Week 5 of Destiny 2’s Season of the Seraph has begun, and the Iron Banner is back with a brand new game mode: Fortress. The new mode is very similar to Control but comes with a few modifiers to keep things interesting.
The goal of Fortress is very simple: capture zones and win. These zones are a team’s only way of earning points as kills don’t even award points and are only useful for deterring the other team from capturing zones. So, how does it work?
Whereas basic Control awards a team a certain number of points per kill for each zone held, Iron Banner: Fortress awards 2 points at regular 15-second intervals for each zone held. With three capturable zones available, this means a team can potentially earn a total of 6 points every 15 seconds.
Capturing zones works differently in Fortress as well. In order to capture a zone held by another team, players must first “neutralize” a zone before it can be controlled. This involves “capturing” a zone once to neutralize it and then capturing it again to control it.
Perhaps the most significant twist in Fortress is its drop pods. Twice per match when a certain number of points have been earned by zones, Caiatl will send a drop pod to the center of the map. This drop pod spawns three Scorpius turrets (a Scorpius, a more powerful Honored Scorpius, and an even more powerful Esteemed Scorpius) and a high-value capturable zone. Once the Scorpius turrets are defeated and the high-value zone is captured, it begins awarding the controlling team 4 points at 7-second intervals until the zone disappears after 42 seconds. Upon the high-value zone’s exit, the three normal zones respawn and are reset.
Along with the new game mode, this season’s Iron Banner is offering two new Arc weapons: the Dark Decider Auto Rifle and the Gunnora’s Axe Shotgun. Anyone currently running Arc 3.0 will undoubtedly benefit from these weapons, myself included, so I’m anxious to get my hands on them.
Also available in the loot pool is a new Iron Banner armor set. While this armor set is new to Destiny 2, players will recognize it as being the Iron Banner armor from The Taken King in Destiny.
Iron Banner is only available this week, so players are encouraged to make the most of their time in the game by ranking up with Lord Saladin in the Tower. Be sure to equip any Iron Banner gear and emblems you may have before heading into a match though as this will apply a multiplier to any reputation points you gain from completing matches.
Destiny 2 is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.
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