The end is here. On Tuesday, Bungie unveiled the first significant look at Destiny 2: The Final Shape, the concluding expansion to the popular MMO game, in its annual Destiny Showcase. Across the nearly hourlong presentation, fans were treated to a new trailer, information about the expansion’s new setting, the return of Nathan Fillion’s Cayde-6, what comes after, and much more. Here’s everything you need to know about the game before it arrives on February 27, 2024.
We’re Going Inside the Traveler
For much of Destiny 2‘s story, the Traveler’s (the giant Orb-shaped god that provides Destiny’s players with superpowers) true insights remain unknown. Now, with The Final Shape, players will, ahem, travel inside the Traveler itself to a new destination called The Pale Heart. This linear zone (more on that in a second) will consist of a hodgepodge of various zones from Destiny’s past. Considering the expansion’s function as a swan song to this era of Destiny 2 storytelling and that The Final Shape will arrive in time for the game’s ten-year anniversary, it’s all about revisiting the past to set the stage for the future.
With regards to the linear nature of The Pale Heart, that’s a fancy way of stating the game won’t have a typical zone to explore after the game concludes like players are used to in previous expansions. Instead, The Final Shape will unfold through just its mission-like structure.
New Ways to Play
Traditionally a new Destiny 2 expansion brings new subclass functionality to the game, but that doesn’t appear to be true with The Final Shape. Instead, Bungie will add new super abilities to each of the three player classes. The Warlock’s new Solar super will be a reworked version of Radiance from Destiny 1 that boosts fire damage and supercharges your party’s Solar damage too. Hunters will receive an Arc knife that teleports them into a group of foes to wipe them out with electrical explosions. Titans will get a Void axe cast from up in the air and then slams into enemies below, where it will linger for members of your team to pick up and wield.
New weapons are critical to any looter/shooter game, and The Final Shape promises a few new subfamilies. Some returning Exotic (aka, top-tier unique weapons) from Destiny 1. The most notable new weapon is a rifle that deals both damage to enemies and also heal members of your team.
Those looking to get caught up on the main events of the series can jump in and play through short playable missions called Timeline Reflections. Open to all players, they serve as brieft narrative introductions to key moments throughout the story of Destiny 2 and can be used as a way to get caught up with main plot beats prior to The Final Shape.
Finally, the Power system in the game is getting a rework. Osbentily the game’s leveling system, Power, functions to determine how difficult a given activity may be and whether or not you’re appropriately ready for it. Historically, Power skillgates an activity; harder endgame content are typically skewed towards the high end of the Power scale, which means that it’s less likely a casual Destiny 2 player will get to experience difficult group content like Raids or Dungeons. Instead of an activity being determined by an individual player’s Power, the person in a group with the highest Power can share that with the rest of the group. Meaning if you want to play with a friend who plays all the time while you just play once a week, you’ll still be able to experience most of the game. Some content will still lean into individual power, but it’s an inherent shift to make the game more accessible.
Episodes Will Be the Future of Storytelling
Historically speaking, Destiny 2‘s non-expansion content comes in the form of Seasons, not uncommon to how a variety of live-service video games like Fortnite or Call of Duty operate. With the release of The Final Shape, however, Destiny 2 will move into something called Episodes. While the idea of pretty much the same (i.e., ways of providing additional content after the main story is done), Episodes will arrive three times throughout a year instead of four times a year Seasonal model and will implement a more steady drip of content. Episodes are spread across three acts, each with new perfects, armor, weapons, and storytelling beats. Furthermore, Bungie stated the Episodes will be playable in any order.
Historically speaking, Destiny 2‘s non-expansion content comes in the form of Seasons, not uncommon to how a variety of live-service video games like Fortnite or Call of Duty operate. With the release of The Final Shape, however, Destiny 2 will move into something called Episodes. While the idea of pretty much the same (i.e., ways of providing additional content after the main story is done), Episodes will arrive three times throughout a year instead of four times a year Seasonal model and will implement a more steady drip of content. Episodes are spread across three acts, each with new perfects, armor, weapons, and storytelling beats. Furthermore, Bungie stated the Episodes will be playable in any order.
While it remains to be seen what the future of Destiny 2 will be after The Final Shape, Bungie made it clear the game will continue on in new ways. Weapons lead Chris Proctor talked about building weapons for “years” to come, and in the post-show Q&A, Bungine heavily implied another expansion for the game would arrive, presumably in 2025. Despite this part of the Destiny 2 story concluding, the game’s future remains decidedly bright.
