Too many of my friends trying Destiny 2 haven’t a clue on how to start the campaigns

[Linus815]

I really wish Bungie allowed people to choose wether they want to start from the start, like vanilla destiny 2, or do the "new light" start where you start at 750 power and the red war isn't manditory

Like... Red War wasn't exactly a great storyline (tbh none of Destiny 2's campaigns are amazing, Forsaken is probably the best one) but it was pretty enjoyable to go through the first time and it flowed nicely. Now, it just feels garbled and weird.

 

[No Depth]

I'm not a new player, I've played the paid version of Destiny 2, the onboarding for existing players in the F2P version needs to be improved in my opinion.

Thanks for the assistance however.

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Oh I fully agree. I'm not new either, but even I'm finding it rough to jump back in.

Like I said, most players may not realize what the icons are, what are 'real' quests and what are repeatable. What icons are worth doing, and what are related to actual progression. The quests tab is super important and I don't think Bungie even clues players in right away to check it. So we get threads like this.

The on-boarding definitely needs a second pass.

 

[Harlequin]

I played through Forsaken with my friend who only bought it now and the campaign has been changed. No more adventures for the barons, instead you kill them one by one in story missions you click on on the map and get loaded into. They didn't even change the dialogue from Ghost so you will hear "6 barons dead!" after killing the first baron and so on.
He still loved it, but it was a very different experience compared to what I got.

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From a game archiving standpoint, this sounds like a bloody nightmare. So there's no way at all for people to play the original version of Forsaken?

 

[chrominance]

I honestly did not realize that there was a bunch of stuff I'd be losing out on if I didn't bother playing D2 until the F2P version on Steam (I got the Battle.net version for free at some point via a promotion and installed it but didn't play it). It sounds like everything about the onboarding and campaign has gotten worse. I was hoping to save the D2 campaign for a dry spell but it sounds like if I ever do pick it up, the experience will be quite different and not as good as launch, which is a big bummer.

 

[Deleted member 3812]

Oh I fully agree. I'm not new either, but even I'm finding it rough to jump back in.

Like I said, most players may not realize what the icons are, what are 'real' quests and what are repeatable. What icons are worth doing, and what are related to actual progression. The quests tab is super important and I don't think Bungie even clues players in right away to check it. So we get threads like this.

The on-boarding definitely needs a second pass.

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This is most certainly the case!!! When I got into the game itself, absolutely no pop-up explaining the Quests tab, how to access it, how to use it.

 

[TheGhost]

I think I saw a message about talking to Amanda, but it wasnt very clear about why I should go talk to her yet. And there was no icon over her, so I just dismissed it.

I'll take some of the blame for not understanding what they were trying to tell me. But they throw so much at you and it's all in-universe terms that you start to filter it all out.

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Nah i mean it makes sense to me because I've been playing for 5 years and i know blue icons over characters means new quests. You would not know that as a new player.

 

[Orion117]

I know, I've been playing since D1 :) It just seems like really poor design to gate main campaign progress behind a specific weapon type. Fair enough if it's something optional.

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Main campaign is not gated behind that quest. Check the shadowkeep quest again, it will say you need to do essence of despair not greed. Greed is optional to get the new machine gun.

 

[LebGuns]

Bungie should have just put it in a obvious place in the tower for the next update or give people the option of playing through the campaigns normally in order. all 4 of D2's campaigns all together arent even more than 20 hrs long anyway. There really wasn't a need to rush everybody through. You've essentially lost any narrative reason to care about whats going on and all these people in the tower talking about shit you werent there for because you cant find the campaign lol. The NPC's and world refelected the things you did before and connected you to the narrative, and they just broke that for some reason.

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Couldn't agree with this more. Really shocked at how this was handled. I feel really bad for the new light players. They won't really get to experience the impact of the Forsaken storyline and that quest for revenge properly.

 

[Deleted member 1185]

Its confusing for a returning player too. I played a ton of D2 at launch and just bought forsaken (havent bought shadowkeep)
I jumped back in, no idea what any of the new currencies and stuff is. I wanted to do CoO and Warmind and it took me 15 mins stumbling around the tower to find them buried in a vendor.

I STILL havent figured out how to actually start Forsaken. The only quest in my Milestones is Shadowkeep which I DONT OWN

 

[A More Normal Bird]

I'm kind of baffled by how they seem to have fumbled this, because I thought they already had a much simpler solution at hand. With Forsaken, you were given a level boost that you could use on a single character to get them up to speed and unlock old zones. Anyone who's priority was playing new content or joining their friends who already played could use it, and then could still experience earlier content on a second character. Anyone who initially wanted to progress through the game on their own could do so, and then use the boost to skip that content on a second character.

It could also have allowed them to dodge the weird "new guardians who are treated as established heroes" character interactions. You wake up in the cosmodrome in D1 era, complete the intro mission. Game then asks you if you want to use the level boost. If you say yes, fade to black, screen reads 5 years later, you're in the new tower and ready to go. If you say no, fade to black, screen reads 3 years later, and the original D2 campaign begins.

 

[New Donker]

I played up to warmind on destiny 2 and a ton of destiny 1 and have no idea what the fuck I'm doing in new light. Makes me hesitant to buy the expansion. I don't even know if the expansion comes with forsaken.

 

[astro]

I played up to warmind on destiny 2 and a ton of destiny 1 and have no idea what the fuck I'm doing in new light. Makes me hesitant to buy the expansion. I don't even know if the expansion comes with forsaken.

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You should read the Shadowkeep OT, all new players here should.

 

[Dead Man Typing]

On the map screen, tab left to the "Quests" tab. You SHOULD have a few that are worth tracking as a new player. One is to go meet Amanda in the Tower to do the "campaign" missions(ie. vanilla Destiny 2 campaign). That is a good starting point.
[Snip]
Bottom-line, your quests tab is super vital. It's like your journal log in an open-world RPG.

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There doesnt appear to be a quest to talk to Amanda. I still haven't been to see her and I have 12 active quests. None of them say to go talk to her.

I'm up to "talk to the drifter" in the main quest. Maybe after that I will get a "talk to Amanda" quest. At that point I would have a grasp on Destiny 2's systems and be ready to play the campaign.

This light all be by design to get new players accustomed to what a strike is, what the crucible is etc.... before directing them to the old campaigns.

In which case, it's working on me.... but I still feel confused. So that's not great.

 

[Klyka]

ok I bought Forsaken after all the adoration and now I'm annoyed if I'm getting some truncated version that lacks much of the substance.

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It's still the same good missions but the world loses some cohesion because instead of you actually moving between adventures to hunt the barons in the open world and you choosing which you hunt in which order, you just go through it one by one in a set order with loading screens.

 

[SteveWinwood]

You get a message to go talk to Amanda no? I saw one on my hunter. They should probably have new players spawn right in front of her.

it's amazing they have all these streamers and play testers and no one thought of that.

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i don't think I ever got a pop up telling me to talk to her, I stumbled upon the quests because I saw she had a ship icon and I wanted to get rid of my lame looking on during loading screens, figured I could buy one there

You should read the Shadowkeep OT, all new players here should.

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i did, it's not super helpful, there's honestly too much stuff to cover in it so I don't blame it

it tells you some stuff but do 'the forget quests' isn't really specific and doesn't help much

you also don't get exotics anymore from the story quests so that parts just wrong

 

[astro]

Wait a minute...

I just spooled up a brand new character to see how bad it is, and you are LITERALLY guided to Amanda Holiday pretty much soon as you enter the tower.

You finish the tutorial mission then you're taken directly to the tower.
You get a marker that takes you to Zavla right away.
You speak with Zavala who hands you a quest to complete strikes, and immediately you get a marker on your map that leads to Holiday in the hanger.

And this is what she says:

So while the game should definitely have better onboarding, this is pretty clear...

i don't think I ever got a pop up telling me to talk to her, I stumbled upon the quests because I saw she had a ship icon and I wanted to get rid of my lame looking on during loading screens, figured I could buy one there

i did, it's not super helpful, there's honestly too much stuff to cover in it so I don't blame it

it tells you some stuff but do 'the forget quests' isn't really specific and helping

you also don't get exotics anymore from the story quests so that parts just wrong

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If you did, then how did you not know Forsaken doesn't come with Shadowkeep. :p

You can ask us any questions in the OT or discord!

 

[Firewithin]

Yup no idea what I'm doing or where to go

 

[astro]

Yup no idea what I'm doing or where to go

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See above... as soon as you finish the tutorial mission and enter the tower you follow the markers on the map and it will guide you to the old campaigns.

I really don't understand how people are missing this... are y'all just clicking throug text?

 

[Deleted member 5596]

Wait a minute...

I just spooled up a brand new character to see how bad it is, and you are Literally guided to Amanda Holiday as p[pretty much soon as you enter the tower.

You finish the tutorial mission then you're taken directly to the tower,
You get a marker that takes you to Zavla right away.
You speak with Zavala who hands you a quest to complete strikes, and immediately you get a marker on your map that leads to Holiday in the hanger.

And this is what she says:

So while the game should definitely have better onboarding, this is pretty clear...



If you did, then how did you not know Forsaken doesn't come with Shadowkeep. :p

You can ask us any questions in the OT or discord!

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In my case I returned after completing vanilla campaign. You surely don't get a marker to Amanda (Zavala and other NPC'S sure, but not Amanda). You get a bunch of "Quests" to do, but is never clear which is the next main quest and you get a lot of dailies and different quest that are not properly label from which expansion or even if they are related to any main quests. I followed a bunch of markers and started a "raid" or some kind of quest but I get stuck.

I guess the game assumed I should know that I had to go to Amanda to get the next main quest, which surely is a mistake.

 

[astro]

In my case I returned after completing vanilla campaign. You surely don't get a marker to Amanda (Zavala and other NPC'S sure, but not Amanda). You get a bunch of "Quests" to do, but is never clear which is the next main quest and you get a lot of dailies and different quest that are not properly label from which expansion or even if they are related to any main quests. I followed a bunch of markers and started a "raid" or some kind of quest but I get stuck.

I guess the game assumed I should know that I had to go to Amanda to get the next main quest, which surely is a mistake.

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After you speak with Zavala, a marker appears on the map that leads to Amanda.

New players will be directly guided to it.

 

[SteveWinwood]

Wait a minute...

I just spooled up a brand new character to see how bad it is, and you are LITERALLY guided to Amanda Holiday pretty much soon as you enter the tower.

You finish the tutorial mission then you're taken directly to the tower.
You get a marker that takes you to Zavla right away.
You speak with Zavala who hands you a quest to complete strikes, and immediately you get a marker on your map that leads to Holiday in the hanger.

And this is what she says:

So while the game should definitely have better onboarding, this is pretty clear...



If you did, then how did you not know Forsaken doesn't come with Shadowkeep. :p

You can ask us any questions in the OT or discord!

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you get a marker to every person in the entire tower barring like 2

expecting people to go talk to each one with no reason just to see what they tell you is ridiculous, that would take over an hour and youd be inundated with stuff about clans and pvp

 

[Fiery Phoenix]

I'll be honest: Destiny has never been the most beginner-friendly game to me with its general lack of direction and guidance. I did finish the campaign back then. Not sure what to expect when I log back in.

 

[The Heape]

But I do need one, my current quest requires x number of kills with a machine gun.

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Not sure if this has been answered already but they decreased the amount of work required for the forges. Now you have to do one of Ada's weekly bounties (either the 7 dailys or just run 2 forges) then you purchase the machine gun frame from Ada and then launch the forge from the bottom left of the map on EDZ. Once you finish you'll have a shiny new machine gun.

 

[Deleted member 5596]

After you speak with Zavala, a marker appears on the map that leads to Amanda.

New players will be directly guided to it.

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But I guess I wasn't considered a new player, since my character completed vanilla so I was never directed to Amanda. The marker is in the map but the game never told me to go there.

 

[astro]

you get a marker to every person in the entire tower barring like 2

expecting people to go talk to each one with no reason just to see what they tell you is ridiculous, that would take over an hour and youd be inundated with stuff about clans and pvp

also I don't know what forsaken is tbh

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Sorry, but it's not ridiculous imo.

You start with two markers: Zavala is closest to you.
As soon as you speak with him, you get two more, and Amanda is one.

You should always visit all NPCs in games like this, the game is literally telling you to speak with them for information.

I agree onboarding needs work, but I really struggle to see how you can miss Amanda and the old quests. Honestly.

But I guess I wasn't considered a new player, since my character completed vanilla so I was never directed to Amanda. The marker is in the map but the game never told me to go there.

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The marker being on the map is the game telling you to go there...

 

[VariantX]

But I guess I wasn't considered a new player, since my character completed vanilla so I was never directed to Amanda. The marker is in the map but the game never told me to go there.

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I think that could simply be solved with a different type of marker denoting that this NPC will help you advance the campaign like the purple crowns that let you know this a campaign mission or critical path.

 

[astro]

I think that could simply be solved with a different type of marker denoting that this NPC will help you advance the campaign like the purple crowns that let you know this a campaign mission or critical path.

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It is a different kind, it is the deep blue marker. If you read what Zavala says it makes it obvious you need to speak with the other people in the tower, all the blue markers are primary goals.

 

[Strakt]

Agreed. New player experience is REALLY bad.

 

[Deleted member 15476]

New players will be directly guided to it.

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Nope, if anything the first npc the game focused on when I arrived at the tower was the dude with the class bounties/missions/whatever, right there at the center of the camera. The Amanda marker didn't looke any more special than other markers in the tower.

 

[Slayven]

Damn i been wondering around that church waiting for something to happen

 

[New Donker]

You should read the Shadowkeep OT, all new players here should.

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I guess but I shouldn't have to. The game should be explaining this stuff

 

[astro]

Nope, if anything the first npc the game focused on when I arrived at the tower was the dude with the class bounties/missions/whatever, right there at the center of the camera. The Amanda marker didn't looke any more special than other markers in the tower.

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The Amanda marker looks like all the other markers that appear when you first arrive that are primary markers you need to follow, and the text makes it clear you need to speak with the NPCs in the tower.

I honestly think that part is very clear.

I guess but I shouldn't have to. The game should be explaining this stuff

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I was talking about that person's issue not understanding what to buy. The OT covers it, and it's always a good idea to read an OT to get an overview of the game, even if the game is good at onboarding.

 

[Deleted member 5596]

Sorry, but it's not ridiculous imo.

You start with two markers: Zavala is closest to you.
As soon as you speak with him, you get two more, and Amanda is one.

You should always visit all NPCs in games like this, the game is literally telling you to speak with them for information.

I agree onboarding needs work, but I really struggle to see how you can miss Amanda and the old quests. Honestly.


The marker being on the map is the game telling you to go there...

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But there's a dozen other markers in the map, how should I know? Also Zavala and few other had specific 'pulsating' signs on the map marker and in-game markers telling me to go there. Not Amanda, none of the others.

 

[astro]

But there's a dozen other markers in the map, how should I know? Also Zavala and few other had specific 'pulsating' signs on the map marker and in-game markers telling me to go there. Not Amanda, none of the others.

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The game tells you right away you need to speak with the NPCs.

And there are only 2 blue primary markers at first, and as soon as you visit one it shows you more and tells you to speak with these NPCs.

 

[Klyka]

From a game archiving standpoint, this sounds like a bloody nightmare. So there's no way at all for people to play the original version of Forsaken?

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No way. You aren't missing any content, the missions are the same though.

 

[Deleted member 5596]

The game tells you right away you need to speak with the NPCs.

And there are only 2 blue primary markers at first, and as soon as you visit one it shows you more and tells you to speak with these NPCs.

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Again, that must be for new players. That never happened in my case, after speaking to the NPC's the game directed me it never told me to speak to Amanda.

 

[astro]

Again, that must be for new players. That never happened in my case, after speaking to the NPC's the game directed me it never told me to speak to Amanda.

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I'm talking about new players though... or for old players for brand new characters.

Did it put a blue marker over Amanda though?

 

[Deleted member 5596]

I'm talking about new players though...

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I'm talking about my case, I think it's also a problem for many people that only played vanilla campaign.

Did it put a blue marker over Amanda though?

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Yes, but since the game never directed me to there I though it was just there for the Vanilla stuff. I thought the characters I spoke gave me the necessary quests to start the new main quests.

 

[night814]

I'm just running around like an idiot, doing public events and every little quest/bounty I stumble upon lol. Don't mind it too much to be honest, the first 2 hours of the campaign I played from the free version on battle.net were extremely dull.

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This is my problem right now, boy the beginning of the game sucks lol

 

[astro]

I'm talking about my case, I think it's also a problem for many people that only played vanilla campaign.

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Okay... but my point was new characters. I have played it all, I rolled a new character, and this is what I saw.

 

[WillyGubbins]

Main campaign is not gated behind that quest. Check the shadowkeep quest again, it will say you need to do essence of despair not greed. Greed is optional to get the new machine gun.

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Ah, my mistake then. Thanks!

 

[WillyGubbins]

Not sure if this has been answered already but they decreased the amount of work required for the forges. Now you have to do one of Ada's weekly bounties (either the 7 dailys or just run 2 forges) then you purchase the machine gun frame from Ada and then launch the forge from the bottom left of the map on EDZ. Once you finish you'll have a shiny new machine gun.

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I actually went out and did the machine gun forge thing already and it didn't take too long. Thanks for the heads up though :)

 

[Dead Man Typing]

When you highlight Amanda's icon on the map it says something like "she's in charge of the hangar and runs a tight ship".

If they changed that text to be something useful like "talk to her about ship upgrades and accessing legacy content"or something, it would probably have solved my problem.

 

[Spaltazar]

just got done with red war. gotta say, the story does not do the environment art any justice. a+ art, c- story. on to CoO i go!

 

[Harbinger00]

Yeah, I stopped playing after Warmind, and was basically completely lost when I came back. They just dump you on the tower with nothing to say what you should do next. I just wandered around and talked to everyone, and happened to find the 'legacy' content, at least all the stuff from the first season pass.

 

[Hella]

All of Destiny's tooltips are weirdly cryptic tbh. Instead of like, 'A Gun' it will be all, 'An ancient tool of an exalted age. Legends whisper of its purpose.'

 

[Astronut325]

I have an unopened copy of the Forsaken collection. Will I still be able to play that?

 

[Armaros]

This thread has been educational.
I made a post in the OT saying pretty much this. When I boot up the game today I'll go straight to the campaigns.

You still get experience for doing them, right?

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You have no exotics tho, from redwar or anything before Forsaken and shadowkeeper. So the easy freebie exotics are now just pure RNG and new players dont even get a basic exotic to start the endgame now.

 

[TheZynster]

I have an unopened copy of the Forsaken collection. Will I still be able to play that?

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If you didn't redeem the code on battle net or even forgot to migrate......probably not

 

[Deleted member 5604]

I had this issue with D1, even as someone who had played the content of the vanilla game before, when I bought the collection that had all the content. Had no clue where to start from, what the new systems were. There were like 20 things to do on the map and when I tried playing a mission, I clearly had zero idea who or what this new enemy type was and how to deal with em. I stopped the game right then and there.

Thought they would've figured this out for Destiny 2, but I guess not.