Destiny 2: New Light launches October 1, 2019 and is free to play on every supported platform.
Starting October 1st Destiny 2 New Light becomes the Base entry in the Destiny franchise. New Guardians will begin their journey wby playing a remixed version of the first mission from Destiny 1 before being thrust to 750 power and having the entire Year 1 of Destiny 2 to experience.
This includes
Destiny 2
Curse of Osiris
Warmind
Select Forsaken Content*
Select Annual Pass Content**
New Light becomes the Free to play model for Destiny 2 going forward.
* Select Forsaken content includes
- Free Roam on all Destinations
- Strikes Playlists
- Crucible Playlists
- Gambit and Gambit Prime Playlists
- Black Armory Forges
- Season of the Drifter Reckoning
- Season of Opulence Menagerie
Armor 2.0 is a fundamental change to how Destiny 2's gear system.
Each piece of armor will drop with two numbers attached: a Power level and an Energy level from 1-10. Power functions exactly as before, but Energy is a new stat that functions as a budget for mods—which replace the basic perks armor used to come with. Mods come in a variety of flavours for example reload perks that speed up a specific weapon types reload speed or traction which will increase player mobility stats. The new armor system also brings a renewed focus on stats. Currently, characters only have three stats: Mobility (which affects movement speed), Resilience (which affects how much damage you can take), and Recovery (which affects how quickly your shields recover). These stats all have a hard cap of 10. With Shadowkeep, that cap is raised to 100, and three stats from the original Destiny are added back into the game: Intelligence (which affects super cooldowns), Strength (which affects melee cooldowns), and Discipline (which affects grenade cooldowns). In order to make the differences in these stats more palpable in-game, every 10 points you'll get a bonus—like a percentage increase to your base movement speed for increasing your Mobility.
(The above is lifted from a Kotaku article because it's the best explanation of the confusing system I have seen to date)
Going Forward, The 5 Year Plan & The Future
With renewed autonomy Shadowkeep serves as Bungies first major steps down a path of change and betterment for Destiny 2. New light, A Steam (re)Launch, A Stadia version, Armor 2.0, Redesigned Seasons. All these things serve as the opening hand for a longer supported, better supported and better than ever Destiny experience. In bungies own words.
"A lot of what we're doing this year is to set Destiny 2 into a place where it can begin its next major change. What we want to construct is a world where players feel like their actions, whether a person or as an overall global community, are moving the universe forward in some meaningful way.
So the vision for Destiny 2 is awesome action MMO in a single evolving world, that you and your friends can play anywhere.
One of the biggest changes from the seasonal model you'll see from the annual past is that we're focusing a lot more on how the seasons actually connected to one another. We want to make sure we're actually threading a narrative that players can follow. Starting in Destiny 2 Shadowkeep, we're going to start telling one continuous story, you want it to be meaningful, you want to understand, like, why was I sent there? We're actually trying to set up this concept of the season being something that occurs, and you want to be there and you want to experience it.
The players are moving the world forward. They're making an impact. They're leaving that resonance in the Destiny 2 world itself. How can Guardians actually come together and do something that unlocks rewards, pursuits, new experiences for everyone?
We want a universe that's dynamic and changing the universe where you can have memories, you can say things like I was there when..."
"We're here to build something that lives."
Launch
In preparation for the launch of Destiny 2: Shadowkeep, Destiny 1 and Destiny 2 will be taken offline for maintenance on Monday, 9/30. This maintenance will last for approximately 24 hours, and will end with the launch of Shadowkeep on 10/1.
PC players make sure you have migrated to Steam by October 1st
https://www.bungie.net/7/en/PCMove
Steam Preloads are available right now for Shadowkeep and New Light players.
Cross Save is active for anyone still wanting to switch platforms
https://www.bungie.net/7/en/CrossSave
Media and Trailers
Gamescom Trailer
Season of The Undying Trailer
Moon Reveal
Developer Insight: Return to the Moon
Bungie Vidoc: Out of the Shadows
Bungie Livestream: The Next Chapter for Destiny 2
Community
Group Finding
D2 PC LFG Discord (PC) https://discordapp.com/invite/d2pclfg
DestinyLFG (All Platforms) http://www.destinylfg.net/
The 100 (All Platforms) https://www.the100.io/
Bungie Fireteam Search https://www.bungie.net/en/ClanV2/FireteamSearch
Community Sites and Tools
Braytech.org https://braytech.org/
Destiny Item Manager https://destinyitemmanager.com/
Destiny Sets (Gear and Weapon Checklist) https://destinysets.com/
Destiny Tracker (PvP/PvE Stats) https://destinytracker.com/
light.gg (Full database scraper/Stat Tracker) https://light.gg/
Ishtar Collective (Lore Collectors) https://www.ishtar-collective.net/
/r/DestinyTheGame https://www.reddit.com/r/DestinyTheGame/
Destiny Roundup https://destinyroundup.com/
Destiny Daily https://www.destiny-daily.com/
Gaurdian.gg https://guardian.gg/2
DestinyEra also has a active private discord with LFG channels for all platforms and a lovely community. We are welcoming and easy going. If you want to join you can DM @Ruthless requesting an invite.
The DestinyEra Discord is also home to a channel dedicated to Sherpas willing to guide new players on their first foray into the Raids and Raid Lairs of Destiny 2 and Forsaken
What to do Before Shadowkeep
Huge thanks to EmptySpace for the following
If you are a New Light player on October 1st:
- The Red War Campaign
- Post Red War Planetary Quests Chains found on The EDZ, Titan, Nessus, and Io.
- Post Red War "On the Comms" quest chain (This quest is hidden on Nessus, and it will not appear on your director, but it is a relevant quest)
- The standard weekly/daily milestones (ie Complete 5 crucible matches, 3 strikes, the weekly flashpoint, etc.)
- Pinnacle Legendary Weapons from Strikes, Crucible, and Gambit
- The Curse of Osiris campaign
- Post CoO is the Lost Prophecy weapons
- The Warmind campaign
- Post Warmind is "Nascent Dawn" quest chain.
- "The Whisper" quest chain (This quest is hidden on IO, and will not appear on your director until you complete it the first time, but it is a relevant quest)
- "Zero Hour" quest chain (This quest is hidden on Titan, and will not appear on your director until you complete it the first time, but it is a relevant quest)
- The Black Armory and unlock its Forges
- Gambit Prime and unlock Reckoning
- Allegiance quest chain
- The Invitation and unlock The Menagerie
- The Tribute Hall
- "The Other Side" quest (This quest is hidden as part of the Tribute Hall, and will not appear on your director until you complete it the first time, but it is a relevant quest)
- Leviathan Raid
- Eater of Worlds Raid Lair (Raid Lairs are smaller raids with fewer encounters, and a smaller loot pool compared to a standard raid)
- Spire of Stars Raid Lair (Raid Lairs are smaller raids with fewer encounters, and a smaller loot pool compared to a standard raid)
If you buy Forsaken as of September 17th you will be prompted to do everything found above and the following:
- The Forsaken Campaign
- Post Forsaken "Cayde's Will" quest chain
- Post Forsaken "Tex Mechanica Tournament" quest chain (This quest is hidden,it will not appear on your director, and is begun randomly after completing any activity or bounty. It is a relevant quest)
- Post Forsaken "Awoken Talisman" quest chain
- Awoken Talisman quest chain part 2 The Shattered Throne (This is hidden in the Dreaming City, and appears once every three weeks for seven days, but it is a relevant quest)
- "Mysterious Box" (This is quest is hidden on the EDZ, and it will not appear on your director, but it is a relevant quest)
- "Scrap of Paper" quest chain (This quest is hidden in The Menagerie. It will not appear on your director, and is only accessible on specific weeks, but it is a relevant quest)
- "Tainted Artifact" quest chain
- "The Seething Heart" quest chain (This quest is hidden in standard Gambit, and it will not appear on your director, but it is a relevant quest)
- "A Melted Hunk of Metal" quest chain (This quest is hidden on the EDZ, and it will not appear on your director, but it is a relevant quest)
- "A Fateful Gift" quest chain (This quest is hidden on the EDZ, and it will not appear on your director, but it is a relevant quest)
- The Last Wish Raid
- Scourge of the Past Raid
- Crown of Sorrows Raid
That should be everything that will appear on your director on Oct 1st that isn't tied explicitly to Shadowkeep. Anything in italics is hidden stuff that rewards an exotic weapon. Anything that is a link is the loot table for the activity or the actual reward to the quest chain. Things are largely ordered in the order they released in game with a couple of exceptions. I might have missed one or two things, but that is the vast majority of the major things worth doing in the game not including anything involving Shadowkeep. I did not list every available activity, but there are several of those. If a quest chain is required to unlock an activity the quest chain has been underlined. You aren't really prompted to do activities outside their respective quest chains, so the game won't be flashing at you to do them. By doing the above the game will show you every activity available in the game.
Final Words
Firstly I'd like to say a HUGE thanks to the following members for their contributions to the OT, DestinyEra as a community or both. In no particular order
Ruthless
EmptySpace
Strakt <- Seriously
JohnOfMars
ImperatorPat
If I forgot anyone I'm sorry.
Shadowkeep marks the 3rd year of Destiny 2, My 4th Destiny OT and my 6th year as a fan of the series. It's no secret that Destiny 1 and Destiny 2 have had ups and downs but looking back over the past year it seems than since Warmind Destiny 2 has been on a steady and slow at times uphill climb. The community has been vocal about its likes and dislikes and Bungie genuinly seem to listen and care. October 1st is a big culmative day of F2P launching and a new expansion and the start of a renewed push and drive by bungie to create the best living Action MMO possible and for the future is looking bright.
A year ago in the Forsaken OT I wrote
As a community we know Destiny 2 isn't Era's favourite game and we are fully anticipating heavy doses of Spicy hot takes and sodium. If possible I'd like to suggest posters prior to posting just think to them selves "does this comment add anything to a discussion or will it just derail a thread"
While that might still remain somewhat true I genuinly feel Forsaken did a lot to pave new ground and turn around the general reception of the series, Looking back it might have truly been The Taken King for Destiny 2 but unlike Rise of Iron which served as a dessert to the Destiny 1 experience Shadowkeep looks to be a substanial entremet that bridges D2 into the future. That said please keep in mind my request from the quoted above. The intent is not to stiffle conversation but to stem and reduce derailment and unpleasent discourse.
If you want to be part of the community I mentioned we have multiple clans, a very active discord with players on all platforms which you can join by tagging @Ruthless and frequent news and community threads.
The Destiny community hope you will join us as a New Lighter or in any other capacity as we experience what comes in Shadowkeep and Beyond.
From all of DestinyEra "Eyes up Guardian"
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