Perhaps one of my favorite parts of each year, Bungie just released its ViDoc for the upcoming Destiny 2 expansion, collecting details we already knew about the upcoming content release with new information to get players beyond hype for Beyond Light. Alongside the Season of the Hunt roadmap, which extends to February, this ViDoc really dives into the nitty-gritty of who we’ll be meeting, what we’ll be doing, and how we’ll experience the start of Destiny 2’s fourth year.
Be warned though, the Destiny 2 Beyond Light ViDoc does contain what some may consider spoilers, revealing some pretty massive events and story beats happening in the coming months. If you want to go in completely blind, don’t watch the video and be careful reading this article. We’ll try to clearly mark when we talk spoilers, but it’s pretty interwoven into the Season of the Hunt narrative line, much like Cayde’s death setting off events in Forsaken.
Check out the full 15-minute Destiny 2 Beyond Light ViDoc below:
Destiny 2 Beyond Light ViDoc
Bungie begins by reminding people that Beyond Light kicks off the next trilogy of Destiny releases (as announced earlier this year). It’s about beginning to explore the true nature of Light and Dark, and ultimately learning about what exactly the “Darkness” is, hence the “Beyond Light” title of this expansion. We are walking past that veil. We are getting ready to wield Powers beyond that of Light. And learning these secrets is going to drastically change many of the characters we’ve come to know. Bungie makes it clear that not only are big gameplay changes incoming, but this is an enormous story arc paying off things seeded back in the original Destiny.
Beyond Light – Europa
The Exo Stranger is back, and according to Luke Smith, “she has a lot to say, and she has a lot of time to explain.” It appears that she will be the destination vendor on Europa, the new icy moon destination coming with Beyond Light. Europa is as much its frozen surface as it is the Golden Age construction underground. “Under the ice, all kinds of secrets.” They go on to discuss the raging snowstorm on Europa, something they discussed earlier this year too. The storms will change visibility and a number of elements about the world, making it feel more alive and more dangerous than any Destiny location yet.
Eramis is a Fallen who is already on Europa, giving her troops the powers of Darkness, specifically Stasis. A shot show her shattering a Servitor as she talks about breaking the chains, referring to the need for ether from Servitors that Fallen have relied on. This leads in turn to us getting our hands on the Darkness powers of Stasis, cosmic ice that will freeze and shatter enemies. It dives into subclass modifications, again something that was talked about a few weeks ago. And the sound design team delves into how they made the audio for this new element.
Exotics
No Time to Explain, the infamous Exo Stranger’s rifle, is returning. We’ve known that for quite some time now as it’s part of the preorder package. But now we’ve seen details that it generates a time portal, teleporting in rounds from other timelines to kill enemies. The Lament is a chainsaw sword. That’s really all there is to say about that. The new Exotic Armor was designed to be a key central point in your build that you then expand out from. They aren’t meant to be gimmicks, but more staples of certain builds.
New Light
Bungie revamped the entire new player experience using the old Cosmodrome destination from Destiny 1. This was detailed a few weeks ago, but we finally get to see much of it in video form, including the new character Shaw Han. They describe this introductory experience as “Destiny distilled.”
Season of the Hunt
Okay friends, we about to get spoilery, so turn back now if you don’t want to know any more.
Seriously, kill this page like Uldren killed Cayde.
You sure you want to continue?
All right, Season of the Hunt is the Season that will accompany Beyond Light. If Beyond Light is the foundational experience for Year 4, Season of the Hunt is what puts the story into motion that will carry throughout the year. We saw similar strategy with Shadowkeep, so expect a similar cadence of Seasonal content this year. The Seasonal content doesn’t appear at a glance to directly connect to Beyond Light, but much like Shadowkeep and its corresponding season, these should be thread that will tie up eventually.
Season of the Hunt sees, of all people, Uldren and Osiris teaming up to investigate Xivu Arath and her Hive growths that are driving enemies mad. Uldren, however, is not the Uldren we know. He is a Risen, brought back to life by a Ghost with no memories of his mortal Awoken self. He now calls himself Crow, and his return pays off a longstanding mystery following the end of Forsaken. We have to work with the man that killed Cayde, but is he the same man?
This story plays more into Savathun, really setting up the overall Year 4 narrative arc of Destiny 2. “Savathun has been placing dominos, and at the end of Year 4, she’s gonna knock down the dominos.”
The final piece goes into how this is just the start of at least three more years of Destiny 2. Beyond Light, Witch Queen, and Lightfall will tell a trilogy of stories, and the Seasons in between will tell even more stories. This is all setting up the future of the game. “Destiny’s best days are ahead of us.”
The entire video is well worth watching if you want to keep a keen eye out for secrets and hints of what’s to come. One brief shot at about 1:58 shows Zavala and Osiris flanked by two Cabal around a war table. And they aren’t fighting. Are we about to start teaming up with enemy factions more in a big way? And a few shots definitely show six Guardians loading into a destination, teasing the Deep Stone Crypt Raid. There’s a lot to absorb here, but it’s a great all in one video that details Beyond Light while adding some new context as well.
In addition to the ViDoc, check out the new Season of the Hunt roadmap:
Destiny 2 Season of the Hunt Roadmap
Click to Enlarge
The Destiny 2 Season of the Hunt roadmap gives us a pretty good idea for the major beats and releases over the next few months, but there’s certain to be plenty of secrets hidden in all of the content too. After all, letting players and the community make discoveries is something Bungie is nearly unsurpassed at.
Destiny 2 Beyond Light releases on November 10th. Next-gen versions of the game will be coming on December 8th with big optimizations including FOV sliders on consoles.
[Source: Bungie]