Destiny 2 Heist Battleground Mars Grandmaster Guide (S22)

Grandmaster Nightfalls are arguably the hardest activities in the PvE world of Destiny 2. While they may not be as mechanically complex as raids or dungeons, their insane modifiers and power level requirements create a combat experience that’s challenging for even the most skilled of Freteams.

Today, we’re covering everything there is to know about the Heist Battleground: Mars GM. By the end, you’ll know the best loadouts and subclasses to run, preferred strategies, and more.

Updated as of Season of the Witch (S22).

Heist Battleground Mars GM: Loadouts & Subclasses

Because the main difficulty of GMs is their combat challenge, running the right loadout and subclass is vital. Let’s take a look at what’s best for each class, as well as what you’ll want weapon-wise.

Heist Battleground Mars jumping section, Destiny 2

Subclasses and Exotics

Of the three classes, Warlocks are probably the easiest here. We recommend running a Vesper of Radius Stormcaller build because of how close most enemies tend to get in this activity. However, if your team is having trouble surviving (or if you have a second Warlock on your team), Well of Radiance with either Sunbracers or even Phoenix Protocol isn’t a bad idea.

Hunters should look to either a Void Invisibility build with Omnioculus or a Strand build with Aeon Swift. Both have their strengths, but it once again depends on what your team needs. Lastly, Titans should equip Strand and Banner of War; the healing and crowd control from this is unparalleled and is extremely helpful in this GM.

Armor	Class	Type	Requirements	Source	Released	Requires	Exotic Perk
Vesper of Radius	Warlock	Chest	Free-to-Play	Exotic Engrams	Season 2	Free-to-Play	Exotic Perk: "Rifts periodically release Arc shockwaves. Final blows with these shockwaves create an Arc explosion. While an Arc subclass is equipped, the shockwaves and subsequent explosions blind nearby targets. Rift energy recharges faster when you are surrounded by targets."
Aeon Swift	Hunter	Arms	Free-to-Play	Exotic Engrams	Season 2	Free-to-Play	Exotic Perk: "Aeon Exotics have an additional mod socket which is used for Aeon Cult mods."
Omnioculus	Hunter	Chest	Beyond Light	Lost Sectors	Season 13	Beyond Light	Exotic Perk: "You gain a second Smoke Bomb charge and have damage resistance while invisible. When you make an ally invisible, they gain damage resistance while invisible and you gain melee energy."

Loadout

Barrier and Unstoppable Champions are featured in this GM, so we recommend Wish-Ender and your Unstoppable weapon of choice. Keep in mind that Suspend and Blind also stagger Unstoppable Champions, so use your subclass abilities to your advantage!

Other than Wish-Ender and an Unstoppable-capable weapon, we recommend running machine guns (Song of Ir Yut, Commemoration, and Retrofit Escapade are all great). You can also run a linear fusion rifle like Cataclysmic if you’re struggling with Champion damage.

Primary and special weapons are mostly up to personal preference here, but the typical picks of SMGs, hand cannons, Conditional Finality, and Arbalest are all great.

Art	Weapon	Type	Archetype	Rarity	Ammo?	Element?	Requirements	In loot pool?	Ammo	Element	Tier	Excels	Source	Craftable?	Requires	Released	Slot	Can be Crafted?	Best of?	Top Perk?
	Wish-Ender	Combat Bow	Exotic	Exotic	Primary	Kinetic	Forsaken Pack	Yes	Primary	Kinetic	Best ❘ S	PvE	Exotic Quest	No	Forsaken Pack	Season 4	Kinetic	No	Top-tier
	Arbalest	Linear Fusion Rifle	Exotic	Exotic	Special	Kinetic	Lightfall	Yes	Special	Kinetic	Best ❘ S	PvE	Exotic Quest	No	Lightfall	Season 6	Kinetic	No	Top-tier
	Conditional Finality	Shotgun	Exotic	Exotic	Special	Stasis	Lightfall	Yes	Special	Stasis	Best ❘ S	PvE + PvP	Root of Nightmares Raid	No	Lightfall	Season 20	Kinetic	No	Top-tier
	Cataclysmic	Linear Fusion Rifle	Precision	Legendary	Heavy	Solar	The Witch Queen	Yes	Heavy	Solar	Best ❘ S	PvE	Vow of the Disciple Raid	Yes	Witch Queen	Season 16	Heavy	Craftable	Top-tier	Bait and Switch
	Stormchaser	Linear Fusion Rifle	Aggressive	Legendary	Heavy	Arc	Deluxe Edition	Yes	Heavy	Arc	Average ❘ B	PvE	Duality Dungeon	No	Deluxe Edition	Season 17	Heavy	No
	Song of Ir Yût	Machine Gun	Adaptive	Legendary	Heavy	Arc	Free-to-Play	Yes	Heavy	Arc	Strong ❘ A	PvE	Crota's End Raid	Yes	Free-to-Play	Season 22	Heavy	Craftable	Top-tier	Voltshot,Sword Logic,Reconstruction,Bait and Switch

GM Power Level Requirements

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

For the record, Power Level requirements were drastically reduced this season to allow more players to experience Grandmaster Nightfalls.

Mars Battleground GM rotation

Mars Battleground GM Guide

Heist Battleground Mars opening, Destiny 2

Recapturing the Seraph Towers and Defending Ghost

The opening area of this GM can easily become overwhelming if you don’t know how to handle it. First, know that shooting the Hive “gunk” off of tower A will spawn a Deathtongue Chorister, which you should focus on immediately. If it reaches the totem, you won’t be able to use your abilities, and a Shrieker will spawn, making the whole area much harder.

As for capturing the towers themselves, know that you do not need to stand on them to progress their capture percentage; you just need to keep enemies off of them. Because of this, you and your fireteam should set up on high ground near each tower, but not directly on them.

Heist Battleground Mars ghost protection, Destiny 2

The inner room where you defend Ghost is a fair bit easier. Position yourself slightly up and to the left for the first half of the encounter, then move to the right-side catwalk (right above the entrance you came in from) for the final bit. Prioritize surviving over preventing disruptors from stopping Ghost, and remember to kill all Champions before Ghost gets to 100% (letting them despawn will reduce rewards at the end).

Everything from here to the boss room is almost identical to the base strike. Just remember that you get free ammo and a Super recharge right before the boss, so use them to your advantage in this traversal section.

Heist Battleground Mars vault, Destiny 2

Boss Room

During the entirety of the boss encounter, have one person keep the boss’s focus by repeatedly jumping over him. Meanwhile, have the other two players ad clear, paying special attention to wizards.

During the boss’s immunity phase, he’ll move extremely slowly and is basically not a threat whatsoever. Instead of dealing with him, you’ll need to deal with a Barrier Knight and an Unstoppable Ogre. We recommend first killing the surrounding ads that spawn during this phase and then targeting these champions.

Once you destroy Kelgorath’s immunity shield, simply repeat the tips we gave for the first phase until the boss dies.

Heist Battleground Mars Boss room, Destiny 2

Before you go

If you’re interested in tackling the Conqueror title, and clearing all GMs this season, we have a guide for next week’s The Lightblade GM here.