Season of the Seraph is now live in Destiny 2, and with it, Bungie brought some major changes to the Crucible in the hopes of revitalizing the game’s PvP experience. A key component of this is a new competitive playlist, one focused on a ranked ladder and true skill-based matchmaking instead of the more casual system that the old Glory playlist offered.
This new three-vs-three experience includes three game modes instead of one: Survival, Showdown, and Rift. Bungie’s hope is that the variety of modes will require players to use diverse skillsets to achieve victory, thus making those who reach the highest echelons of the ranking system Guardians who have displayed incredible talent in multiple disciplines.
The competitive playlist’s push away from the prior focus on constant grinding and ascension, now instead toward continuous play within a single division, means that the rank you find yourself in will be more indicative of your actual skill.
Knowing what those ranks are and the possibilities of what you can achieve is a great starting point with so many months of the season still remaining, especially because higher ranks can net you some nice bonuses in the Crucible to make your seasonal grind easier.
All competitive division ranks in Destiny 2
In typical Bungie fashion, there are seven divisions that players can work through in Destiny 2’s competitive playlist. All players start out unranked and will need to complete seven placement matches to earn their first true rank and begin climbing the ladder. The seven divisions that they can be placed into are as follows:
- Copper
- Bronze
- Silver
- Gold
- Platinum
- Adept
- Ascendant
Each of these competitive divisions also features three subdivisions. For example, this means that a player in Gold rank can be either Gold I, Gold II, or Gold III. For the competitive playlist’s first run in Season of the Seraph, players can only achieve a maximum rank of Gold III from their placement games, no matter how well they go.
What rewards can you earn in Destiny 2 competitive?
In Season of the Seraph, there are two key rewards that can be earned by playing matches in the competitive playlist.
The first comes in the form of a Crucible reputation boost. Your current division will give you a multiplier on all Crucible reputation earned in that season of Destiny 2. For players who already engage in a lot of Crucible activity, this is a great way to make each match completion more meaningful and earn vendor levels with Lord Shaxx far quicker.
The Crucible reputation boost has a different multiplier based on rank, with higher divisions granting larger multipliers to the more gifted PvP players. Those multipliers are as follows:
- Copper and Bronze: 1.0x
- Silver: 1.1x
- Gold: 1.2x
- Platinum: 1.3x
- Adept: 1.4x
- Ascendant: 1.5x
The second reward that will draw in significantly more players is the return of the Rose hand cannon. This iconic weapon has a new set of impressive rolls to farm for, including random grips in the place of an Origin Trait, and is also entirely exclusive to the competitive playlist.
Players will earn their first drop of Rose after completing their seven placement matches and finishing the introductory quest given out by Shaxx. After that, additional rolls of Rose are acquired through weekly challenges set in the competitive playlist. These challenges are character-based, meaning that up to three random rolls of Rose can be acquired every week for the Guardians most determined to hunt down a god roll.
These are the only rewards currently available for Destiny 2’s competitive playlist, but Bungie has said it plans to bring new cosmetic rewards to Competitive Division in seasons post-Lightfall expansion.
How to improve your Destiny 2 competitive rank
In Destiny 2’s competitive playlist, every player has a Division Rating. According to Bungie, this rating is influenced by four key factors:
- The outcome of a match.
- How your skill compares to the division that you’re currently in.
- How well you individually perform on a match-to-match basis.
- How your skill compares to other players in the match.
Players will move up between subdivisions with every bit of progress they make, but making the jump from Gold to Platinum or Platinum to Adept isn’t as easy as just crossing a points threshold. To move up into the next division, you will need to complete a promotion series. A promotion series is three matches long, and you have to win two of those three games to rank up into a new division.
If your division is Gold or higher, you will also be subject to rank decay in a similar fashion to other titles. Decay occurs on a weekly basis, and players can earn Protection Points that will prevent that decay from decreasing their rank. Up to 12 Protection Points can be stocked up at any given time, but only three Protection Points are required to prevent rank decay from occurring upon the weekly reset.
