Nightmare Containment Guide – How To Complete The Seasonal Activity, Opulent Keys and Reward Chests in Destiny 2

Nightmare Containment is the new seasonal activity in Season of the Haunted, and taking part in this activity is going to be the best way to get hold of the returning Opulent loot including the fan-favourites Austringer and Beloved. Also, it’s a good place to get the new seasonal loot including the new Trace Rifle, Shotgun and Scout Rifle. Today I’m going to run through a guide for the activity, plus look at how to get Opulent Keys and also find the secret loot chests after the event.

Calus’ Leviathan Ship has made a return this season, and this is the destination for the new Nightmare Containment activity. We have to use a new item to capture Nightmares, working with Eris Morn while she tries to figure out exactly what Calus is up to this season. This event is multi-faceted, and at first, it can be confusing, so today I am going to break down all the steps, plus have a look at the rewards too.

Nightmare Containment is a Public Event, similar to other public events you’ll find on the planets and the moons. This takes place on the Derelict Leviathan Ship and when you visit this new space it’s more than likely you’ll find other Guardians taking part in this activity. As with other seasonal events, it introduces new currencies, plus mechanics that you’ll have to piece together. Give it a few runs, and everything will slot into place. This is a great activity for earning seasonal loot including returning Opulent weapons, plus the new seasonal weapons and also armour too.

Where is Nightmare Containment

First of all, let’s have a look at accessing the activity. The Derelict Leviathan can be found by selecting the Moon on the Director, and then you’ll find the place you want to go in the bottom left-hand corner of the screen. When you select the Leviathan node, you’ll see that you have some options. You can launch into the Castellum or you can join Containment. If you want to explore the Leviathan then select Castellum, you’ll then be able to freely roam around the environment to search for secrets. If you are focused on Containment, then select that. Even though you have these two options, the game won’t then stop you from taking part in the activity or exploring.

Vestiges of Dread

Vestiges of Dread is the new currency you’ll want to pay attention to for this season. Having a good cache of Vestiges of Dread allows you to get seasonal rewards from the end of the activity, and ideally, you want to be heading into the activity with a good amount. This can be found by completing public events on the Derelict Leviathan, finding the planetary materials, completing playlist activities, and completing the Containment Public Event, plus you’ll get it for simply killing enemies through the system. Pretty much anything is going to reward you with this currency.

It’ll cost you 500 Vestiges of Dread to access the rewards from the Nightmare Harvester at the end of the activity, once you have defeated the boss after Tier 3 in Nightmare Containment. It’s a good idea to have at least 500 before you head into the activity, then it’ll be more rewarding for you.

How to start Nightmare Containment

Nightmare Containment is on the Derelict Leviathan, and this week it’s located in the Castellum. However, if you have a look around other parts of the Leviathan Ship, then you’ll see the hazy red location where Containment can be started. This suggests that Containment will move around the Leviathan in future weeks. What you are looking for is a glowing red Scepter, and this kicks off the event. Plant the item in the ground, and things will get going. The objective of the event is to draw out the Nightmares onboard the ship and bind them to the Nightmare Harvester, flushing them out of the Leviathan, therefore stopping Calus’ plan.

The activity is split into three tiers; Tier I, Tier II and Tier III. You’ll be able to see which tier of the activity you are in with an indicator on the screen when you have started the activity or joined the activity in progress. The tiers increase in difficulty as you progress, and when you get to Tier III you’ll be fighting a big boss.

Tier I and Tier II

When you start the event the objective is to collect Shards of Dread. All you have to do for this is to kill enemies and you’ll collect this, and will be powering up the Nightmare Harvester at the same time. You’ll get approximately one shard per enemy killed, but you’ll see progress on the left-hand side of the screen, as the circle fills up.

Throughout this phase, you’ll have harder Nightmare enemies try and kill you, they are called Dread Bearers. They have yellow health bars, plus are often surrounded by other Nightmares. This is going to be tough to take down, so try and use heavy or special weapons to take them down and look out for the Essence of Nightmare glowing red balls on the ground. These are going to give you a nice damage buff. Also, look out for Patrols that have you killing enemies, as you’ll be able to double up while you are doing the event.

Once you have killed the Dread Bearers, they will drop an orb called a Core of Dread. Pick up that orb and run back to the Nightmare Harvester and dunk that orb. This will cause a Reaper Scythe to spawn, and you’ll want to pick this up and use it to cause more damage to your enemies. You can attack enemies with light attacks and heavy attacks cause flames to cross the ground from a distance, or you can slam directly into enemies. Either way, this is a powerful weapon and will help you take down the enemies faster.

Once you have collected enough Shards of Dread, you’ll then have to kill four Eregore Atavists. These are Psions which spawn inside bubble shields. These Psions can be hidden so you have to take out the Sniper Psions first to reveal them.

When you have completed a couple of waves of this, then a tough yellow bar enemy will spawn. You’ll be able to damage this enemy for a little while, then it will have shields. Look out for the diamond-shaped Resonance Splinters hovering in the air, shoot them to drop the shield and complete the phase of the activity. Once you have killed the mini-boss then you’ll see an icon on the screen for the location to move to for the next phase.

Tier III

Once you have completed the first two phases, then it’s to the final phase, which is a boss battle. This week we’re seeing a former Baron in the shape of The Machinist. This battle is split into 3 phases where you’ll want to do as much damage as possible, then the boss will have some shields, and then your attention turns to clearing the ads, plus the Resonant Splinters.

The boss’s health bar is split into thirds. Once you get it down a third, his shields will come up and you’ll find yourself fighting two Elite Abominations. Take those out as quickly as you can as this will open up the boss against damage. Continue to bring down the boss’s health until you have done two-thirds worth of damage, and then it will get shields again. Dread Bearers will appear this time, kill them and dunk the orbs into the Nightmare Harvester to get the Scythes, this will help with clearing the ads. Watch out for the diamond-shaped Resonant Splinters in the air, clear these and then resume damage on the boss.

Before too long, you’ll have taken out the boss and now it’s time to collect your loot. A chest will spawn near the Nightmare Harvester, and loot will pop out. If you have enough Vestiges of Dread, then you’ll be able to interact with the Harvester to trade this for seasonal loot. You may also get an Opulent Key to drop, but more about those in a minute.

How to find the lockdown protocol chests

After you have killed the boss you’ll have a couple of minutes to search the area and find two other loot chests which are randomly located in a few different locations. These are often located behind doors and you’ll have to interact with switches to find these loot chests. You can alos put a mod on your ghost to make things easier, Wombo Detector is great here.

When the event has finished you’ll see a message on the screen saying “Lockdown protocols in the Castellum have temporarily lifted”. Often the loot chests are near switches, and these switches actually beep, so you’ll have an audio cue, as well as a visual one if you have the right ghost mod on.

Good luck hunting for the chests, you’ll always have two extra, but they’ll spawn in random locations each time you finish the event.

Opulent Keys

Opulent Keys are for Opulent Chests which are found around the Derelict Leviathan. You’ll get your first Opulent Key in the tutorial mission from Season of the Hunt, which gives you a good demo of what they are for. These are good because you’ll be able to get the Beloved Sniper, Austringer Hand Cannon, Mida Mini Tool and Drang – all four of these weapons are excellent, although especially Beloved and Austringer.

When you get an Opulent Key, you’ll want to inspect it, and you’ll see a clue on the key. For example, I had one which said “Royal Pools, at the feet of greatness”. You’ll then want to head to the location and figure out what the clue means. Given there is a big staue of Calus in the Royal Pools it makes sense that what the clue means, and there you’ll find the chest. I’ll be providing guides for all the hidden Opulent chests this season, so if you need help, then check out This Week In Video Games on Youtube, search for the clue in the search box and you’ll find a helpful video once I have found them all.

That’s about it for the Nightmare Containment activity, the rewards, Opulent Keys and Secret Chests. Let me know what you think of the activity down there in the comments.

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