Destiny 2 lays out plan for next nine months of free updates and paid DLC
Pew pew
Bungie kicked off Destiny 2's fifth season last night, heralding the first of the Forsaken expansion's add-on DLC bits next week. The next nine months of the MMO-lite FPS are looking quite different to its last, with none of the upcoming DLC adding new story campaigns as Bungie try to sprinkle new items and modes and events and such across the year. They explained this new direction in a new video dev diary while also laying out the calendar through August 2019.
"We're not trying to do DLCs anymore. We're not trying to introduce a brand new campaign," production director Justin Truman said in the vid. "Instead, what we want to do is deliver three full seasons of content that can last for an entire year, and that is coupled with the end-game and matches the way players play Destiny."
Not how I play Destiny, but hey.
Across the coming nine months, all Destineers will see new vanity rewards, new rank rewards, and new Exotic quests, plus temporary events including the return of the Christmas event 'The Dawning' and February's loved-up 'Crimson Days'. Destineers who own Forsaken will also see a power cap increase of 50 with each of the three seasons (and presumably a boost to the soft cap, otherwise it'd be a hell of a lot of grinding), plus private matches and new maps for Gambit mode.
The big changes are, unsurprisingly, reserved for people who get Forsaken's Annual Pass, which costs another £30. These include two new raids, new Exotic quests, Xur bounties, and a mysterious new 6-player activity with matchmaking, all kicking off on December 4th with the opening of the Black Armory.
The Black Armory is a new way to get new guns, tied into a wave survival mode (with matchmaking, unlike Warmind's open-world Escalations) where players will need to hold off baddies as their shiny new guns are forged. There's a wee bit of story to this, as the Armory is run by an ancient bot from back before the bad things but mostly it's new guns and a new mode. You can learn more about that and the other plans in the vid:
Traces of the Black Armory are already popping up in certain places, guarded by mighty monsters. Oh, and a new season means a new 'pinnacle' weapon can be had by completing challenges in the Crucible. This time, it's joined by new pinnacle guns found through Vanguard and Gambit activities too. I apologise to all the players who've suffered me foolishly charging around with a fusion rifle to rack up the 500 Strike kills I need.
See the loose update schedule on Bungie's site and the update 2.1.0 patch notes for more on yesterday's update.
I grabbed Destiny 2 free in the recent giveaway and, having not played the console-exclusive first game, have been pleasantly surprised. No one told me it had all these giant sci-fi vistas and bright colours. No one told me there were so many big revolvers, or that for once I wouldn't even be that excited about big revolvers because the bows are more fun. The story is garbled trash but I like roaming around and shooting enough to have bought the expansion, Forsaken (in the sale). I'm idly playing a bit most days, rattling off a few PvP rounds in the Crucible or listening to the radio while bouncing through cooperative Strike missions.
I don't have pals playing for the big raids so I imagine novelty will wear off but 's certainly fun enough for something that cost me £25 total. I'll probably wait to see more of Forsaken's Annual Pass before biting on that but sure, I'll go for more of this face-shooting fun.