Destiny 2 set to add Grandmaster difficulty in Nightfalls later this month

The newest difficulty setting for the endgame activity Nightfall: The Ordeal, titled Grandmaster, is set to hit Destiny 2 within the next few weeks and according to the latest This Week at Bungie it will be a serious test on the skills of your Fireteam.

Bungie stated that when designing the difficulty of Grandmaster they had certain criteria that they wanted to be met in order to make it an experience that was the perfect blend of punishing, fair and rewarding. Here are the criteria that they created:

• Grandmaster should build on Master difficulty, but be significantly more challenging. 
• Once you reach a certain bar, the challenge should be found completely in perfecting your builds, communication, and execution. 
• The primary rewards should be doled out on initial completion. 
• Completion should be the primary metric for success, rather than score or time or another in-activity metric like ‘killing all Champions’ 
• Grandmaster should stress the top end of build crafting. 
• Grandmaster should be watchable. 

This all seems fairly straightforward but the one concern is the lack of any sort of criteria revolving around how worthwhile the rewards should be.

Grandmaster difficulty is set to be a truly challenging experience that only the best of the best will be able to complete so anything short of multiple guaranteed, high stat roll Exotics and endgame upgrade materials as rewards will be met with some serious community backlash.

Towards the end of this section of the TWAB Bungie does state that “as a reward, you’ll have increased chances of being awarded Exotic armor and Masterworking materials” but only increased chances at these rewards doesn't seem worth the stress of completing this difficulty.

For a Fireteam to even attempt Grandmaster difficulty, all members must be at least 1025 Power. This is already 15 Power above the hard cap of 1010 so players will need to rely on leveling up their Artifact through XP to gain these extra Power levels. 

Grandmaster difficulty will be set at 1050 Power to make it extra punishing on top of the already difficult to manage modifiers like Match Game and Extra Shields.

Speaking of modifiers, some extra hardcore ones are being introduced to the Grandmaster setting.

The ‘Extinguish’ modifier, which sends the Fireteam back to Orbit if once everyone dies, will be added to the new setting to force Fireteams into a flawless execution of the Nightfall, lest they be sent kicking and screaming back to the Destination selection screen.

‘Limited Revives’ is also being added which removes infinite ally revives from the Fireteam and instead gives a pool of shared revives that can be replenished one by one whenever a Champion is killed.

A new Seal and Title will also be introduced to Destiny 2 once Grandmaster goes live known as ‘Conqueror’.

To obtain this Seal the player must complete each of the Grandmaster Ordeal strikes at least once within a particular Season but don't fret as similar to the Trials of Osiris ‘Flawless’ Title, ‘Conqueror’ will be available each Season going forward.

This Title could potentially be one of the hardest Titles to obtain as it will require some serious dedication in not only completing each Grandmaster Ordeal but also getting to the level requirements in the first place.

Grandmaster Ordeal goes live upon the Weekly Reset on Tuesday April 21.