Earlier this week, Bungie held a 1-hour live-stream on Twitch to reveal Season of Dawn, offering players their first look at the next season of content for Destiny 2, which is due to start next Tuesday, December 10. Following on from the events of Shadowkeep and Season of the Undying, Season of Dawn has a three-month roadmap of content including new activities, a new Season Pass, seasonal armor, Exotic Quests, free seasonal events like Iron Banner, and a new story that sees the return of the Titan, Saint-14.
Between the new updates coming to the planet Mercury, the return of Saint-14, and the fact that Season of Dawn won't include a Raid, there's a lot of new information to unpack if players want to be ready for next Tuesday's reset. Here's a complete breakdown of everything that we know about Destiny 2: Season of Dawn
The Story and Mercury's Return
For Season of Dawn, Bungie will be taking players back to Mercury and re-introducing fan-favorite characters such as Osiris and Saint-14, one of the most famous Titans to have ever lived. When players defeated The Undying Mind in Season of the Undying, it messed up the timeline on Mercury and Osiris has called upon the help of the Guardians to stop a new Cabal threat from reversing time and changing the outcome of the Red War from Destiny 2's campaign. Mercury will be home to the new Sundial activity, featuring multiple timelines as previously seen in the Infinite Forest, and allow players to use Sparrows for the first time.
New Activity - The Sundial
In Season of the Undying, Bungie reworked seasonal activities with Vex Offensive and introduced them as limited-time events that lead into the next season before ultimately disappearing forever. Vex Offensive has now been replaced with The Sundial, a 6-player matchmade activity on Mercury where players face off against hordes of enemies across multiple timelines before facing off with a weekly rotating boss.
The standard difficulty mode for The Sundial will be a matchmade activity, while the Legend difficulty a.k.a. Hard Mode, will require a pre-made Fireteam of up to 6-players. Legend Sundial releases on January 7, 2020, for Season Pass owners. The Sundial will be the key to turning back time and saving Saint-14 and players will be able to earn unique weapons by completely Timelost weapon frames, similar to the Black Armory weapon frames.
Season Pass, Rewards & Artifact
Just like Season of the Undying, Season of Dawn will feature a Season Pass, offering 100 tiers of free and paid rewards including new Finishers, seasonal gear and ornaments, upgrade and planetary materials, XP boosters, and the brand new Exotic Pulse Rifle, Symmetry. All players will have access to the new seasonal Artifact, the Lantern of Osiris, which can be upgraded to reward new season-specific mods, and additional Power Levels past the seasons level cap.
Season of Dawn vs. Free Content
Owners of the Season Pass will receive the following content: Instant access to the Symmetry Exotic Pulse Rifle and Righteous Seasonal Gear, The Sundial matchmade seasonal activity, Exotic weapons quests for the Devil's Ruin Sidearm and Bastion Fusion Rifle, all Season Pass rewards, as well as new Triumphs, Bounties, and Lore entries.
All Destiny 2 players will receive the following content: the Elimination PvP Mode, Rusted Lands PvP map reprised from Destiny 1, Seasonal Obelisk world events across four locations, free Season Pass rewards including the Symmetry Exotic Pulse Rifle, the Righteous Seasonal Gear (without Ornaments), upgrade materials, and engrams, the Seasonal Artifact, and access to Seasonal Events like Iron Banner.
Seasonal Events
Bungie has released a complete content calendar for Season of Dawn with confirmed dates for multiple new activities, Exotic weapon quests, and seasonal events that will be free to all Destiny 2 players. The first seasonal event is due to begin on December 17 with the return of Destiny 2's annual Christmas/Holiday event, The Dawning. The Dawning will be available 3-weeks and conclude on January 14, 2020. Next up is the PvP mode Iron Banner which will run from December 24 to December 31, offering reprised versions of the original Destiny 2: Season One Iron Banner gear. Bungie has not confirmed dates for Iron Banner in January or February 2020, but Iron Banner has always been a monthly event.
Finally, an unknown event called Empyrean Foundation will be available to all players on February 4, 2020, followed by Destiny 2's annual Valentine's Day event, Crimson Days, will make its return on February 11, 2020, for one week. All seasonal events are expected to have themed activities and rewards in line with previous events.
Patch Notes & Sandbox Changes
Update 2.7.0. will be applied during a maintenance period before Season of Dawn officially goes live at 11 AM PST on Tuesday, December 10. A few notable changes coming in the update include an increase in the Anarchy Exotic drop rate from 5% to 10%, the removal of key requirements to Level 7 chests in Escalation Protocol meaning armor will be far easier to obtain, weapon mod attachment costs being dropped from 5000 Glimmer to 500, and significant changes to Solar subclasses like the new one-hit kill in PvP throwing Knife for Hunters. A full set of Patch Notes will be released on Tuesday.
FAQ: The Raid, Trials of Osiris, and End Date
As new details have slowly been revealed through the story trailer, reveal live-stream, and Bungie's weekly 'This Week at Bungie' blog post, there have been a few important announcements that all players will want to be aware of before jumping into Season of Dawn. First, Season of Dawn will not include a new Raid or the rumored return of the competitive endgame PvP mode, Trials. Next, Bungie has confirmed that there will be a Power Level increase from 950 to 960 with Pinnacle rewards offering up to 970. Finally, Season of Dawn can be purchased individually for 1000 Silver or as part of the Destiny 2: Shadowkeep Deluxe Edition and will last for three months, concluding on March 9, 2020.
Based on the initial reveal, Season of Dawn appears to offer more substantial content than Season of the Undying, fit with great characters, an interesting story, and a new activity that's on the same level as The Menagerie. None of the Year 3 seasons for Destiny 2 are going to be on the same level as last year's Annual Pass content, which as long as the quality is consistent and the rewards are meaningful enough, should keep fans involved. Bungie has outlined all of the content being removed from Destiny 2 next week, so players will need to plan accordingly.
In the meantime, all Destiny 2 players can do is wait for the official Season of Dawn start date, and hopefully, hit the ground running with the new content.
Destiny 2: Shadowkeep is available now for PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One.