Bungie has teased it for a while now, but today marks the day of its showcase for Destiny 2's upcoming Witch Queen expansion. For the first time ever, the developer gave players an in-depth look at what they can expect from the pivotal DLC when it launches, including the fact that it'll introduce an entirely new gameplay feature to Destiny when it arrives, one poised to satisfy anyone that's ever wanted a more hands-on approach to creating their weapons instead of always relying on RNG.
Both Destiny and present Destiny 2 scratch the surface of the idea of gathering parts and building weapons. For instance, some exotic weapon quest lines see players venture into the solar system to gather the materials necessary to restore weapons to their former glory. Still, neither game really gave players the ability to personally interact with the parts they gathered and then build the weapon themselves, modifying it the way they want. The new expansion aims to change that.
When the Witch Queen launches for Destiny 2, it'll officially add a weapon crafting system to the game, allowing players to finally gather the pieces of specific tools before personally building them into instruments of destruction. Bungie didn't say to what extent the weapon crafting system will change the way players interact with their new toys, but it did hint that they would have more control over them than ever before.
All craftable weapons will follow a combat-based leveling system, which means they'll get stronger the more players use them to kill things and complete objectives. However, this system — as well as crafting as a whole — only applies to new Witch Queen weapons — for now anyway. Bungie plans to add both new and legacy weapons to the game that'll take advantage of the system after the Witch Queen launches, but until then, only weapons introduced through the Witch Queen, such as the new glaive archetype, will be craftable.
Overall, the Witch Queen is shaping up to be the worthy expansion Bungie teased it as over a year ago now. Even the Witch Queen's campaign will try something Destiny's never done before and pit Guardians against Hive-based Guardians, or Hive that have weaponized the Traveler's light for themselves. It would be interesting to see such a theme inspire one of the new craftable weapons or exotics that the Witch Queen will introduce into the game.
Destiny 2 is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.