Destiny 2: The Witch Queen is six months left but it already sounds like one of the most ambitious updates to the game to date. Over the past two weeks, Bungie has shed more light on the upcoming annual expansion and the major changes it will bring, from gun manufacturing to the revised subclasses. When it launches next February, players could end up with a very different version of the game.
While Bungie revealed a bit Witch Queen in its great Destiny 2 showcase last week, has also been pouring in more detail in a series of interviews and blog posts published since then. Players are always hungry for more content (more history, more missions, more loot), but the study also promises to fundamentally change Destinythe underlying game in new ways.
Bungie has been staffing. Previous Destiny Director Luke Smith oversees continued growth of the entire franchise. The big plans are underway and it’s especially special exciting moment for the booty shooter. Here is a summary of everything we already knew, as well as what has been worked out most recently.
Witch QueenThe campaign adds a whole new universe
The queen of witches Savathûn is a god of Hive and the gods of Hive have Throne Worlds, pocket universes that they create to hide their power. Next year’s expansion will be in Savathûn True Detective-Inspired throne world, with creepy forests, haunting swamps, gothic cathedrals and one of those giant, mysterious aliens in the black pyramid. A new legendary campaign mode will allow players to explore this location on a harder difficulty that fits the size of their Fireteam and best rewards.
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The enemies of the World of the Throne of Savathûn? Hive Guardians, a new type of enemy that can exercise light subclass abilities that reflect those of players’ Guardians. These Hive Guardians will launch family tracking grenades and will even be able to launch superheroes. They will also have ghosts that will revive them after a short time if they are not destroyed quickly.
“We want it to look like you’re fighting yourself,” game director Joe Blackburn said he said Polygon. “We want you to look like you’re fighting for something you understand. The playing field has been leveled in interesting ways.
Destiny 2 has not had a new alien race since 2018 Abandoned the expansion introduced the Scorch. Since then there have been new types of enemies and variations on existing ones, but nothing that has drastically altered the combat encounters as much as the hive guards seem.
Bungie also wants the campaign to feel more substantial, at the same time as things like the Hello, Titanfall, and modern Doom games. “In our last launches, the campaign had fantastic moments, but it often felt good when it started, it was over. So this is one of the things that, knowing that we knew, we knew we wanted to fix, “says Blackburn. he said PC player. Although it is not clear if this means Witch QueenThe campaign will be longer than previous expansions, it looks like the missions will have more wrinkles and game exploration, unlike the recent Expunge and Shattered Realm.
How gun manufacturing will work
Bungie has been pushing slowly Destiny 2 towards greater personalization over the years. The Opulence Menagerie season allows players to shred to get specific booties. The hunting season gave players more control over what benefits their loot would drop. Witch Queen it will take things even further with the making of real weapons.
We don’t have many details yet, but we do Witch QueenThe original reveals that Bungie said it would be “combat-based” and Blackburn he said Polygon it would be a “new system, from the ground up.”
He drew a little a an interview with PC player, comparing the making of weapons to looking at a recipe for possible benefits before you start baking. “And we want him to feel like he’s gone on a journey to get there,” Blackburn said. “Because when you can shoot the exact god, you will have the opportunity to make all the versions of this weapon you want. It is, therefore, a long search with a weapon ”.
It looks like this new system will it also reduces clutter in players ’laps by not forcing them to handle duplicates of non-optimal equipment until they finally get the god-of-benefits launch based on RNGs they were looking for.
The Glaive, a new type of secondary weapon that will be introduced at the same time, will be unique to the new craft system, and also sounds like a complement to the way Hive Guardians change combat. The Blackburn Road he described it Polygon, a player can escape the power of Glaive’s shield to approach and kill a ghost, though he can stab enemies even when he is out of ammunition. He Destiny the game director also implied that players could customize the Glaive by choosing specific perks like Swashbuckler during the crafting process.
Destiny 2 light subclasses are transformed
From Destiny 2 released, players have been playing largely with the same toolbox when it comes to their lightweight subclass skills. The new supers expanded their arsenal to Abandoned. Beyond light added a new “Dark” subclass called Stasis, which was an instant favorite in part because it was so outdated.
In Witch Queen, the existing subclasses of Solar, Arc and Void will also receive Stasis treatment. That is, existing trees will be transformed into a Fragment / Aspect system that gives players more freedom to mix and match skills and increase them to create more unique loads. For example, Void Warlocks will get a Singularity pocket melee projectile that will kick enemies off deck and a Child of the Old Gods look that you can equip to summon a sensitive black hole that consumes targets and gives you your health. Everything sounds amazing.
While some skills, such as supers, will be moved to this new system, others will not or will not be reworked beyond recognition. “Some of our melee in some of these [existing] trees, and some of our liabilities weren’t so exciting, ”Blackburn said Polygon. “Some of these are like‘ yeah, okay [to lose]”We knew it was a weak point in the tree anyway.”
The good news is that unlike when Stasis was added to Beyond Light, there won’t be an arduous and hard line of searching to gain the new Fragment / Aspect versions of the old skills. Light subclasses will also be reworked throughout the year, starting with Void, followed by Arc and Solar in later seasons.
And, although, unfortunately, there is no new subclass of darkness in the cards Witch Queen, Bungie confirmed is working on the following. Maybe it will be ready in time Slight fall, the expansion currently planned for 2023.
Lots of big and small raids are on the way
Raids and dungeons (shorter three-person versions of raids) are the crown jewels of any new update. The Prophecy Dungeon was added more than a year ago to the upcoming season and remains one of the most fun and rewarding things in the game. How PolygonRyan Gilliam he pointed out last week, perhaps the biggest news that has come out of Bungie recently is that Destiny 2 it is now ready for a new raid or dungeon every three months or so.
This starts with a new dungeon that will arrive in December as part of the Bungie 30th Anniversary package. There are two more on the way during the fifth year, which officially begins when Witch Queen enters live, along with a new foray based around the conflict with Savathûn. Bungie is also reworking an older foray that will return during this period, similar to how Vault of Glass, the first foray in the series, returned earlier this year with some new features.
This new cadence will come along with a more streamlined end-of-game activity rotation, Polygon recently reported. The goal will be to get the last dungeon and raid, along with an earlier version of these activities, to reward the most powerful gear. It is unclear whether this means that the older raids and their equipment will be officially turned off the game, as happened last year with Beyond light, or simply relegated to the background, but still available to the tough to continue running. One of the things that currently keeps the dungeon of prophecy so fresh is the return of the old Trials of the Nine teams which can only be cultivated there.
How old Destiny the raid will return during Witch Queen it’s still wrapped up, though Blackburn said so PC player it would be “a banger“, Which makes one speculate that it will be King’s Fall or Wrath of the Machine. Polygon he also hinted that special versions of attack equipment, including shiny armor, could also return from the former Destiny.
Witch Queen it’s just the midpoint
When it was originally revealed last summer, Bungie launched The Queen of Witches as the second act of a destination with the trilogy on light and darkness Beyond light. Last week he announced that he would extend this saga with a fourth and final installment with the goal of 2024 convened The final form. Why the change? Long story: Bungie realized he couldn’t squeeze the story he wanted to tell in one more expansion.
“It’s very important to us that this saga doesn’t feel like it ends in a single expansion,” Blackburn said. PC player. “You know, a good quick, quick campaign and then move on to the next thing. And so we’ve done a lot more narrative work than I think we’ve ever had when it comes to mapping out the roadmap and making sure- we need to know how many things we need to put in place. “
The final form will officially conclude the ten – year plan for Destiny from behind when it was released, but of course the game will continue afterwards. If it will continue as part of Destiny 2 or in a sequel remains to be seen.