A new vehicle has arrived in Destiny 2: The Gryphon, a personal vehicle that can fire weapons like Fallen Pikes and Cabal Interceptors.
New content in Destiny 2 is always exciting, especially when it’s a new way to traverse the world. During last year’s Guardian Games, we were introduced to Skimmers, and we were excited about the new movement possibilities it offered, and a chance to live our Cloud Strider fantasies.
Along with the Gryphon, we also have Heavy Metal, a new PvP mode where two teams of three face off against each other in mechanized combat.
Here’s how to unlock the new Gryphon vehicle. This also doubles as a guide to playing the new Heavy Metal game mode.
Shaxx Quest
When you boot up your game, it immediately tells you about Heavy Metal and the rewards that you’ll get for participating.
To start earning rewards to get the Gryphon, you’ll need to go to the Tower and speak to Lord Shaxx, who will give you a questline that introduces Heavy Metal and how the event works.
Follow the quest steps. These quest steps will tell you to play Heavy Metal, spend some reroll tokens, and provide other straightforward instructions that honestly don’t warrant any further details.
Once you’ve completed the questline, you’re free to do whatever you like.
Heavy Metal
Heavy Metal is a time-limited game mode that will only be available from May 9th, 2025, to July 15, 2025.
While we’re not sure if Bungie will deliver more updates as the weeks go by, the base version of this game mode is essentially Supremacy with Fallen Brigs and Drake Tanks.
For both vehicles, you have your basic movement, your primary and secondary fire, and a dodge button. However, there are slight differences in how well they move and the behavior of their secondary fire.
Both vehicles fire a cannon projectile that travels in a straight line. Their secondary fire is also somewhat the same, as they are homing missiles that have moderate tracking and require a second to lock on.
Collecting an opponent’s medal bumps up your score by one, heals you a little, and refills your secondary fire.
Not only that, but whoever has collected the most medals on any given team begins glowing and receives the «Leader» buff, which increases the recharge rate of your dodge ability, giving you more mobility.
The team that reaches 50 points first wins the game.
General Tips & Tricks
After playing a few hours of Heavy Metal, I’ve found a few tips and tricks that will help you succeed in winning Heavy Metal matches:
- Lead your shots. If your opponent is moving sideways, try to get a sense of how far they are and compensate for the travel time of your projectiles.
- Be as unpredictable as possible with your movement. Dodge in directions your opponents wouldn’t expect, and juke your opponents by stopping when they think they have a bead on you.
- Cover management is key. Because you can’t heal or dodge all the bullets, you’ll need to get behind solid cover to stay alive a little longer.
- Stick with your team. It’s better to take out an enemy in a 2v1 than trade in a 1v1 and lose the chance to score.
- Save your secondary attack for when you’re sure that you’re going to eliminate your opponent. The only way you can get your charge is to respawn or pick up a medal.
- Pick up your teammates’ medals when they die. This will deny your opponents a point.
- Ambushes are your friend. Landing a surprise shot on your enemy can vastly increase your chances of winning a fight rather than facing them head-on.
- The Drake Tank is significantly harder to drive than the Brig. If you boost on a ramp, there’s a very real chance that you’ll flip, giving your opponents precious extra seconds for them to defeat you.
- Alternatively, the Fallen Brig is much more agile with a stronger boost, but is a much larger target.
Event Card
On the quest tab, you’ll find the Event Card, which will reveal everything you can unlock.
First, you’ll see challenges, both daily and weekly, which you’ll need to complete to earn tokens and event XP to increase your rank. As their names suggest, they reset daily and weekly.
A daily challenge can complete one tier, and a weekly challenge can fill up around two to three tiers.
The event track has 15 tiers for you to rank up. On the track, you’ll earn upgrade materials, engrams, and reroll tokens, which allow you to reroll a challenge if you don’t like it.
At the end of the event card is the Gryphon vehicle. If you’re impatient and want to get your hands on it, you can alternatively spend 100 Silver each to buy an event rank with a total of 1500 Silver.
Event Rewards
Aside from the event track, you’ll also find the Triumphs and Seal associated with Heavy Metal. Only four are needed to unlock the Seal, and the rest are yet to be revealed.
There is also a section where you can buy items with tokens you’ve earned from challenges.
Heavy Metal engrams can be earned through this event. These engrams contain the Palindrome (hand cannon), Cruoris FR4 (fusion rifle), Boondoggle Mk.55 (SMG), and Lotus-Eater (rocket sidearm).
These weapons can be earned via ritual activities like Vanguard ops and Nightfalls, most notably Palindrome and Lotus-Eater, each with an Adept version.
If you don’t plan on farming Nightfalls, then Heavy Metal engrams are a decent alternative. Cruoris FR4 and Boondoggle Mk.55 aren’t very good weapons, so I wouldn’t recommend them.
Review: Is The Gryphon Worth It?
Yes. Absolutely.
While the Gryphon is significantly slower than a Sparrow or a Skimmer, it makes up for it by having way more health and is equipped with weapons.
Instead of an instant boost, it takes a second to charge before going full speed. Think of it as a Guardian version of the Cabal Interceptor.
Its primary fire is a shotgun-spread projectile that deals kinetic damage and has decent power and range, capable of taking out minor enemies. It does more than just tickle yellow health bars.
Its secondary fire is where it shines best. It fires two tracking projectiles. Although they deal minimal damage against enemies, they are specifically used to inflict elemental verbs that change depending on the Guardian’s super.
Here’s a list of the effects of secondary fire depending on the damage type of the super you have equipped:
- Void: Inflicts Volatile on enemies.
- Solar: Inflicts a burning effect on enemies. According to PVP testing, it does not inflict Scorch, but Burn x2, so it doesn’t stack to cause Ignitions.
- Arc: Blinds and incapacitates enemies temporarily.
- Stasis: Freezes enemies and shatters when more damage is dealt.
- Strand: Suspends enemies. Can create a tangle.
This opens up interesting avenues for buildcrafting, and we’ll be keeping an eye out on this exciting new addition.
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