Patrol

Patrol is an activity available in Destiny. Patrol allows players to freely roam in a location. Players can battle enemies, locate and accept patrol missions, partake in Public Events, or simply explore at their own leisure.

Patrol Missions
Patrol missions are short objectives that Guardians can accept while patrolling. The Guardian can only take on one patrol mission at a time. They can be completed for bounties and to gain faction reputation. They appear as green blinking beacons in the world, and can also be seen as floating icons in the Ghost's navigation mode.

In Year 1, most patrol missions gave 10 reputation each, while missions to kill a specific target gave 25 reputation. In Year 2, patrol missions gave 10, 15, and 25 reputation; they also now automatically grant Faction reputation at half the Vanguard reputation amount. After the 2.2.1 update of April 2016, Kill and Collection patrol missions now give 20 Faction reputation and 40 Vanguard reputation, while all others give 25 and 50 reputation, respectively.

Each icon corresponds to a different objective for the mission. The missions may take place in different areas of the map, but will always be some variant of these patterns:

Secret Mission
After completing a random number of patrol missions, a special mission may start automatically. This new mission is described by the Ghost as a mysterious signal, encrypted with an "activity cipher" that prevents clear instructions from being given. The player must experiment with various actions to discover the mission's requirement; if the discovery is not made within a few minutes, the requirement will be gradually revealed. After discovering and completing 3 stages, the player will be granted 12 faction reputation and 25 Vanguard reputation, as well as 2-3 Strange Coins.

The name of the mission depends on the destination on which it occurs:

The possible actions that may be required to advance each stage:


 * Kill enemies (Enemies Defeated, Enemy Creatures Slain)
 * Kill enemies with precision shots (Critical Kills, Heads Blown Off)
 * Generate orbs of light (Orbs of Light Generated)
 * Harvest resources (Materials Gathered; resources are planetary material nodes, treasures chests, and orbs of light)
 * Pick up items dropped by certain enemies (Corpses Looted, Enemy Resources Gathered)
 * Dance (use any dance emote) (Dance Floors Mastered, Feelings Expressed)

Trivia

 * Patrol was called "Explore" in the Destiny Public Beta.