Bungie has just dropped the trailer for Destiny 2's next season, which we now know is called Season of the Seraph. It kicks off later today at reset time (10:00 AM PST, 1:00 PM EST, 6:00 PM GMT). Until this video arrived almost nothing official was known about the season, leading to quite a bit of grumbling from players about the studio's preference for hype-building secrecy over clear communication.
As had been rumoured by lore watchers, the season is themed around the return of the warmind Rasputin, an incredibly powerful militarized AI with a penchant for opera. The old rascal had been stashed in an engram following the pyramid fleet's invasion of the Solar System, which fried his defences. It looks to me like we're going to spend the next couple of months restoring him, seemingly culminating in transferring his consciousness to an exo body.
I want to post this quickly so am not going to do a voluminous frame-by-frame breakdown of the footage, but the first thing that jumped out to me was the inclusion of new Seraph weapons (which will presumably also be able to generate Warmind Cells, as the Seraph/Ikelos weapons in the past have done).
Bungie has also put up an official page for the season, which can be found here. It fleshes out what to expect from the story:
"The Hive God of War moves to seize control of Rasputin’s network of weaponized satellites. In her hands, she would turn its devastating power on the Last City. To stop her, the Vanguard has authorized special covert operations armed with the Warmind’s most advanced weaponry. Agents conducting these operations are known as Seraphs."
In terms of new content, we're promised Heist Battlegrounds, which is the six-person matchmade activity for the season and sees guardians "deployed to multiple destinations to infiltrate Braytech facilities, bypass advanced defense systems, and neutralize hordes of Wrathborn". There will also be an exotic quest called Operation: Seraph’s Shield in which "guardians must gain access to the most impenetrable facility in the solar system: a Braytech orbital platform above the Last City."
It sounds like that activity will be what progresses the weekly story and eventually leads to Rasputin being woken up. That activity also appears to be the source of a new exotic called Revision Zero, which appears to be a pulse rifle. Bungie says: "In the weeks following its discovery, multiple catalysts can be acquired, each adding to the mysterious Exotic’s power." Multiple catalysts? Say more, Bungie!
I will say the new armor sets coming with Season of the Seraph seem strong for us fashion enjoyers, especially the Assassin's Creed tie-in stuff pictured below.
Season of the Seraph runs from 6 December to 28 February, which is when Lightfall, the next major expansion, lands.
