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The Future of Destiny 2 in New Frontiers

Last Updated:September 9, 2024

On the 10th Anniversary of Destiny 1's release, Bungie has revealed snippets of the Franchise's long-term future through New Frontiers. This article takes information from Bungie's New Frontiers blog post and its subsidiary "Portal", "Core Game Activities", "Core Game Rewards", and "Ten Years of Destiny" articles and condenses it down.

There's a lot of new information, from a fully reworked content delivery cycle, a new story-saga, and major changes to dozens of fundamental game systems. There's even some anniversary goodies you can get right now! So, let's get started, shall we?

A Reworked Expansion Cycle

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Destiny 2 Expansion Roadmap from Bungie's New Frontiers blog post.

A Word From the Game Director, Tyson Green

My name is Tyson and I’m the Game Director for Destiny 2, and I'm excited to speak today about our team’s vision for Destiny.
First and foremost, we all still love Destiny. It is a unique and challenging game, both for you and for us. I’ve personally been working on Destiny for 15 years and it still excites me creatively. There are not many games I could say that about.
But at the same time, we recognize that it has become too rigid. Expansions have started to feel too formulaic and are over too quickly with little replay value. Seasons and Episodes keep getting bigger but can still feel like you are just going through the motions.
We believe it’s time for Destiny to change and evolve, and that our community wants this game to grow and innovate too. And to do that, we need to start breaking some of the molds. 

Two Expansions Per Year

Starting next Year, Bungie intends to break away from the previous decade's standard of a large annual Expansion. This format has had disadvantages they wish to free themselves from:

  • Bungie states that large annual Expansions dominate their development effort.
  • Innovation demands development needs to go towards areas of the game that feel impactful to players.
    • The annual Expansion model didn't provide enough room for Bungie to innovate.

Instead, Bungie plans to release a medium-sized Expansion every 6 months. This allows them to:

  • Explore a new format of Campaign within every single Expansion.
    • Instead of the usual linear format we've had since Shadowkeep, they're currently prototyping experiences similar to Forsaken's Dreaming City, Metroidvanias, Rougelikes, and even Survival Shooters.
  • Bungie feels that they can pursue these innovative changes to their content delivery without compromising on their great storytelling.

4 Seasons to 3 Episodes. Now to 4 (Free) Major Updates Yearly

Destiny 2's community was loud, and I'm certain they were clear. Since Shadowkeep, Seasons have grown stale and The Final Shape's Episodes haven't felt different enough from them.

Alongside a reworked Expansion cycle comes a reworked Seasonal cycle:

  • "Major Updates" are to be released every 3 months. This means that Expansions release alongside a Major Update, and in 3 months a standalone Major Update will follow.
    • Seasonal Resets are being tied to Expansion releases, rather than Seasonal Major Updates.
  • Content from Major Updates are free, they include:
    • Activities: Strikes, Exotic missions, or entirely new modes like Onslaught
    • Rewards: weapons, armor, Artifact Mods, Exotics, and more
    • New weekly events
    • New features
    • Combat meta and balance updates

Destiny 2's Next Saga Starts With Codename: Apollo

New Frontiers included the reveal of two new Expansions codenamed Apollo and Behemoth, both of these are slated to release in 2025.

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"Apollo" Concept Art from Bungie's New Frontiers blog post.

A Word From the Narrative Director, Alison Lührs

Hello! I’m Alison, and I’m the D2 Narrative Director. I’m a fresh face at Bungie; I started doing narrative direction for seasons in Fall 2022, and my first D2 expansion was The Final Shape. 
We’re proud of The Final Shape and the ending we created for the Light and Darkness Saga. And we knew that the episodes that follow would act as an epilogue, tying up Light and Dark’s hanging threads… but also setting us up for what’s next. The Episodes close doors and open new ones, purposeful ones, storylines that are set in place to prepare us for what comes next. 
And what is next is our new saga.
You’ll see teases of it in the later two Episodes, and then fully kick off with Codename: Apollo. This next saga is also based around a core theme, much like Light and Darkness did. It will introduce plenty of new characters, factions, twists, and more. There’s a lot more here we will say eventually, but we don’t want to spoil the journey for you. This will be a multiyear journey, one we can’t wait to take you on. 
Our first expansion, Codename: Apollo, is a nonlinear character-driven adventure.  

Apollo's Nonlinear Campaign

Previous Expansions like The Final Shape are linear, meaning they'd have you the experience the story going from pre-determined point to another in a relatively straight line.

Codename: Apollo is being developed to be nonlinear. Bungie claims Apollo's story takes place over dozens of threads that players are free to explore and discover.

Players are going to have the agency to unravel the story in any way or order they'd like, as if it were an investigation. There won't be any timegating or waiting otherwise this time.

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"Apollo" Concept Art from Bungie's New Frontiers blog post.

A Word on Future Expansions

Destiny is at its best when it's mysterious, weird, and not afraid to try new things.
This shift to nonlinear stories isn’t something we’re locking ourselves into, but it is the structure that fits Codename: Apollo best.
The narrative structure of the releases that follow will be quite different, a structure to suit that game’s experience, and we want to continue to innovate with each expansion across both gameplay and narrative.

The "Portal" to Improved Navigation

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An early mockup of the "Portal." This feature is expected to launch with Destiny 2's next Expansion. Image taken from Bungie's "The Portal" Article which provided a deep dive on more of the changes coming with Frontiers.

The Director Problem and Its Solution

Destiny 2's Destination Map - also known as the Director - is by now very crowded. Unwieldy in the hands of experienced players, and confusing in the eyes of anyone with less than expert game knowledge. This is a problem that significantly impacts Destiny 2's infamously bad New-Player-Experience.

According to Bungie, the solution to the Director problem is "The Portal"- which is an internal name that may change - a redesigned interface to access almost all of the game's content. The final product likely similar to the above image.

Portal Categories and Features

Bungie intends to make everything within the Portal worth your while, updating rewards every Season. They state that this is the best path to the highest tiers of Weapons and Armor available, and that any choice you make within it is a valid path to worthwhile rewards.

Activities are being grouped into different categories within the Portal. Here's Bungie's breakdown of them:

  • Solo Ops: 1-3 player activities requiring very low time or social commitments. These activities are designed for solo players, yet are still fun with a fireteam, and are easy to pick up and play for a quick session. Solo Ops will also feature a new activity type which will get a deep dive soon. 
  • Fireteam Ops: Three-player activities for matchmade or premade groups. Designed for fireteams with more cooperation and coordination, these will feature activities like Strikes, Onslaught, The Coil, and new types in the future. 
  • Flashpoint Ops: Six-player activities for matchmade or premade groups. Planned for a future Season, this category will be introduced later next year. It will feature more chaotic six-player combat like Offensives. 
  • Pinnacle Ops: Three-player activities featuring some more challenging content, including Dungeons, Exotic missions, and full-length Onslaughts. Pinnacle Ops have an exclusive reward pool to claim, but success is not guaranteed.
  • Crucible: A selection of core Crucible playlists for solo players and fireteams, providing an opportunity to test your mettle against other Guardians. An exclusive reward pool is available to claim, with the same depth of tier as other Categories. 

FAQ From The Portal Article

Deep Diving Into Core Game Activities

Destiny 2's Core Game is made up of always-available ritual activity offerings. These are activities like Strikes, the Crucible, and holiday Events. Going forward, Bungie plans to offer a wider range of these Core Game activities with more variety between them and greater depth through the introduction of Challenge Customization.

The Problem and the Solution of Challenge Customization

Historically, past Destiny Expansion releases and Seasonal Updates have focused on a small and localized offering of newly introduced content with a narrow or nonexistent range of difficulty options.

Years of development like this have left the game's Core Activities stale and mostly without relevant rewards. Bungie plans to change that with new Frontiers systems intended to release with the upcoming "Apollo" Expansion.

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A work in progress mockup of Strike Challenge Customization. Subject to change. Image taken from Bungie's Core Game Activities Article.

Starting with PvE content, the new Challenge Customization system adds significant depth to difficulty.

Players start by selecting a base difficulty we're familiar with, like Expert and Grandmaster. This applies a baseline difficulty that you can further modify through Challenge Modifiers. These allow you to:

  • Introduce new enemy combatant abilities to increase their threat.
  • Introduce new combat challenges that change how you play. 
  • Provide incentives for changing up your buildcrafting. 
  • Raise the Power target for the activity, globally increasing the difficulty. 

Reward Rating

What all Challenge Modifiers have in common is that they work to multiply your teams Reward Rating, a new point-based system that aims to reduce the existing competition between teammates for rewards. The higher your Reward Rating, the higher the quality of dropped Weapons and Armor, and the more numerous the quantity of materials like Enhancement Prisms and Ascendant Shards.

But what about PvP?

Good question!

Bungie doesn't have an answer to this just yet. You can't just add Challenge Modifiers to this or use match score like a metric for Reward Rating... They're committed to figuring this out and will share more once they find a solution.

FAQ from the Core Game Activities Article

A Renewed Future of Rewards

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Swordy, a purple-glowing three-burst Scout Rifle with the rocket-launcher reserved Impact Casing does not exist. It is a mockup example of the new Weapon Tier system. Image taken from Bungie's Core Game Rewards Article which is part of the Frontiers reveal.

Coming as soon as the "Apollo" Expansion is a new tier system for Legendary Weapons and Armor. Tier will dictate properties like stat bonuses, enhanced perks, and other yet-unknown features. For Weapons, this is basically a more dynamic form of (Adept) Weapons.

Higher Tiered equipment is sourced from difficult activities, like those made hard through the Challenge Customization system discussed in the previous section of this article.

Reward Pools & "New Gear"

Gear acquisition sources are being consolidated into a new "Reward Pools" system. While we don't have extensive details or practical examples of this new system, Bungie did provide an outline:

  • Reward Pools are complete sets of Weapons and Armor available as rewards from certain activities. While some items are available in multiple different pools, most are in only one.
  • All items are available in all Tiers, meaning that you'll be able to get the full set of equipment from the easiest variation of a Reward Pool's activity.
  • Core Game Reward Pools will be updated alongside every "Major Update". According to Bungie, these are:
    • Core PVE: Rewards shared among more accessible PVE activities, like Strikes. 
    • Core PVP: Rewards shared among more accessible PVP activities, like Crucible playlists. 
    • Pinnacle PVE: Rewards shared among more intrinsically challenging PVE activities, like Dungeons. 
    • Pinnacle PVP: Rewards shared among more intrinsically challenging PVP activities, like Trials of Osiris. 
  • Expansions include two full Reward Pools. One encompassing an Expansion's non-Raid/Dungeon content, and the other being aforementioned Raid/Dungeon content.

"New Gear" is a category of Weapons and Armor newly introduced in the current Season, regardless of source. New Gear is partly visual indicator and partly a consolidation of the Artifact. Future Artifact Mods that applied to Specific Origin Traits will apply to all New Gear instead.

Core Game Rewards Article FAQ

Breaking the Ice on Destiny's 10th Anniversary

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New Armor Sets based off ancient concept art, now available to earn for free! Image taken from Bungie's Ten Years of Destiny Article.

Destiny 1 launched on September 9th, 2014. It's been a decade and a sequel and dozens of Expansions later.

Celebrate with Bungie by completing objectives throughout the Pale heart and earning the new and also incredibly old "Legend" Title, Seal, and an Armor Set for each class based off of Concept Art for Destiny 1.

More is coming later! They'll reveal more information as "later" approaches, but for now all we're left with is confirmation of a certain Solar Exotic Sniper Rifle with infinitely regenerating ammo coming back in an upcoming dungeon.

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The new "Legend" Title's physical Pin, is available at Bungie's Store.

Art!

Bungie's partnered with ArtStation to showcase a LOT of art from 67 past and present Bungie Artists from all sorts of different disciplines, each having helped define the worlds of Destiny. See for yourself!

Guardians of Los Angeles, New York City, and London, keep your eyes out for an Art Show coming near you! See their official website for more details.

Summary

Looking for more news on Destiny 2's future within New Frontiers, the "Apollo" Expansion, or have other questions about the game? Then head over to our Discord and select the Destiny 2 role in Channels & Roles to stay up to date with our content development. See you starside, Guardians!

Written by: Xtra37

Reviewed by: Tenkiei

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