PsiOps Battleground: Moon

PsiOps Battleground: Moon
Information
Location	Moon
Players	1‑3
Power	1900 (Vanguard Ops playlist) 1990 (Legend PsiOps Battlegrounds) 2000 (Grandmaster Nightfall)
Expansion	Season of the Risen
Enemies	Hive
Boss	Za'val, Lightseeder (Lightbearer Acolyte)
Description	The Lucent Hive have opened a portal between Savathûn's throne world and the Scarlet Keep. Break up the portal ritual and prevent a full‑scale invasion of Earth.

PsiOps Battleground: Moon is an Arena‑style activity introduced in Season of the Risen and originally launched from the PsiOps Battlegrounds playlist or the Moon Director node. Most Year‑5 seasonal content entered the Destiny Content Vault with Lightfall, but the PsiOps arenas remained in the game and were merged into the Vanguard Ops strike playlist. They cannot be launched directly—except when the Moon Battleground is featured as that week’s Nightfall or Grandmaster Nightfall, in which case a dedicated Director node appears.

Modifiers

Vanguard Ops playlist

• Weekly Surges: Two of the following elements rotate each reset – Arc, Solar, Void, Strand.
• Threat: One damage type (usually Solar in this activity) dealt by enemies is increased.
• Overcharged Weapon: One weapon family (for example Auto Rifles) deals bonus damage.
• Galvanized: Combatants have more health and are harder to stagger.
• Rotating wildcard modifiers such as Scorched Earth.
• Note: Although the Champion Foes text may appear, no Champions spawn in the Vanguard‑Ops version following update 7.3.5.

Legend / Nightfall / Grandmaster

Legend, Nightfall, and GM variants inherit the standard Nightfall rule‑set for the current Season/Episode:

• Acute Surge & Threat matching the weekly elements.
• Equipment Locked, Match Game, Shielded Foes, Extinguish (GM only), etc.
• Champion Foes: Barrier and Unstoppable Champions are present.
• One weekly wildcard (for example Empath, Fire Pit, Martyr).

Walkthrough

Sorrow’s Harbor

Guardians deploy in Sorrow’s Harbor, clearing three waves of Lucent Hive—Thrall, Acolytes, Knights, and a Lightbearer Knight. A Heavy‑ammo crate sits by the landing zone. Champions appear only on Legend or above. Defeating all enemies opens the path to the Scarlet Keep.

Scarlet Keep ritual

Inside the Keep, defend two Imperial Psion Operants as they disrupt the Hive portal. Defeat Hive Purifiers to collect 10 Lucent Moths and dunk them into the central receptacle (progress bar shows 10 increments). Hive reinforcements include Lightbearer Wizards, Shriekers, and Champions (Legend+). Depositing all moths opens the Mindscape.

The Mindscape

• Boss: Za'val, Lightseeder (Lightbearer Acolyte)
• Two immunity phases: At ~66 % and ~33 % health Za'val retreats and summons 1 then 2 Aspects of Savathûn.
• Pick up Synaptic Spears (marked by waypoints) and throw them to destroy the Aspects, removing Za'val’s shield.
• Za'val’s Arc super is lethal through thin cover in Grandmaster. Use burst DPS supers or Linear Fusion Rifles between add wipes.
• Finish by crushing Za'val’s Ghost to end the activity.

Notes

• Completing the Battleground during Season of the Risen advanced Operation Elbrus and awarded Psychogenic Intel and Risen Umbral Energy; these chests were removed with Lightfall.
• The long‑standing soft‑lock where moths failed to register was largely fixed in hotfix 8.1.0, but can still occur rarely.
• A Platinum‑medal Nightfall strategy keeps the fireteam near the spawn platform to manage Champion spawns safely.

Patch History

• 4.0.0.1 – Added PsiOps Battleground: Moon (22 Feb 2022).
• 4.1.0 – Introduced Legend difficulty (22 Mar 2022).
• 6.0.0 – Moved to Vanguard Ops playlist with Lightfall (28 Feb 2023).
• 6.3.0.5 – Fixed revives not granting score in PsiOps Battlegrounds (18 Jan 2023).
• 7.1.5.3 – kills now count correctly in Nightfall scoring (29 Aug 2023).
• 7.3.5 – Removed Champion combatants from Vanguard Ops versions of all PsiOps Battlegrounds (5 Dec 2023).
• 8.0.0 – Raised Power floor to 1900 and replaced Singe/Brawler/Grenadier with Surge/Threat/Overcharge modifiers (4 Jun 2024).
• 8.1.0 – Fixed rare Lucent‑Moth soft‑lock during Scarlet Keep ritual (14 Nov 2024).