Last weekend, Destiny 2 capped off a decade-long saga with an absolutely astonishing finale. Based on the community's reaction in the days since, it's an absolute triumph for Bungi. But now the obvious question: What's next? Today Bungie lifted the lid on the next year of Destiny 2 in a brief showcase trailer.
We already knew Year 10 would swap out the old quarterly seasonal model for a trio of 'Episodes'—which are longer, and designed to act as standalone stories. But now we know what each one will be about. There's some exciting reveals, not least of which is the return of a fan favourite Destiny 1 location, The Dreadnaught—a floating castle, abandoned ever since we killed its owner back in 2015.
The showcase also gave the briefest tease of what Bungie is cooking for Year 11. We'll start with that first, because it's the most exciting reveal, even if it is just the single image.
Codename: Frontiers
The most telling part of the Codename: Frontiers tease is the D2 logo next to it. Despite Bungie's continued insistence that Destiny 2 is continuing, a combination of copium and some very spurious "my uncle works at Nintendo" style unverified 'leaks', plenty had convinced themselves that Destiny 3 was imminent. Clearly it's not—personally, I'd be surprised if we hear about a sequel any time soon, if at all. There's just too much investment in the current version of the game.
That means Frontiers is most likely a new expansion—the first for the game following its lengthy saga. The name suggests a journey out into new territory, maybe even out of the solar system entirely. There's plenty of planets throughout the Destiny universe that would make for a rich new destination—the Cabal homeworld of Torobatl, for instance, is very full of Hive right now.
Echoes
As for the more immediate future, we've got a better idea of what's planned. Tomorrow is the launch of Echoes, the first of this year's episodes. Set on Nessus, we'll see the Vex being transformed by an echo of the Witness's memories that escaped the Pale Heart following the conclusion of The Final Shape. Things from the Vex Network are spilling out into the real world, and we'll journey towards the core of the planetoid, unearthing some ancient secrets and "a mysterious new enemy".
Beyond the new activity and the story hooks, we still don't have much on this one that sounds particularly new. Previously, the season that launched alongside an expansion was always the smallest and often the most forgettable of the year. Hopefully that's not the case here—with only three episodes in a year, each split into three acts, there's more pressure for each one to deliver.
Revenant
This is more like it. Revenant deals with the Fallen and the Scorn, with players taking on the role of a Slayer Baron. The vibe here is vampire hunting, Bungie says, but more than that, there's a whole potion system that feels straight out of The Witcher. Combat potions will boost your artifact—presumably offering some powerful bonuses that will directly support certain types of build. You'll also be chugging loot potions—giving you some more control over what loot you earn.
Also I'm not sure Bungie is being metaphorical about the vampire hunting thing. Scorn leader Fikrul has got himself one of the echo artefacts, and has apparently just straight up moved into a vampire keep.
Heresy
The final episode has the biggest revelation of the three: we're going back to the Dreadnaught. This was the destination added back in Destiny 1's The Taken King expansion—still one of the best in the series' history. In the showcase, Bungie says they're going to give the Dreadnaught a whole new purpose, and, while details on what we'll be doing are pretty light, they did showcase two new armour sets—one themed around one-time Hive god Eris Morn, and the other based on being a Hive ship navigator. Are we going to be flying the Dreadnaught, perhaps into a new frontier?
To an extent we're back to basics here: A Vex episode, a Fallen episode, a Hive episode. But the last couple of years of Destiny 2 have been heavily focused on the upcoming fight with the Witness, and I'm looking forward to the game branching out again into more disparate stories and mysteries. The key here is episodes being meaningfully distinct and—frankly—better than seasons were. The return of the Dreadnaught in Heresy is a nice surprise, and definitely makes it one to anticipate, even if we don't have confirmation that it's the full destination available to explore. And I'm interested to see what potion crafting brings to the game—and if it will be more involved and transformative than the Deck of Whispers from last year's Season of the Witch. Right now, Echoes feels like the most limited of the bunch. Hopefully that's not the case.
Clearly the biggest news is that Destiny 2 is continuing into Year 11, presumably with a new expansion. Bungie has said repeatedly that Destiny 2 will continue, but anecdotally I've spoken to plenty in the community who thought things would wind down after The Final Shape—not helped by Bungie's reluctance to say what was happening next. Arguably they still haven't, at least not to any depth, but I think it's likely that Destiny 2 will continue rolling for some years to come. The transition from Destiny 1 to Destiny 2 nearly killed the series, and now players have built up even larger vaults full of goodies. From that perspective, Destiny 3 would be a huge risk. And, frankly, after the success of The Final Shape, I'm looking forward to discovering what post-saga Destiny 2 will be.
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