Destiny Reset day: High-reward activities are rebooted

It's that wonderful time when Bungie's rotating selection of high-reward activities are rebooted (along with any raid progress made in the previous week), giving everyone a fresh chance at scoring some of the game's sweetest and rarest loot.

Are you new to Destiny? Don't know what any of this means? Good news. There's a Destiny wiki that's packed with information. Click for details on what Strikes are, and how Nightfall differs from Weekly Heroic challenges.

The House of Wolves add-on also adds a new weekly wrinkle, in the form of Prison of Elders. The multi-round gauntlets are built for endgame play, with the specific enemy types and modifiers changing from week to week.

Here's a rundown of what's happening this week:

Nightfall (The Summoning Pits)

• Epic - This is a standard Nightfall modifier. It just means there are more enemies to fight, and a greater number of Majors (the yellow health bar dudes) on the field.
• Nightfall - Another standard Nightfall modifier. This one boots the entire Fireteam back to orbit if everyone is downed inside one of the revive-only respawn Darkness Zones.
• Void Burn - All Void damage is increased.
• Solar Burn - All Solar damage is increased.
• Juggler - Ammo only drops for weapons that aren't in active use.

It's funny now to think back on a time when The Summoning Pits boss Phogoth was a steep challenge. These days, he's just a big Ogre that Destiny's Guardians get to gun down every few weeks. There's no real trick to this week's Nightfall. The Solar/Void Burn double-whammy is solid, though the added damage from Acolytes and Phogoth's eye beam should be monitored. At least there's no Arc Burn; Knights and Wizards are much less worrisome than they normally would be.

Weekly Heroic (The Will of Crota)

• Heroic - Standard Weekly Heroic modifier. More enemies show up than you would see on a standard Strike, and they're more aggressive.
• Juggler - Ammo only drops for weapons that aren't in active use.

This one's for The Dark Below owners only. The Will of Crota is one of Destiny's longer Strikes, and Juggler can make it a pain to manage ammo if you're not careful. But Weekly Heroics are rarely a great challenge, and this week's offering is no different. Even without an elemental burn to lean on, just stick to the normal strategy of hanging back and letting the enemy come to you, and you should be fine.

Prison of Elders

If you've got House of Wolves then you can also participate in the weekly Prison of Elders activities. These endgame challenges send players through a multi-round gauntlet in which each round has its own enemy type and Nightfall/Weekly-style modifier(s).

The lineup of enemies, modifiers and, in some cases, bosses for the level 32, 34 and 35 activities changes every week. You can find some general tips for surviving Prison of Elders right here. Read on for a breakdown of enemies and modifiers for each round this week. Destiny power leveling make you upgrade quickly.

Level 32: Urrox's Grudge

• Round 1 (Hive): Trickle (abilities take longer to recharge)
• Round 2 (Cabal): Small Arms (primary weapon damage is increased)
• Round 3 (Cabal): Exposure (shields are significantly increased but recharge very slowly)
• Round 4 (Hive): Arc Burn (all Arc damage is increased)
• Round 5 (Urrox boss): Solar Burn (all Solar damage is increased)

Fighting Urrox amounts to a deadly game of "Hot Lava." Every once in awhile throughout the fight, Urrox goes into rage mode, which makes anything that counts as "ground" (including the tops of crates and rocks) burn, causing damage. The trick is to keep hopping for the 10 seconds Urrox's rage is active. Defender Titans should save their bubble shield (equipped with Blessing of Light) for these rage moments, as the Blessing upgrade gives you a bonus overshield each time you hop out of then back into the bubble. In the spectrum of Prison of Elders boss fights, Urrox is one of the easier ones. Especially with Solar Burn active for this week's fight. Vision of Confluence/Black Hammer/Gjallarhorn is the ideal loadout.

Level 34: The Forever Eater

• Round 1 (Vex): Catapult (grenade recharge rate increased)
• Round 2 (Vex): Void Burn (All Void damage is increased)
• Round 3 (Fallen): Brawler (Guardian melee damage is increased)
• Round 4 (Vex): Small Arms (Primary weapon damage is increased)
• Round 5 (Qodron boss): Trickle (Recharge rate of all abilities is reduced)

Qodron is a giant Vex that looks a lot like the Vault of Glass raid boss, Atheon. There's no trick to dealing damage; just shoot (aim for the weak point in his midsection). The thing to watch for is flavor text that reads "Qodron is searching for targets." That means he's about to encase all three players in a bubble that immobilizes them until they shoot their way out.

Unfortunately, the bubbles are pretty hardy; it takes a powerful, fast-firing shotgun (or some Ice Breaker shots) to bring them down. There's a trick, however. Watch for a special Goblin with a yellow health bar, called "Qodron's Eye." The player that takes it out is dubbed "Jailbreaker," which means their weapons are amped up against the bubbles. The idea being that one player breaks out quickly and then proceeds to free the other two.

Level 35: Skolas' Revenge (all modifier descriptions listed here)

• Round 1 (Hive): Exposure and Brawler
• Round 2 (Vex): Grounded and Airborne
• Round 3 (Cabal): Catapult and Arc Burn
• Round 4 (Fallen): Specialist and Juggler
• Round 5 (Fallen): Trickle and Small Arms
• Round 6 (Skolas boss): Brawler and Juggler

Skolas is a Fallen boss and the constant big bad for all level 35 Prison of Elders runs. He's a tricky one. You can't even damage him until you take out one of his two special Servitor defenders (they keep respawning), and even then you have only a small window (20 seconds) in which to dish out damage. That's the first half of the fight; once Skolas is at half health, the Servitor issue goes away.

They're replaced by Skolas' "Devouring Essence" attack, which puts one randomly chosen player on a 30-second countdown to death.The countdown can be reset by passing Devouring Essence to another player, but there's a 35-second delay before the player that gives it up can grab it again. This means that all three fireteam members need to participate in a deadly game of hot potato.

The second half of the fight also features two rounds of mines that need to be dismantled. It's tricky to juggle dismantling alongside the Devouring Essence hand-offs; frequent, clear communication is vital. Designate someone (preferably a Bladedancer Hunter with invisibility) to grab the more distant mines. You should pretty much ignore Skolas until you can get those taken care of.

Brawler and Juggler are a good pair of modifiers for this week's Skolas showdown. The amped up melee damage gives you a good "oh shit" button to lean on when melee Fallen get too close. And Juggler is a non-issue for most players in an encounter like this. You're facing so many trash mobs that it's easy to swap back and forth between primary and secondary as needed. Save your heavy ammo for damaging the big guy, and use purple synths to replenish that ammo when you're not seeing enough drop.