Destiny 2 Haunted Altars Softlock: Causes and Fixes for Festival of the Lost
Though the usual bugs aren’t present in this year’s Festival of the Lost, Destiny 2 players have discovered new issues—including a particularly egregious softlock in the new activity, Haunted Altars, which can block your progress.
While there’s no confirmed cause yet, there are a few ways to fix or avoid this frustrating glitch.
What Is the Haunted Altars Softlock?
The softlock in Haunted Altars can cause players to glitch out at the end of the activity, invalidating all progress made until that point. Sometimes, this issue triggers after taking down about half of the Headless One’s health bar.
It’s especially aggravating if you encounter it multiple times in a row. Given how widespread the problem seems to be, it’s clear this is a significant concern for players.
Possible Causes of the Haunted Altars Softlock
While nothing has been officially confirmed, the community and Bungie have proposed a couple of hypotheses behind what triggers this glitch:
- Burning Down the Boss Too Fast: One theory is that dealing damage too quickly to the boss can cause the softlock. Being “too efficient” can sometimes result in bugs in Destiny 2, and Bungie appears to be investigating this as the primary cause.
- Stunning Emotes Modifier Interference: Another community theory focuses on the “Stunning Emotes” modifier potentially affecting the Shriekers. Since these enemies switch sides during the encounter, this modifier might cause the Shriekers to glitch out permanently, contributing to the softlock.
The most common softlock reported so far involves not being able to deal damage to the boss after its first health gate.
How to Fix the Haunted Altars Softlock
Here are the potential solutions based on player experiences and Bungie’s guidance:
- Wipe the Activity and Restart: Wiping your squad to the Headless One resets the encounter. This allowed us to retry the fight with a more cautious damage approach to the boss, which helped avoid the softlock. However, this method has drawbacks:
- Coordinating a wipe can be difficult as some players might leave the activity, and new matchmaking can take time.
- This only works on difficulties below Ultimatum. On Ultimatum difficulty, the “Extinguish” modifier sends players to Orbit if the entire squad dies.
- Take Your Foot Off the Gas: Bungie recommends a preventive measure during the boss fight:
“In the first phase of the boss fight, wait the 10 seconds until the Shriekers close, and then complete the damage phase to avoid the soft lock.”
While this is not a guaranteed fix, it may help prevent the issue from occurring.
- Avoid Using Emotes When Possible: If the Stunning Emotes modifier is responsible, no easy fix exists at the moment. Since Shriekers change allegiance mid-fight, emotes might cause them to bug out. Avoiding emotes during this activity could reduce the chance of softlock.
What’s Next?
There’s still a possibility that the root cause of the softlock is something else entirely. Because the activity is designed for six players, and not everyone may be aware of how to prevent the softlock, the issue is tricky to control, especially when relying on matchmaking.
Bungie is actively investigating this problem and may release an interim fix or workaround soon.
Until an official patch arrives, the best advice is to avoid burning down the boss too quickly and refrain from using emotes during the Haunted Altars activity.
Stay tuned for updates and enjoy Festival of the Lost safely!
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