Destiny 2: Forsaken’s new raid experience, which is called The Last Wish, isn’t set to open its doors until later this week on September 14. However, when The Last Wish does finally become available, it will include a handy new quality-of-life feature which will help in drastically cutting down on the amount of downtime raiding teams need to wait through if they wipe.
In the past, when an entire Destiny 2 raiding team was killed during a raid encounter, often referred to as “wiping” in most MMO-style games, it would be a noticeable setback. This is because valuable resources that were expended during the fight, resources such as super moves and heavy ammo, wouldn’t automatically replenish if the team wiped and had to respawn at an earlier checkpoint. As far back as the original Destiny, raiding teams have had to rely on “ammo runs” in which they trigger an encounter, keep killing enemies until they’ve regained their super energy and ammo, and then intentionally wipe again so they can ensure they’re topped off for the next attempt.
Fortunately, such tactics won’t be required in The Last Wish. As Polygon recently reported, and as some players may have already discovered for themselves, the local planetary vendor for the Forsaken expansion’s endgame Dreaming City region (the region where The Last Wish will be located) offers an interesting new consumable item called a Raid Banner.
When a member of a raid team uses a Raid Banner, they plant a physical banner down on the ground which they and their fellow raiders can interact with. Interacting with the Raid Banner not only refills a player’s super energy (much in the same way as when they interact with the rally banner for an upcoming public event), it also tops off their heavy ammo count, ensuring they’ll be completely prepared for the next major encounter. Since they’re consumable, Raid Banners can only be planted once before they’re gone for good, but the cost of buying a single Raid Banner is so low (5,000 glimmer or three Legendary Shards) that it should be very easy for players to stockpile them before setting out for The Last Wish.
Meanwhile, if you’re struggling to efficiently up your Power Level in Destiny 2’s Forsaken expansion, this handy Reddit tip might just help.