History of Warden's Judgment

Warden's Judgment is the performance system that adjusts difficulty and rewards in Destiny 2's 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. Warden's Favor increases difficulty but improves rewards and can skip the initial cryopod encounter after a loop; Warden's Punishment lowers difficulty but triggers the required extra encounter. These details are from the 2024 launch-era version; tuning may have changed since.