The next year in Destiny 2 is ‘the beginning of the end’

By Jacob Roach August 23, 2022

Destiny 2 isn’t slowing down, and Bungie just wrapped its annual showcase timed with Gamescom Opening Night Live. We finally got details on the next expansion, Lightfall, and Bungie revealed what activities players can enjoy in the game’s latest season. And, of course, Bungie revealed it’s bringing back the King’s Fall raid to Destiny 2.

Contents

Lightfall and Strand
Better community tools
Season of Plunder and King’s Fall
Destiny 2 is coming to Epic Games Store

Destiny 2 Showcase 2022 - Livestream

You can comb through the full event above, but we rounded up all the big announcements so you can get up to date.

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Lightfall and Strand

Destiny 2: Lightfall - Reveal Trailer

Before getting to what’s coming this season, Bungie showed the first trailer for the next expansion, Lightfall. Game designer Joe Blackburn said this is “the beginning of the end” with Lightfall, and the trailer dropped several big hints about what we’ll see in the expansion.

A new subclass called Strand takes point. It’s a darkness subclass like Stasis, but Bungie says Guardians are the first to wield it. A grappling hook seems to be a big focus on the new subclass, allowing you to quickly transverse the city on Neptune. Strand is “about peeling back the curtain of reality,” utilizing the hidden threads that tie the universe together.

The Strand subclass in Destiny 2.

We got some story details as well. The infamous emperor Calus has been chosen as the new disciple of The Witness, and the expansion is centered around Neptune (a new destination for Destiny 2). There, you’ll find a metropolis where a race known as Cloud Striders have developed separately from humans.

The expansion launches on February 28, 2023, and pre-orders are available now. Just like The Witch Queen, Lightfall will feature a Legendary campaign mode for hardcore players.

Better community tools

Loadout manager in Destiny 2.

Alongside Lightfall, Bungie said it plans on making some community changes over the next year. You can give Guardians commendations for being a good player, easily find groups for raids or dungeons, and gain Guardian Ranks, which allow you to level up and show off your mastery of Destiny 2 from top to bottom.

We’ll also see a mod manager and loadout builder. Bungie says you’ll be able to save a few different loadouts directly in Destiny 2 so you can easily swap between them when you want to change up how you play.

Season of Plunder and King’s Fall

Destiny 2: The Witch Queen - Season of Plunder Trailer

The showcase marks the start of Season of the Plunder, which is a pirate-themed season that includes new weapons, three new activities, and the return of an iconic raid from the original Destiny.

The season starts with Eramis breaking out of the Stasis Guardians left her in at the end of Beyond Light. Your pirate crew, which Bungie says you’ll be able to build during the season, will start with some returning faces including The Drifter and Mithrax.

Season of Plunder weapons in Destiny 2.

Players have three new activities: Hideouts, Expeditions, and Ketchcrash. Ketchcrash is a six-player activity where players will raid pirate ships, Expeditions take you through looking for hidden treasure, and Hideouts let you take out Eramis’ quarters where strange artifacts are being held.

Bungie announced it would bring back another raid from Destiny this year, similar to what it did with Vault of Glass last year. Destiny 2 is seeing the return of King’s Fall, which is one of the most iconic raids from the original game. It will go live on Friday, August 26 at 10 a.m. PT. During the first 24 hours, Bungie will hold a raid race with the Contest Mode modifier, which caps your power level for a more difficult challenge.

The first fireteam to beat King’s Fall and complete each encounter’s challenge will win the raid race. Good luck, Guardians.

Destiny 2 is coming to Epic Games Store

Destiny 2 on Epic Games Store - Fortnite + Fall Guys Crossover Trailer

Destiny 2 is coming to the Epic Games Store today, and to sweeten the offer, Bungie is offering its 30th Anniversary content pack for free to anyone who downloads. Over the next week, players will also be able to play all of the Destiny 2 expansions for free regardless of the platform they’re on, as well as claim a free gear set called Gift of the Thunder Gods, which includes a set of Arc gear including the Thunderlord exotic.

As leaks suggested prior to the showcase, Destiny 2 and Fortnite are coming together. Three Destiny 2 skins are available in Fortnite starting today, and three armor sets inspired by Fortnite are in Destiny 2. In addition, Fall Guys will receive a set of Destiny–themed costumes on September 17.

For long-time Guardians, Bungie had an even more exciting announcement — no more sunsetting. Destiny 2 saw most of its content removed with the launch of Beyond Light, but Bungie says it won’t take any more expansions out of the game moving forward.

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In January, Epic Games introduced a handful of new changes, including the removal of many Christmas-themed items, and its first new item of 2023: the Guardian Shield, which adds another layer of strategy when used correctly. This new item is tied to a series of in-game challenges, incentivizing players to give it a try. But where can you find the Guardian Shield and how does it work?
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Dead Island 2’s Amazon Alexa voice commands are novel, but limited

Dani lights a cigarette as zombies attack her from behind in Dead Island 2 key art.

I’ve always found myself interested in new technologies that could possibly enhance how we play or experience games. Whether it’s a computing innovation like cloud gaming or new controller features like the DualSense’s Haptic Feedback and Adaptive Triggers, I love testing those things out. That’s why I jumped at the opportunity to try Alexa Game Control during my recent hands-on preview experience with Dead Island 2.
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Hey, Alexa
Dead Island 2 players can toggle Alexa Game Control on when they first show up in Bel-Air after the game’s opening. It has a dedicated tab in the Options Menu where players can choose to enable or disable it, choose whether they want it to work automatically or with push to talk, set the voice capture threshold, and decide which microphone they wish to use.
After enabling Alexa Game Control, I immediately noticed a ring at the bottom-left corner of the screen. When I spoke, this lit up with blue and teal colors, like the top ring on an Alexa device, and text confirming whether it could do the action or not would appear. Not having to say “Hey, Alexa” also means it implemented itself into the game smoothly. At first, I tried to see if voice commands would work for basic things like walking, jumping, and dodging, to no avail. After this, I hopped to a save I had placed later in the game and opened its tutorial menu to see what Alexa Game Control could really do.
Reading its tutorials and lists of commands, the limits of Alexa Game Control became clear. It mainly provides quick shortcuts to save you a button press or two in the middle of playing. In Dead Island 2, Alexa Game Control has four main uses: setting waypoints, taunting enemies, triggering emotes, and switching weapons. The tutorial menus give a complete list of commands that work, although each wildly varies in its usefulness.
Oi, zombie!
The funniest use of this voice technology in Dead Island 2 is taunting zombies. Shouting something like “Hey, dude” or “Oi, zombie” to get the attention of enemies that hadn’t detected me always made me chuckle. It’s also occasionally useful; at one point, I got a bunch of zombies to walk into a large pool of acid and die after taunting them. While it takes the same amount of time as walking up to the zombie to get their attention, I see the potential in voice technology that lets you interact with the world like this.