Destiny 2 Tomb of Elders Guide: Warden’s Judgment & Rewards

Act 2 of Episode: Revenant is here, and with it comes an activity that seems far more exciting than what we received with Act One: the Contest of Elders.

Today, we’ll cover all you need to know about this new activity: its unique difficulty/performance system, loot, and more. Let’s begin.

A Reimagined Prison of Elders

Both the Tomb and Contest of Elders have you and two other Guardians venturing through the derelict Prison of Elders to clear enemy forces and appease the Warden’s Servitor. 

Tomb of Elders, Destiny 2

Tomb & Contest of Elders Layout

The Tomb of Elders can be equated to Riven’s Lair from Season of the Wish. In this version, you’ll complete one “loop” of the activity: complete two encounters (a cryopod encounter and a standard encounter), a jumping puzzle, and a boss fight. Beyond that, the loot system isn’t anything special, and the difficulty doesn’t change much, so we’ll focus on Contest of Elders for the rest of this article.

Contest of Elders is a longer and more difficult version of the activity, akin to The Coil from Season of the Wish. You’ll complete four loops, each with rewards at the end to encourage further participation. Both the difficulty and amount of loot you earn depend on your “Warden’s Judgment” status, which we’ll explain below.

Contest of Elders, Destiny 2

The final bit to note about Contest of Elders is that you’ll have limited revive tokens throughout it, and if you hit zero, the Extinguish modifier will become enabled. Model Prisoners grant additional revive tokens, which can be found in every encounter throughout the activity.

Warden’s Judgment System

Both the rewards and difficulty of the Contest of Elders are determined by Warden’s Judgment, a system exclusive to this activity.

In each encounter, your fireteam will be assigned a secondary (timed) objective—this can be anything from defusing mines to moving quickly to getting precision kills. Successfully completing one of these objectives grants a stack of positive judgment (called Warden’s Favor, which can stack up to three), while failing one will remove a stack. If you ever go negative in judgment by failing multiple secondary objectives, you’ll receive Warden’s Punishment.

Tomb of Elders, Destiny 2

For instance, if you complete three secondary objectives successfully but fail your fourth, you will have two stacks of Warden’s Favor (the good buff). These buffs have numerous effects, explained here.

First, Warden’s Favor increases difficulty, while Warden’s Punishment decreases it. That’s to say, if your team is doing well, the activity will get harder, and vice versa. Second, Warden’s Favor grants more rewards each time you complete a boss. One stack of Favor grants one chest, two grants two chests, and three grants three chests.

Tomb of Elders, Destiny 2

If you ever get to three stacks of Favor, the difficulty of the activity will increase significantly more than previous stacks. Traps will appear in all encounter rooms, the time you have to complete secondary objectives will decrease, and elite enemies will spawn frequently.

Lastly, being in good standing with the Warden after each loop has some effects as well. If you have any amount of Favor at the end of a given loop, you’ll be able to skip the cryopod encounter at the start of the next loop. This means you’ll save time and have fewer chances of losing revives and Warden’s Favor for the next round. However, if you enter the loot room with stacks of Warden’s Punishment, the Warden will activate the Punishment Protocol.

Contest of Elders Loot & Farming Method

Loot from the Contest of Elders includes both Revenant and reissued Splicer loot, in addition to tons of Tonic ingredients you’ll be able to use at The Last City. 

Contest of Elders Loot, Destiny 2

Revenant Weapons

	Bitter/Sweet	Grenade Launcher	Heavy	Arc	Revenant Activities
	Exuviae	Hand Cannon	Primary	Stasis	Revenant Activities
	Heretic's Fervor	Rocket Launcher	Heavy	Stasis	Revenant Activities
	Insurmountable	Sidearm	Primary	Void	Revenant Activities
	Liturgy	Grenade Launcher	Special	Stasis	Revenant Activities
	Noxious Vetiver	Submachine Gun	Primary	Arc	Revenant Activities
	Red Tape	Scout Rifle	Primary	Stasis	Revenant Activities
	Scavenger's Fate	Shotgun	Special	Void	Revenant Activities
	Sovereignity	Sniper Rifle	Special	Void	Revenant Activities
	Vantage Point	Pulse Rifle	Primary	Arc	Revenant Activities

Splicer Weapons

	Chroma Rush	Auto Rifle	Primary	Kinetic	Splicer Engrams
	Gridskipper	Pulse Rifle	Primary	Void	Splicer Engrams
	Ignition Code	Grenade Launcher	Special	Kinetic	Splicer Engrams
	Sojourner's Tale	Shotgun	Special	Solar	Splicer Engrams

The only exclusive drop from Contest of Elders thus far is Tomb Flake, an ingredient for Enriching Tonics.

Tomb of Elders Rewards, Destiny 2

In terms of farming Contest of Elders, we’d highly recommend doing full runs of the activity. While completing single loops and resetting the activity after each one can significantly reduce the difficulty, later loops offer greater rewards (regardless of your Warden’s Judgment standing), and skilled teams can easily complete a full run in less than 30 minutes.