Long earlier than Destiny 2 hit the excessive factors of Forsaken, The Witch Queen, or The Final Shape—hell, earlier than there was even a Destiny 2—The Taken King was peak Destiny. Aboard the Dreadnought, the titanic flagship spacecraft of the Hive God Oryx, the primary recreation lastly hit its stride, offering a compelling villain, an imminently repeatable public occasion within the Court of Oryx, and the Book of Sorrows: An in-game lore tome that turned Destiny’s melange of correct nouns into a correct mythology.
Eventually, Destiny moved on. Oryx was defeated, sequels have been launched, free-to-play fashions have been adopted, publishing agreements shifted, and the Dreadnought was left in house: uncared for, however maybe not totally deserted. In a prolonged developer livestream that aired earlier immediately, Bungie detailed what’s coming in subsequent week’s launch of Destiny 2’s Heresy episode, which lastly sends gamers again into the Dreadnought to face new horrors churning in its depths.
For those that have not saved up with Destiny, the top of The Final Shape noticed the Traveler, liberated from the machinations of the omnicidal Witness, launch a sequence of echoes: globs of unfathomable house magic which have since unfold all through the photo voltaic system with a nasty behavior of in search of out previous foes and imbuing them with horrible energy. Unfortunately, it appears like the most recent one could have resurrected a sure necromancer-deity.
Oryx, Bungie delicately stated within the livestream, is “again in some capability.” Considering how he as soon as waged a millennia-long marketing campaign of formality brutality throughout the cosmos, that is not nice for anybody. Luckily, with the help of Eris Morn and the Drifter, gamers will likely be returning to a now “peeled” Dreadnought (eugh) to snuff out the resurgent god-king by “preventing fireplace with fireplace,” utilizing repurposed Taken power below the tutelage of a returning Commander Sloane.
The core seasonal exercise in Heresy will likely be The Nether, a 3-person recreation mode the place gamers will face a randomized sequence of encounters in Dreadnought patrol zones from Destiny 1 in what Bungie referred to as “a roguelite expertise.” Unique to The Nether, gamers may have boosted defensive stats, however will not regenerate well being by default. To heal, you will should smash open containers for health-restoring pickups, resurrection tokens, and gameplay-modifying “boons.”
The Nether will even have a mode the place you may choose out of matchmaking to play solo, so you may sniff out the Dreadnought’s secrets and techniques with out worrying about your teammates getting annoyed since you’re not speedrunning the exercise for optimum loot.
Bungie additionally stated it has been listening to participant suggestions about seasonal storytelling and loot-chasing. Rather than happening totally in a single hub space you will return to repeatedly, Heresy’s story may have a “extra bespoke, spread-out supply,” the place gamers will work together with the continuing plot and its forged of characters in missions and all through the related areas within the photo voltaic system. Fewer chats with a holoprojector, by the sounds of it.
Heresy will characteristic a “bevy” of recent armor and weapons, Bungie says, together with a brand new Strand help body auto rifle that may unleash Unraveling seekers as you heal your teammates. A whole lot of these new weapons will characteristic perks that may synergize with the updates Bungie’s made for Arc subclasses—like points that present the brand new Bolt Charge key phrase mechanic, which discharges a bolt of lightning at a goal’s location after dealing sufficient sustained harm.
Those Arc updates must also play notably properly with Lodestar, a brand new seasonal unique hint rifle—and Destiny’s first to make use of major ammo. Lodestar shoots like a pulse rifle whereas aiming down sights, and may be charged by dealing arc harm to jolt enemies by hipfiring with its beam.
On the PvP aspect, as Bungie described final week, Trials of Osiris is getting a rework. The vaunted Lighthouse now not requires a seven-game winstreak to enter. Instead, you will simply want seven wins, typically. Doesn’t matter what number of losses occur alongside the best way. Seven W’s, and also you get to open the particular chest to earn some new, fairly armor. Now I’d lastly play Trials.
There’s additionally a brand new dungeon on the best way: Sundered Doctrine, which can launch a couple of days after Heresy on February 7. Following the custom kicked off with Vesper’s Host, there will be a dungeon race the place fireteams worldwide will compete to resolve Sundered Doctrine’s puzzles and finest its bosses first.
And if that every one is not sufficient, you will additionally be capable of make your Titan seem like a stormtrooper with incoming Star Wars crossover cosmetics. Comarketing, ahoy.
