Destiny 2 Season 17 is officially the Season of the Haunted, and it's packing the Solar 3.0 subclass update, multiple new Exotics, and fresh activities which take us back to the original Leviathan raid, now with Shadowkeep-like Nightmares lurking around the specter of Calus.
Bungie unveiled the new season earlier today, mere hours before its launch – an uncharacteristically late reveal, and the latest of the studio's experiments with timing and secret-keeping. The official product page is also live on Bungie's site.
Destiny 2: Season of the Haunted is led by Nightmare Containment and Sever, two new activities with a positively vicious look to them. Nightmare Containment will be free to all players and challenge them to "summon the challenging Nightmares and cleanse them with fire."
The whole fire cleansing thing involves a new scythe relic which looks achingly cool and comes paired with extra edgy armor and weapons, with some returning favorites – most notably the Menagerie's Beloved and Austringer – among them.
Sever, meanwhile, is tied to the new season pass and lets players explore the Leviathan's underbelly, chasing "the truth behind Calus’s sinister plan" and "the Nightmares he controls," according to Bungie.
It's clear that Calus, Destiny 2's first final raid boss, is back in a big way, as is the Leviathan raid itself. Sever seems to have taken most of the raid's assets out of the Destiny Content Vault and combined them with some familiar faces from multiple expansions, doubling down on the Nightmare theme established in Shadowkeep.
As players conquer these literal Nightmares, they'll master the new Solar subclass trees which have been expanded to match Stasis and Void 3.0. Bungie's keeping the details of Solar 3.0 close to its chest, but Solar was previously described as focusing on burning and healing. You can bet the theory crafting community will have some busted burn builds worked out within a few hours.
With the launch of the Season of the Haunted, we're now just waiting on Arc 3.0 to finish updating Destiny's Light abilities. Arc 3.0 is currently expected to launch next season, and according to a cryptic tweet from designer Kevin Yanes, it will dial up the agility of the element, seemingly taking cues from the Season of the Risen's teleport-happy Synaptic Spear.
Destiny 2: Season of the Haunted will also see the return of an old Exotic: the Trespasser, a sidearm from the original Destiny. It sits alongside the new Exotic tied to the dungeon launching on Friday, May 27.
