Destiny 2‘s worldbuilding is spread across lorebooks, flavor text on equipment pieces, and — thankfully more and more — actual in-game dialogue and storytelling. Now, lorebooks are easy enough to keep on top of, since you typically unlock them as you complete seasonal activities. But it can be harder to keep track of the pieces attached to bounties, vendor dialogue, and gear. So, here are some of the funniest, most interesting, and mysterious bits of lore from Destiny 2 Season of the Haunted that you might have missed. Obviously some spoilers ahead.
1. Fallen, Cabal, and Guardians Working Together (Firefright)
One of the new seasonal weapons, the auto rifle Firefright, depicts a couple of Guardians infiltrating back into the Leviathan’s Throne Room and fighting one of Calus’s re-animated automatons that was previously defeated in the original Raid. What’s interesting about this lore is that it features a fireteam made up of not just Guardians, but Cabal and Eliksni Splicers, who all work together to achieve their objective. At one point, a Warlock even uses Solar Radiance to inspire their Cabal and Eliksni comrades, who concentrate their fire and take the machine out.
2. Ikora’s Nightmare (Trespasser)
The opening cutscene to Season of the Haunted gave us a glimpse of a few characters’ nightmares. Crow is haunted by Uldren, the man he used to be, Zavala by Safiyah, a woman from his past, and Caiatl by Ghaul. So, you might be wondering, when the Leviathan calls out to the other characters in Destiny, whose voice is it borrowing? For Ikora, the lore on the seasonal Exotic Trespasser tells us, it’s good old Cayde. The Nightmare of her old friend taunts her with her acceptance of Crow into the Tower, reminding her of how she was the first to demand revenge for the Hunter Vanguard’s death. She tries to keep it together, but ends up deciding to pull back from the Leviathan after the Nightmare nearly goads her into throwing a Nova Bomb at it.
3. Drifteris Fuel (Seasonal Armor)
Two of my favorite characters in Destiny 2 are Eris Morn and The Drifter. They both have tragic backstories and, as a result, have adopted different strategies for keeping people from getting too close — Eris has the whole creepy space witch thing, and the Drifter has his tough guy scumbag persona. Interactions between these two have been in Destiny since Season of Arrivals, at least, when they worked together to try to commune with the Darkness. Then, in Beyond Light, we got some cutscenes and interactions with them on Europa, where it seemed like they were going to form a new “Dark Vanguard” with Ellie Bray. That didn’t really pan out, but Season of the Haunted is finally giving fans of Eris and Drifter some good food, in a piece of lore in which the Drifter… makes Eris some good food.
The whole story plays out in the lore for the seasonal armor, in which Eris seeks the Drifter’s help to understand the mysterious Egregore fungus. God, we really need this last bit voice acted, though.
4. Caiatl and Amanda (Mandate of Strength)
Bungie likes to sneak in interesting lore on Exotic ships — Crow was first mentioned after his resurrection on the lore for a Dawning ship, if I remember correctly — and the one tied to the Duality dungeon presents a neat little interaction between Amanda Holliday and Caiatl. Holliday’s just finished working on the ship, called the Mandate of Strength, and Caiatl can’t help but admire the brutal simplicity of its design. The two of them bond over being pilots, and it’s a nice little moment.
5. Highway to the Haunted Zone (CWU-27p Anti-Haunt Gear)
While not really in-universe lore, with the release of Top Gun Maverick I couldn’t help but notice that the Triumph for acquiring all five pieces of the seasonal armor is titled “CWU-27p Anti-Haunt Gear.” You might think those are just some random letters and numbers, but it’s actually a reference to the real-world CWU-27/P flight suits worn by fighter pilots. What makes it “anti-haunt gear?” Well, those suits are also very similar to the ones worn by the protagonists of the Ghostbusters series. Remember that next time you’re binding nightmares on the Leviathan — I’d make a crack about how “binding makes me feel good,” but I wouldn’t want anyone to get the wrong idea.
6. Saint’s Pain (Hushed Syrinx)
Another Exotic ship, the Hushed Syrinx is tied to going Flawless in the Trials of Osiris — which means not many players will come to own it. But the lore on it is worth reading even if you have no intent of stepping into the Crucible. It details an interaction between Crow and Saint-14 at Osiris’s bedside, where the former Lightbearer is still comatose. I don’t want to say too much, because it’s a touching vignette, but suffice to say that Saint-14 hugs Crow and tells him that he is “a good bird.”
7. Calus’s Postpartum Depression (Deep Explorer Gloves)
Most of the lore attached to the Duality Dungeon armor is blacked out, attached as it is to memories Calus would rather forget. But the arms piece reveals something interesting about him and the Cabal in general — they’re seahorses. Yeah, we thought they were space rhinos all along, but it turns out that male Cabal have brood pouches and, just like with seahorses, they’re the ones who incubate their young. Calus is perhaps more tender than we’ve ever seen him when he reflects on the experience, saying that his dreams narrowed down to the size of his tiny daughter. He also says that he felt a “grand absence” when she was no longer there, indicating that maybe that feeling of loss had something to do with his eventual obsession with being the last creature alive in the universe.
8. A Guardian on Trial (Atavistic Trials Armor)
For the last few seasons, Trials of Osiris gear has told a story about a few different Guardians fighting together in the Crucible — Shayura, Reed-7, and Aisha. First mentioned in the Season of the Hunt, in which Shayura describes being hunted by something they had never before encountered in the ruins of Old Chicago, things seem to have gone downhill for her since. Her uncertainty and fear around losing the Light led her to become an overzealous hunter of anyone who strayed from it, and she killed Guardians, Ghosts, and non-combatants alike before she was detained. Escaping during the Endless Night (Season of the Splicer), she later encountered the Lucent Hive, whose use of the Light messed with her whole worldview. In the Atavistic Trials armor set, we learn that Aisha has turned herself in. While her friends try to come to terms with her actions and grapple with a Nightmare of her on the Moon, Shayura is getting therapy in a secure facility. Season of the Trauma, baby!
If you’re looking for help with Season of the Haunted, we have guides covering how to unlock the Solar 3.0 fragments and grenades, how to get the new Jotunn catalyst, how to farm Vestiges of Dread and Opulent Umbral Energy, all Exotics, new weapon Patterns, seasonal mods, and Season of the Haunted triumphs. In addition, we’re covering all patch notes, bugs and top issues, Bound in Sorrow quest steps, and Calus Bobbleheads. We’ve covered how to get Opulent Keys, Bound Presence in Containment, Crown of Sorrow H.E.L.M. upgrades, Iron Banner Seal Triumphs, and the Trespasser Catalyst. And lastly, we’ve written on how to find a Loyalist Commander for Battles Lines Triumph and the Cek’ik Boss.
