Destiny 2: Beyond Light is the next major chapter of Bungie's space opera, introducing a new destination and a new damage type called Stasis, coming on September 22. Bungie also revealed two further expansions for 2021 and 2022, including the return of The Vault of Glass next year, as well as plans to cycle out older content from the live game into a separate Vault.
Bungie revealed the future of Destiny 2 today with details of a new destination to explore and the eventual arrival of The Darkness, the natural enemy of The Traveller set up at the end of the original Destiny game more than six years ago.
In the expansion's cinematic trailer, Eris Morn and The Drifter meet The Stranger on the icy tundra of Europa, the birthplace of the Exo, where a Darkness pyramid ship has been found in the ice sheets.
Embrace what resides within.
— Destiny 2 (@DestinyTheGame) June 9, 2020
Destiny 2: Beyond Light // Sept 22, 2020https://t.co/R00L1WAxqG pic.twitter.com/AVpvIPg2GJ
In Destiny 2: Beyond Light, by toeing the line between Dark and Light Guardians will learn to use The Darkness as a weapon with a new ability called Stasis. This is a new damage type that exists alongside the three existing archetypes of Arc, Solar and Void. A further expansion in 2021 called The Witch Queen and an even further expansion, with a working title of Lightfall, will round out this story arc in 2022.
Destiny 2's game director Luke Smith also mentioned the team were working on many oft-requested small touches, including armor transmog to allow you to have control over your fashionable outfits.
The game will also run at 4K resolution and 60fps on new hardware, as well as the game being available for free if (and when) you upgrade to the next generation consoles. If you own Destiny 2 expansion content, you can keep playing on the same family of consoles for free without buying the expansions again, with intergenerational crossplay within each console platform as well. Meaning you can play with your friends if they move up to Xbox Series X or PS5 without you.
Bungie also said they don't want to start over from scratch again, committing to a single evolving world. They don't want to put another number on the box, as Luke Smith put it, and the current game is getting a little unwieldy around 115GB on PS4.
This means there's a need to cycle older content out of the live game and into a vault. This will also allow Bungie to reintroduce Destiny 1 content with a fresh sheen of polish. The first part of this is Earth's Cosmodrome destination, coming back this fall, and the original strike from Destiny's beta.
Today's launch of Season of Arrivals will prelude all of the story beats to pay attention to for Destiny 2: Beyond Light, including a new dungeon called Prophecy. The new dungeon is available to play today from 10am PT, and will require an absurdly high light level, so maybe get out there and grind a bit for it while you have a few minutes.
Destiny 2: Beyond Light will launch on all currently supported systems on September 22, with information about the PS5 and Xbox Series X versions of the game still to be announced. However you will get all your current Destiny 2 expansions on those new consoles for free when you do upgrade and the game is eventually released on them.
