History of Warden's Judgment

Overview

Warden's Judgment is the performance system that adjusts difficulty and rewards in the Destiny 2 Contest of Elders. Completing bonus or secondary objectives moves the fireteam toward positive stacks of Warden's Favor; failing them moves it toward Warden's Punishment. The positive and negative effects each stack up to three times in the original Episode: Revenant version.

The rating changes enemy pressure and loop rewards. Favor increases difficulty but improves rewards and can skip the initial cryopod encounter after a loop; Punishment lowers difficulty but invokes the Punishment Protocol and requires that encounter. Details are from the 2024 launch-era version; availability and tuning may change.

Sources

• Tomb of Elders (describes the Warden's Judgment system, stack effects, and post-loop outcomes).
• Tomb of Elders activity reveal (quotes Bungie's description of positive/negative Judgment and the two outcomes; published November 2024).