Destiny 2 Episode Heresy: Release date, Heretical Arsenal, New Aspects, more

Destiny 2 Episode Heresy is right around the corner, and it’s shaping up to be the first stage of a drastic shake-up the looter shooter sorely needs in 2025.

As the third and final Episode before Bungie goes full send on Codename Frontiers in the summer, Heresy is expected to not only wrap up loose ends with the Hive Pantheon but serve as a prologue, of sorts, for Apollo.

While the narrative structure likely won’t change too much from previous Episodes, Echoes, and Revenant, teasers indicate that Heresy will be the most feature-rich, packed with new content and massive QoL improvements to evergreen features.

Here’s everything we know about Episode Heresy, including its release date, new Aspects for all three classes, and more.

Episode Heresy Act 1 release date

Heresy Act 1 goes live on February 4, 2025, with Destiny 2’s weekly reset. Based on previous Episodes, players can expect each of Heresy’s three Acts to run for around one month.

For a convenient reference, here’s when Destiny 2’s weekly reset takes place in a variety of time zones:

• Pacific Time (PT): 09:00 – Tuesday
• Eastern Time (ET): 12:00 – Tuesday
• Greenwich Mean Time (GMT): 17:00 – Tuesday
• Central European Time (CET): 18:00 – Tuesday
• Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST): 03:00 – Wednesday

Sundered Doctrine – New Dungeon

Sundered Doctrine is Destiny 2’s next new Dungeon and goes live on Friday, February 7. While Bungie hasn’t revealed any of the endgame activity’s loot just yet, the studio did confirm it will see Guardians return to Rhulk’s Pyramid Ship, last seen in Witch Queen’s Vow of the Disciple Raid.

For more information, check out our guide to Sundered Doctrine’s world-first race, including how you can get your hands on a free emblem just for watching the race.

New Legendary weapons and armor

As with every season, Heresy will introduce a wave of weapons and armor to earn through seasonal activities. Bungie hasn’t revealed these in-game but has shared concept art of several Hive-themed weapons, including a Sidearm and Fusion Rifle.

Likewise, concepts for Titan, Warlock, and Hunter armor share a similar aesthetic not dissimilar to those earned by ranking up in Witch Queen’s Patrol Zone. Check them out in the gallery below.

Heretical Arsenal

Per Bungie’s End of Year 2024 developer update, Heresy will see the introduction of a so-called Heretical Arsensal. The developer described these as a “new tier of seasonal weapon,” that “will be clear when they hit your inventory that they’re worth inspecting.”

Details remain slim beyond that, though based on the description, Heretical weapons sound not dissimilar from Into the Light’s BRAVE weapons – rarer versions of standard weapons with a unique skin and the ability to roll additional perks.

We’ll update this section as and when Bungie shares more details.

Return of the Dreadnaught

The Dreadnaught, Oryx’s flagship first introduced in the original Destiny’s Taken King expansion as a Patrol Zone, returns in Heresy.

As of writing, it’s not known whether the colossal Hive Tomb Ship will serve the same purpose in Destiny 2 as it did in its predecessor (i.e. free roam), but it’s nonetheless the most likely setting for whatever seasonal activities are coming with Heresy.

Similar to Revenant introducing a spiritual successor to House of Wolves’ Prison of Elders activity in Tomb of Elders, Heresy could well do the same for Destiny 1’s Court of Oryx, but this hasn’t been confirmed.

In its Journey Ahead video, Bungie likened Heresy’s seasonal activity to Season of the Wish’s Coil, so expect something not dissimilar to its lap and modifier-based structure.

(Relevant segment begins at 4:54)

Trials of Osiris Rework

Big changes to Trials of Osiris are coming in Episode Heresy. In December 2024 and again on January 17, Bungie global community lead dmg04 teased a big shake-up for Destiny 2’s endgame PvP activity on X/Twitter.

While leaks suggest one component of this will be refreshed rewards, dmg04’s January comments hinted that players won’t need to achieve a Flawless run in the 3v3 activity to get any meaningful rewards for time invested in Episode Heresy.

Team is looking to answer a good question.

"What if Trials wasn't Flawless or Bust anymore?"

See you next week.

— dmg04 (@A_dmg04) January 17, 2025

New Aspects & Arc Keyword

Titans, Warlocks, and Hunters will each get access to a new Aspect in Episode Heresy alongside a substantial overhaul of Arc subclasses in general. You can read more about the upgrade in our dedicated coverage, but the key takeaways are below, per Bungie’s January 16 TWID:

New Arc Keyword – Bolt Charge

• While you have one or more stacks, from any source — Aspects, Fragments, weapon perks, etc.  — dealing damage with any weapon increases your Bolt Charge stack count. Each time a stack is gained, you gain a chunk of melee energy. At 10 stacks, your Bolt Charge is ready and any ability damage — Arc or otherwise — summons a powerful Arc bolt, dealing roughly the same amount of damage as a Solar Ignition with a smaller area of effect. Different from Ignition though, Bolt Charge is tuned to have more consistent and predictable uptime. 

On the Prowl – Hunter Void Aspect

• Entering invisibility marks a nearby enemy as a priority target for you and your team.
• Defeating priority targets creates a weakening cloud of smoke that makes you and allies invisible when passing through it.
• When priority targets are defeated, you and nearby allies gain increased weapon reload speed and stability for a short duration and are granted grenade, melee, and class-ability energy.

Storm’s Keep – Titan Arc Aspect

• Cast your class ability to grant a moderate number of Bolt Charge stacks to you and nearby allies. While behind your Barricade, you and allies gain stacks of Bolt Charge over time and any weapon damage will discharge max stacks of Bolt Charge.

Ionic Sentry – Warlock Arc Aspect

• Defeat targets with Arc abilities or weapons to charge up an Ionic Sentry.
  Activate Grenade: Deploy a powerful Arc turret which Blinds on impact and sends out bolts of lightning that chain to nearby enemies and grants stacks of Bolt Charge when it defeats enemies.

For more Destiny 2 content, check out our tier lists ranking all the best weapons to use in PvE and PvP, as well as how to unlock Episode Revenant’s finale, Kell’s Vengeance.