Destiny 2 Grandmaster Nightfall this week: Rotation and Guides

Grandmaster Nightfalls are perhaps the most challenging endgame activity in Destiny 2. With an insane Power Level requirement and unforgiving modifiers, Grandmaster Nightfalls will challenge all but the top fireteams out there.

This page will provide you with everything you need to tackle them: their rotation, Champions, and detailed guides.

Guide updated as of Season of the Haunted’s release (S17).

Destiny 2 Grandmaster Nightfall Rotation: August 9, 2022

The Grandmaster Nightfall: The Ordeal on rotation this week is The Arms Dealer.

As with most things in Destiny 2, Grandmaster Nightfalls are on a weekly rotation. For the sake of clarity, the week officially resets on Tuesdays at 9 AM PDT.

Grandmaster Nightfall this week

Season of the Haunted GM calendar

Grandmaster Nightfalls are not available for the entire season. Given their onerous level requirements, they often become available around mid-season. For Season of the Haunted, GMs became available on July 5, 2022 (Week 7 out of 13 in total):

Destiny 2 GM rewards

There’s a reason why Nightfalls are such a popular activity in Destiny 2. While they can certainly be fun and challenging, most Guardians tackle GMs every week for a chance to earn Adept weapons and Masterworking materials.

Adept Nightfall weapons

There are 10 Nightfall-specific weapons in total, and with Season of the Risen (S16), only 6 of them are on a weekly rotation. These can drop from completing Nightfalls on any difficulty, however, completing Grandmaster Nightfalls rewards you with adept versions of these weapons.

Week	Art	Weapon	Type	Element	Ammo	Week #
August 9, 2022		PLUG ONE.1	Fusion Rifle	Arc	Special	Week 12

You can read all about Nightfall weapons, including adept versions, drop rates, and rankings, here.

Grandmaster Nightfall Power Level

If you’re interested in running a GM, you need to have a proper Power Level (including your Artifact’s bonus Power):

Nightfall Difficulty	Required Level	Adept drop rate
Grandmaster	1610	Common+

For the record, the Grandmaster screen does not say what the drop rates are, but players keep reporting higher drop rates at Grandmaster difficulty than Master.

GM Shields & Champions

Grandmaster Nightfalls are challenging activities, even for veteran players.

But regardless of your skills, you need to make sure you bring weapons with matching elements and armor with the necessary Champions mods:

GM Detailed Guides

The following guides come straight from friend of the channel Mac. His GM video guides are famous within the community for a reason, and we definitely recommend you check him out!

Proving Grounds

With Barrier and Unstoppable Champions, all 3 shields, and a Solar elemental singe, loadouts for this GM are simple with all 3 players wanting Arbalest, a Solar Energy Scout Rifle such as the Staccato, and either a Stormchaser or Cataclysm heavy linear fusion rifle.

For class loadouts, Hunters want to rock Moebius Quiver with Trapper’s Ambush, Vanishing Step, and Omnioculus. Warlocks want to spec into Well of Radiance with Icarus Dash, Touch of Flame, and either Phoenix Protocol or Aeon Soul. Titans want to run either Hammer of Sol with Sol Invictus, Roaring Flames, and Loreley Splendor, or Ward of Dawn with Bastion, Controlled Demolition, and Heart of Inmost Light.

Watch Mac’s step-by-step video guide here.

The Insight Terminus

With Barrier and Unstoppable champions, Void shields, and a Void elemental singe, loadouts for this strike are simple with all 3 players wanting Arbalest, a void energy scout rifle such as Aisha’s Embrace, and either a Stormchaser or Threaded Needle heavy linear fusion rifle. Despite the strike granting 25% bonus void damage, Stormchaser will still deal more damage than Threaded Needle per bullet if you land the full burst, so slot it in if you can hit your shots.

For class loadouts, Hunters want to rock Moebius Quiver with Trapper’s Ambush, Vanishing Step, and Omnioculus. Warlocks want to spec into Well of Radiance with Icarus Dash, Touch of Flame, and either Phoenix Protocol or Aeon Soul. And Titans want to run either Hammer of Sol with Sol Invictus, Roaring Flames, and Loreley Splendor, or Ward of Dawn with Bastion, Controlled Demolition, and Heart of Inmost Light.

Watch Mac’s step-by-step video guide here.

Warden of Nothing

With Overload and Unstoppable champions, all 3 shields, and an Arc elemental singe, loadouts for this strike are simple with 2 players wanting Arbalest, an arc energy scout rifle such as the Eternal Blazon, and a Stormchaser, with the 3rd guardian wanting a kinetic scout like the Night Watch, a Divinity, and a Stormchaser as well.

For class loadouts, Hunters want to rock Moebius Quiver with Trapper’s Ambush, Vanishing Step, and Omnioculus. Warlocks want to spec into Well of Radiance with Icarus Dash, Touch of Flame, and either Phoenix Protocol or Aeon Soul. And Titans want to run Ward of Dawn with Bastion, Controlled Demolition, and Heart of inmost Light.

Watch Mac’s step-by-step video guide here.

The Corrupted

With Overload and Unstoppable champions, all 3 shields, and an Arc elemental singe, loadouts for this strike are simple with 2 players wanting Arbalest, an arc energy scout rifle such as the Eternal Blazon, and a Stormchaser, with the 3rd guardian wanting a kinetic scout like the Night Watch, a Divinity, and a Stormchaser as well.

For class loadouts, Hunters want to rock Moebius Quiver with Trapper’s Ambush, Vanishing Step, and Omnioculus. Warlocks want to spec into Well of Radiance with Icarus Dash, Touch of Flame, and either Phoenix Protocol or Aeon Soul. And Titans want to run Ward of Dawn with Bastion, Controlled Demolition, and Heart of inmost Light.

Watch Mac’s step-by-step video guide here.

The Inverted Spire

With Barrier and Unstoppable champions, all 3 shields, and an Arc elemental singe, loadouts for this strike are simple with all 3 players wanting arbalest, an arc energy scout rifle such as eternal blazon, and a Stormchaser.

For class loadouts, Hunters want to rock Moebius Quiver with Trapper’s Ambush, Vanishing Step, and Omnioculus. Warlocks want to spec into Well of Radiance with Icarus Dash, Touch of Flame, and either Phoenix Protocol or Aeon Soul. And Titans want to run Thundercrash with Cuirass of the Falling Star.

Watch Mac’s step-by-step video guide here.

The Arms Dealer

With Barrier and Unstoppable champions, Void and Solar shields, and a Solar elemental singe, loadouts for this strike are simple with 2 players wanting Arbalest, a Solar Scout such as Staccato, and a Solar Rocket launcher such as Hezen’s Vengeance or Ascendancy, with the 3rd guardian wanting a Kinetic Sniper like the Succession, a Solar scout rifle like the other 2 guardians, and Gjallarhorn.

For class loadouts, Hunters either want to rock Moebius Quiver with Trapper’s ambush, Vanishing step, and Omnioculus or Blade Barrage with knock em down, on your mark, and Star-eater Scales or Aeons. Warlocks want to spec into Well of Radiance with Icarus Dash, Touch of Flame, and either Phoenix Protocol or Aeon Soul. Finally, Titans want to run Hammer of Sol with Sol Invictus, Roaring Flames, and Loreley Splendor, or Thundercrash with Cuirass of the Falling Star.

Watch Mac’s step-by-step video guide here.

Your turn

Hopefully, you now have everything you need to know how to conquer and “easily” farm Nightfalls in Destiny 2.