Destiny 2's current Season 8 is coming to a close in just a few weeks, and developer Bungie has been silent about what Season 9 will hold. And that has left many fans wondering just how much content they will be able to expect in each of the four seasons that will comprise Year 3 of the game. While it will take an official reveal and details from Bungie to truly know exactly what the ninth season, Season of Dawn, will contain, it may be helpful to identify exactly what content came as part of Season of the Undying in order to set expectations for what may be coming next.
The tricky part of this is that Season of the Undying launched concurrently with Year 3's major expansion, Shadowkeep, so this season has felt especially full of content. But as Bungie mentioned in its ViDoc about Destiny 2's upcoming year and future, the developer plans to release a major expansion each fall that will anchor the year worth of seasons and their specific seasonal content.
So what exactly did Season of the Undying bring separate of Shadowkeep? Further than that, this season also contained content that was free to all Destiny 2 players regardless of whether they own the season or are playing for free via Destiny: New Light. When it all boils down to it, here is the exclusive content to is only available to those who purchased Shadowkeep (which includes the purchase of Season of the Undying) or Season of the Undying on its own: the Seasonal Ranks premium track, three exotics, and Vex Offensive including its four exclusive weapons and the Final Assault variation.
When comparing the free track and the premium track of Seasonal Ranks, those who own the season got access to earning an emblem, two shaders, a finishing move, a Transmat effect, the seasonal universal ornament set, ornaments for the auto rifle and machinegun from the Seasonal Ranks, a ship, an exotic emote, and an ornament for Eriana's Vow. There are also a number of boosters, additional exotic engrams, materials, and Glimmer on the premium track, as well as instant access to the seasonal armor set and Eriana's Vow (which can still be earned by any player for free).
Eriana's Vow is one of the new exotics added to the season, and as noted, it actually is not exclusive to those who own the season. The other two exotics are the Leviathan's Breath bow and Monte Carlo.
Finally, the most significant seasonal content is the Vex Invasion public event on the Moon and the Vex Offensive activity. The Vex Offensive offers the same seasonal armor that is on the Seasonal Ranks unlocks as well as four weapons that can drop with random rolls. The Final Assault variation of the activity, which many players expected to be much more significant than it ended up being, adds a new boss at the end of what is otherwise the same activity.
So what does all this mean for Season 9? Bungie has already confirmed that Season of Dawn will bring its own Battle-Pass-like Seasonal Ranks progression and unlocks and a new activity for players to engage with in place of Vex Offensive, which will go away with the end of Season 8. It could be assumed that there will likely also be a couple of exotics coming, but other than that it is hard to know what exactly the season will bring until Bungie reveals more.
Unless Season 9 has significantly more content than Season 8, players may be surprised by how light the season could feel due to the fact that Season 8 had the benefit of launching alongside the major Shadowkeep expansion. But, with Bungie taking full control and self-publishing rights of the Destiny franchise after its split from Activision, and Bungie's comments about how Year 2's content took a toll on its developers, Season 8 may be a preview of the future. That is lighter content drops than what some players may be expecting, with a majority of each season's gear and progression tied directly to Seasonal Ranks.
Season 9 will debut on December 10, so as the time comes closer, it will not be long before players will know more, whether that is from a trailer of preview details from Bungie or the season itself debuting in just a couple weeks. The biggest advice may be for players to temper their expectations when comparing this current year of content to last year's three major seasonal content drops.
Destiny 2: Shadowkeep is available now for PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One.