2024 Destiny 2 Roadmap: The Final Shape and beyond

by | Feb 15, 2023 | Leveling

Bungie’s TWABs (short for “This Week at Bungie” blog posts) are always a great read, but their yearly game updates, ViDocs, and live events are even better.

But as always, it’s hard to keep track of all the upcoming features and promised changes and remember what is coming and when. Hopefully, this visual version of Destiny 2’s roadmap will help you stay on top of Destiny 2’s roadmap.

Destiny 2 Calendar Road to the Final Shape Infographic

Destiny 2 Calendar: Road to the Final Shape

February 28, 2023

Year 6: Lightfall

Season of Defiance (S20)

New Loadouts system

As further detailed in Bungie’s Buildcrafting Evolved post:

Being able to save your loadouts and easily switch between them in game has been a long-requested feature and is arriving with Lightfall next month! We’re taking the power of quickly switching between carefully crafted builds and make it available in-game.

Brand-new Raid

Not a lot more is known about this raid, Bungie has confirmed that it will release on March 10, 2023.

As confirmed on Lightfall’s official page:

Ferried from an unknown time and place, a haunting presence has been detected. We must now confront the ancient threat growing at our doorstep.

Enhanced Legendary weapons

As confirmed in Bungie’s Enhancing Weapon Crafting post:

Note that Master raid adept enhancing will be introduced a few weeks after the Lightfall Master raid release. The feature will be backwards compatible with the Lightfall raid Adept weapons you have already acquired but won’t include previous raids.

Strikes and Nightfall refresh

As confirmed in Bungie’s Lightfall and the Year Ahead post.

Concerning the Strikes refresh:

This effort will begin with refreshing the Lake of Shadows and Arms Dealer strikes. Both activities have had their objectives and encounters re-imagined and upgraded to match the combat engagement levels of some of our more recent strike entries, such as Lightblade and Proving Grounds.

In addition, we are also taking strikes that have not been updated recently, such as Exodus Crash and The Inverted Spire, and dramatically reducing their presence in the Vanguard Ops playlist while eliminating them from Nightfall rotations.

Also, more Battlegrounds will be added to Vanguard Ops:

The Season 16 and Season 19 Battlegrounds will be added to the Vanguard Ops playlist.

Concerning Nightfall changes:

We really like the fast, enemy-filled chaos of Battlegrounds, so this year we will also be adding a selection of Battlegrounds as Nightfalls.

This process will begin with the Mars Heist Battleground being part of the Nightfall rotation in Season of Defiance, and we expect more Battlegrounds to be following suit each season.

And more...

As confirmed in Bungie’s Lightfall and the Year Ahead post, other changes expected with Season of Defiance are:

Umbral engrams removal

After you’ve unlocked seasonal focusing, if you want to focus an engram into a particular seasonal weapon or armor, all you’ll need is glimmer and a seasonal engram. Additionally, seasonal engrams will be stored and tracked on seasonal vendors.

Removal of seasonal currencies in favor of chest keys

We also won’t be asking you to hold large stacks of seasonal currency to unlock a chest at the end of every seasonal activity. Instead, we will be dropping singular keys throughout your playtime that allow you to extract better rewards from the chest at the end of a seasonal activity.

Fewer Vendor upgrades

Players can expect fewer total vendor upgrades, with each individual upgrade being more potent and some upgrades even offering a variance on the way you interact with the seasonal activity.

We want any player to read the name of something and immediately understand what it does; in short, to spend more time playing and less time trying to understand what they are supposed to do.

Weapon crafting changes

Fewer of our total weapons will be craftable and more of our weapons with long term sources will get value from random perk rolls.

You will never see Deepsight on a weapon unless it is something you need to make pattern progress on. When you see a red border in-game, you will know it’s valuable.

Abilities tuning

We are moderately increasing ability recharge time across a wide selection of our abilities as mentioned in the ability tuning preview last week

We’re adjusting the amount of damage resistance granted by resilience and increasing the energy cost of resilience mods from 1 to 2 for minor mods and 3 to 4 for major mods.

New Guardian Ranks system

As confirmed in Bungie’s Lightfall and the Year Ahead post:

Guardian Ranks aim to be the effortless way Guardians share their place in their journey with one another. No longer will the number next to your nameplate be a representation of how much you’ve grinded the Season Pass; instead, it’s a representation of your experience as a Guardian and the challenges you’ve faced and overcame.

New Commendations system

As confirmed in Bungie’s Lightfall and the Year Ahead post:

Commendations are an icebreaker – a simple way of saying thanks to players that you appreciated playing with. Over time, players will accumulate a ton of different commendations that help build a story for how others in Destiny 2 perceive you.

Higher Enemy difficulty

As confirmed in Bungie’s Lightfall and the Year Ahead post:

Recently, we’ve been happy with the level of challenge present in the base Heist Battlegrounds playlist. To achieve this, we used a difficulty knob that enforces just how over-leveled we will let players be compared to the enemies they are fighting.

This difficulty knob will be used again in Year 6:

  • The base Battlegrounds playlist in Season of Defiance will use the same settings.
  • The same difficulty tweak will be used on the Vanguard Ops playlist, but to a lesser extent.
  • This approach to Power and difficulty is also going to be present when patrolling Neomuna.
New Crucible mode & changes

As confirmed in Bungie’s Lightfall and the Year Ahead post:

In Season of Defiance, we’re looking at getting Countdown back into the game along with a respawn variant of the game mode we call Countdown Rush.

We also aim to run a series of Crucible Labs, including a mode where the player sandbox is dramatically changed. Weapon damage, ability uptime, and even ammo are all adjusted in a new mode tentatively titled “Checkmate Control.”

Finally, in Competitive we want to improve the speed at which players climb to the rank that most matches their Crucible skill and ensure it’s clear why you won or lost the specific number of ranked points shown after a match.

Spring 2023

Season of the Deep

Season 21

Brand-new Dungeon

As confirmed on Lightfall’s official page:

Two pinnacle challenges await Annual Pass owners. Unlock the Season 21 and 23 dungeons, each with its own Exotic weapon and collection of rewards to earn.

Return of Meltdown PvP map

As confirmed in Bungie’s Lightfall and the Year Ahead post:

We’re still committed to keeping true to our Crucible maps plan, which means the arrival of Meltdown in Season of the Deep, a brand new Vex Network map in Season 22, and the return of Citadel in our last Season before The Final Shape.

We will also be looking at our existing maps and doing a spawn retuning pass on many of them this year to improve how our various modes flow.

No Power Level increase

As confirmed in Bungie’s Lightfall and the Year Ahead post:

For example, when Lightfall launches, we will have a Power climb that is very similar to that in The Witch Queen, but later in Season of the Deep, we don’t plan to raise the Power or pinnacle cap at all.

And more...

As confirmed in Bungie’s Lightfall and the Year Ahead post, other changes are expected with Season of the Deep:

No Vendor Upgrades

Season of the Deep will not feature a vendor upgrade paradigm.

Fresh Seasonal activities

In both Season of the Deep and Season 22, the team is pushing the envelope to create more fresh activity experiences, like when we first unveiled the Shattered Realm in Season of the Lost or debuted Battlegrounds in Season of the Chosen.

Weapon crafting changes

Targeting Season of the Deep, we will also be adding a mechanism to activate Deepsight on any craftable weapon they do not have the pattern for.

Summer 2023

Season of [Redacted]

Season 22

Reprised "Classic" Raid

As confirmed in Bungie’s Lightfall and the Year Ahead post:

Initially, we hoped to get our take on a first-class in-game Looking for Group tool in players’ hands this summer with Season 22, alongside our next reprised raid, making a perfect pairing for new raiders.

Better in-game chat

As confirmed in Bungie’s Lightfall and the Year Ahead post:

Over time, we’d like to continue to invest in deeper chat moderation, better filtering, and bigger features like speech-to-text.

Brand-new PvP Map

As confirmed in Bungie’s Lightfall and the Year Ahead post:

We’re still committed to keeping true to our Crucible maps plan, which means the arrival of Meltdown in Season of the Deep, a brand new Vex Network map in Season 22, and the return of Citadel in our last Season before The Final Shape.

Exotic Mission rotator

As confirmed in Bungie’s Lightfall and the Year Ahead post:

The Exotic mission rotator will feature Exotic missions from the past that rotate on a weekly cadence and offer great rewards for players willing to dive into some classic content. In Season 22, this rotator will contain the Exotic missions from Seasons 13, 16, and 19: Presage, Vox Obscura, and Operation: Seraph’s Shield.

Winter 2023

Season of [Redacted]

Season 23

New Fireteam Finder system

As confirmed in Bungie’s Lightfall and the Year Ahead post:

We’re pushing Fireteam Finder out to our final Season of the year alongside a brand-new dungeon.  

We think that a truly first-class LFG system won’t be perfect until we can see how our players use it, but we want to make sure that the initial launch still has a ton of features that will allow players to find a fireteam inside of Destiny. This means a Fireteam Finder that you can queue up for from anywhere in the game. The ability to tag your posts with keywords to describe the kind of group you’re running and the kind of people you’re looking to recruit. The option to create groups where folks can join automatically, allowing you to get right into the action. And the power to create groups where you as a leader can approve or deny each person trying to join up, giving you tight control over the kind of group you’re putting together.  

Brand-new Dungeon

As confirmed on Lightfall’s official page:

Two pinnacle challenges await Annual Pass owners. Unlock the Season 21 and 23 dungeons, each with its own Exotic weapon and collection of rewards to earn.

Focus on Core Playlist activities

As confirmed in Bungie’s Lightfall and the Year Ahead post:

This rebalancing of objectives and rewards is going to be a slow burn over the year of Lightfall, and we are going to take a more direct approach in our last Season of the year, dedicating a significant amount of development time toward a more core ritual-focused season.

Return of Citadel PvP map

As confirmed in Bungie’s Lightfall and the Year Ahead post:

We’re still committed to keeping true to our Crucible maps plan, which means the arrival of Meltdown in Season of the Deep, a brand new Vex Network map in Season 22, and the return of Citadel in our last Season before The Final Shape.

Early 2024

Year 7: The Final Shape

Season 24

Stay tuned...

Everything about the The Final Shape expansion remains a mystery but be sure we’ll be updating this section as we learn more.

Archives

In case you’re interested in the evolutions that occurred throughout Year 4 of Destiny 2 (The Witch Queen), this sections covers all the content from past Destiny 2 Seasons and Expansions.

February 22, 2022

Year 5: The Witch Queen

Season of the Risen (S16)

Pivotal role for Ikora Rey

From Bungie’s Destiny 2021 Update:

Some of you have noticed that Ikora Rey has not been nearly as present recently in Destiny 2. We’ve missed her as well. Not only will you see Ikora again in Season 14, she will be playing a pivotal role in The Witch Queen.

Gambit rework

In Season of the Risen, Gambit has gone through several reworks and changes, including the addition of Gambit: Labs weekends.

The latest Lab was revealed on April 21’s TWAB:

Invasion Swaps went off well, giving us great data and feedback on Mote dunking, invasion cadence, and primeval healing in a world where you invited opponents onto your playing field when hitting certain thresholds. For this edition of Labs, we’ll be experimenting with Mote Thieves starting on April 26.

The jury is still out and more changes will continue to come but the vast majority of the community agrees that Gambit remains in a sorry state…

Weapon crafting

Weapon crafting makes it’s official debut! More information here.

Void 3.0

Season of the Risen marked the debut of the revised 3.0 Subclasses with the introduction of Void 3.0. Mimicking the same setup and customization as Stasis, Void 3.0 also offers an extremely powerful toolkit with insane ability uptime.

May 24, 2022

Season of the Haunted

Season 17

Iron Banner rework

Season 17 will see a significant change to the loot system for the Iron Banner PVPV “endgame” mode. This should mimic the system recently introduced to Gambit or Trials of Osiris. This overhaul has been teased several times. From April 7’s TWAB:

While we’re planning a larger TWAB to cover upcoming changes, our one piece of advice to you this week is to spend your Iron Banner tokens, complete your Iron Banner quest, and redeem your Iron Banner bounties. We have some updates to Saladin and how he’ll be dishing out rewards, which naturally leads to the retirement of Iron Banner tokens and bounties. 

New Dungeon

Bungie has confirmed multiple times that one new Dungeon will be released on Season 17. The last time it did, was on April 14’s TWAB:

Each Season, the newly released raid and dungeon will grant Pinnacle rewards for all encounters. As an example, in Season 17, Vow of the Disciple and the upcoming [REDACTED] dungeon. 

This Dungeon will not be free-to-play and is part of The Witch Queen’s Deluxe edition. It will also become available for purchase separately. We’ll learn more as we get closer to its release.

Brand-new PVP map

In Season 17, Bungie will finally break its 2-year dry spell without a new PVP map! As announced by Joe Blackburn, Destiny 2’s Game Director:

After reprised maps in season 16, season 17 will come with a brand-new map. There are a bunch of new environments in Destiny 2, and we’re excited to start bringing them into the crucible.

Raids & Dungeons rotator

Season 17 will see the introduction of a rotating system for raids and dungeons. From April 14’s TWAB:

Each Season, the newly released raid and dungeon will grant Pinnacle rewards for all encounters. As an example, in Season 17, Vow of the Disciple and the upcoming [REDACTED] dungeon. Outside of these, we’ll have a raid rotator and a dungeon rotator, each offering a Pinnacle reward once completed.

For those wondering about the weekly rotation, this particular inclusion will have a chance to feature all raids and dungeons not listed as the Seasonal rotation. Want to revisit the Vex in Garden of Salvation? Do it! Want to go toe-to-toe with Riven because you like to feel hungry for that wildly impressive (and stressful as all heck for players like me that are prone to panic) final encounter? Weird, but get on with yo’ brave and Light-driven self. Get that bread. 

Solar 3.0

Bungie promised that all three Light Subclasses will be getting the 3.0 overhaul in Year 5. One Subclass per season, in consecutive seasons.

Season 17 features Solar 3.0.

August 23, 2022

Season of Plunder

Season 18

New "classic" Raid

Bungie has confirmed that in Year 5, there will be either a new dungeon or a new/reprised raid each Season.

We already know Season 18 will feature a “classic” raid, which means that another Destiny 1 raid should make its return. From Bungie’s 2021 Livestream:

We’re also going to be remastering another classic Destiny 1 raid and releasing it free for all players. 

Raids being the ultimate Destiny 2 experience, we’re glad to get up to two new raids each year!

D1 remastered PVP map

In Season 18, Bungie will continue its efforts with the remastering of a Destiny 2 map! As also announced by Joe Blackburn, Destiny 2’s Game Director:

Finally, after those 3 maps are added to the rotation in 16 and 17, we will be remastering a Destiny 1 map and bringing it to Destiny 2 for the first time in season 18.

New Crucible mode

The Crucible will finally receive a brand-new game mode, called Eruption. Eruption is Clash with energy boosts based on kill streaks.

During Eruption, killing your opponents scores one point and a normal amount of energy. After that, when you get your second elimination in a row without dying (assists count too!), you become “Surging.”

  • You start lightly glowing.
  • Kills start generating 10% Super energy and 20% grenade, melee, and class energy.
  • You score 2 points per kill.

You can read all about it here.

Arc 3.0

Bungie promised that all three Light Subclasses will be getting the 3.0 overhaul in Year 5. One Subclass per season, in consecutive seasons.

Season 18 will feature Arc 3.0. We already know a lot about this via Bungie’s dedicated post.

 

Return of SBMM

Season 18 will mark the return of SBMM or Skill-based Matchmaking. You can read more about it here.

November 22, 2022

Season of [Redacted]

Season 19

New Dungeon

Bungie has confirmed that in Year 5, there will be either a new dungeon or (new/reprised) raid per Season. These should alternate. 

With a “classic” raid planned for Season 18, Season 19 should feature a new dungeon. This makes sense as we already know The Witch Queen will feature 2 new dungeons, as clearly stated in the game’s Deluxe edition:

Deluxe Edition

  • Exotic SMG, Catalyst, and Ornament
  • Access to Seasons 16, 17, 18, and 19
  • 2 Dungeons Released in Year 5
  • Throne World Exotic Sparrow 
New PVP game modes

Finally, after the release of reprised, remastered and brand-new maps, Bungie aims to close the year with the introduction of new game modes. As also announced by Joe Blackburn, Destiny 2’s Game Director:

First, the team is investigating getting Rift in Destiny 2 next year. It’s been too long since we’ve dunked on some guardians. The Destiny Sandbox has sped up in Destiny 2, so right now the team is validating that the mode still holds up with our new gameplay.

Second, the team is working on multiple brand-new modes for 2022. We aren’t quite ready to spoil these yet, but we’re excited to offer new twists and rules to the ways you can make shaxx proud.

New "Glory" PVP system

Bungie’s competitive system, aka, the Glory playlist, will finally receive a much-needed overhaul. From March 31’s TWAB:

For the Season 19 release, we are taking a pass on Glory and how players engage with it in the Crucible. What playlists offer Glory? How do players earn it? What does “becoming legend” look like? While we can’t answer any of these questions just yet, we wanted to plant a flag in the sand for the timeframe.

The Last Word

If you’re unclear on what is still available in the game and what has been removed to put into the Destiny Content Vault, this post will tell you exactly what content is still available. 

Concerning the game’s future, this unofficial “Roadmap” will continue to be updated as we learn more from Bungie.

About The Author

Ric Molina
Ric Molina
I've been covering gaming since 2012, and some of my work has been featured by large brands, including MSN.com, Forbes, Rock Paper Shotgun, and more. I've been obsessed with Destiny 2 (and now Diablo 4) for years now, and I hope to provide new and returning players with the guides and resources I wish I had when I first started.
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2 Comments
  1. Gregg

    Masterworked weapons and armor should return ALL materials used in upgrading items when broken down. This would help with the sunsetting issue and costs to remasterwork new yearly weapons and armor.

    Reply
    • Ric (aka Primatrix)

      We will have to see how much easier it gets finding shards and prisms with Beyond Light. If it stays as hard as it is today, than yeah, armor sunsetting will be very painful…

      Reply
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