Destiny 2: Season of the Drifter is nearly upon us. The next round of new content for Bungie’s sci-fi looter focuses on, you guessed it, the titular Drifter. And it seems chock full of new activities, challenges, weapons, and armor to keep players occupied.
Specifically, Season of the Drifter focuses heavily on Gambit: the PVE/PVP hybrid mode from Destiny 2: Forsaken. Although there are a few new surprises mapped out for the next 90 days as well. A new activity called Reckoning, for instance, will earn players gear to take back into Gambit — as well as a new version of the mode called Gambit Prime.
If you really want the nitty gritty about the new Destiny 2 expansion (a.k.a. Joker’s Wild), Bungie went into pretty painstaking detail in a blog post on the studio’s website. Likewise, the “ViDoc” embedded below includes many of the highlights. Take a look!
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Destiny 2: Power Surge Bounties and Invitations of the Nine
One of the most interesting features in the Season of the Drifter (and likely the most important to lapsed players) is the inclusion of Power Surge Bounties. In the video, Bungie describes these as a way to reach 640 Power Level within just an hour or two.
Most Annual Pass owners will know that’s a huge change for Destiny 2. Black Armory, the previous Destiny 2 expansion, required an incredible commitment and grind even to reach its most basic content. That left many players with a conundrum: either grind solo for weeks, thanks to restrictions on Powerful Gear, or beg their more seasoned friends to play less worthwhile content with them until they powered up. These simple bounties should alleviate that.
Based on the video, Power Surge bounties are extremely simple. One only required two public events and three normal bounty completions. The rewards appear to be two pieces of level 640 gear a pop, too.
There will also be new bounties called Invitations of the Nine. They’ll start cropping up on March 15. And, much like the “story” bounties you got in Forsaken, they’re one-time-use. You can only complete them (and reap the rewards) once per character.
Destiny 2: Gambit Prime
Bungie describes Gambit Prime as a “sweatier” version of the popular mode in Destiny 2. Ew… That said, it sounds like a more focused, single-round Gambit match with special rules that mutate over time.
“Players can actually drain Motes from an enemy team” while fights against the Primeval boss will feel “almost like a raid.” Beyond that, the specifics of the mode aren’t entirely clear. Although that’s likely by design. One developer did mention that the Joker’s Wild expansion content will change and roll out week to week, from March to May, similar to Black Armory.
We do know that Gambit Prime will lean into the soft player roles that cropped up over time in Destiny 2: Forsaken. The Reaper is encouraged to kill as many NPC combatants as possible. That will generate Motes for the Collector class (the person that deposits Motes and sends blockers to the opposing Gambit team). The Sentry, on the other hand, is meant to defeat Taken enemies — clearing blockers and killing special foes that make the team deal more damage to the Primeval. Finally, the Invader… well, invades the opposing team to score PVP kills.
Each role comes with its own unique armor pieces. Each of which comes with its own Gambit Prime-specific gameplay bonuses. That is to say, the perks do not work in regular Gambit. But they will be joined by two new Gambit maps!
Destiny 2: The Reckoning PVE Content
The Reckoning is new “pinnacle” PVE content for Destiny 2: Season of the Drifter. It takes place in the Planes of the Nine. Serious Destiny 2 players might recognize the locale from the game’s first year. Because it seems highly similar to the victory zone where the Emissary of the Nine used to hang out.
Bungie hasn’t given up too many details about Reckoning yet. It sounds like the company wants the experience to be a disorienting surprise for Season of the Drifter players. Although the mission looks to be set on a long, straight track filled with Taken enemies. You need to kill them quickly to press on, too. Reckoning is apparently timed.
The event is also split into three tiers that unlock over time, starting with tier one. And as you progress, you’ll get more gear to take back into Gambit Prime.
Destiny 2: Thorn Exotic and Allegiance Quests
The content road map for Destiny 2: Season of the Drifter promises a lot of things. But one of the most popular, by far, is sure to be the Thorn exotic quest.
This venomous hand cannon was a fan favorite (and fan hated) weapon from the first game. And its return to Destiny 2 has been hinted at for a while now. Well, now we know: you can begin the Thorn exotic quest on March 12. That’s so soon!
There are even more new quests coming. These weekly missions, called Allegiance quests, reintroduce factional choice to Destiny 2. Specifically, you can elect to play for either the Vanguard or the Drifter — with a unique perspective on events depending on who you choose.
While it’s not quite the same as the Faction Rally system, which has been absent from Destiny 2 for some time, it does sound like an intriguing decision. It’s also character-based. So you can theoretically play through the mission for the Vanguard as your main avatar, and then again for the Drifter on an alt.
Destiny 2 Spring 2019 Event: The Revelry
The ViDoc only barely touched on what The Revelry might be, besides a Spring-themed event. Other holiday events have been very different from one another. So, if anything, we can expect it to be unlike anything we’ve played in Destiny 2 before.
We do know that The Revelry takes place from April 16 to May 6, however, and the video implied it takes players to Mercury. It’s free to everyone, too. You don’t even need a Destiny 2 Annual Pass to play!
Destiny 2: Season of Opulence
The Revelry will likely close out the 90 days of content in Season of the Drifter, similar to how Crimson Days finished off Black Armory. But that doesn’t mean the Destiny 2 Annual Pass itself is done. There’s still one more expansion coming later this year.
It (or at least its in-game event name) is called Season of Opulence. And it looks like the expansion will take players back to the Leviathan — presumably to deal with Emperor Calus in some fashion. That’s… basically all we know. But at least we have a name now! It was previously just listed as “Season of the [Redacted]” on promotional materials.
That’s pretty much all we know about what’s coming in the Joker’s Wild expansion and Season of the Drifter. We’ll be sure to update this guide with more information as it develops, however. In the meantime, it seems like there’s a lot to get excited about!
