While Guardians tend to have a love-hate relationship with Iron Banner, Destiny 2’s semi-competitive PvP mode, this event remains extremely popular. Why? On top of offering four Pinnacle rewards, it also features exclusive weapons and top-tier armor.
This guide covers everything you need to know about Iron Banner, including its schedule, rotation, and daily challenges.
2025 Iron Banner Schedule: When is the next Iron Banner?
Iron Banner returns to Destiny 2 on May 20, 2025:
- Iron Banner starts on Tuesday, May 20, 2025, at 10 AM PDT
- Iron Banner ends on Tuesday, May 27, 2025, at 10 AM PDT
Iron Banner will be available for one week.
Iron Banner Loot, Episode 3
What is Iron Banner
Iron Banner is a 12-player PvP event that occurs several times per Episode. It features four modes that rotate each month—Rift, Eruption, Control, and Fortress—and Pinnacle gear as rewards.
With two teams of 6 players duking it out, Iron Banner is a hectic and high-octane playlist. But the main reason players prefer the Iron Banner playlist over Zone Control is the rewards: Pinnacle gear, exclusive weapons, and unique armor. Iron Banner had a pretty awful reputation amongst Guardians, but several changes were made to its matchmaking, including the addition of a solo playlist and the removal of Power Level advantages.
How to enter the event
To enter Iron Banner in Episode: Heresy, you must open your Director, enter the Crucible playlist, and join the Iron Banner playlist.
While you previously had to complete a pesky quest that forced you to use weapon types you did not want to use (or fight your teammates for Heavy ammo), Iron Banner no longer has requirements to enter.
Iron Banner Daily Challenges (Episode 3)
Iron Banner Challenges change every season/episode, but for the most part, they are virtually the same: Complete a set number of Iron Banner matches using a specific Subclass.
These are the expected daily challenges this time around:
- Day 1: Earn 50 points in Iron Banner as either Stasis, Arc, or Void Super elements.
- Day 2: Earn 50 points in Iron Banner as either Stasis, Arc, or Void Super elements.
- Day 3: Earn 50 points in Iron Banner as either Stasis, Arc, or Void Super elements.
- Day 4: Earn 50 points in Iron Banner as either Stasis, Arc, or Void Super elements.
To find the active Daily challenge for your character, you need to:
- Open the Crucible Playlist
- Hover over the Iron Banner Playlist and Hold E
- The current challenge will be highlighted below the mode’s description
Iron Banner Challenges (Heresy), Destiny 2
What are Iron Banner challenges?
Iron Banner Challenges are specific challenges that progressively unlock to all players whenever Iron Banner is live. There are four different challenges in total, each rewarding a Pinnacle reward.
To combat the bounty fever that affects many parts of the game, Bungie removed the four iconic Iron Banner bounties and replaced them with four daily challenges. This is how the system currently works:
- One new challenge is unlocked daily
- Challenges remain available for the entire Iron Banner week
- Daily challenges are retroactive
This means you can wait until Day 4 of the week and tackle all four daily challenges simultaneously.
Iron Banner Rewards
While most Guardians will jump into Iron Banner for the Pinnacle gear, the Iron Banner-themed weapons and armor are also a perfect excuse to join in the fun. We cover all the exclusive Iron Banner weapons and Iron Banner Armor sets here.
It is worth mentioning that Episode: Heresy introduced two weapons to the Iron Banner loot pool. One reprised, the other brand-new:
 | Peacebond | Sidearm |  Primary |  Stasis | Iron Banner | |
 | Warlord's Spear | Trace Rifle |  Special |  Arc | Iron Banner |
For Episode 3, the featured armor will continue to be the new Armor set released with Episode 1 (Echoes).
Iron Banner 2024 Armor, Destiny 2
When is Iron Banner coming back?
Iron Banner will return on June 17, 2025.
This has been most informative, thank you!
Thank you so much for taking the time to put this content together. I truly appreciate your efforts more than you know… all the best! Steadier Cloud
Great post! I love the insights on the Iron Banner schedule and challenges. Can’t wait to dive in and grind for those rewards! Keep up the great work!
The Bungie people that implemented Iron Banner on the week of May 20 – 27, 2025 forgot to make changes to the Iron Banner Rank Boost challenges completions. I say this because the Iron Banner option on the crucible playlist is no longer showing the match completion status, which only happens when all sets of match completions and the required points earned for using certain subclass in those matches are filled out, and the Challenges Completed on the Iron Banner Rank Boost modifier says 2 of 4. This part is still on the previous 2 week consecutive Iron Banner playlist rotation.
The Iron Banner is fixed now, thank you.