Get ready to embrace the chill and festive spirit in Destiny 2 with the “Winter Night” quest, your gateway to earning the coveted Dawning Memento. This seasonal challenge blends snowball fights with strategic upgrades and classic cookie deliveries, offering a fresh twist on holiday fun in the game. Whether you’re a seasoned Guardian or new to The Dawning event, mastering this quest will reward you with a unique cosmetic that tracks your stats and unlocks an exclusive shader, perfect for decking out your arsenal in wintery style.
To complete “Winter Night” and earn the new, event-only Memento – similar to the recent Festival of the Lost Memento – you’ll need to get into quite a few Snowball fights and bake some cookies for everyone’s favorite space grandma, Eva Levante.
In this Destiny 2 guide, we’ll walk you through how to complete “Winter Night” quick, how you can get the Dawning Memento, and how it works.
’Winter Night’ quest steps and walkthrough in Destiny 2
The “Winter Night” quest in Destiny 2 is part of The Dawning event and tasks players with completing three main objectives to earn The Dawning Memento. First, players must get 75 Snowball final blows and 25 upgraded Snowball final blows, which require unlocking upgrades from Eva Levante using Dawning Spirit currency. Snowballs drop randomly from defeated enemies, and upgraded snowballs have enhanced effects. Finally, players need to deliver a Classic Butter Cookie to Eva. These steps can be done in any order, but farming snowball kills is easier in areas with many enemies, such as the Moon’s Sorrow’s Harbor or Neomuna’s Terminal Overload activity. After completing these tasks, players receive The Dawning Memento, which can be inserted into a weapon at the Enclave to unlock a unique shader by leveling the weapon to 30. Additional Mementos can be earned by opening Gifts in Return, obtained through cookie deliveries to NPCs during the event.
Once you’ve started the “Cookie Delivery Helper” quest with Eva Levante, you can return to her to pick up the “Winter Night” quest. To complete “Winter Night,” you’ll need to do three things:
- Get 75 Snowball final blows
- Get 25 upgraded Snowball final blows
- Deliver a Classic Butter Cookie to Eva
Start out by baking Eva her favorite cookies using the Classic Butter Cookie recipe in your Eva’s Holiday Oven. Deliver the cookies to Eva and you’ll tick that box.
The other two objectives take a bit more work. You can find Snowballs everywhere in Destiny 2 during The Dawning. All you need to do to spawn one is score a weapon kill on an enemy. They then have a chance to drop a Snowball. Keep picking up Snowballs and chucking them at other enemies to rack up your 75 required kills.
These snowballs do start out pretty weak, however, so getting actual kills with them will be slow going at the start. To up your Snowball potency, you’ll need to spend Dawning Spirit on upgrades at Eva. Coincidentally, this is also how you’ll be able to earn upgraded Snowball final blows for the quest.
Collect 60 Dawning Spirit by turning in bounties and delivering cookies. (Eva’s Weekly bounties give 10 Dawning Spirit each, which is especially good if you have multiple characters.) Then return to Eva and purchase three Snowball upgrades: Long Winter, Longer Winter, and Stay Frosty. You need all three of these upgrades in order to progress the final step of the quest.
With your Snowballs upgraded, continue getting kills (the Stay Frosty Stasis Mine really helps take down groups) by launching Snowballs at groups of enemies. The best way to do this is to just go to your favorite location like Nessus or the Dreaming City and throw Snowballs at packs of enemies as they spawn.
Once you finish the first step of “Winter Night,” return to Eva and she’ll hand over the Dawning Memento.
How to apply the Dawning Memento in Destiny 2
To apply the Dawning Memento in Destiny 2, first complete the Winter Night quest from Eva Levante to earn the Memento. Then, visit The Enclave in the Tower to shape or reshape a crafted weapon and insert the Dawning Memento into its dedicated slot. Once applied, you can level the weapon up to 30 by defeating enemies or using resources, which unlocks the unique Rime Keepsake Shader associated with the Memento. This shader gives your weapon an icy, animated appearance and tracks how many Snowballs you create with it. Note that you can only hold one Dawning Memento at a time, and each must be applied before obtaining another from Gifts in Return.
You can apply the Dawning Memento to any of your crafted weapons by visiting The Enclave. Once you attach the Memento to your gun, you’ll be able to track how many Snowballs you create with it starting at weapon level 1. At level 20, your gun will get the Winter Night title, and at level 30 you’ll unlock the Rime Keepsake Shader, which is only available to use on weapons that have the Dawning Memento applied. You can see the unique shader on the Root of Nightmares weapon Rufus’s Fury (Adept) in the image above!
How to get more Dawning Mementos in Destiny 2
To get more Dawning Mementos in Destiny 2, you first need to complete the Winter Night quest from Eva Levante, which involves getting snowball final blows and upgraded snowball final blows by unlocking specific snowball upgrades using Dawning Spirit. Dawning Spirit is earned by completing Dawning challenges, delivering cookies to NPCs, and finishing event activities. After completing the quest, you receive your first Dawning Memento. To farm additional Mementos, focus on turning in cookies to NPCs to receive Gifts in Return, which have a chance to drop extra Mementos. Efficient farming of Dawning Spirit and ingredients for baking cookies-such as by running fast activities like the Shatter Throne boss checkpoint or the Dolan CaRu farm for Essence of the Dawning-will speed up the process of making cookies and turning them in repeatedly to maximize your chances of earning more Mementos.
If you love the special Dawning Memento shader and title, you’ll need more Dawning Mementos to apply to your gun. To get more, the game says you’ll need to open Gifts in Return, which you get from characters when you deliver cookies to them during The Dawning. Unfortunately, additional Dawning Mementos do seem pretty rare, and we’ve been unable to confirm for ourselves if they’re dropping properly. However, according to YouTuber and Destiny secret hunter Skarrow9, additional Mementos are dropping from Gifts in Return.
What secret strategies can help me complete the Winter Night quest faster in Destiny 2
To complete the Winter Night quest faster in Destiny 2 and earn The Dawning Memento efficiently, consider these secret strategies:
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Farm Snowball Final Blows in High-Enemy Spawn Areas: Engage in activities like the Terminal Overload in Neomuna or Lost Sectors where large groups of enemies spawn, allowing rapid accumulation of the required 75 snowball final blows.
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Upgrade Snowballs Early: Purchase the Long Winter and Stay Frosty upgrades from Eva to enhance snowballs, making their slow effects last longer and enabling them to drop Stasis mines. This not only helps in achieving the 25 upgraded snowball final blows faster but also synergizes with Stasis subclass abilities.
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Use Dawning Spirit Efficiently: Equip the Dawning Star Fara exotic ship to passively generate Dawning Spirit, the currency needed to buy snowball upgrades. Additionally, bake and deliver cookies to NPCs to gain more Dawning Spirit quickly.
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Choose Easy Farming Spots: Lost Sectors are recommended for snowball kills as they are less contested by other players and offer quick enemy kills without PvP interference.
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Combine Objectives: Bake a batch of classic butter cookies right after starting the quest to complete the delivery step concurrently with snowball kills, saving time.
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Avoid Character Switching Issues: Be cautious when switching characters mid-quest, as the quest may bug and reset progress, forcing you to redo steps.
By focusing on these tactics, you can streamline the quest completion and unlock the Dawning Memento and its exclusive shader with minimal downtime.
What are the most effective ways to upgrade snowballs quickly in Destiny 2
The most effective way to upgrade snowballs quickly in Destiny 2 is to follow the upgrade path from Eva Levante by first unlocking Long Winter, then Longer Winter, and finally Stay Frosty-only after obtaining the Stay Frosty upgrade will your upgraded snowball kills count towards the quest progress.
To gather the required Dawning Spirit currency for these upgrades efficiently:
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Complete Dawning bounties and challenges.
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Bake and deliver cookies to vendors, which grants Dawning Spirit.
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Use the Dawning Star Fara exotic ship to passively generate Dawning Spirit.
Avoid buying the later snowball upgrades beyond Stay Frosty if your goal is to have kills count for the quest, as some upgrades like shatter effects can cause kills not to register properly.
Once you have Stay Frosty, focus on areas with dense enemy spawns, such as Lost Sectors on Europa, to maximize upgraded snowball final blows quickly. This method ensures your upgraded snowball kills count and speeds up quest completion.
