Bungie says unlocking Strand in Destiny 2 Lightfall will be easier than grinding Stasis in Beyond Light

With the release of Strand in Destiny 2 Lightfall, Bungie says it's looking to avoid the infamously time-consuming grind that Stasis added to the Beyond Light expansion. 

"We definitely learned from the Stasis unlock grind," feature lead Eric Smith said at a recent press event. "It was hard to dedicate that much time per character to do all that. We have streamlined it this time. Instead of it being locked behind time-gated quests, it'll be much more open in that I'm earning currency to unlock these things when I want to unlock them, basically." 

Design lead Kevin Yanes affirmed that "when you end the campaign, you'll have a pretty competent subclass." 

"We do a better job of onboarding here," Yanes added. "Whereas in Beyond Light, you had just a skeleton and you had to go out and fill in the rest of that yourself. We definitely heard the feedback from Beyond Light. We know that there are a lot of people who want to come in and try the powers, and the barrier to getting there was so high. Internally, we have a bunch of folks who wish they had it on their alts but just can't summit the hill of going through that quest line again. 

"That is absolutely something we wanted to fix this time around. So if you beat Lightfall, you're going to be able to play with the new toys relatively quickly. If you want to expand that arsenal, it's going to have a really clear and easy path for you to do so."

Check out our full Destiny 2 Lightfall Strand preview to learn the ins and outs of developing the game's fifth subclass type. To learn about the specific abilities, head over to our Destiny 2 Strand Subclasses guide.