Destiny 2 Checkpoints: How Raid and Dungeon Saves Work

Checkpoints are the reason a six-hour raid can be finished in three sittings. They are also the reason loot farming works the way it does. Here is the system.

What a checkpoint is

After your fireteam finishes an encounter, the game saves progress on the leader’s character. Relaunching the activity puts you back at that point instead of the start.

Checkpoints apply to every raid encounter and every dungeon encounter. Pantheon saves work the same way.

What does not checkpoint

Nightfalls, Strikes, and Grandmasters have no checkpoints. A wipe means restarting the activity. Grandmaster Nightfalls are built as single full clears, so bring a team that can hold a run for the full duration. Details are on the Grandmaster guide.

When checkpoints reset

Raid and dungeon checkpoints die at the weekly reset, Tuesday at 17:00 UTC. Loot lockouts reset at the same time. A checkpoint lets you finish later, but it never duplicates loot. Each encounter still pays once per character per week.

Rejoining a saved raid

The checkpoint belongs to the leader’s character. Leave and rejoin that same leader to resume. If the leader’s progress is lost, everyone restarts from the beginning.

Before you leave for the night, make sure the leader knows they are holding the checkpoint. Post it in your fireteam chat so nobody relaunches fresh by accident.

Checkpoint farming in dungeons

Dungeons allow unlimited legendary loot, and the checkpoint swap is the fastest method. Reach the encounter you want, wipe on purpose, then switch to a character who has not run the dungeon. Rejoin the fireteam and wipe again to save the checkpoint on that character.

From there, the second character launches on the checkpoint while the first rejoins and completes the fight. Repeat. The Vesper’s Host loot page walks through this with a real example. Exotics still cap at one per character per week.

Boss health and damage math

There is no official boss health spreadsheet because encounter health scales with player count and Power level. Contest Mode equalizes Power but not the rest of the math. What you control is weapon damage, buff windows, and debuff uptime.

For damage planning, use community build sites instead of chasing exact health pools. The god rolls guide covers which perk pairings actually raise your damage.

Checkpoint bots

Discord bots that hold checkpoints exist, but they carry real risk. You are either trusting a stranger with your account or paying for something you can build yourself through LFG. Use the in-game Fireteam Finder instead. The LFG guide covers post wording and safety.

Related guides

• Raids guide
• Dungeons guide
• Vesper’s Host loot
• LFG guide