Destiny 2 Beyond Light: What are Empire Hunts?

Keshav Bhat

In Destiny 2’s latest expansion Beyond Light, Europa was added as a playable location for Guardians to explore. The icy moon is home to Variks the Loyal, who offers a new pursuit for players to complete called Empire Hunts. Read on to learn about Empire Hunts and how to unlock these new activities in Beyond Light.

Originally teased in concept art for Destiny 1, Bungie finally  introduced Europa as an in-game location with the release of Destiny 2’s latest expansion, Beyond Light.

Jupiter’s Galilean moon Europa is a brand-new zone in Destiny 2, and brings with it brand new weather effects introduced for the first time in the history of the franchise.

While Europa contains variations of existing activities like story missions, patrols, and a new Strike — the zone also contains brand-new pursuits for Guardians to complete in the form of Empire Hunts.

What are Empire Hunts?

Empire Hunts are a brand-new activity introduced into Destiny 2 with Beyond Light, and are obtained from Variks the Loyal, one of the new vendors on Europa.

Similar to the Wanted bounties offered by the Spider at Tangled Shore, Empire Hunts are short quests that have the player hunting down powerful Fallen targets on Europa.

There are three Empire Hunts currently available: The Warrior, The Dark Priestess, and The Technocrat. The Hunts for each of these unique enemies – Phylaks, Kridis, and Praksis, respectively – contain a small questline the player must complete before a showdown with each named enemy at the end of the Hunt.

How to unlock Empire Hunts

In order to unlock the Empire Hunts, players will need to complete the bulk of Beyond Light’s story content. This includes the main campaign facing off against Eramis, along with completing a separate quest line through Variks after the campaign has concluded.

Each of the Hunts will be completed once during the storyline on Europa: The Warrior and the Technocrat are defeated throughout the course of the campaign, and the Dark Priestess is the final boss in the questline given to the player by Variks afterwards.

Once you complete all of the Hunts as part of the expansion’s story content, they will become replayable activities through Variks. Each will cost 40 Herealways pieces to obtain and complete again, so players should make sure to stock up via bounties and activities on Europa.

In addition to the Empire Hunts on Europa, according to Bungie’s Season of the Hunt roadmap, players will also gain access to another activity, Wraithborn Hunts, after the Destiny 2 weekly reset on November 17.

About The Author

Keshav Bhat is the Co-Founder of CharlieIntel.com, the world's largest Call of Duty news site. Based in Atlanta, Keshav also serves as the Head of Social Media for Dexerto network, running a network of over 10 million social followers. Keshav can be contacted for tips at [email protected]