Whether due to a bug, a reset as the game goes free, or because of intentional choice, Destiny 2 subtitles seem to be off for a lot of players. Although that wasn’t the case before. Unfortunately, Destiny also has quite a lot of menus and tabs within tabs to navigate. That makes it a little difficult to figure out where subtitles are found — much less how to turn subtitles on in Destiny. That’s why we’ve put together this admittedly minor, but hopefully hopefully helpful guide to turn on subtitles in the game. Let’s get to it!
How to Turn on Destiny 2 Subtitles
First things first: boot up the game. That’s obvious enough. The only rub is that you might have to sit through some notifications on-screen before you can access the rest of Destiny. After the release of Shadowkeep, even veteran players will receive a whirlwind of notices telling them that they have “unlocked” destinations… that they already had access to for years. It’s strange, but just go with it.
The next step is to go to the options menu. This is separate from the Director: that menu which shows off your Destiny Season Pass, star map, quests, and so on. You access this one by hitting the “hamburger” button on Xbox One controllers or the Options button on PlayStation 4. You could also call this the Start button, if you’re old and remember the days when that sort of thing was simple.
Now go all the way to the right-most tab (past your character loadout and inventory). There’s an option that’s just simply called Settings. Although the sub-menu itself is anything but simple, it often seems. It breaks out into several sub-sub-menus of its own — which you have to cursor over to find and explore for more options. The Destiny 2 subtitles option is found in here.
More Destiny 2 & Shadowkeep:
- I Accidentally Did JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Cosplay in Destiny 2
- Getting Started in Shadowkeep – Destiny Tips the Game Doesn’t Tell You
- A Death of Nightmares – Destiny 2 Necklace & Deathbringer Exotic Guide
Subtitles are one of those odd things in video games that apparently nobody can decide on. Are they under “Gameplay”? Do they fit under “Audio,” despite being a visual representation of sound? Or do they get a completely different menu altogether? In the case of Destiny 2, subtitles are found under Option C. They get a different menu that you might not immediately guess. That section is “Accessibility” in this case.
Even then, you have three options. Mine was set to “Language-Based (Default)” when I first booted up Shadowkeep. For some reason, that didn’t display subtitles correctly, even though I used to play with them before the expansion. Perhaps that’s a bug unto itself, but it’s hard to tell. Language-Based seems to mean that characters speaking in tongues that aren’t your default will get subtitles in Destiny. Although even that seems situational.
Simply changing the setting to “On” seems like the only workable option for most of the game. Sadly, Destiny 2 subtitles don’t include the ability to select specifics — like whether or not you include sound effects and such. It’s an all or nothing proposition. But it’s a proposition I highly recommend, since it can be quite hard to make out what NPCs are saying during firefights.
And there you have it! I hope this itty bitty Destiny guide helped you get subtitles set up in the way you prefer. Have fun and take care!
