Destiny is about to get much better, even if you don't buy The Taken King

Many big changes are coming to Destiny next month, including a complete revamp of the leveling and loot system. The Light system has been reworked, and you'll be able to gain experience and levels no matter what you do in the world. Things will make much more sense to players and leveling won't be reliant on item drops.

You can read more about the changes in the systems that are coming with The Taken King, but the game will get much better for everyone, regardless of what else they've purchased.

"Basically all the systems like leveling and loot will be updated with the 2.0 update when The Taken King launches," Polygon was told when we asked Activision what systems would be coming to Destiny. "Every player (even those with just vanilla Destiny and no expansions) will benefit from those changes. They just don't get access to missions, quests, strikes and expansion-specific loot, etc."

That leveling system that makes it easier to get ahead without worrying about loot drops? You'll get that. The expanded number of bounties? Yep, you'll get that. Nolan North instead of Peter Dinklage as Ghost? That too.

All the content in the game has been re-worked and "questified" to fit in with how The Taken King works.

So if you're like me — a player who has lapsed because the system for advancement made it tricky to make any progress by playing an evening or two a week — you can take your copy of the core Destiny experience and get back to work, taking advantage of the all the changes and updates to the game's core systems that come with The Taken King, even if you don't buy anything new.

Destiny: The Taken King, and Destiny 2.0, will be released Sept. 15. For more, check out our hands-on impressions from E3.

Destiny: The Taken King live event