I’m calling it: Week 3 of Destiny 2’s Season of the Haunted was where the season stopped warming up and started throwing haymakers. Looking back from 2026, this batch of weekly challenges still feels like a tidy case study in how Bungie nudged Guardians from seasonal story mode into endgame habits. The third set of challenges landed alongside part three of the Bound in Sorrow questline, and it handed players a fresh pile of XP, Bright Dust, and Figments of Darkness to chase. Spoiler alert: if you wanted maximum bang for your buck, this was not a week to sleep on.

The story beat was classic Destiny 2: Guardians traveled through a new area of the Derelict Leviathan to aid Zavala in facing his own Nightmare. Eris Morn led the strike team with her usual icy confidence, while Crow stayed aboard the H.E.L.M. That split gave the week a strange emotional texture — one part haunted-house tour, one part group therapy with guns. I have to say, the Zavala Nightmare thread hit harder than I expected, and the new Leviathan space gave the challenges a proper playground instead of a recycled shooting gallery.

Here is the full Week 3 checklist as it stood, with the rewards and objectives that mattered:

#	Challenge	What I had to do	Reward
1	Sorrow Bound III	Complete Bound in Sorrow III and defeat Scorn with precision final blows.	Challenger XP+
2	Nightmare Containment II	Successfully complete tiers of the Nightmare Containment public event on the Derelict Leviathan throughout the Season.	Challenger XP+
3	Binding I	Bind Nightmares 10 times after finishing a Tier III Containment activity and open five Opulent Chests.	Figments of Darkness and Challenger XP+
4	Loadout II	On the Derelict Leviathan, defeat combatants with Shotgun or Fusion Rifle final blows and defeat powerful Nightmares.	Challenger XP+
5	Throne World Activities	In the Throne World, complete bounties, patrols, public events, and Lost Sectors.	Challenger XP+ and Bright Dust
6	Power Broker	Reach Power Level 1560 without the seasonal bonus.	Challenger XP+ and Bright Dust
7	Long-Range Calibration	Calibrate long-range weapons in the Throne World.	Challenger XP+ and Bright Dust
8	Primeval Entourage	Defeat Taken in Gambit.	Challenger XP+ and Bright Dust
9	Scorched Death	Defeat 50 Guardians in Team Scorched.	Challenger XP+ and Bright Dust
10	Ultimate Champion	Defeat Champions in any Nightfall strike on Hero difficulty or higher.	Challenger XP+ and Bright Dust

A few of these were low-hanging fruit, and a few demanded real sweat. Sorrow Bound III and Nightmare Containment II were basically part of the seasonal rhythm, so they came along naturally if you were already doing the story and the public event. Binding I was the one that made me actually plan a loop: run a Tier III Containment, bind Nightmares 10 times, then crack five Opulent Chests. It was a bit of a grind, but the Figments of Darkness made it worth your while. Loadout II was a fun excuse to dust off a shotgun or fusion rifle and bully some Nightmares on the Leviathan.

The Throne World challenges were the classic side dish: bounties, patrols, public events, Lost Sectors, and long-range weapon calibration. Power Broker asked for Power Level 1560 without the seasonal bonus, which was a meaningful checkpoint back then. Primeval Entourage sent me into Gambit to delete Taken, and Ultimate Champion pushed me into Nightfall strikes on Hero difficulty or higher. In other words, Week 3 was all hands on deck — story, patrol, Gambit, Crucible, and Nightfalls all got a slice of the pie.

Then there was Trials of Osiris. Week 3 was officially the first Trials week of the season, and that was a shot in the arm for PvP players. Two new weapons entered the reward pool: the Burden of Guilt Fusion Rifle, a Stasis gun, and the Forgiveness Sidearm, a two-burst Arc energy weapon. You could chase them by turning in Trials Engrams, ranking up with Saint-14, and completing Pinnacle rewards in the activity. Adept versions were also on the table if you went Flawless and made the trip to the Lighthouse. I am not saying I booked a vacation there, but I definitely brought my A-game. 🎯

The limited-time Crucible challenge was Scorched Death, which asked for 50 Guardian defeats in Team Scorched. Scorched only rolls around every couple of weeks in a given season, so this was a blink-and-you-miss-it opportunity. The nice part? It was a piece of cake to complete while knocking out your weekly Pinnacle, and the Riptide Fusion Rifle god roll could also drop from playing the mode. That is what I call double dipping. 💥

From a 2026 perspective, the big takeaway is how Week 3 acted as a bridge. Bungie started transitioning the challenges toward endgame prep, and the mix of ritual activities, Trials, and Nightfall content made that clear. If you are reading this in 2026 and expecting a live checklist for the current episode, pump the brakes: this is a retrospective, not a live service guide. Still, as a snapshot of Season of the Haunted, Week 3 was a heck of a ride — spooky, busy, and just rewarding enough to keep me back in the saddle.