Gambit

Gambit is a player vs. player vs. environment game mode in Destiny 2, introduced in the Forsaken expansion. Like the Crucible, weapons and armor can be acquired by completing matches, which can be used in the rest of the game. Likewise, gear received elsewhere in the game can be used in Gambit. The Drifter is the Gambit vendor.

Overview

The Drifter's Ship pre-match.

Two teams of four Guardians each are placed into two identical arenas, after a brief break across from each other aboard the Drifter's ship, where the teams can discuss strategy and interact with their opponents. Players compete to kill enemies to collect Motes of Dark, which are deposited at a Bank in the centre of the arena.^[1] Up to fifteen Motes can be held at a time, with half of these dropped if the player dies.

Motes Of Darkness

Depositing at least five, ten, or fifteen Motes will spawn a Taken enemy, dubbed a Blocker, on the other team's Bank which they must kill to continue depositing Motes. These Blockers are a Ravenous Taken Goblin with at least five Motes, a Ravenous Taken Phalanx with at least ten Motes, and a Major Taken Knight with a Stasis Boomer at fifteen Motes. Allowing two blockers to exist at the same time will institute a drain effect on the bank of the blocked team, taking one mote per second that two or more blockers exist. This introduces a layer of strategy to depositing your teams motes.

Banking Motes

On occasion, High-Value Targets will appear, which are minibosses differentiated by a white sparkling aura that drop a large amount of Motes on damage and death, usually enough for a player to nearly fill their Mote inventory. Should a team be trailing greatly behind the opposing team, catch-up targets will appear for them, which are Elite enemies with the same aura as high-value targets that drop more Motes than regular enemies, but not as much as actual high-value targets.

At 40 and 80 Motes deposited, a portal will open up which allows one player to invade the other team's area to hinder their progress by denying Motes.^[2] The Invader will have an overshield, be friendly to the opponents' enemies, and be able to see the locations of every opposing player, at the cost of being announced and glowing red for easy visibility to the opposing team. Popular invasion and counter-invasion tactics include the use of Supers, long-range weapons such as sniper rifles, and heavy weapons such as machine guns like Xenophage. Invaders will return to their team once a timer runs out, they eliminate the entire enemy team, or they are killed. Killing an Invader drops 3 motes, or all the motes they were carrying. An Invader can collect the motes of players they kill, and bring them back to their own arena.

When the bank is full (100 motes), the second phase of Gambit will begin. The Primeval, giant Ultra Taken, will be summoned in their arena, alongside a plethora of Taken minions, while two Primeval Envoys will spawn at one of the Fronts. ^[2] The opposing team's invasion portal will begin to activate periodically.^[3] At this point, the goal of the game is to kill the Primeval before the other team is able to kill their own. Killing the Primeval envoys as soon as possible will remove the invulnerability shield from the Primeval, enabling damage. Invasions now serve the purpose of healing the opposing team's Primeval upon killing a Guardian, to set back their progress towards winning the round.

Gambit Labs

Occasionally, a Gambit Labs mode with experimental rules is made available. These alternate rules have included making it so depositing Motes opens the opposing team's portal, and making it so the Invader drains the opposing team's bank as long as they are in their arena.^[4]

Legacy Rules

Prior to the Beyond Light expansion, Gambit consisted of multiple rounds. The second round of a Gambit match plays identically to the first, with increased enemy difficulty featuring more Elite enemies. If the winning team wins this round, the match ends. Should both teams win only one round, the Sudden Death round is activated, which skips right to the Primeval phase of the match, and all abilities, including Supers, charge significantly quicker.^[3]

A more intense mode of Gambit was known as Gambit Prime, which was a single round match with increased enemy difficulty and new ways to assist the team.^[5]

With the release of Season of the Hunt, Gambit and Gambit Prime were merged into one mode. Matches were made one round, with 100 motes needed to summon Primevals. Blockers are able to drain the opposing team's bank, and banking ten motes summons an Elite Taken Phalanx instead of a Captain. Kell's Grave and Cathedral of Scars were also removed, leaving only 4 maps left.

Current Format

As of Season 16, a series of changes have been made to Gambit. Freelance Gambit, requiring all players to be in a 1-Guardian Fireteam, is now an option at all times. Heavy ammo economy has been reworked slightly- high-value targets now drop heavy ammo bricks, and after successfully clearing each wave, a Heavy Ammo Crate spawns in a set location at the Front that has just been cleared. Invaders no longer have the ability to see how many motes opposing players are carrying, and cannot see player nametags when aiming down sights.

Additionally, during the Primeval phase, the Primeval is fully invulnerable to all incoming damage while Primeval Envoys are on the field. Envoys now spawn at Fronts like enemy waves and must be killed both to generate the Primeval Slayer buff and to remove the Primeval's invulnerable shield. Periodically, new Envoys will spawn, health-locking the Primeval and forcing players to hunt down the Envoys before Primeval DPS can continue.

List of maps

Destiny 2

Map	Location	Expansion	PlayStation Exclusive	Destiny Reprisal	Current Status
Emerald Coast	European Dead Zone, Earth	Forsaken	No	Original	Active
Legion's Folly	Arcadian Valley, Nessus	Forsaken	No	Original	Active
Kell's Grave	Tangled Shore, Reef	Forsaken	No	Original	Vaulted
Cathedral of Scars	Dreaming City, Reef	Forsaken	No	Original	Vaulted
Deep Six	New Pacific Arcology, Titan, Moon of Saturn	Joker's Wild	No	Original	Active
New Arcadia	Hellas Basin, Mars	Joker's Wild	No	Original	Active

Rewards

These weapons and armor can be obtained randomly by completing matches of Gambit and rank-up packages. They also can be focused at The Drifter for the price of a Gambit Engram, Legendary Shards, and Glimmer.