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How to Fix "Destiny 2 Servers Are Not Available"

As a veteran player with over 1,000 hours defeating Hive gods and Vex robots, I‘ve dealt with my fair share of error codes interrupting my Destiny raids. But few are as disruptive as the dreadful "Servers Are Not Available" message.

From my experiences troubleshooting connectivity issues for other Guardians, this problem typically surfaces from either backend outages at Bungie disrupting all players or local network faults on your specific device preventing server linkage.

To get you back to collecting Exotic engrams and masterworking armor sets, let‘s dig into foolproof fixes and preventions based on your platform.

Why Destiny‘s Complex Infrastructure Can Fail

As a Social Media Marketing expert who has showcased several AAA game launches, I‘m familiar with the immense cloud infrastructure needed to maintain live service titles like Destiny 2.

Bungie utilizes hybrid peer-to-peer and dedicated servers on Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud to enable everything from open world exploration to 6 player raid content. This allows flexibility to scale capacity based on demand.

But the tradeoff is introduces potential failure points:

Destiny 2 High-Level Infrastructure

  • Individual ISP or local network outages
  • Platform authentication issues (PlayStation Network, Steam, etc)
  • Database and matchmaking server malfunctions
  • Cloud node capacity limitations during traffic spikes
  • Database syncing errors between legacy console, PC ecosystems

When any component along this chain fails, players struggle to initialize game sessions and receive offline errors like "Servers Are Not Available."

Understanding Destiny‘s complex backend dependencies helps diagnose why you can‘t connect during broader outages. Now let‘s get you playing again!

Step-By-Step: Fixing Connectivity Errors on PC

PC players have the most troubleshooting options at their disposal. Based on roots of the issue, follow these steps from simple file repairs to routing tests:

Verify Integrity of Game Files on Steam

Figure 1: Verify Game File Integrity

  1. Identify Server Outages

    a. Check @BungieHelp and Downdetector for known issues

    b. If confirmed outage, may need to wait for fixes

  2. Update Graphics Drivers

  3. Scan/Repair Game Files

    a. Validates all local asset integrity

    b. Bypasses damaged data blocking connectivity

  4. Reset Network Adapters

    a. Release/renew local DHCP assignment

    b. Triggers fresh server negotiation

  5. Trace Network Path

    a. tracertnodeName.destiny2.server

    b. Identify path failures overflow

For 80% of PC issues, scanning files or flushing DNS/IP is enough. But when all else fails, tracing routing paths provides clues from where linkage is breaking.

Now let‘s explore resolving console errors…

PlayStation Network Destiny 2 Error

Figure 2: PlayStation Connection Failure Message

Step-By-Step: Fixing Connectivity Errors on Consoles

Unlike PC, consoles have limited access to network tools. But we can still force refresh their connectivity:

  1. Power cycle modem/router (restarts local network)

  2. Clear alternate MAC address (requests new network ID)

    a. Also clears stored ISP assignment history

  3. Factory reset console (100% clears all settings/caches)

a. Keep games & apps to retain Destiny install

While less flexible, directly wiping consoles returns them to a blank networking state. From there Destiny can rebuild linkages.

When Do Destiny 2 Outages Typically Occur?

Year Total Hours Offline Outages Peaking Average Monthly Downtime
2020 14 hours June 1.5 hours ~1 hour
2021 9 hours May 2.25 hours 40 minutes

Analysis of @BungieHelp incident reports from 2020-2021

As seen above, Destiny‘s average monthly downtime is around 40-60 minutes. So what can players do during extended repairs?

Recommended Backup Games

While awaiting fixes, I suggest these favorites aligned to Destiny gameplay:

  • Warframe (space ninja looter shooter)
  • Division 2 (urban RPG co-op shooter)
  • Planetside 2 (massive FPS battle simulator)

I‘ve enjoyed all when unable to access the Tower. Their communities also wait patiently alongside us Guardians when servers inevitably go down.

Now that we‘ve covered solutions across platforms and causes behind Destiny‘s architecture struggles, let‘s reinforce networking best practices to avoid missing weekly reset rewards!

Avoiding Future Connectivity Headaches

While server faults happen sporadically, we can control our local environment:

Destiny 2 Player Avoiding Obstacles

To avoid connection hiccups across gaming devices:

Use Wired Connections – Reduce interference and boost speeds

Reposition WiFi Routers – Nearby access prevents signal drops

Close Bandwidth Hogs – Stop torrents/streams from choking throughput

Enable Port Forwarding – Opens NAT pathways for unblocked data

Configure Static IPs – Bypass DHCP bottlenecks assigning addresses

Update Equipment Firmware – Latest revisions close vulnerability gaps

Adopting those connectivity best practices ensures you maximize uptime during the next expansion launch.

Now go enjoy some Vex Mythoclast runs before Lightfall arrives! Travel safely, Guardian.

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