Destiny 2 Festival of the Lost 2020: Halloween event release date, UK start time and new rewards and triumphs

Destiny 2 fans rejoice, as the game’s yearly Halloween event is back once again in 2020.

The Festival of the Lost returns this year, giving players the opportunity to kit out their Guardians in spooky fancy dress, and even go trick or treating in-game.

Here’s everything you need to know.

How do I play Festival of the Lost?

Festival of the Lost is a recurring event in the Destiny games that takes place during the month of Halloween. While the event is available, Guardians can participate in various Halloween-themed activities to obtain masks and special consumables.

While all players are able to participate in Festival of the Lost, newer players will have to make sure they have escaped the Cosmodrome to unlock the Tower and achieved 770 Power before they can access the event.

If you meet those requirements, speak to Eva Levante in the Tower Courtyard to receive a quest.

After this quest has been completed, you’ll be granted access to explore the Haunted Forest and can earn Festival of the Lost rewards.

You can take on the Haunted Forest either on your own or as part of a Fireteam of three, although note that a PlayStation Plus/Xbox Live Gold is required for console players to do this.

What happens in Festival of the Lost?

Once you have access to the Haunted Forest – a Halloween themed reimagining of Mercury's Infinite Forest – you’ll have 15 minutes to see how far into the forest you can progress.

Killing enemies extends your time as you work through each branch of the Haunted Forest, and while that might not sound too much of a tall order, you'll also be hunted by some much larger adversaries who cannot be killed.

What are the rewards?

Defeating enemies and completing activities during Festival of the Lost earns you Candy and Chocolate Strange Coins.

These can be used to purchase bounties, masks, and other Festival of the Lost rewards from Eva Levante to show off the spirit of the season.

The Masquerader's Helmet is required to equip masks and Festival of the Lost mods, but only contributes to players' Power while Festival of the Lost is active.

What’s new this year?

In essence, this year’s Festival of the Lost event works in exactly the same way as it has done in previous years.

There are one or two new changes though, the biggest being the introduction of a new item called a Cipher Decoder.

Cipher Decoders can be found during events and missions you complete on other worlds outside of the Haunted Forest, and are used to open the optional caches you’ll see at the end of completing a Festival of the Lost trial.

Each cache requires one Cipher Decoder to open, and can contain legendary gear, random rolls of the Braytech Werewolf and Horror Story auto rifles, masks, and Festival of the Lost shaders.

Up to five caches can be opened per Haunted Forest completion.

What triumphs are available this year?

Once again as part of Festival of the Lost, players can complete exclusive Triumphs – essentially Destiny 2’s own brand of challenges.

These Triumphs can be found in the Triumphs page, under Seasonal > Events, but we’ve listed them below too:

Masked Accomplice – Complete Festival of the Lost 2020 Triumphs

Wrapped and Ready – Acquire the mummy Ghost from Eva

Cache Grab – Open caches in the Haunted Forest with Cipher Decoders

Ride or Die – Acquire the Festival of the Lost Sparrow from Eva

Cache Cow – Open caches in the Haunted Forest with Cipher Decoders

Entombed Horizons – Acquire the Festival of the Lost Ship from Eva

Caches Galore – Open caches in the Haunted Forest with Cipher Decoders

Many Faces – Acquire all Festival of the Lost 2020 masks.

There is also a much more secretive and mysterious Triumph that simply says “[REDACTED]”.

What’s the UK start time for Festival of the Lost?

In the UK, Festival of the Lost will kick off at 6pm on Tuesday 6 October.

The in-game festival runs for four weeks until Tuesday 3 November.

For more information on Festival of the Lost 2020, head to Bungie’s blog post