Destiny 2 is becoming an increasingly complicated game to get into. There are several expansions to purchase, free-to-play content, and removed content. It’s not uncommon for MMOs to offer a combination of free-to-play content and expansions, but Destiny 2 is the only game to actually remove huge chunks of content.
In this post, we take a look at every piece of content in Destiny 2, and tell you whether it’s still available, what expansion it requires, and more.
Destiny 2 content: Premium, free-to-play, and removed
With entire planets and activities being routinely removed from the game and put into the “Destiny Content Vault” (or DCV), it has never been harder to keep track of what is still available and for how long it will remain so.
While our Beginner’s guide covers the basics, the following table tells you exactly what content is still available, whether as premium content or free-to-play:
| Content | Content type | Available? | Still available? | DLC Requirements |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Campaigns | Campaign | |||
| Lightfall | Campaign | Yes |   | Requires Lightfall |
| The Witch Queen | Campaign | Yes | | Requires The Witch Queen |
| Beyond Light | Campaign | Yes | | Requires Beyond Light |
| Shadowkeep | Campaign | Yes | | Requires Shadowkeep |
| Forsaken | Campaign | Yes | | Removed |
| Curse of Osiris | Campaign | No |   | Removed |
| Warmind | Campaign | No | | Removed |
| Red War | Campaign | No | | Removed |
| Raids | Raid | |||
| Root of Nightmares | Raid | Yes | | Requires Lightfall |
| King's Fall | Raid | Yes | | Free-to-Play |
| Vow of the Disciple | Raid | Yes | | Requires The Witch Queen |
| Vault of Glass | Raid | Yes | | Free-to-Play |
| Deep Stone Crypt | Raid | Yes | | Requires Beyond Light |
| Garden of Salvation | Raid | Yes | | Requires Shadowkeep |
| Last Wish | Raid | Yes | | Requires Forsaken pack |
| Crown of Sorrow | Raid | No | | Removed |
| Scourge of the Past | Raid | No | | Removed |
| Spire of Stars | Raid | No | | Removed |
| Eater of Worlds | Raid | No | | Removed |
| Leviathan | Raid | No | | Removed |
| Dungeons | Dungeon | |||
| Spire of the Watcher | Dungeon | Yes | | Requires The Witch Queen Deluxe |
| Duality | Dungeon | Yes | | Requires The Witch Queen Deluxe |
| Grasp of Avarice | Dungeon | Yes | | 30th Anniversary Pack |
| Prophecy | Dungeon | Yes | | Free-to-Play |
| Pit of Heresy | Dungeon | Yes | | Requires Shadowkeep |
| Shattered Throne | Dungeon | Yes | | Requires Forsaken pack |
| PvE Activities | PvE Activity | |||
| Terminal Overload | PvE Activity | Yes | | Requires Lightfall |
| Wellspring | PvE Activity | Yes | | Requires The Witch Queen |
| Empire Hunts | PvE Activity | Yes | | Requires Beyond Light |
| Nightmare Hunts | PvE Activity | Yes | | Requires Shadowkeep |
| Vanguard Playlists | PvE Activity | Yes | | Free-to-Play |
| Gambit | PvE Activity | Yes | | Free-to-Play |
| Presage / Harbringer quests | PvE Activity | No | | Removed |
| Zero Hour / Whisper quests | PvE Activity | No | | Removed |
| Niobe Labs | PvE Activity | No | | Removed |
| The Reckoning | PvE Activity | No | | Removed |
| Gambit Prime | PvE Activity | No | | Removed |
| Forges | PvE Activity | No | | Removed |
| The Menagerie | PvE Activity | No | | Removed |
| Escalation Protocol | PvE Activity | No | | Removed |
| PvP Activities | PvP Activitiy | |||
| Trials of Osiris | PvP Activitiy | Yes | | Requires Lightfall |
| Crucible Playlist | PvP Activitiy | Yes | | Free-to-Play |
| Iron Banner | PvP Activitiy | Yes | | Free-to-Play |
| Destinations | Destination | |||
| Neomuna | Destination | Yes | | Free-to-Play |
| Derelict Leviathan | Destination | Yes | | Removed |
| Europa | Destination | Yes | | Free-to-Play |
| Moon | Destination | Yes | | Free-to-Play |
| Dreaming City | Destination | Yes | | Free-to-Play |
| EDZ | Destination | Yes | | Free-to-Play |
| The Cosmodrome | Destination | Yes | | Free-to-Play |
| Nessus | Destination | Yes | | Free-to-Play |
| Tangled Shore | Destination | No | | Removed |
| Tribute Hall | Destination | No | | Removed |
| Mars | Destination | No | | Removed |
| Mercury | Destination | No | | Removed |
| IO | Destination | No | | Removed |
| Titan | Destination | No | | Removed |
| The Farm | Destination | Yes | | Free-to-Play |
The future of the Destiny 2 Content Vault
Note that the last time content was removed was when The Witch Queen expansion was released on February 22, 2022. At that time, the Forsaken campaign and the Tangled Shore destination, along with Year 4 Seasonal content, including the Presage and Harbinger Exotic missions, were removed and put into the DCV.
Bungie promised that DLC content will no longer be removed but expect seasonal content to leave the game on a yearly basis. This means Shadowkeep and Beyond Light content is safe, but seasonal activities/destinations, such as the Derelict Leviathan, are not.
Destiny 2 free-to-play content: Getting started
One of the biggest complaints regarding Destiny 2 is how unwelcoming it is to new players. Getting started with Destiny 2 is notoriously difficult, and the fact that entire destinations, quests, and systems are routinely removed doesn’t help.
The current introductory New Light quest barely scratches the surface and leaves new players with absolutely no idea of what to do next. This is especially true for free-to-play players. If this is your case, read on.
Free-to-play activities
These are the free-to-play activities and Destinations available to New Light players:
| Activity | Type | Difficulty |
| Vanguard Playlist | PVE |
Easy |
| Prophecy Dungeon | PVE |
Average |
| Vault of Glass & King’s Fall Raids | PVE |
Hard |
| Gambit | PVE/PVP |
Average |
| Crucible Playlist | PVP |
Average to Hard |
| Iron Banner | PVP |
Average |
| Trials of Osiris | PVP |
Hard |
The secret to getting your friends (or yourself) hooked on Destiny 2 before having to pay for Expansions is to properly tackle the right activities in the right order:
- Do the New Light Quest and read our Beginner’s guide
- Head over to the Vanguard Playlist and do some Strikes
- Slowly work on increasing your Power Level by tackling the right activities
- Once your Power Level is high enough, work towards playing with others as a Fireteam
- Slowly work your way towards harder and harder Nightfall: The Ordeals
- Your end game is to tackle the Prophecy Dungeon, one of the best pieces of (free) content in Destiny 2.
Obviously, following this list is not as easy as it sounds when you’re new to Destiny 2. But if you take it step by step, I promise you’ll make it.
Looking Ahead: The Future of Destiny 2
Bungie gives. Bungie takes away. But it wouldn’t be fair to focus only on the things that are leaving the game. In fact, according to Bungie, content has been removed to make room for new content.
This Destiny 2 roadmap covers all the biggest new features and pieces of content planned for the game. And if you want to get your information straight from the source, this post covers all recent TWAB (Bungie’s weekly blog post).
About the Destiny Content Vault (DCV)
When it was first announced last year, the DCV shook the entire community. In Bungie’s words:
Each year, usually at the expansion boundaries, we will cycle some destination and activity content out of the game (and into the DCV) to make room for new experiences.
Soon after that announcement, close to 50% of the game was “vaulted” and put into the DCV with the release of Beyond Light on November 10, 2020.
In other words, roughly half of the locations, activities, and gear were removed from the game and cannot be experienced anymore. This includes excellent story missions, narrative arc and timeless quotes are gone. If you’re feeling like walking down memory lane, this post covers every season (and its top content) released since the launch of Destiny 2 in 2017.
The logic of the DCV (rant…)
Bungie claims the DCV is a necessary evil in order to improve the game, but it’s still hard to understand the logic. Half of Year 1 content was removed because everything had to be “reworked” and optimized in order to be functional for Beyond Light’s launch. With so much content available, removing half of it made that “rework” manageable for Bungie.
So far, so good. You may not like it, but you can understand the logic.
This means everything that was live when Beyond Light launched was updated and fully functional. Therefore, why did they have to remove the Forsaken content, which is seen as the best campaign ever released in Destiny 2? Even more confusing, why remove the excellent Exotic quests that were recently introduced? They were relatively new and didn’t even occur on the Tangled Shore.
There is no point in beating a dead horse. I just hope Bungie will someday provide more answers, as the systematic removal of content is slowly turning players against them.
Your Turn
Rants aside, hopefully, the above table will help you better understand and keep track of what is still available (and for how long) on Destiny 2.
The content vault is total BS. They charge exorbitant amounts for literally everything, but instead of hiring a few more people, they just ditch content and the executives put millions of dollars in their pockets. They’re stealing from anybody who paid for that content. As far as I’m concerned, the next expansion should be free for anyone who has lost content they paid for. Somebody should file a class action lawsuit, you’d probably get hundreds of thousands of people onboard.
The DCV is necessary because if Bungie allows the content to pile up with each new expansion then the game will get too big for consoles and it will get harder to maintain the past content. Its scummy but plausible.
I think they could have gotten away with not vaulting everything by making download packs for the old content similar to what they did in call of duty modern warfare. In that game, you could download separate parts of it, like the co-op, campaign, regular PVP, and warzone.
Tuesday, September 6, 2022, 08:15 CST
I’m thinking of everything possible to give Bungie the go-ahead with their recent actions; I can’t find one…
Why on Earth would Bungie/Steam and other sales distributors offer a wonderful end of Summer/Labor Day sales event of great games while knowing what they are selling is a huge scam? ( referring to Destiny 2 Legacy download only).
Destiny/Bungie is a great game/company, so why would that put their reputation on the line just for a few lousy discount bucks? It makes zero sense to me. How are they winning on this one?
Now, instead of being a continuing Destiny player, I feel cheated and can’t really enjoy playing that game anymore. Plan and simple, it really SUCKS! It’s cheap and very unethical.
There’s nothing else to say, others have spoken their minds and more people will be adding their fair share of complaints as the anger continues to grow.
An apology and a refund would be the proper move, but I highly doubt that will happen. It might be the right thing to do for us devoted patrons to consider filing a class-action lawsuit to help prevent these sneaky and unethical tactics again. I know the odds are not in our (buyers) favor, but if we do nothing about it, these big companies will continue to take advantage of their devoted customers which in its-self sounds terrible.
Sorry Bungie, you really disappointed your life-long Destiny fans with this one! Please prove us wrong!