Destiny 2 Ghosts of the Deep Dungeon Guide: All Encounters, Full Loot Table & How to Get The Navigator (2026)

Ghosts of the Deep is one of the best dungeons to farm in Destiny 2 right now — it's the only source of The Navigator, a Strand Trace Rifle that hands out Woven Mail to your whole fireteam, and since the Monument of Triumph update (9.7.0) its entire loot pool was rebuilt with tiered weapons and armor you can farm on rotation. This guide walks all three encounters, the complete loot table, and exactly how The Navigator drops, using the mechanics as they work in the live game today.

Quick answer: Ghosts of the Deep is a 3-player dungeon set in the methane ocean beneath Titan. You clear three encounters — a Hive Ritual opener, Ecthar, the Shield of Savathûn, and the final boss Simmumah ur-Nokru — mostly by depositing "Deepsight" energy and breaking boss shields with the right damage. The final boss can drop the Exotic Strand Trace Rifle The Navigator as a random reward. Since Update 9.7.0 the dungeon awards tiered gear (up to Tier 5 when it's the Featured Dungeon), so it is fully farmable in Destiny's maintenance-mode era. Access needs the Lightfall Dungeon Key (or Destiny 2: The Collection, which bundles every key).

What is Ghosts of the Deep and is it worth running in 2026?

Ghosts of the Deep launched on May 23, 2023 during Season of the Deep, set at the bottom of the Titan methane sea inside a drowned, Hive-infested facility. Savathûn's followers are trying to resurrect her, and you dive down to stop the ritual. It's a moody, water-logged dungeon with two boss fights and a long swim-and-shoot loop between them.

Three reasons it's still worth your time this far into Destiny 2's life:

• The Navigator. A Strand Trace Rifle that only exists here. Firing it at an ally grants Woven Mail to both of you — it's a premier team-support Exotic that never fell out of favour, and it stays relevant in every endgame build.
• Tiered loot (post-9.7.0). Dungeons now roll tiered gear. When Ghosts of the Deep is the weekly Featured Dungeon, its weapons and the Taken King armor set can drop at Tier 5 — the top gear tier — turning it into a real farm instead of a one-and-done.
• Strong weapon pool. The four Legendary weapons all carry the dungeon's Restoration Ritual origin trait, and staples like Cold Comfort (Stasis rocket) and No Survivors (Solar SMG) are still build-relevant.

Destiny 2 is in maintenance mode as of its final major update — Monument of Triumph, June 9, 2026. There are no new seasons coming, but every activity, Ghosts of the Deep included, stays online and farmable indefinitely. That makes evergreen dungeon chases more relevant, not less: this loot isn't going anywhere, and the tiered-gear refresh gave old dungeons a real reason to reopen.

Access: Ghosts of the Deep is a Lightfall-era dungeon, so you need the Lightfall Dungeon Key. As of June 9, 2026 that key is bundled into Destiny 2: The Collection, or it can be bought individually from Eververse. Newer Renegades dungeons dropped the separate-key requirement, but this one still uses it. Launch it from the Savathûn's Throne World / Titan dungeon node in the Raids & Dungeons menu of the Director.

What changed with the Monument of Triumph loot refresh?

This is the single biggest reason to revisit an old dungeon. In the Update 9.7.0 patch notes, Bungie confirmed the sweeping change to legacy raids and dungeons:

"All pre-The Edge of Fate raids and dungeons have been updated to drop tiered rewards — tiered armor with unique set bonuses, and tiered weapons with new origin traits."

In practice, for Ghosts of the Deep that means:

• Tiered weapons — the four Legendary weapons now roll at higher tiers with better stat ceilings.
• Tiered armor with set bonuses — the Taken King armor set now carries real 2-piece and 4-piece bonuses (more on those below).
• Featured Dungeon rotation — each week Destiny features two raids and two dungeons. When Ghosts of the Deep is featured, its gear is farmable at Tier 5 (Standard), with a Master version pushing even higher, instead of being weekly-locked.

How many encounters does Ghosts of the Deep have?

Three, connected by underwater traversal sections and two hidden secret chests (one between each pair of encounters) that award any weapon or armor piece you've already unlocked in the dungeon.

Encounter 1: The Hive Ritual (Descent)

The opener is a mechanics encounter, not a boss. You dive to the ocean floor and fight through the Hive to disrupt their resurrection ritual.

How it works:

• Clear the waves of Hive and defeat the Wizards/Knights that spawn as objectives at the ritual site.
• Pick up the relic/charge they drop and deposit it at the ritual to build progress.
• Managing the adds and the deposit timer is the whole encounter — keep the arena clear so you can deposit safely.
• When the ritual is fully disrupted, the path deeper into the facility opens.

Loot: the first encounter drops early Legendary weapons and armor pieces (No Survivors, New Pacific Epitaph, Cold Comfort) plus Taken King armor.

Encounter 2: Ecthar, the Shield of Savathûn

The first true boss. Ecthar is a giant Hive Knight protected by a heavy shield you have to strip before you can hurt his health bar — and the trick is a buff called Piercing Light, not raw DPS.

How it works:

• Kill the Wellkeeper Knight. A special Wellkeeper Knight spawns alongside Ecthar. Defeat it and it drops a well of Light (a green pool) on the ground.
• Stand in the well to gain the Piercing Light buff. This is what lets you break Ecthar's shield — a Sword is the fastest way to strip it while buffed.
• Once the shield is down, damage his health bar. He re-shields, so it's a repeating cycle of Wellkeeper Knight → Piercing Light → break shield → damage.
• When Ecthar drops, crush his Hive Ghost (it appears nearby) or he'll resurrect and you'll have to do it all again. Keep the surrounding Lucent Hive adds cleared during each window.

Loot: No Survivors, Greasy Luck (the Solar glaive), Cold Comfort, and Taken King armor.

Final Encounter: Simmumah ur-Nokru

The final boss, and the only place The Navigator drops. Simmumah is a powerful Hive Wizard trying to resurrect Savathûn, protected by a Deepsight + Vestige symbol-matching mechanic.

How it works:

• Crush the Ghost near Simmumah to start, then reveal the illusion in the arena to gain the Deepsight buff.
• Head into the side caves, kill the Lucent Hive light-bearers (Knight/Wizard), and note the Hive symbol floating above each of their Ghosts. Destroy it to collect a Vestige of Light.
• Return to the main room while Deepsight is active and deposit each Vestige at its matching Hive symbol. Deepsight expires quickly, so reactivate it if it drops.
• Deposit all three Vestiges to trigger the damage phase. Burst Simmumah down with rockets (Cold Comfort), a damage super, or a Divinity-anchored setup, then repeat the loop until she's dead.

Loot: the full weapon pool, Taken King armor, and a chance at The Navigator Exotic.

Ghosts of the Deep full loot table

Reward	Type / Element	Where it drops
No Survivors	Submachine Gun · Solar	All three encounters
New Pacific Epitaph	Grenade Launcher · Stasis	Encounters 1 & 3
Greasy Luck	Glaive · Solar	Encounters 2 & 3
Cold Comfort	Rocket Launcher · Stasis	All three encounters
The Navigator	Trace Rifle · Strand (Exotic)	Simmumah (final boss)
Taken King armor set	Helmet / Arms / Chest / Legs / Class Item	All encounters
Recalcitrant Host	Exotic Sparrow	Collectible / drop

All four Legendary weapons share the Restoration Ritual origin trait: reviving allies or defeating combatants with finishers reloads this weapon and readies an emergency ammo refill for the next time it runs dry. The Taken King armor set's Monument-of-Triumph set bonuses are:

• 2-Piece — The Ceremony: finishing combatants or reviving fallen allies starts a Lucent Hive ritual that boosts your Super stat while active.
• 4-Piece — Lucent Swarm: collecting Orbs of Power extends the Ceremony ritual, and while it's active your ability final blows occasionally spawn allied Arc moths that seek out enemies.

How to get The Navigator in Destiny 2

There is no quest for The Navigator — it's a random drop from Simmumah ur-Nokru, the final boss. That means your job is to maximise both your number of runs and your per-run drop chance:

• Run it weekly on all three characters for more rolls when it isn't the featured farm.
• Farm it during the Featured Dungeon week. When Ghosts of the Deep is one of the week's two featured dungeons, the final encounter is farmable, so you get repeat rolls in a single sitting.
• Complete the drop-rate Triumphs. Finishing the dungeon on Master, finding all the memories/collectibles (the In Memoriam Triumph), and completing it solo each increase your Navigator drop chance. Stack these before you grind.

Once you own it, chase the Catalyst, which is earned by completing a three-stage puzzle inside the dungeon. The upgraded Navigator is one of the best team-support weapons in the game.

Why it's worth the grind: Protective Weave grants Woven Mail (a strong damage-resist buff) to both you and any ally you shoot, and Weft Cutter severs targets under sustained fire. In a maintenance-mode meta built around survivability, a weapon that blankets your fireteam in Woven Mail without spending an ability is genuinely best-in-slot for endgame support.

Should you run Ghosts of the Deep solo?

Yes — it's fully soloable, and there are Triumphs (with an exclusive emblem, A Grave Matter) for a Solo Flawless clear. Solo runs are slower because you handle every mechanic and boss-damage phase yourself with no revive backup, but nothing scales up in complexity. If your goal is purely farming The Navigator, a coordinated three-player team is far faster for stacking rolls. Save the Solo Flawless attempt for after you know Ecthar's shield cycle and Simmumah's Deepsight loop cold. Clearing all 10 dungeon Triumphs earns the "Ghoul" title.

Beat Ghosts of the Deep and farm The Navigator faster

Ghosts of the Deep isn't the hardest dungeon, but The Navigator RNG and a Solo Flawless run can eat a lot of hours. If you'd rather skip straight to the loot, our pro fireteams clear it fast and farm the final boss for your weekly rolls:

Save the grind and get the drops:

- Destiny 2 Carries & Boosts — Ghosts of the Deep runs, weekly Navigator farming & Solo Flawless

- Destiny 2 Raid Carries — day-one & weekly raids with a pro team

- Destiny 2 Power Leveling — hit the gear cap fast and safely

Prefer other dungeons? See our guides to the Vesper's Host dungeon, the Warlord's Ruin dungeon, the Prophecy dungeon, and the newer Equilibrium dungeon. Grinding gear you pull here? Our Ascendant Shards guide covers masterworking the best rolls.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is the Ghosts of the Deep dungeon located? It's at the bottom of the methane ocean beneath Titan, inside a drowned Hive facility. Launch it from the Raids & Dungeons node in the Director once you have access — it's a Lightfall-era dungeon, so it needs the Lightfall Dungeon Key (now bundled into Destiny 2: The Collection).

How many encounters does Ghosts of the Deep have? Three: an opening Hive Ritual encounter, Ecthar, the Shield of Savathûn (the first boss), and Simmumah ur-Nokru (the final boss). Underwater traversal sections and two hidden secret chests connect them.

How do you get The Navigator in Ghosts of the Deep? The Navigator is a random drop from the final boss, Simmumah — there's no quest. Run the dungeon weekly on all three characters, farm it during its Featured Dungeon week, and complete the Master, solo, and collectible Triumphs that raise its drop chance. It's pure RNG, so the Triumph boosts matter.

Can you farm Ghosts of the Deep loot? Yes. Since Update 9.7.0 dungeons award tiered gear, and when Ghosts of the Deep is the weekly Featured Dungeon its weapons and the Taken King armor can drop at Tier 5. During a featured week the final encounter is farmable for repeated Navigator rolls.

Is The Navigator still good in 2026? Yes — it grants Woven Mail to both the user and any ally you shoot, making it one of the best team-support Exotics in the game for endgame survivability, and its Catalyst (from a three-stage in-dungeon puzzle) upgrades it further.

Are there still new Destiny 2 seasons after this? No. Monument of Triumph (Update 9.7.0, June 9, 2026) was Destiny 2's final major update, and the game is now in maintenance mode — all content, including Ghosts of the Deep, stays online and farmable, but there are no new paid seasons or expansions coming.