Destiny 2 Season of the Undying content revealed as Bungie teases future seasonal changes
A look at the seasonal content separate from Shadowkeep
Bungie recently announced a new Battle Pass-like seasonal XP system for Destiny 2, and it also revealed some of the rewards and activities coming in the next season, the Season of the Undying. This season is included with Destiny 2 Shadowkeep itself, but its content is separate from the expansion, so it gives us a good idea of what to expect from future, independently available seasons.
Here's the full list of Season of the Undying rewards and activities we've seen so far. Head here for more details on how these are split between the base game and the season pass.
- The Vex Offensive, a new Vex-focused activity in the Black Garden
- The Leviathan's Breath Exotic bow
- The Eriana's Vow Exotic hand cannon and an Exotic ornament
- Three Vex-themed Legendary armor sets (one per class)
- Three universal ornament armor sets
- At least two more pinnacle weapons (Vanguard pinnacle weapon is MIA for now)
- Two Legendary weapon ornaments
- Two Legendary weapons
- New consumables called Upgrade Modules which grant one free Infusion
- An extra Finisher move
- An Exotic emote
- An Exotic ship
The Season of the Undying is the first of four seasons coming in Destiny 2 Year 3, and going forward, Bungie wants to connect and evolve those seasons in clearer, more meaningful ways. Game director Luke Smith put it this way: "With each new Season in Destiny, we want players to feel like they - as a community - are contributing to Destiny’s evolving world. Each Season in Destiny has to ride the line between delivering self-contained, Season-long world arcs and making the handoff to the next season. Together, Seasons move the Destiny universe forward."
Using the Season of the Undying as an example, and dancing carefully around spoilers, Smith illustrated how this evolution will work. "In Season of the Undying, the portal to the Black Garden that was opened as a part of [JacketQuest] has awoken the Vex, and they are now pouring out across the surface of the Moon," he says. "Working with Ikora, players will [Do Some Stuff, Go Somewhere, Fight Some Things, and Solve a Problem aka REDACTED]. By the end of the Season, the portals will close, the world state will change, and the Seasonal activity connected to it will go away."
This highlights one of the key points of future seasons: seasonal content will rotate out, meaning seasons will feel more like big events rather than permanent additions to the game. Whereas the Black Armory Forges, the Joker's Wild Gambit Prime loop, and the Season of Opulence Menagerie grind were all stacked on top of each other - to the point that Bungie now has to trim down the number of Power sources in the game - the activities in Season of the Undying will disappear after 10 weeks or so.
"But while events and activities in the world will come and go as the world evolves, weapons critical to the meta will not be locked in each Season for new players or for players who missed that Season," Smith clarifies. "Legendaries and Exotics you need to stay competitive will be re-earnable in the future, although not always immediately after the Season ends."
Smith also offered an example of how seasonal rotations will work, using a hypothetical, retroactive Season of the Forge as a base. The gist is: "Very late in the Season, players notice Ada’s room looks like it’s being packed up. She’s leaving. The schematics that sat behind her are missing. Over the course of a few weeks, she packs her equipment and, in an event similar to her arrival, she vanishes. Ada, her wares, and her forges are gone. Banshee-44 reminds players that even though Ada is gone, she left him the schematics for her weapons and armor, and he’ll be rotating them through over time. And the Drifter asks you to visit him, saying he’s got a surprise…"
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Austin freelanced for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree, and he's been with GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize that his position as a senior writer is just a cover up for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a focus on news and the occasional feature, all while playing as many roguelikes as possible.