A Look Back at the Armor of Destiny 1

Over the lifespan of the original Destiny, the armor designs kept getting more and more flashy. Each expansion paired its specific theme to its visuals, including the on-character gear designs. We got a bunch of Hive armor and weapons with The Dark Below, Taken themed items with The Taken King, and SIVA ridden gear with Rise of Iron. With Destiny 2, Bungie kicked things off by destroying the tower. Because of this, much of the base armor in the game is pieced together. Everything looks salvaged and scrapped together. We’ve certainly seen hints of more flashy armor from things like Trials of the Nine, the Season of Opulence, and now Solstice of Heroes. We’re getting back to the place where armor feels like something to show off rather than just being functionally better.

With the upcoming Shadowkeep expansion coming in October, I figured it’d also be a good time to look back at some of the armor from Destiny 1. Our hopes are high if the new moon-themed armor is the new standard.

You May Also Like:

Allen Lee

Allen Lee is currently a Senior Artist at Epic Games, but prior to that they worked on Destiny and Destiny 2. Their work includes lots of exotics, Trials of the Nine gear for Destiny 2, and some of the latter updates in the original game.

Siva Titan Armor

Ornamented Rise of Iron Warlock

Ironlord Warlock – Rise of Iron

James Yavorsky

James Yavorsky is currently a Principle Artist at Polyarc. They’ve worked on a handful of original armor sets and enemy designs from Destiny 1.

Trials of Osiris Warlock

Apex Harmonic Warlock – House of Wolves

Iron Banner Titan

Mike Jensen

Mike Jensen is also a Principle Artist at Polyarc. Their ArtStation profile is full of high quality renders of armor sets before they’re put into the game. That means they’re at way higher resolutions and look much better than the game engine itself can handle. So go check those out if you’re interested!

Infinite Lines Titan

Crota’s End Warlock

Argus Hunter

Dustwalker Hunter

Ian McIntosh

Ian McIntosh is currently a Senior Character Artist at Bungie. As such, they have the most armor sets to show out of the artists we’re featuring. Seriously, there’s a ton! Most are from The Taken King or later, however, and not the base game.

TTK Chroma Superior

TTK NM Chroma

Foresttracker Hunter – Taken King

Rise of Iron Hunter – House of Wolves

Blood Assassin Hunter – House of Wolves

Keeper Warlock – The Taken King

Spektar Hunter – Taken King

Desolate Warlock – Taken King

Manifold Seeker – Rise of Iron, The Dawning

Snow Angel Hunter – Rise of Iron

Crystalline Warlock – Rise of Iron

Vault of Glass Raid Armor w/ Kabr Ornament – Age of Triumph

Crota’s End Raid Armor w/ Willbreaker Ornament – Age of Triumph

King’s Fall Raid Armor w/ Harrowed Darkhollow Ornament – Age of Triumph

Spliced Nanomania Hunter – Rise of Iron

Cobra’s Vigil Warlock – Rise of Iron, Trials of Osiris

About the Author

Dillon Skiffington

Dillon is the Senior Game Guides Editor at Fanbyte. He's been writing about video games for 15 years and has thousands of hours logged in FFXIV and hundreds of hours in Destiny 2.