Destiny 2 Lightfall 2023 roadmap: Season of the Defiance, Season of the Deep, Season 22 & 23
BungieBungie’s Destiny 2: Lightfall represents one of the final steps in the game’s epic journey over the past decade, so let’s run through the projected roadmap of seasonal content and the seasonal additions we can expect to arrive.
Since 2017, Destiny 2 players have been treated to a new era of expansions from Beyond Light to The Witch Queen, with The Final Shape still to come. In between those is Destiny 2: Lightfall which will introduce the new city of Neonuma and a new subclass in Strand.
We’ve already learned a fair bit about the seasons that will comprise Destiny 2: Lightfall, as alongside each expansion, Guardians are treated to seasonal updates loaded with free content throughout the year.
Bungie has outlined an unprecedented amount of details about the four seasons on the way, so here is everything we know about the potential roadmap for Lightfall over the next year.
Destiny 2 Lightfall roadmap: Season of Defiance
First up on the roadmap is Season of Defiance which will kick off alongside the release of Destiny 2: Lightfall on February 28, 2023, at 5 PM GMT/10 AM PT/1 PM ET.
Story
There will be a lot more story to tell alongside the new developments of Lightfall with a firm focus on “the ground war on Earth” and the defending of the planet against Calus’ Shadow Cabal Legions. Fan favorite Devrim will be relevant to the main story again, which is welcome after his immense absence from the story. This will also continue the story of Lightfall’s campaign, so expect some wrinkles that have not become apparent just yet too.
Gameplay features
In terms of gameplay and additional features to flesh the title out, Season of Defiance will welcome a new seasonal activity to get stuck into.
While new content comes in, Bungie has already announced that other content will be going out as Destiny 2 is doing away with Umbral Engrams and Umbral Energies and replacing them with Seasonal Engrams instead.
Class changes
On top of all of this, new weapons and abilities will be joining the fighting as well. New Strand exotics are entering the fray and Warlocks will be able to use and interact with new Swarmer boots. In essence, they can create Tangle thread links which players can either shoot to create a shockwave of destruction and damage a small area equally or use to manually launch at an enemy for maximum damage on one opponent – making more in the process.
The Hunter class will be able to obtain the special Crytarachne’s Facade helmet that can generate a special armor called Woven Mail, akin to chain mail, that reduces all damage aside from headshots. Furthermore, the power of the helmet will allow players to grapple enemies and pull the Guardian through the air – activating the suit and giving the player an aerial advantage.
Finally, Titans will be joining in on the boots party, only the Abeyant Leap footwear will be augmenting a player Aspect and can suspend enemies in mid-air, as well as achieve a level of Woven mail too.
New weapons
New weapons will be available to Destiny 2 players that each offer something completely different and could look to change the game’s weapon meta.
One is the Deterministic Chaos LMG which offers consistent firepower and accuracy, but comes with a twist in that for every 4th and 16th shot the ammunition will apply a random effect that will naturally increase the effects of the barrage.
As well as this, there will also be the new Final Warning sidearm that can adaptively lock on to the enemies on screen and take the task of aiming away from the player. But to fully charge the gun and get the most out of it, the user will need to avoid being hit to be able to unleash a deadly torrent of assisted fire on all those in its path.
You can check out even more here with the developers giving a guided tour of Lightfall and its content.
Destiny 2 Lightfall roadmap: Season of the Deep
Bungie has already confirmed a bunch of new content and changes coming to Destiny 2’s Season of the Deep that will follow Season of Defiance. While we don’t know anything about the story, “The Deep” has strong connotations in the lore to The Darkness, The Witness, and is often uttered by the Hive Worm Gods. So, expect a very Darkness-laden series.
There will be no vendor paradigm upgrade system, along with Season 22, and the devs have said: “This doesn’t mean players will never see a vendor upgrade system again, but instead means we want to create more varied experimental frameworks and slowly create a wide array of different systems for players to show their investment into seasonal content.”
We do also know that Season of the Deep will have a new Dungeon to explore, with more information to come at a later date, and the Crucible will be getting a new map called Meltdown.
Destiny 2 Lightfall roadmap: Season 22
Even though it’s some time away (expect late Summer), the devs have given a peek into Destiny 2 Season 22. It’s as of yet untitled, but we do already know a little about it.
Firstly, Season 22 will feature a “reprised Raid” meaning that a classic Raid from expansions gone by will be returning from either Destiny 1 or 2 – in the same way that Vault of Glass was reimagined, for example. (Our bet would be on Wrath of the Machine.)
Another Crucible map will arrive during this season to vary up PvP. Bungie has already revealed that it’s a new map in the stylings of the Vex Network, so expect big techno-vibes.
As for stuff to do, Bungie said: “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.”
So, new and innovative ideas are in the pipeline, and for a touch of nostalgia, Season 22 will feature an Exotic mission rotator cycling through previous experiences from “Seasons 13, 16, and 19: Presage, Vox Obscura, and Operation: Seraph’s Shield.”
Destiny 2 Lightfall roadmap: Season 23
To round off Destiny 2: Lightfall, Season 23 will include enticing features for players – along with never-before-seen quality-of-life improvements.
A big change that Bungie has been working hard on is the concept of the Fireteam Finder. This is an in-depth search tool that will allow you to use specific parameters to look for the perfect squad to suit your needs and attempt content like Raids and Dungeons.
The process is taking the devs longer than they thought though, so it’s been pushed back to Season 23. Fireteam Finder won’t be alone though as a new Dungeon will also be included in Season 23’s offerings, along with everything else.
Interestingly, Bungie will be looking to give some love to the content already Destiny 2, especially its core ritual content: “While this Season will have plenty of new activity and story content, we want to take this time right before The Final Shape to crisp up our core rituals and pursuits as we head into our final expansion of the Light and Darkness Saga.”
Bungie wants to see what encourages players to engage with activities such as Gambit, Crucible and Vanguard Ops, etc, and start “pushing both more rewards to ritual content and more options to engage with our ritual content.”
That just about covers everything we know about Destiny 2: Lightfall. For more on Destiny 2, check out some of our other guides we’ve put together for you:
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