Bungie showed off what they have been working on for The Final Shape and they surprised us all with a new subclass, exotic classic items and a new enemy faction. Today I’m going to round up all the latest news for Destiny 2 The Final Shape.
The original Final Shape showcase was shown in August last year, and all in all was pretty underwhelming. Bungie since then delayed the final shape and went into their bunker to work on it, and it looks like they’ve done a whole lot. Not only have they cooked up a bigger release for into the light than we expected they’ve added at least 3 new features to the final shape.
New Subclass Prismatic
This is a new subclass allowing us to combine light and dark powers together for the first time. For example warlocks can combine Void and Stasis, and other classes have similar options. The UI is significantly changed, where we have two bars that build, when both are full the guardian goes into a state of transcendence to unleash new levels of power.
“Along with Prismatic comes Aspects and Fragments to further customize your build and enable combos you never thought possible. And—good news—players only need to unlock these Aspects and Fragments once to get them for every class. You will also be getting more Aspect and Fragment slots than ever before. “
Exotic classic items
This mix and matches exotic perks.
“Guardians can push their Prismatic builds even further with the new Exotic class items coming in The Final Shape. Exotic class items work specifically with the Prismatic subclass and will each roll with two random Exotic perks inspired by a selection of other Exotic armor pieces, even from different classes. That means a Hunter could have an Exotic cloak with some of the unique qualities of Assassin’s Cowl combined with parts of Liar’s Handshake. On the other hand, Warlocks could get an Exotic bond roll with perks of Apotheosis Veil and Star-Eater Scales and Titans could get an Exotic mark with parts of Ophidian Aspect and Precious Scars.”
Titans get an Exotic Mark, Hunters get an Exotic Cloak and Warlocks get an Exotic Bond, all with unqiue visuals and animations to make them feel exotic.
New enemy faction
For the first time in ten years we’re getting a new enemy faction. We have 6 new variants of enemies, similar to Rhulk and the tormentors from Witch Queen and lightfall. We have flying enemies, Stasis and strand welding enemies who can knock us back and apply darkness to us.
“Subjugators and Tormentors were just the beginning and now are joined by the full force of the new enemy faction, the Dread. The Grim take flight like bats with guns and use their screeching voice to suppress your abilities. The Husk are melee bruisers that can still try to take you down, even after they have been destroyed, by unleashing a Geist. The Attendant and Weavers are Stasis and Strand wielders respectively who will use their Darkness powers to freeze you in place and pull you across the battlefield. You’ll have to adapt and find new tactics to defeat these new foes in battle. “
Before the reveal stream I was thinking ‘what ate they going to show that we haven’t seen before’ but Bungie blew me away with the new features. All this must have taken longer than 3 months, so it pretty surprising they didn’t mention any of this last summer. Backs must have been really up against the wall and I imagine against the backdrop of the layoffs and player sentiment it must have been tough for the teams.
There was another thing. Luke Smith turned up to say Destiny 2 wasn’t ending and that after the Final Shape Bungie would be back to tell us what’s coming next. It’s good to reiterate that destiny isn’t ending. With a name like the final shape it can be confusing for those not in the know. Of course Destiny 2 isn’t ending, it’s Bungies cash cow – meaning it makes them and Sony a ton of money, and they would ditch their main source of income, especially while they are cooking up the future of the franchise and marathon too.
Let me know in the comments what you think about The Final Shape reveal.