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Destiny 2 The Dawning 2022: How It Works

This guide will tell you everything you need to know about the 2022 version of the Dawning Seasonal Event in Destiny 2. The holidays have come again, and so has Eva with a new batch of cookies to bake and snowballs to throw, so this guide will break down everything you can do in Dawning 2022.

Jack Carson 2022-12-13

Destiny 2

Happy Dawning, Guardians! The annual winter holiday event has returned to Destiny 2 for 2022.

This year, players can look forward to returning to the long-held tradition of baking cookies for their favourite Destiny companions, with a side of icy chaos and carnage as snowball fights break out across the system. New and updated weapons and armour have been added, too, allowing you to look your best and enjoy Winter to its fullest. New players may be a bit out of their depth, however, with so much to do and so many cookies to bake.

Here’s how the Dawning 2022 works in Destiny 2.

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Table of Contents show

The Dawning Start and End Dates

The Dawning 2022 begins on the 13th of December 2022 and it will run until the 3rd of January 2023. This means that it will last 3 full weeks, in which time Guardians will be able to enjoy the event however they please.

Eververse has been restocked with new armour and ornaments that fit the Holiday spirit. Even the Tower has gotten into the festive mood, with fancy lights and snow falling all around.

As always, Eva will be waiting for you in the courtyard. It feels just like yesterday that we were visiting her for the Festival of the Lost, but now it’s the Dawning and she has a suite of new upgrades, guns and more for players to partake in.

Festive Tower

How to Start the Dawning 2022

To begin your gift-giving journey, simply log in to Destiny 2 during the duration of the event. Eva Levante, Destiny’s resident holiday vendor (and Tower Grandma) is waiting for you with a new quest.

Talk to her and she will give you the revamped Eva’s Holiday Oven 2.1. As always, the Dawning is about giving out delicious baked goods to your favourite friends and foes, with the reward of getting some sweet loot in return. The Oven will allow you to bake unique cookies for each of the characters, made from various materials and ingredients dropped by defeating enemies in specific ways.

Alongside the Oven, Eva will give you The Dawning questline. This introductory quest will familiarise you with the basics of the event and all it has to offer.

Quest Begins

Dawning Goodies: Cookies, New Guns and More

Baking Cookies

Baking cookies have a few key components.

First is the recipe. This is where you will find a catalogued list of all your known recipes (cookies you have baked before) along with their required ingredients and Dawning Essence cost. All recipes require a certain number of ingredients as well as 15 Dawning Essence. The recipe tab is a useful tool for seeing who you still need to bake cookies for, as well as for quickly making large batches to send to your favourite NPCs.

Next is the ingredients section. This is split into two halves: Uncommon Ingredients and Rare Ingredients. Uncommon Ingredients all drop from defeating a certain number of enemies from a specific faction – Ether Cane drops from Fallen, Cabal Oil from Cabal and so on – so you will naturally acquire this as you play. On the other hand, Rare Ingredients are obtained from defeating enemies in special or unique ways such as Sharp Flavour dropping after killing enemies with swords or Finishing Touch by defeating opponents with Finishers. You’ll need a lot of ingredients over the next 3 weeks.

The final part of the oven is the Masterwork mechanic. Once you have made one of every cookie, you can upgrade the Oven into a Masterworked Oven. This massively reduces the cost of recipes in regards to Essence of Dawning, making it easier to bake lots of cookies for your companions.

Giving a cookie to an NPC will award you with Dawning Spirit, some Glimmer and, most importantly, A Gift in Return. This item goes to your inventory and can either be opened for a random reward or used in weapon focusing for Dawning weaponry.

The Holiday Oven

Snowball Takeover

In addition to baking cookies, Dawning 2022 brings another addition to several playlist activities in Destiny 2. That is the return of the Snowball mechanic, updated with some fancy Stasis touches and flourishes.

Snowballs are an item that Guardians can pick up during certain playlist activities that, when thrown at enemies, will deal damage and inflict them with Slow. This is a cute, if novel, way of mixing up some parts of the game during the Dawing, allowing players to get into the Holiday spirit. They can even be upgraded with additional Slow, Freeze on hit and additional bonuses via Eva.

You can find Snowballs in the Vanguard Ops Strike Playlist or Dares of Eternity. You need to defeat enemies with the Snowballs to unlock a few triumphs for the Dawning Seal.

Snowball can be used in combat to Slow and Freeze enemies - Destiny 2 The Dawning

Snowball Fight!

Eva Upgrades

As you play through the event, you will earn Dawning Spirit when you give people cookies. Don’t confuse this with Dawning Essence, which is used to bake cookies. Instead, this is a unique currency that can be spent at Eva for a variety of special rewards and upgrades.

Dawning Spirit can be used to acquire the following upgrades, which all cost 40 Dawning Spirit:

Merrymaker: Recieve a Boon of Friendship each day from Eva Levante.
Bountiful Harvest: Dawning bounties reward an additional random ingredient.
Essential Harvest: Dawning bounties reward a small amount of Dawning Essence.
Giftwrapped Exchange Ticket: Unlocks access to the Unity and Edgy Gift Exchange focusing options.
Limited Exchange Ticket: Unlocks access to the Limited Ticket Exchange focusing options.
Perky Presents: Dawning weapons have a chance to drop with an additional perk in the left column.
Perkier Presents: Requires Perky Presents. Dawning weapons have a chance to drop with an additional perk in the right column.

Dawning Spirit Upgrades

Alongside these, several additional upgrades boost the capabilities of the Stasis Snowballs. These cost 20 Dawning Spirit per upgrade, allowing you to have a bit more snow fun:

Long Winter: Increases the duration of Slow effects applied by snowballs.
Longer Winter: Increases the number of Sow effects applied to combatants damaged by snowballs.
Longest Winter: Snowballs instantly Freeze combatants damaged by them.
Stay Frosty: Snowballs leave a Stasis mine on impact.
Gift That Keeps on Giving: Shattering Frozen combatants causes them to drop snowballs.

Some of these upgrades are far more useful than others. Things like Giftwrapped Exchange Ticket or Limited Exchange Ticket unlock additional ways to receive the brand new Dawning weapons with updated perk pools and Origin Traits, whereas Longer Winter and Stay Frosty are more about making the most out of the Dawning’s unique features.

Either way, Eva is your one-stop shop for Dawning Spirit spending.

Stay Frosty

Dawning Weapon Focusing

After you have unlocked the Giftwrapped Exchange Ticket and Limited Exchange Ticket upgrades at Eva, the focusing menu becomes available. By interacting with Eva, you can head to the Gifts of Dawning Present section in her menu.

Here, Guardians may spend Dawning Spirit alongside the A Gift in Return items they receive from giving out cookies to focus on a specific Dawning Weapon. This guarantees a drop of said weapon, instead of the RNG chance provided by the A Gift in Return option.

Weapon Focusing

The Giftwrapped Exchange Ticket upgrade unlocks the Edgy Gift Exchange package and the Unity Gift Exchange package. Both of these cost 10 Dawning Spirit and 1 A Gift in Return. but at the cost of giving out a random Dawning weapon:

The Unity Gift Exchange allows players to get the Glacioclasm Fusion Rifle, the Avalanche Machine Gun or the Stay Frosty PR7 Pulse Rifle.
The Edgy Gift Exchange allows players to get the Zephyr Sword, the Cold Front Submachine Gun or the Stay Frosty PR7 Pulse Rifle.

Meanwhile, with the Limited Exchange Ticket upgrade unlocked, players can directly trade their Dawning Spirit and Gifts for a guaranteed roll of their choice. A focused roll costs 25 Dawning Spirit and 1 Gift in Return.

This is a great, easy way for players to get new rolls of the updated Dawning pool, as well as the new Stay Frosty Stasis Pulse Rifle. All Dawning weapons also now have access to the Dawning Surprise Origin Trait, where rapidly defeating targets award a Dawning gift (powerful targets count as more than one).

New Dawning Ornaments

Event Card

Just like with all the other seasonal events in 2022, the Dawning returns to Destiny 2 with a new Event Card feature.

There are two versions of the Card: one is free to all players and the other is a paid upgrade. From the free track, players can access:

17 seasonal Event Challenges, corresponding to Triumphs used to unlock the new Star Baker Seal and Title
The Dawning Cheer and Treats Emblem
The Hoarfrost Sunrise and Joyful Gift Legendary Shaders
One free copy of the Cold Front, Zephyr, Avalanche, Glacioclasm and Stay Frosty Dawning weapons
The Dawn Chimes Exotic Ghost Shell
An Ascendant Shard and an Ascendant Alloy
6 Gifts in Return

As previously mentioned, completing all 16 of the Event Challenges (excluding the Star Baker Challenge) will award you with the new Star Baker Title and Seal. All players can earn this and completing these challenges will get you one step closer to unlocking the Reveler Title later down the line.

The Event Card

Upgraded Event Card

For 1000 Silver you can upgrade to the Upgraded Event Card. This gives you access to some additional cosmetic rewards.

Once you have upgraded your Card, Event Challenges now awards Event Tickets alongside their original rewards. You will spend these on a variety of cosmetics, all of which vary in Ticket price, and are exclusive to the Event Card.

Upon purchasing the upgrade, you will instantly gain access to the Downhill Skiing Exotic Emote, Forward Erebus Exotic Sparrow and the Noble Rime Legendary Shader. After that, you can use your acquired Event Tickets to purchase the following cosmetics:

The Mountainside Shell Exotic Ghost Shell (7 Tickets)
Action Figure Showdown Legendary Emote (5 Tickets)
Gift Stack Entrance Transmat Effect (3 Tickets)
Warm Hat Ghost Projection (1 Ticket)

If you purchase the Card after you have already completed some of the challenges, fear not. The Tickets are given to you retroactively, so as long as you complete all of the required Challenges, all of the cosmetics can be yours.

That is everything you need to know about the Dawning 2022 in Destiny 2. This is a brief reminder that this Seasonal Event will last for 3 weeks up until the 3rd of January 2023, so be sure to get your cookies baked and your gifts wrapped before then. Have a happy Dawning, Guardians!

Jack Carson

Jack is a UK-based English Creative Writing graduate with a passion for writing about games. He’s been writing creatively for many years and has been doing game journalism professionally for well over a year. The games he primarily writes about include Destiny 2, Genshin Impact, Honkai: Star Rail and Xenoblade Chronicles but he is especially keen on RPGs, looters and action games and specialises in writing guides. KeenGamer is the third publication he has written for.