Candescent armor is set to be one of Destiny 2's best pieces of event loot, especially now that Bungie has ditched the grindier Solstice of Heroes from previous years in favour of a more streamlined version of the event. This time around you can use currencies gained from activities to upgrade your Solstice armor stats, effectively letting you tailor part of your stat spread.
If you want to take advantage of the fact that resilience is amazing now, you could build your armour towards that, or perhaps you just want more discipline for those extra grenades. Once you upgrade your armor to the max level, the new event system guarantees you +20 in whatever stat you choose, which is extremely good.
But even Destiny 2's simplest systems can take a bit of puzzling out. In this Solstice armor guide, I'll explain how the event works, what each of the currencies are, and how you can use them to upgrade the stats for your shiny new Candescent armor. If you're working towards that coveted Reaper season title, you might also want to hunt down those Calus Bobbleheads and automatons.
Destiny 2 Silver Leaves: How to get them
Now, the most important currency in the Solstice event is Silver Leaves. You can get these by doing pretty much any activity while wearing any of your Candescent armor, from playlist strikes to the crucible, but it seems like the most time-efficient method of farming them is by taking part in public events. Once you have Silver Leaves, you can turn them to Silver Ash in the Bonfire Bash activity accessed through the tower.
Silver Leaves convert to Silver Ash at a rate of 1:5 and the max you can convert per activity is twenty. Essentially, every ignitor your fireteam throws at the bonfire during the activity counts as one Silver Leaf converted into five Silver Ash. When you reach twenty ignitors you'll have to fight the final boss. Silver Ash is used to reroll your Candescent armor each time you upgrade it with Kindling.
Destiny 2 Candescent armor: How to upgrade and reroll
The actual upgrade process is pretty straightforward and can all be done on a Candescent armor piece's mod screen. You'll see the armor piece has two extra slots: the first uses Kindling to upgrade your armor's overall reroll potential and restores its visual glow, while the second performs the actual stat rerolls with Silver Ash. You can reroll once per upgrade, with the final slotting in a Spark that guarantees you +20 in your chosen stat.
Here's a little summary of the whole process:
- Do activities wearing Candescent armor to earn Silver Leaves.
- Play Bonfire Bash through the tower to convert Silver Leaves to Silver Ash at a rate of 1:5. The max is 20 Silver Leaves converted per time, i.e 100 Silver Ash.
- Complete seasonal event challenges through the event card in the quest menu to earn Kindling.
- Use six Kindling to upgrade a Candescent armor piece's level three times using its mod screen. Each time you upgrade, use Silver Ash to reroll an armor piece's stats. You'll need 120 Silver Ash overall for the three rerolls, with the last giving you a guaranteed +20 in a chosen stat on that reroll. This will also restore the armor's glow.
It's important to note that once you've fully upgraded a Candescent armor piece with Kindling, it upgrades all corresponding armor pieces. For example, I fully upgraded my Candescent Strides, and now my other Candescent Strides don't need Kindling, just Silver Ash rerolls and spark-slotting.
This means that you don't have to worry about being precious with Kindling or even choosing a Candescent armor piece that has especially good stats to begin with. As you complete Bonfire Bash, you'll get more Candescent armor and will most likely find a piece worth investing in by the time you've upgraded the others with Kindling and opened up rerolls. Sadly, you can only reroll an armor piece's stats three times, once for each upgrade.
When you finally slot a Spark, it's also worth remembering that you can equip a Ghost Armorer mod that guarantees ten in a certain stat, as this will strengthen your reroll even further.
