The Witch Queen expansion for Destiny 2 will finally take us to Savathȗn's throne world after years of hype. In addition to her formal introduction in the Season of the Lost, we've had a good look at what's to come in the next expansion and beyond as we reach the peak of Destiny 2's story. There's not long to go before a new chapter in Destiny 2 begins so let's take a look at everything we know about The Witch Queen.
Destiny 2: The Witch Queen release date
The Witch Queen hits PC and consoles on February 22, 2022. It'll come to Stadia, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series S/X, for those wanting to know. Cross-play and cross-save will still be active, too, so you can play on any platform with all of your pals and gear intact.
Destiny 2: The Witch Queen Collector's Edition pre-order
As is the norm, there are various digital and physical editions of The Witch Queen available to pre-order. The Standard Edition nets you the expansion only, whereas the Deluxe Edition gets you the expansion plus all the Year 5 seasons. The Deluxe Anniversary Edition comes with all of that plus all the anniversary content, which is otherwise sold separately. There will be the usual pre-order bonuses with each version including various shaders, emblems and more.
Finally, we have the Collector's Edition. It's worth noting that there's a version of this that comes without a game code, so make sure you buy the Collector's Edition associated with your preferred platform. You'll get everything mentioned above alongside:
- Destiny 2: The Witch Queen OST
- Psychometer Decoder
- Hive Ghost Shell
- Dossier Lore Book
- ID Badge
- Lenticular reveal card
- Weapon schematic poster
Weapon crafting is finally here!
After what seems like an age, weapon crafting is finally coming to Destiny 2. Glaives are an all-new weapon type that you'll be able to create with the new system and you'll be able to craft seasonal weapons as the expansion continues. I'm hopeful the balance will be exceptional from launch, as this is something we've been waiting a long time for.
For the uninitiated: glaives are basically big knives on sticks, so watch out for me cutting you to bits next February. They'll be used in first-person, too, which makes for some close-quarters stabbing fun times. Tim did a big interview on all things crafting, which revealed a number of super cool details. Eventually, you'll be able to make a weapon with the exact god roll you want, which Joe Blackburn described as "a long pursuit with a weapon."
You also won't need to hoard multiple versions of the same weapon as you'll be able to see which perks you're able to craft with each. It sounds like it's going to be quite a streamlined process, so we'll update you when we have more information.
One thing I can confirm is that you'll be able to get your hands on a grenade launcher, Parasite, that fires Hive worms at your foes. A few other exotics were announced recently including some glaives, armor pieces for each class and Osteo Striga, which is a sort of SMG-Thorn hybrid thing. It's no secret that we're a bunch of Warlock mains here at PC Gamer, so we are very excited.
Destiny 2: The Witch Queen gameplay changes
Huge changes are coming to masterwork armor and weapons in The Witch Queen, with improved QoL stuff happening and a more complicated way to generate Orbs of Light which begs the question: who asked for this?
You'll be able to unlock all mods in the seasonal artifact in The Witch Queen, providing you grind out enough XP. Autos will no longer be shite at stunning Overloads, which is nice, and the cost of switching elements on gear is going to be greatly reduced. Solar builds everywhere, here we fuckin go!
Generating Orbs of Light, however, won't be tied to masterwork items. In The Witch Queen, you'll need a new helmet mod that will generate orbs on multikills. We'll see how that plays out at launch.
Enemy scaling is set to shift and players will be able to choose which difficulty they want to play certain activities at. Legendary difficulty mode will be introduced at launch for those who want a real challenge, which should be good news to all you Grandmaster Nightfall pros out there. Missions will also scale in difficulty depending on how many players are in your fireteam, so you better bring the big guns.
Light subclasses are being reworked in The Witch Queen as opposed to dropping a bunch of new Darkness ones on us. The current subclasses will move to the modular one seen with Stasis, so expect some big balance changes overall. Void will get reworked first, with Solar and Arc changes coming later in the year.
The Hive also have Light now—hurray?—which means that we'll see some Hive 'Guardians'. This also implies we'll need to go around hunting for those super rad-looking Hive Ghosts to smash, which I'm not complaining about.
Destiny 2 Year 5 raids and dungeons
The Vault of Glass was successfully revived in Year 4 and Year 5 will see the return of yet another classic raid. The Witch Queen expansion also brings with it a new raid or dungeon every three months, meaning that there will be more challenging activities than ever available in-game for you Guardians.
It looks like Bungie could be gearing up to release a new version of King's Fall or Wrath of the Machine—Blackburn said the reprised raid would be "one of the big raids," which rules out Crota's End—which would be amazing.
Destiny 2 roadmap
It doesn't end with The Witch Queen, either; there are two more expansions coming over the next few years. Lightfall follows, with the previously unexpected The Final Shape coming afterwards, which will tie up a ten-year narrative. Ten years! How much have you done in ten years?
Sony recently acquired Bungie for a tasty $3.6B but both Sony and Bungie have said that Destiny 2 will not become a PlayStation exclusive. I wouldn't truly out any non-Destiny Bungie titles being PS4/5 only, though.
Remind me - how tall is Savathȗn?
She is an incredibly lengthy 21 feet tall and she can stand on my neck any day.
- Where is Xur: Find Destiny 2's exotics dealer is this week.
- Destiny 2: The Witch Queen review: The best expansion yet.
