New! Destiny Thread for Good (Bad) Vibes and Fun. Please use the old thread for other things.
I.I
Look upon the world with new eyes and know that you see for the first time.I.II
All of your time before now—every choice, every moment—was the antithesis of all you were meant to be.I.III
To dwell on what was is the greatest sin.I.IV
A new you hides, trapped and desperate to be freed in the instant beyond now.I.V
Step confidently—forward into the unknown, beyond the present. There you will find yourself waiting.I.VI
Evolution is constant for those who embrace tomorrow.I.VII
Once unmade, you will be new, your eyes free to meet the lies of existence with unfettered judgment.“Only through new eyes can the burden of failed existence be cast aside that we may see—truly see—for the first time.”
—10th Understanding, 7th Book of Sorrow
FAQ
Is this a good time to start playing?
This is probably the best time there has ever been to start playing. Consider it Destiny 3.
Where do y’all play?
To my knowledge, almost exclusively on PC. There isn’t cross-play or license reciprocity for expansions between stores, but there is cross-save, so if you move between platforms you can bring your character(s). They’ve expressed interest in cross-play in the medium-future and you can be certain I will herald it from the mount when that day comes.
(There is intergenerational same-platform cross-play for PlayStation and Xbox.)
What’s in the free-to-play game?
The three main playlist activities with matchmaking are open to everyone: Strikes (PvE), Gambit (PvEvP, think Halo Firefight x Puyo Puyo), and Crucible (PvP). Beyond that, we don’t specifically know what will be free-to-play when Beyond Light comes out. Unlike past models, you can go to any destination without buying the accompanying expansion.
Do I have to buy old expansions or play them to get up to level?
Nope! Just Beyond Light is all you need to play the current story.
Do I need the season pass?
It’s technically optional but usually worth the ~$3/mo. for the high-stat gear and seasonal items. It’s definitely unnecessary to buy it upfront, though – if you choose to buy it midway through a season you retroactively get the same progress granted on the paid track.
What is “vaulting”?
The campaigns and related assets for some locations in vanilla Destiny 2 are being removed from the game. This is largely for engineering reasons, e.g. the file size of the game is going to be cut in half when Beyond Light comes out and they’re changing how they do patches so assets are actually replaced by patches instead of accumulated as cruft. But the new player experience in the past year was quite poor because of how unfocused it was to ask players to go through two (now three) years of releases without the original structure and progression.
The flipside of vaulting is that Bungie intends to repurpose past Destiny assets for new releases. Starting with Season 12, the next season, the Cosmodrome in Old Russia and other related activities are being added to the game along with a new player campaign that allegedly does a better job of introducing you to the game. Vault of Glass is also being reworked and released sometime in the next year.
Vaulting is also intradiegetic in a way we don’t yet know.
What is “sunsetting”?
Weapons and armor will have a power level infusion cap of one year after the season they were introduced. You can still use them in activities where power level doesn’t matter, but they will eventually no longer be viable in the harder activities of new releases.
If you’re a new player, this is probably to your benefit as some of the current best weapons in the game are tied to very lengthy and potentially difficult PvP quests. It’s also, of course, easier to balance a subset of weapons for new development than four years of cruft.
How can I make sense of the lore?
Treat the words Bungie repeats and capitalizes like the Pee-Wee’s Playhouse secret word and scream whenever they appear in different contexts.
Then, memorize all of these keywords and go to https://www.ishtar-collective.net/ to play Her Story with the search engine for Destiny: The Fragmentary Epistolary Novelization.
For example:
Ghost Fragment: Ghosts — Grimoire Card — Ishtar Collective — Destiny Lore by subject
Which class has the best jump?
Hunters have a triple jump and three is one more than two.