2020 was a challenging year for so many, not just video game studios. The COVID-19 pandemic swept through the globe, forcing people to work from home and adding a new layer of challenge for individuals to overcome. For game studios like Bungie who are typically united under one roof, this meant that the Destiny 2 team would have to chart a new course through virtual meetings rather than in house ones. In addition, major industry events like E3, a place where big announcements are typically made each year, were canceled, pushing many companies to figure out new ways to reach their audience.
Bungie took the challenge and ran with it, offering fans not just a glimpse at the Beyond Light expansion, but going further and even confirming multiple expansions beyond that. The company also continued to change the game, adding long requested features, ways to chase specific content, and even joining Microsoft's Game Pass service for Xbox players. While not every change was a hit with the community, such as the sunsetting issue, the game has continued to see growth even at this stage in its life.
With the latest Destiny 2 expansion having just launched, this isn't the end of the road for the popular shooter. In fact, Bungie has a wealth of new features and content on the horizon in 2021. While Bungie likes to keep much of its plans under wraps, there are more than a few things that fans can look forward to in the coming year.
Season of the Hunt
As players are aware, Destiny 2 is in the middle of the Season of the Hunt. Players are working alongside the former Uldren Sov, now a resurrected Guardian known as The Crow. In service to The Spider on the Tangled Shore, small story snippets seem to indicate that the two may have a falling out by season's end. From a story perspective, many are assuming Crow will ultimately earn his freedom from Spider and finally make his way to The Tower, which should provide a few interesting moments considering many remember Crow as his former self and his involvement with the Death of Cayde-6. While Crow has a much different personality and outlook on things, it may be hard for other characters to forget what he did in his past life.
While things have slowed down considerably in terms of things to do this season from a gameplay perspective, there's still over a month's worth of time to work on triumphs, earn specific loot, and finish all 100 levels of the battle pass. There's also a hidden triumph that has yet to be revealed, though many continue to speculate it could be tied to this season's ultimate bad guy, the High Celebrant.
Similar to the Undying Mind boss fight during the Vex Offensive final battle, players will likely be going on a final hunt later this season to track down the High Celebrant of Xivu Arath. The Hive Knight was briefly teased at the start of the season, about to kill a Ghostless Osiris before Crow intervened and saved him. He's the one responsible for these plantlike Cryptoliths appearing all over the world, corrupting all different enemy types alike.
Key art has also teased Cabal hunts coming to the game, though at the time of this article, Bungie has not updated the weekly list which still features the usual two Fallen and two Hive options. Perhaps the Cabal being corrupted will also lead players to event that was teased by an image of Zavala standing with Cabal troops.
Crimson Days
While not officially announced, it's expected that the Valentine's Day inspired Crimson Days event is likely coming back sometime in February. Not much is expected to change from last year's event, adding a Double playlist with specific bounties that can be completed for resources to be used on special in-game items. In addition, Crimson Days is typically a big Eververse event as well, complete with a lot of new items that can be purchased from the in-game store, so it's likely Bungie won't want to miss this one in 2021.
The Winds of Change in Season 13
Seasonal content isn't generally known ahead of time. In fact, Bungie waited until the very launch of Season of Arrivals before telling players about it. However, what makes Season 13 so interesting is that a number of mechanics and features are also slated to launch alongside. In a post from Assistant Game Director Joe Blackburn back in December 2020, fans got plenty of insight into what the developer is planning almost to an unheard of degree.
The studio acknowledges that it may have been a bit heavy-handed in how it handled sunsetting content, removing too much gear and weapons from the game. While Bungie has course corrected a bit with the return of certain weapons, the studio is planning to continue to add even more including six new legendary weapons. Two each will be added to the three ritual activities of Crucible, Gambit, and Strikes. Nightfall strikes are also getting unique loot in the form of The Palindrome, The Swarm, and Shadow Price, while those who are able to finish Grandmaster difficulty will also unlock Adept Versions.
Content-wise, season 13 also sees the return of two legacy strikes which have been updated and brought back into Destiny 2. Fallen S.A.B.E.R. and Devil’s Lair, two classic Destiny Cosmodrome strikes are going to be making their debut, further boosting the total number of strike missions available. In addition, Bungie plans to update the Legendary and Master Lost Sector rotation to include those areas on the Moon as well with new exotic armor pieces tied to them.
Finally, all Destiny 2 console players are going to getting an important backend change, something which won't be visible while playing. As Blackburn described it, season 13 will be adding DDOS protection to all console players, which should hopefully completely eliminate server issues.
The Witch Queen Arrives
The other major piece of content coming in 2021 besides the seasonal structure is the next expansion. Revealed briefly last year, The Witch Queen is the next expansion set to arrive and there's very little known about it at this time. Savathun, one of the major Hive antagonists still left over, has been subtly influencing events inside of the game including the 3 week curse cycle that afflicts The Dreaming City. Mentioned often inside of the game and through its various narrative lore, The Witch Queen title implies that a showdown is clearly approaching between Guardians and Oryx's sister.
From a gameplay perspective, players are assuming another subclass may be added to the game, perhaps a second one focused on Darkness to pair alongside Stasis. Considering there are three light subclasses, it only makes sense to assume that the Darkness will eventually have three as well. It's also assumed that the upcoming expansion could look similar to what Bungie did with Beyond Light, adding a new destination while bringing back a legacy one, with many eyeing a return to the Dreadnaught last seen in The Taken King expansion.
However, it appears that probably won't be the case as Luke Smith has recently shot down the idea that Bungie would be unvaulting new locations with each expansion. For The Witch Queen at least, it looks like the studio will be focusing on a new destination only.
The Vault of Glass Returns
Thanks to the Destiny Content Vault, Bungie has been able to bring back what many would refer to as legacy content. With Beyond Light, the Destiny 1 location Cosmodrome returned to the game with a few changes, giving New Light players a solid introduction to the base concepts of the game, while getting them plenty of loot. The Cosmodrome's return also provided to be a nostalgic boon for longtime players who were able to not only return to this classic location, but meet the new NPC Shaw Han and check out new Master and Legendary lost sectors.
As Bungie has stated, the Cosmodrome is only the beginning and in 2021, the fan favorite Destiny 1 raid Vault of Glass is scheduled to return. It's unknown how Bungie plans to integrate it into the game's narrative considering that Venus isn't currently available. However, the studio has recently indicated that while the raid will be quite familiar to those who previously ran it, the difficulty will be adjusted to better match the Destiny 2 experience.
And Beyond...
Bungie has already been uncharacteristically open about its future plans, which should make players quite happy. One of the more requested features, Transmog, is planned for a Season 14 update. While Bungie is planning to detail this feature in full closer to its launch, it essentially allows players to customize and personalize their armor to a much more precise degree. All 5 armor slots will be available from a single menu, rather than going in and out of each individual armor piece, including shaders and the actual look of the armor. Fans also assume that Bungie's plan to include the player's full collection to be utilized instead of certain gear sets is still in place as well.
Another major element that Bungie is working on in 2021 is Crossplay. After breaking away from Activision, Bungie was able to implement cross save across all Destiny 2 platforms, which made fans quite happy. The final piece of that is the idea of crossplay, essentially uniting all platforms and letting players anywhere play together. This should be a boon for lesser played platforms like Stadia, who's player base is much smaller compared to other communities on PlayStation, PC, and Xbox.
For as open and honest as Bungie has been, naturally, the studio likely hasn't shown fans everything it has going on. Each season typically adds a new narrative element as well as its own quests and activities, things which aren't revealed until a week or less before it launches. In addition, annual events like Solstice of Heroes, Festival of the Lost and the Revelry is also likely being mapped out in advance of their typical start dates.
As players have seen the past couple of years, Destiny 2 is a full live-service title meaning that a steady stream of content will continue to get added over the course of 2021. With already a healthy amount of updates and features slated for this year, players have plenty to look forward to over the next 12 months.
Destiny 2 is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.