Take solace in an easy Nightfall from Destiny

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. If you want to upgrade to level 35 faster, you can select Destiny power leveling.

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 Elder. 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 (Winter's Run)

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.

• Arc Burn - All Arc damage is increased.
• Solar Burn - All Solar damage is increased.
• Small Arms - Primary weapons do increased damage.

Winter's Run is one of Destiny's shorter Strikes, with very little ground to cover between the spawn point and the first Darkness Zone, and then a similarly short distance separating that first Darkness Zone from the boss encounter. This particular Nightfall is especially appealing because of the great modifier synergy. Elemental "burns" are always a welcome sight, but the idea of pairing Arc/Solar Burn with Small Arms is particularly tantalizing.

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.
• Brawler- Guardian melee damage is increased by 300%.

For the second week in a row, you'll need to have one of Destiny's optional add-ons to participate in the Weekly Heroic Strike. This time it's The Dark Below Strike, The Will of Crota. This one's a bit of a grind, both in terms of length and challenge level. Brawler promises to be handy during the final phases of the mission when Hive melee knights start rushing in. Even better, the Brawler modifier doesn't give your enemies a boost, and that's always welcome.

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. Destiny power leveling can make upgrade more easy. 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.

Level 32: The Forever Eater

• Round 1 (Vex): Catapult (grenade recharge rate increased)
• Round 2 (Vex): Void Burn (all Void damage increased)
• Round 3 (Fallen): Brawler (Guardian melee damage increased)
• Round 4 (Vex): Small Arms (all primary weapon damage increased)
• Round 5 (Qodron boss): Trickle (ability recharge rates reduced)

Qodron is a Vex boss with a special trick: he likes to trap Guardians in a very powerful bubble. To take him out, you've got to find a special Goblin enemy, called "Qodron's Eye." When text pops up on the screen that says "Qodron is searching for targets," you've got to take out that special Goblin, who should be fighting alongside Qodron. The player that lands the killing blow is temporarily empowered with the ability to break the bubble prisons.

Level 34: Machine Wrath

• Round 1 (Cabal): Specialist (special weapon damage increased)
• Round 2 (Fallen): Lightswitch (enemy melee damage increased)
• Round 3 (Fallen): Airborne (players deal more damage when in the air)
• Round 4 (Fallen): Exposure (shields are increased significantly but don't recharge)
• Round 5 (Kaliks Reborn boss): Grounded (players take more damage when airborne)

Kaliks Reborn is a pretty straightforward boss fight, at least with regards to special mechanics that need to be dealt with. Every so often during the fight, a gang of Dregs spawn and rush the fireteam. They all glow with a white sheen, and you need to kill them quickly. Take too long and they despawn, at which point Kaliks "gorges on ether" (text that appears in the lower left corner of the screen), recharging all of its health.

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 Angry
• Round 4 (Fallen): Specialist and Juggler
• Round 5 (Fallen): Trickle and Small Arms
• Round 6 (Skolas boss): Void Burn

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.