Our guide for how to survive the Haunted Forest in Destiny 2 Festival of the Lost will ensure you get the most out of the newest limited mode in Bungie’s shared world shooter.
Destiny’s yearly Halloween event, Festival of the Lost, is back and is packed to the brim with things to do. Perhaps the most exciting addition is the new Haunted Forest, a dark and creepy take on Curse of Osiris’ Infinite Forest. Here are some best practices for how to survive the Haunted Forest in Destiny 2 Festival of the Lost for the biggest reward possible.
First, let’s go over the basics of the Haunted Forest. Though it takes place within a version of the Infinite Forest, players do not need the Curse of Osiris expansion to access it. The Haunted Forest is accessible by anyone with Destiny 2 via a quest marker on the Tower. Access becomes available once you complete the short Festival of the Lost questline provided by Amanda Holliday.
The Haunted Forest can be completed alone or with a fireteam of three. A freteam is definitely the way to go, especially in the final stages because your team members can revive you. Once you and your team spawn in, the challenge can be started by jumping onto the circular platform surrounded by red light. The red turns to white and grows until the simulation materializes in front of you and branch one begins.
You progress through each branch by defeating enemies until the percentage on the left side of your HUD hits 100%. From there, you are teleported to a boss arena and tasked with taking out a Nightmare. Nightmares are yellow bar mini-bosses at the end of each branch. Taking one down will spawn you back where you started to rinse and repeat until you either complete all seven branches or run out of time and respawns.
Enemies are varied and include Vex, Cabal, and Fallen. Special enemies called Daemons will appear at certain portions and glow bright red. These enemies must be defeated in order to unlock a Forest pathway and continue forward to find more enemies and grow your percentage. While growing your percentage, you may randomly encounter Invincible Nightmares.
Invincible Nightmares are yellow mini-bosses like what you face at the end of each branch. They differ from their counterparts because, as their name suggests, they are invincible. Avoid them at all costs. Jump, dodge, and run around them to kill surrounding enemies and progress further.
Nightmares appear at the end of each branch and are fairly easy to take out with a fireteam. A surefire way to take them out quickly is by using your super. As you move towards the end of each branch, charge and save your super and heavy ammo. All three team members releasing their super in tandem with using heavy weapons on a Nightmare will make very short work of it, saving you a bunch of much needed time.
Each Haunted Forest simulation has a 15 minute time on the left-hand side of the HUD. Once it hits zero, you are no longer allowed to respawn and must rely on your teammates to revive you if you are downed. This is why we highly recommend going in with a fireteam.
Running out of time as a lone Guardian while only on branch five can be really bad news. While in this no respawn mode, you can continue to progress forward until all players are downed.
Revives are absolutely crucial. If you go down, wait for a teammate to revive you. Respawning will bring you to the beginning of the current branch which can be a huge pain if you have opened a lot of pathways. This means you have to run your happy, lonely self all the way back to where your team is.
Each branch after the first comes with a modifier that is shown with a red symbol on the left of your HUD. Learn the modifier, what it does, and how it affects you. While the Haunted Forest only requires a Power level of 200, players around this level will be greatly affected by these modifiers.
If you are higher, especially in the 500 range, these modifiers won’t affect you too much and you can focus destroying enemies and moving through each branch as fast as possible.
Once all players are downed, your team will be teleported to a new area that consists of a straight runway with a chest at the end. Do not just run for the chest, be careful. The floor randomly disappears beneath you and, if you are unlucky enough to be on a disappearing portion, you will be sucked down to an area containing an Invincible Nightmare.
You can get out of this area by finding a small blue pathway along the wall that you can jump into. Follow the pathway and it will take you to the end of the route above where you can jump up and open the chest. Inside you will be rewarded with Fragmented Souls.
The amount of Fragmented Souls you receive depends on how far you get. Completion of the seventh branch earns you the biggest reward. Surviving all seven branches for the first time also completes the “Seventh Branch” triumph, granting you the Deep in the Woods emblem.
The Haunted Forest is not a particularly difficult addition, especially at higher Power levels. Going in alone can be quite the challenge but entering with a decently coordinated fireteam will ensure you rush through each branch and receive the biggest reward.
Grinding the Haunted Forest is the best way to earn those Fragmented Souls and is absolutely the quickest way to get enough to purchase the new Horror Story Auto Rifle. It is a fun new mode that brings a welcome change to Curse of Osiris’ Infinite Forest.
