Destiny 2: The Witch Queen offers the game’s biggest expansion in years on February 22nd

Published on August 24, 2021Updated on August 25, 2021

Bungie has officially taken the wraps off of the next major expansion for Destiny 2: The Witch Queen, which will continue the story of the sci-fi space series and see players finally face off against Savathûn, the titular Witch Queen.

Savathûn (the sister of Oryx, the main villain in the original game’s Taken King expansion) is a foe that’s been teased for over seven years, with her machinations behind many of Destiny’s previous major events (including the corruption of the Dreaming City). The addition of the Witch Queen marks the first time that players will be able to face off against her in person, though. And, as the trailer has revealed, she won’t be alone: Savathûn has managed to harness the player’s own powers of Light to empower Hive Guardians with similar abilities.

The expansion will also feature a new location, Savathûn’s Throne World, along with a new campaign, weapons, armor, and of course, one of Destiny’s hallmark raids. Additionally, Bungie is adding a new weapon type: the Glaive, a first-person melee weapon with both ranged and up-close combat types.

Also, The Witch Queen will bring a major new addition to Destiny 2: customizable weapons, which players will be able to modify with unique abilities, mods, and stats that are built to their own personal specifications. That system will start with the newly added weapons in The Witch Queen, but Bungie plans to expand it to other weapons over time.

To tide players over while they wait for The Witch Queen, Destiny 2’s upcoming season 15 content, titled Season of the Lost, will focus on the long-missing character Mara Sov (queen of the Awoken faction). It will set the stage, plot-wise, for The Witch Queen’s bigger changes when it arrives in 2022. Season of the Lost will last for the full six months between now and The Witch Queen, making it an unusually long season for Destiny players.

Season of the Lost will also include a reworked Trials of Osiris mode that looks like it will encourage players of all skill levels to participate in the pinnacle player-vs-player experience. The reworked Trials of Osiris mode will also see the soft launch of Bungie’s new anti-cheat software when it arrives on September 10th.

Bungie is also launching crossplay today as part of the Season of the Lost, allowing Xbox, PlayStation, PC, and Stadia players to finally play together for the first time in Destiny history.

As the company had previously announced, The Witch Queen will be followed by another major expansion, called Lightfall. But Bungie also revealed the next expansion, Destiny 2: The Final Shape, which the company describes as the “dramatic conclusion” to The Light and Darkness Saga that players have been experiencing for the last decade.

This fall also marks Bungie’s 30th anniversary, and the studio is bringing both free and paid content to Destiny 2 to celebrate — and to help keep players busy while they wait for The Witch Queen next year.

All players will be able to enjoy a new six-person event, Dares of Eternity, later this year. But the main event is a purchasable Bungie 30th Anniversary Pack, which will feature a variety of cosmetics inspired by Myth and Marathon and a new exotic weapon. The pack also comes with a new “treasure-themed” dungeon set on the Cosmodrome’s “Loot Cave” that will reward armor inspired by the popular Thorn weapon, and old classics like Eyasluna and Thousand-Yard Stare.

Also teased as part of the 30th anniversary event: the Loot Cave dungeon will return the iconic Gjallarhorn exotic rocket launcher, best known for being the single most powerful weapon players could get in the early days of the original Destiny. Bungie would go on to nerf the powerful weapon in future updates, before bringing it back as a more balanced, reworked version in the Rise of Iron expansion. But despite its popularity, Gjallarhorn hasn’t been available in the sequel — until now, that is.