I can't believe I'm saying it, but Bungie has done it again. After a turbulent year—one of delays, layoffs and assorted corporate grumbling—Bungie released the free Into the Light update for Destiny 2 and the players… they're actually happy.
The response to the update has been almost universally positive. Onslaught, the new horde mode, is a hit—the only real complaint being that its hardest difficulty could stand to be a little more rewarding in its later waves. Otherwise players are merrily hunting away for the new collection of reissued weapons—all of which have been enhanced with some pretty spicy perk combinations. There's more to come too—in fact, with today's reset, both Midnight Coup and Mountaintop will be available, both all-timer weapons that could be absolute monsters in the current sandbox. In the coming weeks, we'll get more weapons, the ace Zero Hour exotic mission and the new Pantheon mode—a raid boss rush that I'm intrigued to see in action.
Following the update, Destiny 2's player base jumped immediately—from an all-time low back to a relatively healthy daily player count. Anecdotally I've heard from a few people who are interested in getting back into the game, and—thanks to the current Steam FPS Fest—that's now a less daunting prospect.
While you can play all of Into the Light's additions without paying a penny, much of Destiny 2's best stuff is locked behind one expansion or another. Luckily, all of Destiny 2's expansions are now on a pretty deep sale, with even last year's Lightfall currently 67% off. You can get the whole lot—every base expansion and content pack—for around $45 until the sale ends on April 22.
To save you the hassle of working out what each expansion contains, and whether it's worth the heavily discounted cost of admission, I've gone through and provided a quick cheat sheet to each release.
Lightfall
What do you get? The Lightfall campaign, the Root of Nightmares raid, the Strand subclass, and access to Season of the Wish.
Is it worth it? Yeah, just about. The story the campaign tells is a dud, but there's still a handful of good missions to play through. The raid, too, is probably my least favourite of the bunch—it's just not very mechanically interesting. Nevertheless, Lightfall is still worth it purely for access to the Strand subclass. If you're a Titan, Banner of War is basically a meta pick, but all three classes have access to fun, powerful Strand builds.
You also get access to the current season, which is well worth your time. Its signature activity, Coil, is one of the best in Destiny 2's history—in part because it absolutely showers you in loot on completion. The seasonal exotic weapon, Dragon's Shadow, has barely left my heavy slot for the last few months. Just be warned that the seasonal questline and activity will both disappear when The Final Shape launches in June.
The Witch Queen
What do you get? The Witch Queen campaign, the Vow of the Disciple raid.
Is it worth it? The Witch Queen's big feature was crafting, and it's available to all players regardless of whether they actually buy the expansion. That means, unlike Lightfall with its new subclass, there's no major feature you need the expansion to unlock. Even without that, though, The Witch Queen is a hell of an expansion and more than worth its discounted price. The campaign is, frankly, the best in Destiny 2's history—full of memorable missions and cool set-piece moments. This was the first expansion to feature the legendary campaign option, and it makes a huge difference to how enjoyable the campaign is to play.
Its raid is also a personal favourite of mine. Vow looks gorgeous, is just challenging enough to be really satisfying to master, and it's got a handful of great weapons—many of which I still regularly use today.
Beyond Light
What do you get? The Beyond Light campaign, the Deep Stone Crypt raid, the Stasis subclass.
Is it worth it? Before The Witch Queen, Destiny 2 expansion campaigns were… well, they just weren't very good. In Beyond Light, for instance, you get a handful of short missions heavily padded by open world busywork. And with no legendary difficulty option, it's just not very exciting to play. Still, Beyond Light does also bring a new subclass, and that means it's worth picking up just to expand your buildcrafting options. Some will tell you that Stasis is the weakest of the subclasses, and there's some truth to that. Warlocks have the best Stasis kit thanks to the Bleak Watcher turret. But both Hunter and Titan have some fun, off-meta options too. Basically: Stasis is the connoisseur's choice.
Oh, the Deep Stone Crypt raid absolutely slaps, too. Some people will tell you that Root of Nightmares is the best raid for beginners, but they couldn't be more wrong. Root of Nightmares is an exercise in making newbies do add-clear while two people who know what they're doing handle all the actual mechanics. Deep Stone Crypt, meanwhile, is a relatively easy raid, but one which has mechanics designed to give its encounters a really satisfying flow. Plus it's got one of the most atmospheric jumping puzzle sections in Destiny's history. Just a triumph.
Shadowkeep
What do you get? The Shadowkeep campaign, the Garden of Salvation raid, the Pit of Heresy dungeon.
Is it worth it? At full price, Shadowkeep is the least necessary that any full expansion can be. The campaign was pretty naff even before we saw just how much better Bungie could do—it's all nonsense Hive rituals and fetch quests for pieces of armour. There's no subclass or other major feature unlock. And its raid weapons haven't been given the perk pass refresh of many others in the game—meaning there's no origin trait and they're not available for crafting.
For £4 I'd grab it anyway. As raids go, Garden of Salvation is not particularly beloved by the community, but I'm actually a fan. Its final encounter is just this hectic, extended panic attack—constantly whittling away your playspace unless you can coordinate in the small window between mechanics. It turns out a lot of people hate that, but I'm here for the pain. Pit of Heresy is a fun dungeon too, albeit only really worth running for Xenophage, its secret exotic weapon.
Forsaken Pack
What do you get? The Last Wish raid, the Shattered Throne dungeon.
Is it worth it? Forsaken is the expansion that essentially saved Destiny 2. But this pack is a shadow of what that release originally contained. Both the Forsaken campaign and the Tangled Shore destination were removed when The Witch Queen was released. Here, in its place, are the scraps that remain. It's lucky for Bungie that one of those scraps—Last Wish—is the best raid the studio has ever made.
Not only is it the longest, most mechanically interesting raid in the game, Last Wish is also full of pretty great loot thanks to the recent perk refresh. Apex Predator, once an absolute joke of a heavy weapon, is now the best-in-slot rocket launcher. There's also the Shattered Throne dungeon, which has essentially been powercrept out of providing any meaningful challenge. Cool to experience once, but outside of the exotic Wish-Ender, there's not any reason to visit.
The pack also lets you buy from a handful of Forsaken-era exotic weapons that now live in the relevant old gun kiosk. You can get three immediately—be sure to grab Thorn—with the tokens you're given for buying the pack, but the rest have to be bought with materials earned in-game.
In this, the Season of the Wish, I had hoped Bungie would have rolled the Forsaken Pack into the free-to-play game. Alas, we'll have to settle for it costing $4 instead.
Bungie 30th Anniversary Pack
What do you get? The Grasp of Avarice dungeon.
Is it worth it? On reflection, this is a worse deal than the Forsaken Pack. The main mode of the 30th Anniversary event, Dares of Eternity, is free. This, then, is a handful of cosmetics, and a dungeon containing a handful of decent but not best-in-slot weapons and the (genuinely very good) exotic rocket launcher Gjallerhorn—all for $1 more than the Forsaken pack with its full raid. The dungeon is a pretty good time, but Gjallerhorn's exotic perk means that only one person in your fireteam needs to run it. If you've got a friend who already has it, this is probably the most skippable pack of the lot.
What you don't get
Here's an important note—neither The Witch Queen nor Lightfall's annual pass bundles are on-sale. That's particularly disappointing, given that a recent Humble deal did include Lightfall's annual pass alongside other expansions for just $40—a better deal than what we have here. In practical terms, that means you won't get access to this year's previous seasonal quests and activities, but also that you won't get either expansion's dungeon key.
Each dungeon key gives you access to two different dungeons. The Witch Queen's contains Duality and Spire of the Stars. Lightfall's contains Ghosts of the Deep and Warlord's Ruin—the dungeon some are calling the best in the game's history. Each key costs 2,000 silver, which is about $20. That's a shame, because there's some genuinely fun encounters in there—and more than a few juiced weapons and exotics.
To balance that slightly, free-to-play accounts do get access to three of the game's reprised raids from Destiny 1. Vault of Glass, King's Fall and Crota's End are all available without paying anything. The recent Into the Light release made it easier than ever to get endgame ready, too. In the new Hall of Heroes in the Into the Light submenu, you'll find the Gift of the Thunder Gods near Shaxx. This will instantly give you a set of max level gear. New players can also talk to Ikora at the Tower to pick up one of the New Light Kits—instantly gifting exotics, armour, weapons and a handful of aspects and fragments for your chosen subclass.
Even with some of the DLCs only barely being worth their current sale price, I do think Destiny 2 is worth checking out at the moment. There's been a lot of doom and gloom around the game this year, but quietly Bungie's devs have been putting out great stuff over the last couple of seasons. The most recent dungeon and seasonal activity have garnered plenty of praise, and Into the Light's recent additions—including the horde mode Onslaught—are a happy distraction as we wait for the next expansion. As mentioned, everything being released as part of the Into the Light update is completely free, so if you only want to dip a toe into the game as it currently stands, give the free-to-play version a shot before considering the paid-for DLC.
Bungie seems forever trapped in the cycle of "It's over"/"We're so back". Inevitably, one day, it'll all be over again. Right now, though, it's good to be so back.
