Season of the Wish is just around the corner, and this is the final season before we go into The Final Shape, scheduled for 2024. Final seasons of the DLC are normally good, alebit this one is likely to be a little longer than originally planned. Today I’m going to gather everything we know about Season of the Wish ahead of the big launch next week.
First of all, start date and time. Season of the Wish starts on November 28th at reset time, that’s 5pm GMT, and you’ll have to adjust that to your local time. Whatever your local reset time is, that’s when the season will start. We don’t know how long the season is going on for just yet, originally it was planned until the end of February 2024, however, there have been reports that The Final Shape will be delayed into summer. At the time of making this those reports are yet to be confirmed by Bungie, but it’s likely something will be said about that very soon, which will make Season of the Wish a long one.
Regarding the story, Season of the Wish is likely to focus on the mysterious 15th Wish. This relates to the Wishing Wall in the Dreaming City’s Last Wish Raid. As Guardians we enter patterns on the Wishing Wall, which grant us wishes including fast traveling to various checkpoints in the raid including the famous Shuro Chi catalyst farming location. Destiny 2 showed only 14 wishes, but the API pointed to a mysterious 15th Wish, which wasn’t found until the end of Season of the Witch. It’s likely we’re going to use the 15th Wish to get through the portal created by The Witness in the Traveler. The supporting cast for the season will likely be Queen Mara Sov, plus we’ve seen hints of a new Ahamkara, which could spell chaos for the Vanguard if not used correctly.
Legendary shards are going away in Season of the Wish. Bungie have been making efforts over the last year or so to simplify the game and streamline the economy, so legendary shards are out. It’s all part of the efforts to make Destiny 2 easy to understand for new players. All legendary shard costs will be removed from the Monument to Lost Lights while Glimmer, Exotic Cipher, and Spoils of Conquest will stay the same.
We’re also getting plenty of exotic changes. Thorn finally receives it’s long awaited catalyst, which is going to make it an excellent choice in PVP next season. The catalyst is going to buff range and stability, plus in PVE content it’s going to overload the magazine up to 40 rounds. Osteo Striga is getting a nerf, given it’s been too powerful for too long.
Vex Mythoclast
Increased damage to red bar combatants by 10%
Increased damage to bosses by 25%
Increased damage to champions by 200% when in the linear fusion rifle mode
Revision Zero
Increased damage versus Champions by 100%
Edge of Intent (Warlock)
Changed the effect of the healing turret projectiles to grant cures and provide restoration
Increased the AoE radius to eight meters to benefit more nearby allies
Increased its magazine size from four to five
Edge of Intent (Titan)
Passing through the bubble now grants bonus reload speed, handling, and a small amount of stacking bonus damage in addition to the overshield
Reduced the health of the bubble from 8,000 to 2,400 to account for the increased uptime and improved effects
Edge of Intent (Hunter)
Lighting Seeker now jolts targets on impact
Reduced the direct hit damage of Lightning Seeker to account for the free ammo granted
Salvation’s Grip
Placed a speed limit on the detonation when damaging Stasis crystals
Winterbite
Increased the detonation damage of the large projectile by 25%.
The self-damage blast radius has been halved, and the self-damage has been reduced.
We’re also getting a vault upgrade and we’re going to be able to access the vault from Orbit, meaning we’ll be able to prepare for activities without having to go to the Tower or the H.E.L.M.
Fireteam Finder (in game LFG) is due to launch in Season of the Wish, which has long been a featured used outside of Destiny 2 via companion apps. Now it’s going to be much easier to make a fireteam to go into raids, dungeons, nightfalls and competitive PVP.
Bungie released some info related to Fireteam Finder today.
Fireteam Finder Beta Goals
Prove that Fireteam Finder scales to millions of players.
Protect the start of Season of the Wish.
Protect the dungeon launch.
Be nimble.
Ex: Reserve the ability to accelerate or halt the beta test based on new information.
Deliver a first-class Fireteam Finder for all activities by The Final Shape.
Ex: Adhere to a schedule of multiple testing phases that progressively refine the new feature.
Beta plan
Raids Stress Test: November 30, from 9 AM PST to 5 PM PST
Beta Period: Begins in December pending Stress Test results
Full Release: Targeting late January
We will start our stress test on November 30, planned to run from 9 AM to 5 PM PST. For the Raids Stress Test, all raids you have access to are on the menu. We hope to keep the stress test open until 5 PM but this is where the “we haven’t had a Bungie Beta” in the live game disclaimers come into play. There are countless scenarios where we may have to end the test early, so we ask for your patience and hope you take it as an opportunity to give us early feedback as we work out the system’s gremlins.
We’re going to be monitoring the results of the initial Raids Stress Test closely and considering opening more activities as we progress with the end goal of having a Fireteam Finder option for every activity in the game. We’ll keep the schedule above updated as we learn more and will also let you know in our Thursday TWIDs and our social media accounts.
That all sounds like good fun, and it’s good to see the beta releasing rather than it being pushed back.
We’re likely to have at least one event with The Dawning returning around the holiday period. If The Final Shape is delayed into the middle of next year then we could also have Guardian Games in Season of the Wish, but we’ll have to wait and see on the latter. The Dawning is always a fun event with top-tier armor for purchase in the Eververse store.
Regarding the power cap, we don’t know if there is going to be a raise in the cap just yet, although we haven’t seen a raise in the power cap in recent seasons, so I think it’s less likely there will be a power cap raise in Season of the Wish.
We have another crossover coming next season, with Destiny 2 x The Witcher. Bungie tweeted this week announcing the collaboration, we’re getting Witcher themed armor, which looks very good. Although this isn’t likely to go down well with the crowd who think Bungie monetises content too much already.
Dragon’s Breath is coming back, this is a returning exotic from Destiny 1, but it’s been changed.
Burn the World (Exotic Intrinsic)
The fuel counter passively increases the longer you go without firing it, to a maximum of x5. Firing Dragon’s Breath then empties this counter, transferring all fuel to the rocket.
Rockets then embed themselves in struck targets causing Scorch damage and periodically ejecting incendiary fuel into pools around the target that inflict Scorch damage to anyone standing in them. The more fuel a rocket is fired with, the longer it lasts before detonating and the more fire it spreads.
High Octane (Exotic Intrinsic)
With this Intrinsic, nearby ignitions instantly refill your Dragon’s Breath with 2 fuel. Plus, when its fuel fully refills, it reloads itself!
Once you’ve got this thing in hand, make sure to pay a visit to the Gunsmith in the Tower so you can get the quest for the Exotic catalyst. Speaking of which…
Pyromancer (Exotic Catalyst)
This catalyst passively replenishes your Dragon Breath’s fuel faster. Eliminating combatants with this weapon causes them to spawn Firesprites, too.
We’ve also got some weapons joining and leaving, here’s a rundown.
Trials
Leaving – The Immortal Submachine Gun and Astral Horizon Shotgun
New – Incisor Strand Adaptive Trace Rifle
Returning – Eye of Sol Kinetic Adaptive Sniper Rifle (Cassoid foundry)
Iron Banner
Leaving – Dark Decider Auto Rifle and Gunnora’s Axe Slug Shotgun
New – Lethal Abundance Strand High Impact Auto Rifle
Returning – Riiswalker Kinetic Lightweight Shotgun
Nightfall
Leaving – Buzzard Sidearm and fan favorite THE SWARM Machine Gun
New – Undercurrent (Arc Wave Frame Breech-Loaded Grenade Launcher)
Returning – Uzume RR4 Arc Adaptive Sniper Rifle
Let me know in the comments what you think about Season of the Wish.