Where is Xur? What time does Iron Banner start? All your Destiny event and reset questions answered

Destiny players have a lot to keep track of. Use our cheat sheet to quickly grok what's happening in Bungie's shared-worlds shooter.

If you're new to Destiny: The Taken King, returning after some time away ahead of the release of Rise of Iron in September or just confused about time zones, we're here for you. From reset time to special events, here's what's happening and when.

Daily and weekly Destiny resets

What time is daily reset and what happens?
Every day, reset delivers a a fresh stack of Crucible and Vanguard bounties; a new Heroic Daily mission; and a daily featured Crucible playlist. Destiny resets daily at 9:00am UTC. What time this is in your time zone varies depending on daylight savings in both hemispheres, so it's best to manually check the time for your region if you're not in one of the regions below. These times are valid as of August 2016 and will be updated after daylights savings changes.

Western Europe: 11:00am
UK: 10:00am
US East Coast: 5:00am
US West Coast: 2:00am
Sydney: 7:00pm

When is weekly reset?
Destiny resets weekly on Tuesdays at 9:00am UTC – the same time as that listed above. Weekly reset delivers a new Nightfall strike and a new weekly featured Crucible playlist. It also rotates Court of Oryx bosses, Prison of Elders challenges, and the King's Fall raid challenge. It resets Raid checkpoints, allowing you to earn loot from Raids again. As of the release of The Taken King in September 2015, earned currencies are not affected by the weekly reset; the only cap is how much you can fit in your wallet.

What's this week's Nightfall/Court of Oryx boss/Prison of Elders challenge/King's Fall Raid challenge?
You can always see the latest details on weekly events by checking our Destiny Weekly Reset tag.

What time does Xur arrive in the tower?
A mysterious Agent of the Nine with a stack of rare and tasty merchandise, Xur arrives at 9:00am UTC on Friday – again, the daily reset time listed above – and stays through to reset on Sunday.

Where is Xur? What is Xur selling?
We post Xur's inventory and location each week.

What time does Trials of Osiris start and end?
A weekly elimination-style 3v3 tournament, Trials of Osiris is the most difficult PvP challenge. Unusually, it doesn't kick off at reset; you can earn your way to the Lighthouse from 5:00pm UTC on Fridays. Check what time that is in your region. The event runs through to weekly reset on Tuesday.

Destiny events

When does Iron Banner start and end?
Iron Banner is a sporadic PvP event where power matters. We love it, and its essential for earning endgame gear. The latest Iron Banner took place from noon PT, August 16 through 2:00am PT, August 23.

When is the next Iron Banner?
Bungie has not yet announced the next Iron Banner. An Iron Banner has been held roughly once a month for most of 2016, except when interrupted by technical issues, so we would expect the next one to kick off on September 20 – but that's the release day for Rise of Iron, the next major expansion, which is expected to introduce changes to the Iron Banner system. Stay tuned for updates on that front, but don't expect any special events for at least a week after Rise of Iron launches.

What is Festival of the Lost?
Festival of the Lost was a complicated event to celebrate Halloween 2015. Players could collect candy and use it to purchase masks. The Tower was decorated for the event. It will return sometime after Rise of Iron launches in September 2016; we're betting at the end of October.

What is Sparrow Racing League?
Sparrow Racing League was a competitive racing event which ran over the Holiday 2015 break, fronting multiple maps. Rewards included Sparrows, horns and emotes as well as potentially high-level equipment drops – tailored for Sparrow Racing. It will return sometime after Rise of Iron launches in September 2016; we're betting over the 2016 holiday season.

What is Crimson Days?
Crimson Days was a 2v2 PvP event for Valentine's Day 2016. Players were able to earn drops up to 320 Light and were guaranteed a 320 Ghost as a special reward. Fresh emotes were created for the event, and there were special buff items which expired when the romance died. The tower was decked out with roses and petals. We don't know if it will ever return, as it had some problems, but keep an eye out for in February 2017.

What is Queen's Wrath?
The very first Destiny event, Queen's Wrath allowed for rapid character growth and was almost immediately nerfed. It retired ignobly, but some of its core concepts such as Queen's Wrath bounties later turned up in expanded form as part of the House of Wolves DLC pack. As of the release of The Taken King, House of Wolves is a permanent fixture of the base Destiny package. We have no indication Queen's Wrath will ever come back as a recurring PvE event.

Destiny Roadmap

What's next for Destiny?
As of August 2016, the Destiny roadmap has not been revealed past the next major content drop, Rise of Iron, and a mention of the inevitable sequel. Based on the success of Bungie's live team over 2015, we expect to see multiple smaller free updates between Rise of Iron and Destiny 2, including at least one major shake up along with multiple seasonal events, rather than traditional paid DLC drops.

When's the next Destiny DLC?

Destiny: Rise of Iron launches September 20 2016 for PS4 and Xbox One only; PS3 and Xbox 360 players must upgrade to continue their adventures. Pre-orders unlock the Iron Gjallarhorn and Iron Gjallarwing.

In Rise of Iron, Lord Saladin, the host of the Iron Banner and last of the Iron Lords, is one of the key NPCs guiding players through the content, which will reveal much more about this legendary group of Guardians.

Rise of Iron moves Destiny's timeline forward again, so expect to farewell the Taken currently roaming all Destinations. The new foes in Rise of Iron are the Splicers, a faction of Fallen who breached the wall around the Last City, rediscovering a self-replicating nanotechnology plague called SIVA which the Iron Lords locked away long ago. In battling these foes, Guardians can take their place in the ranks of the Iron Lords.

All the latest news on the expansion can be found at our Destiny: Rise of Iron tag.

What's coming with the next Destiny expansion, Rise of Iron?
Destiny: Rise of Iron's main features are:

New Destination, Earth: Plaguelands
Overhaul to existing location, Earth: Old Russia – Cosmodrome
New social space, Felwinter Peak
New story missions and quests
New strike, The Wretched Eye
Remixed existing strikes including The Devil's Lair
Archon's Forge public PvE event
New limited-use weapon, a flaming battle axe
New raid, Wrath of the Machine
Light level increase to 385, or 400 with hard mode raid gear
New weapons, including Exotics and endgame Gjallarhorn and Khvostov
New armour sets
A new armour customisation system called Ornaments
New, gameplay-affecting, class-agnostic artifacts
New vendor and quest handler Tyra Karn
Rise of Iron Record Book unlocking unique rewards
The return of seasonal events
Four new PvP maps, one of which is PS4 exclusive
New PvP mode, Supremacy
Private PvP matches (free update to all Destiny players)

When does Destiny 2 come out?
Activision Blizzard currently expects Destiny 2 to release in 2017. We suspect it'll be a major holiday release. It almost certainly won't come to PS3 or Xbox 360.

Did we answer all your questions? Is there anything else you want to know about how Destiny changes from week to week? Get in touch and let us know.