Destiny 2 Ascendant Shards Guide (& How to Get Them)

Ascendant Shards are one of the most important crafting materials in Destiny 2, but they can be extremely time-consuming and difficult to acquire. They’re used in the final upgrade for Masterworked armor, switching the subclass energy type of Masterworked armor, and crafting the weapons within the Exotic Archive. Additionally, Ascendant Shards are so rare that each player can only hold 10 at a time on their account, and an additional 10 in each character’s Postmaster.

Though Ascendant Shards are the rarest crafting material in Destiny 2, some items require more than one Ascendant Shard at a time. Exotic gear, for example, costs three Ascendant Shards to Masterwork the gear, and another three to change the subclass energy type. For this reason, it’s best to change the subclass energy type of the armor before it’s leveled up and costs additional materials. Season of the Lost introduced new Statis energy armor, so anyone who wants to change the subclass type of their Masterworked gear will have to acquire Ascendant Shards as quickly as possible.

There are seven ways players can earn Ascendant Shards in Destiny 2. These include:

• Banshee-44 and Ada-1
• Crucible, Gambit, Vanguard Strikes, and Trials of Osiris Resets
• Master and Grandmaster Nightfalls
• The Destiny 2 Season Pass
• Augmented Obsession Triumph
• Dismantling Masterworked Exotic Armor
• Season of the Splicer Memorial

Here are all the things players can do to maximize the number of Ascendant Shards they earn.

How to Get Ascendant Shards in Destiny 2

Both Banshee-44 and Ada-1 offer ways to purchase Ascendant Shards in Destiny 2. Each week, both vendors in the Tower will offer Ascendant Shards for 10 Enhancement Prisms, 50,000 Glimmer, and a set number of random worldly materials. For example, on the first day of Season of the Lost, the needed worldly material was 250 Spinmetal Leaves. This requirement changes during the daily reset. Collecting a solid stockpile of these materials takes time and is often the least efficient way of grabbing Ascendant Shards. Nevertheless, these vendors will always have Ascendant Shards available for purchase should players have the materials on hand to buy them.

The Vanguard playlist activities and Trials of Osiris ranking systems received a massive overhaul in Season of the Lost to make them more in line with the rewards earned in Crucible and Gambit. For all four activities, resetting the rank of the rewards after completing rank 16 will award an Ascendant Shard. This can only be done once per activity vendor. The more an activity is played without starting a new activity, the more rank progress is earned. This does not include visiting the Tower or HELM, as resetting progress only counts when a different activity is started. For Vanguard Strikes, the more difficult activities reward more progress.

Master and Grandmaster Nightfalls have a chance to reward one or two Ascendant Shards each time they are completed. These numbers increase during weeks where double Nightfall rewards are active, like the first week in Season of the Lost. Master and Grandmaster Nightfalls are a couple of the many end-game activities in Destiny 2, so they’ll award additional items like Exotic Gear, Nightfall Weapons, and other crafting materials.

Dismantling Masterworked Exotic Armor does award one Ascendant Shard, but this gear costs three to make. While not the most efficient method, it’s worth doing if players found the same piece of Masterworked Exotic Armor with significantly better stats. It’s a bad idea to dismantle Masterworked Exotic Armor otherwise. A more efficient method to earn Ascendant Shards would be to increase the paid version of the Season Pass to level 94. By that level, players can earn three Ascendant Shards.

The final two methods for earning Ascendant Shards in Destiny 2 are the Augmented Obsession Triumph and the Season of the Splicer Memorial. Like the Crucible, Gambit, Vanguard Strikes, and Trial of Osiris rewards, the Ascendant Shards earned here are linked to the player’s account and not the character. Only one can be earned for every account, but there is no reset at the end of the season.

The Season of the Splicer Memorial may no longer be available, but it’s difficult to tell. The “Heroes’ Memorial” questline was meant to serve as a conclusion to the Season of the Splicer story and launched the week before Season of the Lost was released. Anyone with a new account should complete the Season of the Splicer story regardless, but shouldn’t be surprised if that Ascendant Shard was only available for the short week. The Season of the Splicer, Season of the Chosen, and Season of the Hunt storylines will be available until the end of Season 15 when the Witch Queen expansion launches.

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Destiny 2 is available on PC, PlayStation4, PlayStation5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S, and Google Stadia platforms.