact Scout Rifles such as Imperative, Jade Rabbit and Polaris Lance. On shorter range maps then Randy’s Throwing Knife is a top tier Scout Rifle to use along with Mida Multi-Tool and the new exotic Symmetry. It might seem boring but staying in the one spot and holding down a lane is the best way to pick up easy kills with a Scout Rifle as careless enemies rush out into the open. Be sure to equip any Scout Rifle armor mods you have.

Pump Iron

• Defeat 100 opponents - Same as the step listed above. Simple assist in the killing of 100 enemy Guardians. 
• Capture 30 Zones - Follow the steps listed previously.
• 20 Shotgun final blows - The first tip for this step is to equip at least one Shotgun Scavenger mod to ensure a constant supply of ammunition as you slay enemies. Shotgun Reloader also works wonders. Some top Shotguns to use for this step are almost anything that comes with Range enhancing perks such as Accurized Rounds, Opening Shot and Rifled Barrel. Dusk Rock Blues, Mindbender’s Ambition and Retold Tale are all great options for this step. It’s also possible, although not exactly recommended, to run a triple Shotgun loadout with Dust Rock Blues, Retold Tale and Tractor Cannon to essentially force yourself to get Shotgun kills.

Death Metal

• Defeat 15 enemies with Supers - Like step one, it’s best to equip a roaming Super to maximize how many kills its possible to get within a single-use. Even though Supers like Nova Bomb are much simpler to use with they usually only get 1 or possibly 2 kills at a time.
• Capture 40 Zones - Follows the steps listed previously.
• 15 Hand Cannon final blows - This could be a tough one for some people as Hand Cannons have a very high skill floor before they can compete with other weapon types. Hand Cannons are also much harder to use on console compared to PC so those Guardians on console can expect to possibly be on this step a little bit longer than your PC counterparts. Some good Hand Cannons to use for this step are The Last Word and Ace of Spades, or a Service Revolver, Spare Rations, Austringer, Trust and Waking Vigil with Range enhancing perks.

Iron Rain

• Complete 15 Matches - Complete 15 matches total in the Iron Banner playlist. Games completed while advancing through the previous steps will still count for this step.
• Capture 50 Zones - Follows the steps listed previously.
• 10 Rocket Launcher final blows - This quest step objective is possibly the most difficult and has sparked a significant amount of annoyance within the community. The player must achieve 10 final blows with Rocket Launchers. The problem with this is the only way to get kills with Rocket Launchers is with Heavy ammo which only spawns in the middle of the map a few times each Iron Banner match. This leads to many players sticking close to the ammo spawn location. It’s entirely possible to go a whole match without a single Rocket Launcher kill if your team cannot gain control over the Heavy ammo spawn location. Be prepared to spend a few matches on this step at least. The best way to complete it though is to equip some Rocket Launcher Scavenger perks so that when Heavy ammo is grabbed you receive more rockets. Truth and Wardcliff Coil are two very good options as they require almost no thought to their use, simply aim at the enemy and fire to be guaranteed a kill.

Iron Cast

• Return to Lord Saladin.

Once these steps have been completed you may hand in all the Iron Banner tokens rewarded from match completions and from each quest step to Lord Saladin.