Coming off of the popular Beyond Light expansion late in 2020, Bungie didn't let up with the strong content and updates this past year. While the world continues to adjust with working from home due to the global pandemic continuing on, Bungie seems to have really settled in with keeping Destiny 2 updated with fresh content. In fact, most fans would agree that 2021 delivered the game's strongest narrative elements since the game originally launched with the returns of major characters like Uldren 'Crow' Sov, Saint-14, and the reveal of Savathun.
From a gameplay perspective, seasonal content continued to deliver with new gear to chase as well as fan-favorite activities like Astral Alignment, Override, and the Battlegrounds. Vault of Glass made its anticipated return and just recently, fans got their hands on Bungie's 30th Anniversary content which had more than a few nods to the companies past including franchises like Halo.
With a brand new Destiny 2 expansion right around the corner, 2022 is already shaping up to be another very strong year for the online shooter. While Bungie continues to keep a lot of the big plans under wraps, there are more than a few things that fans can look forward to in the coming year.
Witch Queen Expansion
The biggest piece for Destiny 2 in 2022 is the rapidly approaching Witch Queen expansion. Originally revealed in full last summer with a late 2021 release date, Bungie delayed Witch Queen by a few months not only to give the team more time to work on the experience, but as a way to help improve the studio's work-life balance. The delay also extended the length of the current Season of the Lost beyond a typical season and players continue to wait for the end of season content to arrive.
Witch Queen appears to be a very important and ambitious step for the game by introducing characters and storylines that will continue through the year and into the next expansion known as Lightfall. Players have already gotten a taste of things to come this season as the Hive Queen Savathun has been caught after pretending to be the Exiled Warlock Osiris, influencing and manipulating events of past seasons. However, Savathun is asking players to remove her worm, which gives the Hive race power and access to the Darkness. As fans know based on trailers, by removing her worm, Savathun is able to access the light and give rise to Hive Guardians.
It's unknown how Destiny 2 gets to that point, but the Witch Queen will have an expansive story campaign to follow, eventually taking players to Savathun's Throne World. In addition to a Halo-like Legendary difficulty modifier, fans will also discover a new weapon called the Glaive which looks to mix melee and guns. Players will need to craft the weapon, introducing them to a brand new feature in the expansion where players will be able to craft their own gear.
While there's still a lot that Bungie hasn't shared, players should also expect to see new loot to chase, including new and returning exotic items. Bungie has also confirmed a new six-player activity as well as a new Raid which takes place in a sunken pyramid inside of Savathun's Throne World.
PvP Updates
PvP, known as the Crucible in Destiny 2, is a major component of the game and represents one of its pillars. However, the mode has gone quite a while without meaningful content updates, outside of the typical weapon and class balancing. For years, Destiny 2 players have been asking for things like new maps and game modes to help freshen up the experience. While Lord Shaxx and the Crucible progression has been updated and higher-end activities like Trials of Osiris have been overhauled to be more welcoming to players, the maps and game modes have not changed in years.
Thankfully, that will be rectified in 2022 as Destiny 2 assistant game director Joe Blackburn confirmed that the studio is working on new content for the Crucible that could arrive as early as Season 16. Without going into too many details, Blackburn teased that Season 16 will bring back a previously vaulted Destiny 2 map back into the rotation, while Season 17 will add a brand new one. Finally, Blackburn also mentioned that in Season 18, the team is preparing to bring a remastered version of a classic Destiny 1 map back. Finally, the fan favorite game mode, Rift, could also be returning to the game sometime in 2022. The ultimate goal is to start adding both new maps and game modes every year, which should go a long way to keeping things feeling fresh.
Destiny Content Vault
The controversial Content Vault is going to be active once again in 2022. Originally introduced alongside the Beyond Light expansion, the DCV allowed Bungie to remove older content from Destiny 2 including things such as older activities, campaigns, and destinations like Io and Mars. Bungie has stated that it is possible these would return in the future, some even updated with engine enhancements, but still, the idea of losing content that was previously paid for has left some less than enthused.
In 2022, Bungie has made sure to let fans know that it is again removing portions of content from Destiny 2. The major piece this time around is the Forsaken campaign, a fan-favorite story reintroducing Uldren Sov as well as establishing the death of Cayde-6, former Hunter Vanguard and fan-favorite NPC. Along with the Forsaken campaign are the Tangled Shore destination and Year 4 seasonal content including popular exotic missions Presage and Harbinger. The NPC merchant known as Spider is also apparently leaving as his currency exchange service is moving to the Cryptarch, Master Rahool.
However, for as much content as the game is losing, some Year 4 elements will persist including the Anniversary content as well as the Proving Grounds strike and the Battlegrounds activities. Bungie has also stated that it is investigating ways to bring these unique exotic missions back for the future.
Seasonal Content and Storylines
Seasonal content is nothing new for Destiny 2 after it moved away from the previous expansion heavy updates and instead transitioned to Battle Passes and seasonal content. While the studio continues to remove FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) style elements for those who may not log in often or at the start of each season, 2021 saw a major improvement to the game's narrative. In fact, Bungie began the Savathun storyline as far back as the Season of the Hunt, though at that time, players had no idea Osiris wasn't who he said he was. In addition, the Crow made his anticipated return, players allied with a Fallen, and prevented a Civil War inside of the Tower. Mara Sov also returned, leading directly to the current stalemate with Savathun, who also complicated matters by giving Crow's memories back from his past life.
With the Witch Queen expansion expected to kick start the next phase of the Destiny 2 universe, players are anticipating that the strong narrative will continue through 2022 in each of the upcoming seasons leading into the next expansion known as Lightfall.
Annual Events
As a live service game, Destiny 2 constantly adds new content to entice players to continue logging in. In addition to expansions, season passes, and other updates, Destiny 2 also features annual events. Many are tied to specific times of the year including The Dawning for the Winter Holiday, Halloween-inspired Festival of the Lost, and more. The Revelry is traditionally a Spring season event, though it was replaced back in 2020 by the Guardian Games, which draws inspiration from the Olympics by pitting the three classes against one another. Solstice of Heroes is an annual summer tradition with its unique playlist and the ability to unlock a special armor set that progressively gets stronger and can have neon glows added for a more brilliant effect.
Bungie hasn't specifically mentioned if the Crimson Days Valentine's Day event is coming back, as it now falls very close to the start of Season 16 and the Witch Queen expansion. It's likely that the annual event could skip this year as to not get in the way of all of the new content.
Gambit Refresh
Originally added as part of the Forsaken expansion, Gambit added a unique player versus player versus enemies activity to the game. Two teams would compete against each other by defeating enemies, collecting the motes they drop, and then attempting to bank them to summon the boss. However, 1 player from each side could also invade the other team and attempt to pick them off, not only delaying mote retrieval but also causing them to lose any motes they were holding.
As unique as that experience was, it hasn't changed all that much in the years since. No new maps have been added in years, and one, in particular, was even removed. Fans have been begging Bungie to help the mode by adding new content to help refresh it, but for now, the only tweak the mode has seen was a melding of original Gambit and the faster Gambit Prime. However, 2022 is finally the year where Bungie is aiming to make significant changes and updates to the stagnant activity.
Community manager Dylan "dmg04" Gafner confirmed the Gambit news in a reply on the Destiny 2 subreddit. While Gafner didn't reveal any details of the "deeper improvements" that the studio is working on, he did seemingly confirm that the studio was aiming for a season sometime after the current Season of the Lost. With the next season kicking off fairly soon in February, fans should expect news on Gambit changes sometime in the Spring or Summer months.
More Destiny 2 Lightfall News
Last year, Bungie surprised everyone by announcing not just the Witch Queen expansion, but two more after that: Lightfall and the Final Shape. At that point, fans assumed the expansions would launch each year, similar to Shadowkeep and Beyond Light previously. However, with Bungie delaying Witch Queen out of its typical November window by a few months to February 2022, the timeline may have also shifted for the remaining two expansions as well.
Crunch and burnout are two things the industry is working on trying to eliminate from development studios and was a big factor in why Witch Queen ultimately moved out of 2021. Even though Lightfall is likely a 2023 expansion at this point, fans will likely be hearing more on what they can expect to find in it later this year. In fact, it's entirely possible that fans could get an initial trailer this summer, similar to what the studio did to promote Witch Queen last August. Either way, fans should certainly expect news on Lightfall towards the backend of 2022 especially considering that Bungie produces weekly blogs and has featured plenty of upcoming content news there in the past.
Destiny 2 is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.