Destiny 2 hasn’t been great over the last 14 months, the story has been all over the place, Bungie laid off a bunch of people, and Joe Blackburn (Game Director) left. However, the tide has been turning for Destiny 2, and with Into The Light you now have many reasons to either come back to the game, or start fresh. Today I want to run through those reasons with you, as we prepare for the biggest moment in Destiny 2 for some time, and that’s Into The Light.
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Onslaught (Horde Mode)
Onslaught is a wave-based game mode where we kill enemies, build defences and defend The Last City. This is something players have wanted in Destiny 2 for years and it’s finally here.
To begin Onslaught, you’ll be dropped onto a map and tasked with defending one of three possible locations. Your mission will be to defend your Advanced Defense Unit (ADU) from attacking enemy waves and make your way onto the Pyramid ship to defeat the boss onboard. If at any point your ADU is destroyed, your match will end.
Defending each location consists of ten total waves. The first nine waves will be divided into three-wave rounds with the waves in each round ramping up in difficulty. Most of these waves will be focused on defending your ADU, but you’ll also have a chance to go on the offensive and take on the Witness’s forces on the Pyramid ship. After each round ends, you’ll get a short breather before the wave difficulty is reset and the next round begins.
Once you’ve completed nine waves, you’ll move on to the tenth wave, where you’ll board the Pyramid ship to take on the boss. After you defeat one of many possible bosses, a chest will drop, and you can claim your well-earned rewards.
Defeating enemies will allow you to collect Scraps, which you can use to purchase and upgrade your defenses. These defensive units, such as trip mines, decoys, and turrets, will be placed around the defending area and auto-attack or take damage from incoming enemy waves. The defensive units have three levels and upgrading them will increase their effectiveness. But be careful! If your upgraded defensive unit is destroyed, it will need to be repurchased and releveled. Building a stout defense with the appropriate upgrades is critical to ensuring your success, so spend wisely.
The Ritual Playlist version of Onslaught will have you battling through ten waves to defend a single location, while the standard and Legend versions will feature fifty total waves across a total of three locations. Additionally, the Legend version will have everything you’ve come to expect with the more challenging difficulty modes, including champions and weekly modifiers.
Next up, let’s have a look at the rewards.
Brave Weapons
The Brave Weapons are loto drops from Onslaught, and here we have some of the most powerful weapons in Destiny history.
Forbearance – A wave-frame grenade launcher from the Vow of the Disciple raid.
Succession – Raid Sniper from The Deep Stone Crypt
Falling Guillotine – A vortex sword from Season of Arrivals.
The Recluse – A Submachine gun from Forsaken. Simply one of the most devastating weapons we’ve ever had.
The Mountaintop – A micro-missle powered grenade launcher from Forsaken.
Hammerhead – A powerful void machine gun from Forsaken.
Blast Furnace – Another Forge weapon, this time it’s a Pulse Rifle from Forsaken.
Edge Transit – Once a meme weapon, now reborn as a powerful heavy grenade launcher returning to a very favourable sandbox. This is going to be a DPS king.
Luna’s Howl – A very strong kinetic hand cannon from Forsaken.
Midnight Coup – Another hand cannon, this time from the Leviathan Raid.
Hung Jury SR4 – One of the OG best weapons from Destiny 1, this is a fantastic Scout Rifle for PVE or PVP.
Elsie’s Rifle – This is a powerful Pulse Rifle modeled on The Stranger’s Rifle from Destiny 1.
Half of the weapons launch on April 9th, the rest arrive on April 30th.
Pantheon (Raid-boss rush)
Pantheon is the new raid boss gauntlet starting on April 30. In Pantheon, you’ll have the opportunity to face raid bosses in a weekly challenge with escalating difficulties and rewards. This is a chance to rally your clan or use Fireteam Finder to take on this challenge. More details are to come from Bungie as we approach April 30th.
Exotic missions
Exotic missions are some of the best PVE activities in the game, and we have two of the best ever coming back to Destiny 2 with The Whisper and Zero Hour, plus their craftable exotic weapons.
First of all we have The Whisper mission returning. This was the first exotic mission. Here we run through corridors, take on jumping puzzles, plus face a race against time to defeat the Vex and Taken at the end. With Into The Light, we have the returning Whsiper mission, with a craftable Whisper of the Worm. We speak to Eris Morn to get in, although we don’t know the details yet. Bungie said they have made some changes to the mission too. Chests, secrets, all have changed. New Whipser guides are going to be needed. The boss fight has changed too, but we’ll have to discover that ourselves.
Then we have Zero Hour. The mission is similar to The Whisper in the way that players are given 20 minutes to complete it and that some enemies have Elemental Absorption Shield on them. Both Whisper and Zero Hour are iconic Exotic missions, and it’s going to be great having these back into the game. In a slight change, we have a time limit of 40 mins for normal mode and 20 mins for legendary mode, plus a whole bunch of secrets to find too. Once again we’re being rewarded Outbreak Perfected (Exotic Pulse Rifle), although this time it’s craftable.
After obtaining the Exotic weapon from each of these reprised missions, new quests will become available. This will allow you to unlock additional crafting options, including upgrading each weapon’s unique intrinsic behaviors. A new quest will become available each week for three weeks.
In addition to the new Exotic weapons you’ll earn, you can also earn reprised versions of the classic ships. The Whisper will offer a new ship with an updated look, Karve of the Worm, inspired by A Thousand Wings, while Zero Hour will offer, Vimana Junker, also with an updated look built on the frame of Scrap CF-717-91 and inspired by Outbreak Perfected.
New PVP maps
All maps are smaller than the maps we seen recently. The focus is on compatitive modes, comp, trials etc.
- Eventide Labs – Europa. Set on the icy moon, plus we have Servitors around the map indicating the link to the Fallen.
- Cirrus Palza – Neomuna. This is good for hardcore PVP players. Testers have gone in and it’s an instant hit
- Essence – Pyramid Ship. Similar to the Root of Nightmares raid palette.
PVP creators were invited to Bungie to playtest the new PVP maps. 3v3 playlist for just the new maps (love this).
Bungie are releasing these new Crucible maps on May 7. While these maps will also be available in 6v6 playlists like Control, they have been specifically built with a focus on 3v3 game modes in mind, including Dominion, Survival, and our newest mode, Collision. With the new maps, you’ll get to enjoy the backdrop of new locations you haven’t yet explored in PvP , including Europa, Neomuna, and the terraformed Pyramid ship.
Guardian Customisation
Bungie announced last week character re-customization will be coming with Destiny 2: Into the Light on April 9! With this update, you’ll be able to modify the appearance of your Guardians anytime, without cost or limits to the number of changes.
To do so, simply launch Destiny 2, and you’ll notice a new option when you hover over a character at the character selection screen. While you can change the body type, face, hair/head, and markings, keep in mind it won’t be possible to change from one origin to another (i.e., Human, Exo, or Awoken).
Name change
Destiny 2: Into the Light will also bring the option for an additional one-time name change to all players at no cost. On April 9, after the update has gone live, you can log into bungie.net and change your Bungie ID using these step-by-step directions If you didn’t take advantage of our previous name change opportunity, now you’ll have two. Choose wisely!
Get friends playing quickly
One of the barrier to entry for New Players, is the New Light experience. This is the new player onboarding, which tales about an hour. But what if you want to jump in with your friends immediately? Well, Bungie are now offering this feature.
Bungie say about their New Light Experience:
We’re calling Guardians of all experience levels to join, rejoin, and bring friends to battle against the Witness. While the New Light campaign serves players new to games like Destiny 2, it might not fit those players already experienced with first-person shooters.
Starting in Destiny2: Into the Light, after completing the second New Light mission, Shaw Han will ask you to sync with his ship in the Cosmodrome, providing a new option to leave the New Light tutorial early and head straight to the Tower. The option to skip the tutorial will remain for the rest of your time in the Cosmodrome and no matter when you leave, you will still receive critical rewards like your ship and your Sparrow, so don’t worry about missing out if you decide to skip. The ship will remain in the Cosmodrome for the duration of A Guardian Rises, so players who choose not to skip immediately can do so at any time afterwards.
To help bridge the power gap between new Guardians and our more seasoned defenders, players will now be able to head to the Tower and choose a kit handpicked from Ikora and the Vanguard. New Light Kits are bundles that contain a curated set of gear and subclass abilities. These kits are themed around specific subclass fantasies to help provide players with a shortcut to buildcrafting and give them a taste of that sweet, sweet space magic. There are nine kits in all, one for each Light subclass. Players can claim one per class. Enjoy!
Each New Light Kit contains:
2 Legendary weapons
1 Exotic weapon
4 Rare armor pieces and a Legendary class item
In addition, New Light Kits will also grant players a short quest that, when completed, will grant them a piece of Exotic armor. New Light Kits will be available to all players, so whether you’re a New Light looking to gear up, a returning player looking to step into the modern sandbox, or a veteran looking to jumpstart a new character, Ikora will help you prepare for the fight ahead against the Witness.
Reduced Strand Fragment Cost
Starting with Destiny 2: Into the Light on April 9, we’re reducing the cost of Strand Fragments from 200 Strand Meditations to 100. We hope this change allows players to catch up on any missing fragments for their Strand builds as you all prepare for The Final Shape.
And more…
Brand new title called BRAVE for Into The Light. Plus we have a new trailer for The Final Shape.
Now is the best time to get back into Destiny 2, so come on in – join the Fireteam.