Destiny Iron Banner Bounty Solo Queue Guide

Destiny Iron Banner Bounty Solo Queue Guide by jaedest

Iron Banner is back! Trying to get that sweet etheric light? Limited playtime? You NEED to be focusing on the bounties. Teaming up is the best way to get Iron Banner wins, but if you’re a sad, single panda, wins can be hard to come by.

Good news! Each Iron Banner bounty is worth 100xp, and is affected by all the relevant IB buffs. This means that each bounty is worth 2 Wins, or ~30 minutes of your life. Completing all 6 in one day is the equivalent of 12 wins, or ~3 hours of playtime.

Bounty Facts:

• Can only be accepted/turned in once per day
  This means 90% of the time you want to turn the bounty in the day you complete it. The only exception is if you will not be able to play at all the following day, but may be able to log in and benefit from turning in the bounty with a higher Tempered buff.
• Status carries over between days. If you only get 1 Machine Gun spree towards Heavy Metal, hang on to the bounty and finish it tomorrow.
• Kills completed after the buzzer count towards bounties. Play to the final score!
• Emblem, Shader, Class Item, and daily buff all increase the rep gain when you turn in the bounty. The Nightfall bonus does not apply to Iron Banner rep, but does apply to the 5000xp that is received from the bounties.
• Can be turned into the Bounty-Bot after Iron Banner ends, or saved until the next Iron Banner.
• The new buff for alt guardians does apply to bounties(2x rep, if your main guardian is of a greater IB rank)

Hard Forged

Earn 10,000 XP:

• Play 4-5 games. You should finish this bounty each day you play.

The Chaos and the Calm

Defeat 15 Guardians with Heavy Weapons:

• ALWAYS get Heavy Ammo. Yes, that means to abandon the zone you’ve almost captured, in order to pick up heavy. It’s worth it.
• Machine Guns are generally better than Rockets. Hang back after the heavy drops and let the Rocket Bros exhaust themselves. You can often roll from one Heavy drop to another, if you play conservatively, and have a Field Scout MG equipped.
• Headshots get kills which helps with both Iron Wrath and Heavy Metal.
• Most Machine Guns have very similar TTK, the difference maker is the number of headshots, thus we should prioritize Aim Assist, followed by the pre-HoW Field Scout, allowing us to carry far more ammo than normal.
• S-Tier: Thunderlord (90 Aim Assist, High Impact, Field Scout) – Put your Thorn away.
• A- Tier: High Impact, High Aim Assist, Field Scout – Deviant Gravity A (331), The Swarm(300)
• B-Tier: High Aim Assist, Field Scout – Corrective Measure, many others
• Recommended with reservations: Jolder’s Hammer(IB), Against All Odds(TDB), Wolves’ Bane(HoW) due to AA of ~30
• So you really want to use Rockets? Gjallarhorn, Truth>Any rocket with proximity(Grenades&Horseshoes)>>> any other rocket.
• Dead Orbit offers a fantastic Vendor roll with both Tripod and Proximity. Make sure to equip Carry More Heavy Ammo armor to get your extra rocket.
• Generally, I will start my Iron Banner session with a Machine Gun, and then switch to rockets if I just need a couple more kills to finish the bounty.
• Definitive rocket guide!

Iron Wrath

Defeat 10 Guardians without dying:

• Assists count! Be a team player.
• Play to the scoreboard. Your streak carries over to the next game. If you are at 8/10, you can often finish it up in your next game by trailing behind your teammates and going for those last two assists.
• If you are carrying a streak to the next game, try to stay in the same lobby. You should get dropped into a fresh game, instead of backing out, joining solo, and landing in a game where everyone already has their Super and Heavy Ammo ready for you.
• Back up, so as not to die, and use the Heavy Ammo. Are you seeing a theme?
• Don’t get hung up on this one, but also make sure to always have it. You may surprise yourself with the random completions you get.
• Thorn is actually great for this, due to the long poison helping with your assist count.

Iron Embrace

Defeat 10 Guardians with your melee attack:

• I often leave this one for last, and then focus on it by switching my normal loadout to Strength and better melee perks. Recommended subclasses: Defender(bubble), Bladedancer(Backstab),Sunsinger(Scorch armor) Voidwalker(Blink – gets you into more melee situations).
• Shoulder Charge only oneshots equal level players or below. It will also not one shot Warlocks wearing the Ram at equal level.
• Backstab has a generous hitbox and often triggers from the side, top or front.
• Switch to a weaker shotgun. If your shotgun oneshots everyone (Felwinter’s, Party Crasher+1), you will have a harder time finishing this bounty. I switch to a lower impact archetype such as Secret Handshake(TDB), allowing me to finish them off with a melee.
• The Last Word can actually be useful here, as 2 hipfire body shots will generally put them in range of your powered melee attack.

Heavy Metal

Earn 3 Machine Gun sprees:

• A spree (Machine Lord medal) requires 3 kills WITHOUT reloading your Machine Gun.
• See The Chaos and the Calm for additional tips.

Iron Grip

Capture 15 Control Zones:

• Make sure to grab the easy one at the beginning of each match.
• You should complete this with few issues, by averaging 3 captures per match.

General tips:

• You can complete Crucible bounties at the same time, but be sure to pick up the IB bounties every day.

TL/DR:
Back up. Get Heavy ammo ALWAYS. Play to the final screen. Get all the bounties. Focus on not dying.

Credit to exxtrooper for the excellent pvp weapons spreadsheet!

Bonus Defender Titan guide!

You’re a solo queue Titan. Your job is to make sure your team always has 2 control points by dropping your bubble on the second one.

• Max INT (271) to build your super faster.
• S-Tier Exotic: Helm of S14
• A-Tier Exotic: Armamentarium, ACD/0 Feedback Fence
• The Feedback Fence is a legitimate option when paired with Armor of Light. It also grants additional super energy from melee kills, a unique perk.
• Magnetic Grenade: I made rank 4 last IB, and only knocked out 2 supers with suppression grenade. Without my Armamentarium, I rarely had the suppression grenade when I needed it.
• Increased Control: So you can get there faster.
• Armor of Light: Weapons is janky, Blessing is great with a fireteam, randoms need you to sit on that second point and not die. Armor it is.
• Unbreakable: Not dying. Right.
• Codices: All the armor you can get, then I prefer Agility > Recovery.
• Gift of the Void: Your bubble will get broken. A lot. More orbs means more supers for your team, means more orbs for you.
• Untouchable: Get your super faster, plus additional armor.

Take your best shotgun and go put your Thunderdome on Point B.