Destiny 2: Forsaken: Everything we know

Destiny 2: Forsaken has finally been revealed, and players will be able to experience Destiny 2 in a whole new light. The expansion is coming Sept. 4 and will bring with it new areas to explore, new weapons to earn, new gear to collect, new enemies to fight, and a new raid to conquer. Bungie will also bring some quality of life changes to all of Destiny 2, whether or not you own the DLC.

In the reveal stream for Forsaken, Bungie released a nine-minute ViDoc detailing the changes coming to Destiny 2 this fall. More Forsaken information has been and will be revealed over the next few months. To make following along with Forsaken easy, we’ve created a guide that includes everything we know about the upcoming expansion. We’ll update it regularly as we learn more.

Here’s everything we know about Destiny 2: Forsaken.

New locations

Forsaken will offer players two new spaces to explore.

Tangled Shore

The Tangled Shore is the primary location of the Forsaken expansion. We don’t know much about its size compared to other Destiny locations, but Bungie’s reveal stream showed a group of three guardians driving sparrows through it.

The Tangled Shore is located inside The Reef, a social space from Destiny. The Reef is part of the asteroid belt located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. The Tangled Shore — like the rest of the Reef — is surrounded in a purple hue at all times.

The ground itself looks to be asteroids and spaceship wreckage anchored together to make relatively flat surfaces. The Prison of Elders also looks to be held in the Tangled Shore, and we know we’ll be returning there in the story.

Dreaming City

The Dreaming City is the most interesting and mysterious location in Forsaken. It’s been described as if the Vault of Glass and the Dreadnaught from Destiny were combined. The new raid — which is supposedly the biggest raid Bungie has created — will take place here, but so will other late-game activities.

All players in the end-game will be able to land on — and presumably patrol — the Dreaming City. This gives non-raiders a chance to see the end-game area even if they never step foot into the raid itself. However, raiders will evidently affect the Dreaming City in a big way, changing how it looks and even operates as the weeks go on. The developers described it as “cyclical.”

The only real reference we have for the Dreaming City is the Dreadnaught from The Taken King. The King’s Fall raid starts on the Dreadnaught and keeps the same aesthetic throughout. Perhaps the Dreaming City and its raid will be the same way? On the Dreadnaught, there were secret chests and collectibles in every corner, which we know the Dreaming City will also have.

The Dreaming City is gorgeous, and is home to the Awoken player race. The city looks Elvish in design, as if it was ripped directly from The Lord of the Rings and flung into space. As far as enemies, we don’t really know much about them. However, there does look to be some serious Taken influence going on.

New supers and class trees

Forsaken isn’t adding any new subclasses to Destiny 2. However players will be able to customize their current subclasses in new ways. We know little about how this system will work in the game, but the developers from Bungie confirmed that each subclass will be getting a new super and that there will be new subclass paths to choose from.

Note: none of the supers have their names or functionality confirmed unless stated otherwise.

Hunter

Gunslinger alternative: “Fire knives” — The Hunter can be seen in the ViDoc jumping into the air, creating a group of throwing knives made out of fire, and throwing them in a grouped pattern. It looks similar to a shotgun blast but with knives.

Arcstrider alternative: “Spinning staff” — The ViDoc shows off a Hunter deflecting rockets back at a boss with the Arcstaff. The animation looks like a shield similar to the Sentinel Titan, but replaced with a spinning staff.

Nightstalker alternative: Shadowmark — This is the only officially named new super in the ViDoc. While we don’t get a great look at it, it appears that the Hunter summons two small daggers into their hands. They then proceed to cut through an entire group of enemy Guardians very quickly. The Hunter also has a buff called “Vanish in Smoke” that suggests this could make the Hunter invisible.

Warlock

Dawnblade alternative: “Blade stab” — This new Super was previewed at E3 2018. While we don’t know exactly how it works, it appears that the Warlock will stab their Dawnblade into the ground, creating a mega Rift. While inside, allies will presumably gain different buffs depending on the Warlock’s class setup.

Voidwalker alternative: “Teleportation explosion” — This is one super in the ViDoc that we get a really good look of. The Warlock activates their super, teleports around the map, and then erupts in void energy, killing everything around them.

Stormcaller alternative: “Lightning beam” — The Stormcaller’s alternative super has them pull back and fire a single high-damage beam out of their hand. It can supposedly be redirected at enemies and will last for a short period of time.

Titan

Striker alternative: “Thundercrash” - The Striker Titan’s new super isn’t too different from Fists of Havoc. However, instead of just smashing the ground over and over again — running around while you do it — this new super causes you to become a guided missile. Activating the super has you “take off,” and you can quickly re-direct yourself into enemies to cause a huge explosion.

Sunbreaker alternative: “Big hammer” — The Sunbreaker Titan creates a giant, flaming hammer akin to the ax in Rise of Iron. They can swing it around to hit enemies normally, or they can smash it into the earth to create a flaming tornado a short distance away.

Sentinel alternative: Unknown - This is one super we know nothing about. However, there is a possible spot in the ViDoc where tiny, purple, shield-shaped buzzsaws fly past a mid-air Hunter. We don’t see the origin of these saws, but it’s possible this could be the Sentinel’s alternative super.

Bungie, High Moon Studios/Activision

New weapon system

Slot changes

The weapon slot system from Destiny 2 is being dramatically reworked. In the ViDoc, we learned that players can use the current system still if they like it, use the system from Destiny if they liked that — shotguns, sniper rifles, and fusion rifles returning to the second slot — or you can do something totally off the wall like three shotguns.

Bungie did go into how the system works in more detail in the This Week at Bungie from June 14. The top two slots are now called “quick slots,” and essentially allow you to choose any weapon your heart desires as long as it’s one of these: shotgun, sniper rifle, fusion rifle, pulse rifle, auto rifle, hand cannon, submachine gun, sidearm and scout rifle.

As far as how things will get put into quick slots, it seems mostly random. Guns will drop for either the first or second quick slot, not both. This means that you may need to have two of each gun — one for slot 1 and another for slot 2. We’re not entirely sure how that will work in practice, but there certainly will be some randomness there.

Your third slot is still reserved for heavy weapons, so the three shotguns dream from the ViDoc is only possible when combined with the Legend of Acrius — a shotgun that’s staying in the heavy slot. As far as the quick slot, it’s currently unclear how players will determine if a weapon can be dropped into slot one or two, as the menus are separate. It seems likely that it could have something to do with the new mod system.

All of this will be balanced through ammo, according to the previously mentioned TWAB. The ammo rarity will run just like Destiny, with primary ammo dropping most frequently, followed by special, and finishing off with heavy. But the ammo is no longer slot specific. Shotguns, for example, will use special no matter where they go. You can run three shotguns, but both of your quick slot shotguns will be pulling from the same ammo pool.

We’ll learn more about this system as time goes on, but this is what we have for now.

Masterwork upgrade

The ViDoc eluded to some serious changes to the masterwork system. We don’t know anything about it other than the promise of weapon investment returning. Perhaps guns will be able to level up and get new perks like in Destiny?

Mod upgrade

We know nothing about this new system, simply that it exists.

Bow and arrow is here

Destiny 2: Forsaken is bringing a completely new class of weapon to the game. Players will now be able to pick up a bow and arrow, and while we don’t know much about their specific perks, but we do know that there will be short, medium and long range versions of this new weapon type. One of bows’ stats is draw speed, which will likely dictate how quickly they can be fired.

Machine Guns are possibly coming back

When bows were announced, two of the developers referred to auto rifles as “machine guns” in the ViDoc. This was confusing for some players, as Destiny had LMGs in the heavy slot that were called machine guns.

Bungie’s Sandbox Design Lead Josh Hamrick clarified that they were referencing auto rifles, but he left a tease for discerning players. Hamrick ended his tweet saying “that being said, your thunderous excitement has been noted” with a winky face following. This is a callback to the Thunderlord exotic machine gun from Destiny. This will likely be a weapon class returning in the future, although we could see it as early as Forsaken.

New exotics

A new Destiny content drop always means new exotic weapons and armor to grab. We have some leads on a few of the exotic weapons shown off in the trailer.

Ace of Spades — This is one of the few exotics we know by name. On the box art for Forsaken, we see this gun prominently displayed. An ornament for this hand cannon is also called out by name for players who pre-order the expansion. This is actually a returning exotic from Destiny — one that was Hunter-exclusive. In Destiny, it had Third Eye, (radar stays on when aiming down sights), Firefly (headshot kills cause enemies to explode), and Maverick (precision kills refill some ammo from your reserves). In D2, we have no idea what it does.

Exotic trace rifle — We see a Hunter using a trace rifle and an exotic emblem for that same rifle.

Exotic triple barrel auto rifle — This is a weird one. In the ViDoc, we see a Titan wielding what looks to be a auto rifle with three barrels on the front.

Exotic void sword — A very ornate sword shows up in a few different places in the ViDoc. Toward the end of the video, we see a Titan block with it and also shoot void projectiles out of the blade.

Exotic “not Thorn” hand cannon — A very ornate hand cannon also shows up a few times in the ViDoc. Some players think it looks like the Thorn from Destiny, but it’s different in a few distinct ways. You can also see the exotic emblem for this hand cannon in the menus for the game. We know this is a Gambit-specific exotic.

Trinity Ghoul exotic bow — Fires an arrow that splits when released, precision kills grant the next shot chain-lightning capabilities

Twin Rabbit — This rocket launcher features heavily in the ViDoc. It fires two rockets — one solar, one void — that tracks a target and explodes. The void rocket suppresses the target while the fire rocket creates a damaging area.

Bungie/Activision via Reddit

Gambit

Gambit is one of the few things we know quite a bit about. This new mode is PvPvE and essentially has players race against each other to see which team can kill enemies fastest.

Each team is dropped into a separate arena in what looks to be the Prison of Elders. The teams of four kill enemies and gather motes that drop on the ground. Players can then bank these motes for safekeeping and then send a “blocker” over to the enemy team. Blockers lock down the bank and cause mayhem until they’re killed.

For a brief period of time (what looks to be about 30 seconds), one player can jump over to the other team’s arena and attempt to kill them. When a player is killed, all of their motes die with them.

The first team to bank 75 motes will spawn a Primeval — the big bad enemy in Gambit. While your team is working on killing the Primeval, the enemy team will be able to invade repeatedly. When the opposing team gets kills, it will add more health to your Primeval. The first team to summon and defeat their Primeval wins.

The developers on the ViDoc also mentioned mote goblins, which seem to allude to a small enemy that is hard to kill but rewards players with a great deal of motes.

Gambit will have matchmaking and its own node on the director.

New enemies

Forsaken will have at least two new enemy types for us to fight.

Scorn

The Scorn used to be Fallen, but have been raised from the dead many times — according to an interview from Heavy. So while these monsters look familiar, they are completely different in terms of weapons and abilities.

Barons

Barons are the leaders of the Scorn and are likely to be some of the primary antagonists of Forsaken. There are eight of them in total, and players will take out all of them in special missions called “Baron Hunts.” The ViDoc described one of these missions as a one-on-one sniper duel with one of the Barons. One of the others is a melee enemy with a giant, flaming flail.

Uldren

Uldren isn’t a new character, but he is a new enemy. The brother of the Queen of the Reef, Uldren was shown in the E3 story trailer killing out best buddy, Cayde-6. While we don’t know if he’ll feature as the final raid boss, we do know that he is the big bad of Forsaken.

Story

The story starts with a prison break out of the Prison of Elders — Cayde-6 has apparently been storing the galaxy’s worst here. These enemies include the Scorn and the Barons that they follow. Something goes wrong here and Cayde-6 is eventually killed by Uldren. The rest of the story is a revenge mission.

There is also a Fallen that appears to be talking to the player and speaking English. This suggests that we’ll be getting a new Fallen ally, much like we had in Destiny with Variks, who is likely to return, considering the setting.

Additionally, emissary of the Queen of the Reef, Petra Venj, is hidden in the ViDoc. Mara Sov is also likely to make a return, although we don’t know which side she and Petra will be on.

The return of random rolls and armor perks

We don’t know too much about the return of random rolls or armor perks yet.

In Destiny, the same gun could roll with different perks. It’s likely the return of this system in Destiny 2 will be similar.

Armor perks will also be returning to gear in Forsaken. We don’t have much to go on here other than a single Warlock bond which has two perks on it: one to increase players’ damage in the Dreaming City, and one that causes the same player to take increased damage in the Dreaming City.

More stuff to track

Bungie is finally adding a good way for players to set goals for themselves in Destiny 2.

Collections

Players will now have an ever-present collections tab in their menu. This will offer all kinds of categories like ghosts, exotics, weapons, armor, vehicles, vanity and item sets. Players will be able to look at the items they’ve collected and get advice on how to track down things they don’t have.

Bungie/Activision

Triumph

Triumph seems to be Bungie’s answer to the Grimoire and the record books from Destiny. For completing feats, players will gain score that goes on their profile. This gives players new goals. Some examples from the stream include completing heroic public events on Mercury or defeating 10 PvP enemies with a bow. In addition to adding to your score, players can earn titles that will appear above their heads.

Content updates

The stream included more than just details on Forsaken, we also learned about the next year of Destiny 2.

Annual Pass

We’re still getting details on the Annual Pass, although we know that it’ll include three content drops over the next year: Black Armory in winter, Joker’s Wild in spring and Penumbra in summer.

These new content drops are different than the expansions we saw in year one. Rather than focusing on story, the goal is to bring players an increased power cap and new weapons to play with more frequently. They’ll also offer end-game activities.

In an interview with Mashable, Bungie confirmed that there will be new locations to explore and secrets to discover. However, it also said that there are currently no new planets in the works. This likely means that these new areas will be on planets we already have, similar to the Plaguelands in Destiny: Rise of Iron.

The Annual Pass is currently available in a few bundles or by itself, although more bundles are planned for the next few months.

2.0 Roadmap

The roadmap content will be available to all Destiny 2 players, regardless of whether they have Forsaken or not. These features include: gear collections, in-game triumphs, weapon slot changes, weapon randomization, mod system update, bulk shader deletion, a new Crucible mode, four new Crucible maps, 200 vault slots (500 total), in-game lore and new bounties.

Bungie/Activision

This story will be updated as we learn more about Destiny 2: Forsaken, which will be released on PlayStation 4, Windows PC and Xbox One on Sept. 4.