How to fix the Haunted Altars softlock in Destiny 2’s Festival of the Lost
Though the usual bugs aren’t around in this year’s Festival of the Lost, Destiny 2 players have found new ones-including a particularly egregious softlock in the new activity, Haunted Altars, which can block your progress. While there’s no confirmed cause, there are a few ways to fix it. The softlock in Haunted Altars can cause players to glitch out at the end of an activity and invalidate everything until that point, sometimes triggering after taking down half of the Headless One’s health bar. It’s especially annoying if you get it multiple times in a row, and with how widespread this issue seems to be, it’s certainly not a stretch. Here’s what may cause it and what you can do to fix it. What causes the Haunted Altars softlock in Destiny 2 The softlock is the scariest part of the event. One is that you’re not supposed to burn down the boss too fast. Getting softlocked for being too efficient isn’t uncommon in Destiny 2, and Bungie seems to be looking at this as the main cause. A hypothesis that surfaced among the community, on the other hand, theorizes the Stunning Emotes modifier may affect the Shriekers, causing them to glitch out permanently. If this is the case, it may become less prevalent if the mission’s modifiers rotate out or the studio removes the problem mutator from play. The most common softlock we encountered is not being able to deal damage to the boss after its first health gate, and it may have a couple of fixes. Destiny 2’s Haunted Altars softlock solutions It’s a fun event when it’s not bugged. Wiping the squad to the Headless One reset the instance and allowed us to take another shot at it, going easy on the boss this time. This solution comes with a couple of downsides. First, it’s hard to get everyone on the same page for a wipe. More often than not, some guardians will just leave, and matchmaking may not find other players. Second, this method only works on difficulties below Ultimatum, since the Extinguish modifier sends you to Orbit if the entire party dies. Taking your foot off the gas in the boss fight may also prevent a softlock, according to Bungie. “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,” the studio recommended. This isn’t a fix, but it’s a potential preventative measure. If Stunning Emotes is causing the glitch, however, there doesn’t seem to be an easy fix. The Shriekers start off the mission as your enemies and change sides after doing certain mechanics, so it’s possible the modifier still acknowledges them as foes and bugs out, even at the end of the run. There’s also the chance that the cause is something else entirely. Both scenarios are difficult to control, especially if you’re matchmaking, since the activity is meant for six guardians and not all of them may be aware of how to stop the softlock from happening. Bungie is still investigating the causes behind this issue, so the developer may come up with an interim fix or workaround. Until then, avoid using emotes and melting the boss. Like our content? Set Destructoid as a Preferred Source on Google in just one step to ensure you see us more frequently in your Google searches! The post How to fix the Haunted Altars softlock in Destiny 2’s Festival of the Lost appeared first on Destructoid.