The next stage of Destiny's sprawling multi-year saga kicked off today with Season of Arrivals, which is live now. Beforehand, Bungie gave us a live stream detailing plans for the game spanning the next three years, starting with the Beyond Light expansion on September 22. This will be the first instalment in a three-year trilogy of expansions telling the story of the Guardians climactic fight with the Darkness. Each of these major expansions will add a new destination area to the game.
Today, Bungie revealed a bunch of info on the future of Destiny 2, including the reveal of the next three expansions and major changes coming courtesy of the new Content Vault. We also talked to general manager Mark Noseworthy about the future of Destiny 2.
"Beyond Light takes you to Europa, the frozen moon of Jupiter, birthplace to the Exo machines and the site of the Deep Stone Crypt," Mark Noseworthy, general manager at Bungie, told us. "On Europa, you'll meet Eramis, the leader of an empire of Fallen. She's learning to harness the power that comes directly from the pyramid ships.
"To defeat her, you'll have to harness that power too. For the first time since Destiny 1 launched six years ago, Guardians will acquire a brand new damage type called Stasis. So not just supers or a new grenade, an actual new damage type in the universe."
The addition of Stasis, which is a new damage type tied to the Darkness, should be a huge change. So far Guardians have become used to wielding Arc, Solar, and Void (and Kinetic, in the case of your primary firearms). We don't know how Stasis will operate in the sandbox yet, but it should add variety to both your Guardian's super and abilities, and potentially the weapon pool overall.
Director Luke Smith says that we'll learn a lot more about Stasis later this year. From the brief clips we saw in today's reveal it looks as though Stasis will involve freezing and shattering enemies.
There's more. Noseworthy gave us some insight into what we can expect beyond the Autumn expansion. "The next year, a villain will step in from the shadows in Destiny 2: The Witch Queen." That will be likely be Oryx' sister Savathûn, a master of trickery who has operated from the shadows for years in Destiny's lore.
Beyond that: "In 2022, we will release Destiny 2: Lightfall, the climactic showdown between Light and Darkness."
"Together these three titles kind of usher in a new era in Destiny," says Noseworthy, "an era of Darkness. And we think of them almost like a trilogy of expansions telling a larger, overarching story arc together."
We learned a lot about Destiny's future today. For more, check out our overview of the Season of Arrivals, deeper insight from Mark Noseworthy about the game's direction, and news that activities and locations will be temporarily retired to the 'Destiny Content Vault' as other locations and activities from Destiny 1 return. That will prove controversial, but having drifted away from Destiny 2 in 2020, all of this has me interested in the game again.
Before the livestream started Bungie paid tribute to the Black Lives Matter movement and the death of George Floyd with a nine-minute statement pointing viewers to useful and relevant resources. For more you can find links and information in our post about the Black Lives Matter protest here.
