The last of the Episodes in Destiny 2 is soon upon us, and with it comes the anticipated return of fan favorite location, the Dreadnaught. While much of the episode remains a mystery as of now, the recent developer livestream from Bungie gave us a look into what to expect beginning February 4th.
What's the story so far?
For obvious reasons, the story of the episode is being mostly kept under wraps, for the player to discover along the way. What we do know, however, is as follows
An Echo, sent off from the Traveller, has landed on the Dreadnaught.
A 'specific' Dread has chased it down
The cast of the season is Eris Morn, The Drifter, and Commander Sloan.
Oryx returns! (in some way)
An 'event' occurs, which leads to Sloan getting involved with the Guardian and some sort of 'newfound powers'.
That's where our knowledge ends. Whatever happens in these three acts have been stated to lead us into Frontiers later this year, however, which is exciting. With the story being delivered in a 'different' way than the monotonous HELM, objective, HELM loop, we can only hope the story itself is enough to keep players involved, and hopefully retains a higher player rate than the previous Episode. With the return of the legendary Oryx, in whatever way that may be, is more than enough to make me excited, and its a pleasure to see the Dreadnaught alongside him (even if it isn't fully explorable, unfortunately). Whether sisters Savathun and Xivu Arath make an appearance remains to be seen, however it seems almost certain at least one, if not both, will appear in some capacity.
New activity
Titled 'The Nether', the new ritual activity that seems to build upon previous activity, the Coil. The Nether is rougelike-esque, and has no health regen, randomized encounters, and boons that can buff your abilities. This activity is also, so far, the only way to 'explore' the Dreadnaught, with the easier difficulty option allowing players to explore the ship for secrets in between rounds. There also remains a normal, and harder difficulty, which, of course gives more rewards. Rewards are also emphasized to be given more to players who actually complete the activity, instead of simply leaving midway through.
Exotics
There is, unfortunately, no new exotic armor pieces. However, there are two new exotic weapons coming in the new episode, each offering their own new twist onto the sandbox.
Barrow-Dyad: a new Stand SMG that fires blight as it does damage, comparable to the Fighting Lion grenade launcher
Lodestar: Primary Auto Trace Rifle that fires a continuous arc beam at targets, and can be used to applied the jolt debuff to enemies
The Other Stuff
Throughout the hour long livestream, other bits of interests were discussed, including:
Cold Denial, previously released during Season of Arrival, makes a return
Vault of Glass gets a loot refresh, allowing weapon crafting and new perks
World's First race for the new dungeon, Sundered Doctrine, announced for February 7th
A focus on repurposed arc abilities and aspects for titans and warlocks, and a void aspect for hunters.
Closing off the stream was the exciting reveal of the newest collab, Star Wars.
Hunter (the best class) gets to be a Death Trooper
Titans get to be the ever iconic Stormtrooper
Warlocks get to be a Royal Imperial Guard
Death Star-inspired Ghost
Additional emotes to come with, details unknown
Final Thoughts
So far, I remain at least partially optimistic for the new episode. The last two episodes weren't the greatest in my opinion, but I am excited to see how this episode will lead into Frontiers, and the new activity seems interesting enough to be tried, and hopefully be gripped into playing more. It is no secret that the feelings around Destiny 2 aren't the greatest right now amongst the community, but I hope players at least give this episode a try before judging and raining down criticism upon the developers, who are no doubt still recovering from the substantial layoffs in the studio. I, for one, know I will be there day one, as I always am, and I hope the content that awaits me on February 4th will be enough to hold my attention, and give me a smooth transition into Frontiers and whatever awaits us there.
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