Renegades marks Destiny 2's return to traditional, linear storytelling after the experimental structure of Edge of Fate didn't land quite as well with players. This guide covers everything you need to know about completing the Renegades campaign: time estimates, difficulty considerations, build recommendations, and tips for solo and co-op players alike.
Campaign Overview
The Renegades campaign sends Guardians to the Lawless Frontier to take on Dredgen Bael. While the expansion sticks to a more conventional narrative structure, it mixes things up with integrated Syndicate job activities and a full Exotic mission dropped right in the middle of the story.
Campaign Duration
The Renegades story technically consists of six main missions, but you'll need to complete 58 total quest steps to finish everything. That structure makes the campaign longer than the mission count suggests.
| Difficulty | Expected Time | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Standard Difficulty | Around 6 hours | If things go smoothly |
| Legendary Difficulty | 6 to 8 hours | For experienced players |
| Legendary (Newer Players) | 9+ hours | Especially if unfamiliar with Exotic mission design |
The Six Story Missions
- Imperium
- Fearsome Retainer
- Out in the Cold
- Fire and Ice
- The Long Con
- Glory Beyond
Most story missions take about 10 to 20 minutes with a solid build. Tack on another 5 minutes per mission if you're running Legendary or don't have your loadout dialed in.
Syndicate Jobs
You'll complete Syndicate job activities between story missions. Each job runs about 10 to 15 minutes, and you'll do nearly ten of them throughout the campaign. Budget roughly 1.5 to 2 hours for these alone.
Solo vs. Co-op
Can You Complete Renegades Solo?
Absolutely. All campaign missions are tuned for solo play, and nothing strictly requires a fireteam.
Why Solo Often Works Better
Destiny 2 adds health padding to all enemies when you're in a co-op fireteam. More teammates means beefier enemies. If you've got a decent build with some synergy going, solo runs often end up faster because enemies go down easier.
- Set your own pace
- Don't wait around during story moments
- Narrative hits land better
- Shielded enemies and bosses feel easier without health scaling
- Certain puzzles might go smoother with teammates
- Fire and Ice benefits from coordinated teamwork
- Tricky mechanics during the Exotic mission
- Some encounters may be undocumented for co-op benefits
Power Level & Difficulty
Power Level Requirements
Unlike Edge of Fate, Renegades doesn't reset your Light level. Campaign content scales to your current power, so you can jump in immediately without grinding.
Be Brave vs. Be Legend
Renegades offers two difficulty settings like previous campaigns:
| Difficulty | Enemy Scaling | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| Be Brave (Standard) | Enemies match your level | Story focus, less optimized gear |
| Be Legend (Legendary) | Enemies 20 power levels above you | Class-specific Exotic armor rewards |
Campaign Rewards
Legendary Completion Rewards
Finishing the campaign on Legendary difficulty gets you:
- A new Renegades Exotic armor piece for the class you completed it on
- Level-appropriate gear (one player reported getting around 370 Power gear when entering at Power 300)
That Exotic armor makes Legendary worth attempting even if you're less experienced. The reward is exclusive to this difficulty.
The Praxic Blade Exotic Sword
During Fire and Ice, you earn the Praxic Blade, an Exotic sword that's basically a legally distinct lightsaber. It becomes available partway through the campaign and packs enough punch to carry you through the remaining missions.
The Praxic Blade uses your melee input while equipped. Melee-focused builds lose access to their charged melee unless you switch weapons, so plan around that if you want to use the sword.
Best Legendary Campaign Builds
Renegades throws a lot of enemies at you, so ad-clear and crowd control abilities matter more than usual. These builds work well on Legendary and hold up in both solo and fireteam play.
Warlock Builds
Getaway Artist + Hellion or Bleak Watcher (Prismatic)
This Prismatic Warlock build has been trivializing content since The Final Shape, and Renegades is no exception. Consuming your Arc grenade with Getaway Artist summons an Arc Soul that fights alongside you.
- Your turrets do most of the work
- Two autonomous damage sources
- Strong survivability with Devour
- Gameplay feels passive
- Requires specific Exotic armor
Two ways to run it:
- Bleak Watcher Version: Consuming your grenade also spawns a Stasis turret at your feet. Two autonomous damage sources working for you at once.
- Hellion Version: Hellion doesn't eat your grenade but scales off grenade damage. This lets you use your class ability to trigger Devour when other abilities are cooling down. Some players swap Feed the Void for Weaver's Call and Facet of Mending for extra survivability.
Runner-Up: Contraverse Hold + Void Grenades
Contraverse Hold got solid buffs near the end of Edge of Fate's lifecycle. The Exotic returns grenade energy on hits, which pairs nicely with tracking grenades like Scatter and Axion Bolt since you don't need kills to get energy back.
Any Void grenade works here, including Handheld Supernova with Magnetic grenades for close-range burst. Devour handles your sustain needs for Legendary content. Renegades also gives Warlocks two grenade charges now. Vortex grenades can clear entire rooms of adds with a single throw.
Titan Builds
Hammer Throw + Synthoceps or Wormgod's Caress (Solar)
Solar Titan has been a staple in Destiny 2 for good reason. Hammer Throw builds are straightforward and effective, with strong built-in survivability. Pair it with a Healing Grenade and you're set.
Core Aspects: Sol Invictus and Roaring Flames drive your damage and sustain loop.
Alternative Builds
- An Insurmountable Skullfort Melee Build: For infinite melee uptime, gives melee energy back on powered melee kills. With Renegades' high enemy density, you'll chain melee attacks constantly.
- Icefall Mantle Stasis Build: Generates overshields for a more defensive approach. Stasis abilities add crowd control to handle the dense enemy spawns throughout the campaign.
Runner-Up: Consecration + Stoicism (Prismatic)
Consecration dominated Prismatic Titan in The Final Shape and stays strong in Renegades. The build uses Frenzied Blade for three melee charges and Transcendence for boosted offense and defense.
Aspect choices: Prismatic Titan doesn't offer great synergies for Consecration outside Knockout, which covers your sustain. Some players run Glacier Grenades to build Transcendence faster, then spam Consecration while empowered.
Hunter Builds
Gifted Conviction + Ascension and Tempest Strike ("The Gardener")
This build creates a rapid combat loop using Tempest Strike, Ascension, and Gambler's Dodge with Combination Blow.
The Combat Loop
Recommended Stats: Melee at 130, Class Ability at 150, dump the rest into Health/Recovery
Runner-Up: Shadowshot + Void Exotics
Hunters got a solid buff pass in Renegades, with Void benefiting heavily from Shadowshot improvements. Moebius Quiver now gains power from dealing damage and boosts bow attack power while active.
Weapon synergy: Leviathan's Breath, the Exotic heavy Void bow, benefits a lot from the Shadowshot damage buff.
Tips & Strategies
Enemy Walkers
Walkers show up throughout the campaign and they're pretty tanky. Taking them down efficiently means hitting their weak points:
Front: The "eyes" or window sections
Rear: Another crit spot (hard to reach during a fight)
What to bring: Sniper rifles or other precision weapons. One source specifically mentions a special Legendary hand cannon called Anvil Discourse as effective here. Don't go into walker encounters with only close-range weapons that lack precision damage.
Ablative Shields
Renegades introduces Ablative Shields, a new shield type on various enemies throughout the campaign.
| Method | Effectiveness |
|---|---|
| Rapid-fire weapons (Auto rifles, machine guns, SMGs) | Effective - sustained damage breaks shield |
| Charged melee abilities | Very effective - usually breaks shield instantly |
Loadout Priorities
Given the high enemy density, focus on:
- Ad-clear: Weapons and abilities that wipe out groups
- Crowd control: Abilities that slow, freeze, or suppress enemies
- Precision damage: Something for walkers and other tough targets
- Self-healing: Especially for Lawless Frontier sections
Lawless Frontier Mechanics
Several campaign missions take place in the Lawless Frontier, a new activity space with rules that differ from standard Destiny 2 gameplay.
Modified Health System
In the Lawless Frontier:
- You have a bigger health pool than normal
- Health doesn't regenerate on its own
- The system works similarly to the Nether
Staying alive:
- Bring weapons with the Heal Clip perk
- Use abilities that heal you
- Look for destructible barrel caches scattered throughout environments. They drop health pickups and ammo
Renegades Abilities
The Lawless Frontier gives you access to special Renegades abilities. The campaign introduces these gradually during your first visits to the area.
Visit Spider to upgrade your Renegades abilities using currency from Lawless Frontier activities. These upgrades make a real difference:
Example (Healing Drone):
- Base: Provides healing
- Upgraded: Provides healing plus ability energy and Super energy
Putting currency into these upgrades early makes Lawless Frontier sections much easier.
Mission Breakdown
Missions 1-3: Imperium, Fearsome Retainer, Out in the Cold
Standard story missions running 10 to 20 minutes each. Use these to get comfortable with the campaign's rhythm and new mechanics.
Mission 4: Fire and Ice
This is where the campaign gets difficult.
Fire and Ice isn't a standard story mission. It's a complete Exotic mission embedded in the campaign. Expect:
- Complex mechanics with raid-lite encounter design
- Challenging platforming sections
- Light puzzle solving
- Hidden passageways you need to find for progression
- A demanding final encounter
Time estimate: 60 to 90 minutes going in blind; less if you know what's coming
Reward: The Praxic Blade Exotic sword
Players unfamiliar with Bungie's Exotic mission design might hit a wall on the final encounter. The mechanics follow patterns from previous Exotic missions and raids.
Missions 5-6: The Long Con, Glory Beyond
With the Praxic Blade in hand, these missions become more manageable. The Exotic sword handles most encounters without much trouble.
Recommended Approach
- Start on Legendary for the Exotic armor reward
- Pick a build with strong ad-clear
- Invest in Renegades ability upgrades at Spider early
- Bring precision weapons for walker encounters
- Set aside extra time for Fire and Ice
- Consider Standard difficulty for your first run
- Lean toward survival-oriented builds (Devour, healing abilities)
- Don't hesitate to lean on the Praxic Blade once you get it
- Watch for environmental health pickups in the Lawless Frontier
- Expect 9+ hours total completion time
- Casual completion: Any power level works (content scales)
- Better loot quality: 450+ Power for Tier-5 stat rolls
Summary
The Destiny 2: Renegades campaign brings back linear storytelling with roughly 6 to 8 hours of content on Legendary difficulty. You can solo the whole thing, and multiple sources agree it's the most accessible Legendary campaign Bungie has released.
- Legendary completion gets you class-specific Exotic armor
- Build for ad-clear and crowd control since enemy density is high
- Fire and Ice is the hardest part of the campaign
- Lawless Frontier sections need self-healing
- Upgrade Renegades abilities at Spider to make progression smoother
- The Praxic Blade makes everything after Fire and Ice much easier
Newer Guardians and veterans alike should find Legendary difficulty approachable here, with rewards worth the effort compared to previous expansions.