The Lightfall expansion for Destiny 2 has introduced many quality-of-life changes—both big and small—to the title, and a big part of that revolves around the ritual playlist activities. Strikes have gotten a major glow-up, with classics like the Lake of Shadows getting reworked and more Battlegrounds being added to the pool of available activities.
The modifiers, too, have been tweaked, and the Burns of old have been replaced by Surges and Threats.
The separation means that earning your weekly Pinnacle drop from the Vanguard Ops playlist is a little bit different from how you might remember it. Now that incoming and outgoing damage modifiers are separated, earning your Pinnacle only requires you to focus on the current Elemental Surge—the modifier that enhances the damage of a specific energy type.
How to see the weekly Elemental Surge in Destiny 2’s Vanguard Ops playlist
To find out what the weekly Elemental Surge is for the Vanguard Ops playlist, you will need to click onto the Vanguard Ops node in the directory and hover over the modifiers in the bottom left corner of the screen.
Here, you will usually find four modifiers toggled on. The one you want to look at is the Surge-type modifier, which can be anything from a Void Surge to a Stasis Surge depending on the rotation. As you had to do previously, you will need to complete Vanguard Ops activities with a subclass equipped that matches the Elemental Surge in order to get your Pinnacle.
However, players can now also complete this objective in the Nightfall playlist as well. The Elemental Surge modifiers will be different in the Nightfall playlist compared to the Vanguard Ops playlist, so it’s important to double-check what the currently active modifiers are when picking out the subclass to use. Nightfalls also tend to have two different Surges active, allowing you more freedom as to what subclass to choose when grinding out your Pinnacle reward.
