Destiny sleuth uses science to conclude The Last City is likely located in Chile

Destiny players have to spend a lot of time traveling to and from the game's MMO-inspired social hub, the Tower. There's a unique name for every location in Destiny, from the wide-open Steppes in Earth's Old Russia to the underground Freehold Station in Mars' Meridian Bay. Curiously, though, the Tower's location is given only as "The Last City, Earth" — nothing more specific.

Some super sleuths on the fabulous Destiny subreddit previously theorized that The Last City is located in the far reaches of northern Canada. But a person describing themselves as a "sundial enthusiast (and onetime sextant user)" came up with a new hypothesis today, based on observations of the environment around the Tower and the sun's path through the sky above it.

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Reddit user dwntwn_dine_ent_dist noted that there are always shadows in the Tower, whether they're cast by the sun or the moon. Those two heavenly bodies are above the horizon for exactly the same amount of time: one hour each, with sunrise and sunset occurring on the half hour. Looking at the Earth from the moon, the Reddit user saw that the day/night boundary passes through the South Pole, which confirms that the date in the Tower is an equinox on Earth.

The Last City must be in the Southern Hemisphere, said dwntwn_dine_ent_dist, because shadows cast in the Tower by the Sun move counterclockwise. On an equinox, it's fairly trivial to figure out the latitude of one's location: Just subtract the altitude of the sun from 90 degrees. Based on a screenshot, dwntwn_dine_ent_dist concluded that the Tower sits at about the 29th parallel south. That means The Last City could only exist in South America (Chile/Argentina/Uruguay/Brazil), Africa (South Africa/Lesotho) or Australia.

As you can see above, tall mountains are visible from the balconies of the Tower, which rules out Uruguay, Brazil, South Africa and Australia. That leaves the Andes Mountains, which run down the western spine of South America. At 29 degrees south latitude on that continent, said dwntwn_dine_ent_dist, The Last City would roughly be located between La Serena, Chile, and La Rioja, Argentina — likely somewhere in Chile, since the higher mountains around The Last City stand to the east of the Tower. You can see a real-life panorama of the probable area on Google Maps.

We've reached out to Bungie for comment, and will update this article with any information we receive. But regardless of whether the studio affirms these findings, we're still in awe of dwntwn_dine_ent_dist's detective work.