Destiny 2: The Final Shape

Destiny 2: The Final Shape
Cover art featuring the three Guardian classes (Hunter, Warlock, and Titan) with the Witness, a fleet of Pyramid ships, and the Witness's monolith in the Pale Heart of the Traveler in the background
Developer(s)	Bungie
Publisher(s)	Bungie
Director(s)	Joe Blackburn Tyson Green
Composer(s)	Michael Salvatori Skye Lewin Josh Mosser Michael Sechrist Rotem Moav Pieter Schlosser Paul McCartney
Series	Destiny
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows PlayStation 4 PlayStation 5 Xbox One Xbox Series X/S
Release	June 4, 2024
Genre(s)	Action role-playing, first-person shooter
Mode(s)	Multiplayer

Destiny 2: The Final Shape is a major expansion for Destiny 2, a first-person shooter video game by Bungie. Representing the eighth expansion and the seventh year of extended content for Destiny 2 and 10th year of content for the Destiny franchise, it was released on June 4, 2024, after being delayed from its original February 2024 date. The Final Shape revolves around the player's Guardian seeking out the franchise's major villain, the Witness, who had disappeared through a portal that it created on the surface of the celestial Traveler at the conclusion of Lightfall (2023). The Guardian and the Vanguard must stop the Witness from creating the titular Final Shape—the calcification and destruction of all life in the universe—and end the war between the Light and Darkness, concluding Destiny's first major saga, the "Light and Darkness" saga. The expansion also sees the return of the character Cayde-6, who had been killed during the events of Forsaken (2018).

In addition to new super abilities for the existing Light subclasses, a new subclass, "Prismatic", was added, allowing players to combine and use Light and Darkness abilities in tandem. The expansion also added new content across the game, including new missions, Player versus Environment locations, Player versus Player maps, player gear, weaponry, and a new raid. Unlike prior years, Year 7 does not follow the seasonal model in which the year is divided into four seasonal content offerings. Instead, there are three large episodes to be released throughout the year, which are standalone experiences, and each episode is divided into three acts, telling the aftermath of the expansion. The episodes, titled Echoes, Revenant, and Heresy, were originally set to release in March, July, and November, respectively, but these were also pushed back due to The Final Shape's delay; the first episode, Echoes, will begin a week after the expansion's release on June 11 with the other two episodes tentatively set for October 2024 and February 2025, respectively.

Gameplay

Main article: Destiny 2 § Gameplay

The Final Shape expands on the base Destiny 2 gameplay by adding a new free roam destination, the Pale Heart, located within the celestial being, the Traveler, with areas influenced by previous destinations explored throughout the history of the franchise. The destination is the first patrol zone that can be explored solo, unless a player has a pre-made fireteam. New and existing story content was expanded with a "Legendary" difficulty similar to that from the previous two expansion packs. Additional content for The Final Shape includes one new raid, "Salvation's Edge", releasing on June 7, 2024, which takes place in the Witness's monolith in the Pale Heart, and two new dungeons which will be released during the episodic content throughout the year.

The expansion introduces the first new enemy race since Forsaken (2018) called the Dread, who are the personal soldiers of the Witness. These include Grims, flying bat-like enemies that can shoot players from midair and can unleash a sonic scream attack to suppress and slow players; Husks, which are fast-moving and attack players using blades and unleashes a homing Geist enemy upon death; Attendants and Weavers, Cabal Psion-like enemies that respectively use Stasis and Strand powers; Subjugators, which are tall, slender, bipedal beings that use glaives that are split between Stasis-wielding Omens and Strand-wielding Harbingers; as well as Tormentors, a singular enemy type that was first introduced in Lightfall (2023).

The Final Shape introduces three new Light-based supers for each of the Guardian classes: "Twilight Arsenal" for Sentinel Titans, where they throw three Void axes at enemies which can be picked up by other Guardians from the ground; "Song of Flame" for Dawnblade Warlocks, where they imbue themselves with Solar energy to unleash unlimited powered melee attacks and grenades, similar to the Sunsinger Solar subclass in the original Destiny (2014); and "Storm's Edge" for Arcstrider Hunters, where they throw an Arc dagger at enemies and then teleport to it to unleash a spin attack. In addition, the expansion introduces a sixth subclass called "Prismatic", which combines both Light and Darkness powers together, allowing players to mix and match abilities and supers from the other five subclasses (Void, Solar, Arc, Stasis, and Strand). The Prismatic subclass introduces two meters that fill when damaging and defeating enemies with either Light or Darkness abilities; when both meters are fully charged, players can activate a super-like ability called "Transcendence", which grants supercharged melee and grenade regeneration, increased damage resistance, and increased weapon damage. Players can also unleash unique grenades of combined elements depending on their class while Transcendence is active—Electrified Snare (Arc and Strand) for Titans, Freezing Singularity (Void and Stasis) for Warlocks, and Hailfire Spike (Solar and Stasis) for Hunters. Prismatic also features an increased number of Aspect and Fragment slots compared to the other subclasses.

The expansion also features the first appearance of exotic class items since the original Destiny's final expansion, Rise of Iron (2016), with one for each class. These exotic class items work specifically with the Prismatic subclass and can mix and match exotic perks from other exotic armor introduced in the game from across all three classes, allowing for further buildcrafting.

Other significant gameplay changes include:

• The Power level system received some major changes in The Final Shape. Activities now show if a player is Power enabled or Power disabled; for example, if an activity is Power enabled, there will be an indicator showing the activity Power cap and whether or not a player has reached that Power level cap for that activity. The Fireteam Power feature adjusts players' Power levels to five levels below the fireteam leader who has the highest Power level, allowing more players to play Power enabled activities regardless of their current Power level. Account-wide Power allows for gear to drop on any player's character with a Power level relative to the character with the highest Power level. As well, Power enabled difficulty modes were renamed (from lowest to highest difficulty) to Standard, Advanced, Expert, Master, Grandmaster, and Contest Mode.
• Bungie reversed weapon sunsetting that was first introduced in Beyond Light (2020) as a result of the new Power level system, allowing these weapons to be used in new content without penalties. Any legacy weapons players that dismantled were unable to be recovered, but Bungie plans to reintroduce sources for most or all legacy weapons and updating them to the latest sandbox with origin perks introduced in The Witch Queen (2022) as well as buildcrafting perks.
• A three-tier weapon enhancement system for non-craftable weapons was introduced as part of the weapon crafting system first introduced in The Witch Queen. Weapons obtained post-Season 17 from Vanguard Ops, Crucible, Gambit, Iron Banner, Trials of Osiris, the Prophecy dungeon, the 2024 Guardian Games event, the BRAVE weapons from Onslaught, and Adept weapons from the "Vow of the Disciple" and "King's Fall" raids, can now be upgraded with enhanced perks, and do not require visiting the Mars Relic for the enhancement process.
• Bounties, patrols, and weekly vendor challenges were consolidated into a new "Pathfinder" system. The Pathfinder system gives players 20 objectives divided into five tiers to complete and progress through to earn rewards. At launch, two Pathfinder systems are available, one for ritual activities (Vanguard Ops, Crucible, Gambit, and Onslaught) and one for the Pale Heart destination.
• The player's HUD (heads-up display) and user interface were updated to better display critical information. Important activity information, such as wipe mechanics and modifiers, appear on top of the HUD beneath the player's health bar. Weapons-related information, such as active weapon perks, appear above the subclass Super meter. Buffs and de-buffs continue to appear on the left hand side of the HUD.
• Legendary shards, which were first introduced during Year 1, were depreciated at the launch of The Final Shape, to make it easier and more fair for all players to purchase in-game items. As well, fully masterworked exotic armor pieces can now be further upgrade to include an artifice armor slot, which costs an exotic cipher and 10,000 Glimmer. Bungie also increased the amount of vault space by 100, bringing the total vault space to date to 700 spaces.

Episodic content

Episodes are Bungie's new delivery model of ongoing content released between the major expansions, replacing the seasons that had been utilized since the Forsaken expansion. Previously, each year of content was divided into four seasons, typically lasting three months each (excluding delays), with the year's first season releasing simultaneously with the expansion, and the seasons narratively tied the previous expansion into the next expansion. Beginning with The Final Shape, there are instead three large episodes released over the course of the year. Each are a standalone story told in three acts, and each one explores the "aftermath and fallout of the events of the conclusion of the Light and Darkness saga". There is also more content and rewards than in the seasons. Although the episodes replaced the previous seasonal model, there are still season passes for each episode with a free-tier and paid-tier of rewards. The episodes for Year 7 are titled Echoes, Revenant, and Heresy, and focus on the Vex, Scorn, and Hive, respectively.

Echoes, the first episode, will begin a week after the launch of The Final Shape on June 11, 2024. New and existing players' Power levels was increased to the new minimum Power level of 1900, a soft cap of 1940, with the hard Power level cap set to 1990, and the Pinnacle reward cap at 2000—these Power level increases took effect upon the release of The Final Shape itself on June 4. This episode's story will focus on the Vex and will take place shortly after the events of The Final Shape campaign and the "Salvation's Edge" raid. The artifact featured during this episode is the Hunter's Journal (with perks focusing on close- to long-range weapons and Void, Solar, and Arc abilities).

Revenant, the second episode, is tentatively set to begin in October 2024, and will focus on the Scorn.

Heresy, the third episode, is tentatively set to begin in February 2025, and will focus on the Hive.

Plot

Main article: Destiny 2 § Plot

The Final Shape centers on the Witness, the main overarching antagonist of the Light and Darkness Saga (which began with the original Destiny) who was first introduced at the end of The Witch Queen. The Witness is an extremely powerful, primordial being of Darkness that commands the Black Fleet, and it is the product of an entire species having merged into one entity and a single gestalt consciousness through the mastery of the Darkness. It has spent eons chasing the Traveler as part of its eternal pursuit to impose "salvation" upon all reality through the titular Final Shape—the calcification and destruction of all life in the universe. The Witness has been ultimately responsible for humanity's Collapse, as well as for the destruction of countless civilizations across the universe throughout millennia, either by its hand or through the actions of its Disciples and other servants, such as the Hive.

During the events of Lightfall a year ago, the Witness and the Black Fleet attacked the Traveler in Earth's orbit, where it was granted a vision of the Veil, the counterpart of the Traveler, on Neptune; the player's Guardian was sent to the human city of Neomuna on Neptune to locate the Veil and defend it from Emperor Calus—the newest Disciple of the Witness—and his Shadow Legion Cabal; however, after Calus's defeat, the Witness used the Light from the Guardian's Ghost to perform an uplink with the Veil, allowing the Witness to use the Veil's power to open a portal on the Traveler's surface and enter its Pale Heart to begin enacting the Final Shape. During Season of the Deep, the proto-Worm God Ahsa revealed to the Guardian the origins of the Witness, and that Savathûn, the Witch Queen, needed to be revived in order to find a way into the Pale Heart. During Season of the Witch, the Guardian forces Immaru, Savathûn's Ghost, to revive the Witch Queen, who reveals a 15th wish upon her resurrection that could be granted by the spirit of the deceased Ahamkara Riven of a Thousand Voices in the Dreaming City. During Season of the Wish, the Guardian retrieves Riven's clutch of eggs which forces Riven herself to grant the wish, allowing singular passage into the Pale Heart; Crow volunteers to go through the portal and unlock the way for the Guardian and the Vanguard. While awaiting contact with Crow, the Last City comes under attack by the Black Fleet and the forces of the Witness, prompting the Guardian and the Vanguard to utilize Lord Shaxx's personal collection of powerful and dangerous weapons and gear to defend the Last City. The Guardian then returns to the Black Garden at the behest of Osiris, where they discover that the Sol Divisive Vex had recreated the Black Heart (revealed to be a failed replica of the Veil created by the Witness) in a final attempt to prevent the Guardian and the Vanguard from passing through the portal, and the Guardian destroys it once again; meanwhile, Crow successfully passes through the portal and arrives in the Pale Heart, where he is greeted by the spirit of Cayde-6, who initially attacks Crow but relents as he discovers Crow is a Guardian and not his murderer Uldren Sov.

The Final Shape begins shortly after the events of Season of the Wish. The Guardian, Commander Zavala and Ikora Rey take their jumpships through the portal on the Traveler against the Awoken Queen Mara Sov's advice, as the portal is unstable. Upon entering the portal, the Guardian crash lands in its threshold, while Zavala and Ikora somehow manage to make it through. Mara guides the Guardian makes their way through the threshold while the Witness attempts to retaliate using the Taken and the Dread, the Witness's personal soldiers of Darkness. Soon after, the Guardian manages to pass through the threshold where the Traveler gives the Guardian a vision where the Witness is infecting it with Darkness, and arrives at its Pale Heart, an otherworldly dimension inside the Traveler where its locations are shaped by the memories of those dwelling in it due to the terraforming powers of the Light. The Guardian explores the Pale Heart, noticing that it has taken the form of the Last City and the old Tower, and picks up a Vanguard signal which they follow. The Guardian soon discovers a well of both Light and Darkness powers combined within the Vanguard command center, which grants the Guardian the power of Prismatic, allowing them to use both their Light and Darkness powers in tandem. The Guardian later discovers the signal in the old Tower's main courtyard, and defeats the Dread using their Prismatic powers. The Guardian soon discovers the spirit of Cayde-6 in the former Speaker's chambers, astonished that the former Hunter Vanguard is alive. Cayde explains to the Guardian that Crow had went on ahead deeper into the Pale Heart to scout the area but has not returned.

Heading deeper into the Pale Heart into a further manifestation of the Last City, the Guardian and Cayde discover that Crow ended up getting separated from his Ghost, Glint, upon entering a small cave corrupted by the Witness. After defeating Cabal Shadow Legion forces as well as the Dread, the Guardian enters the cave to search for Crow, where the Witness attempts to sway the Guardian to its side. The Guardian finds Crow in front of a veiled Darkness statue similar to ones found in the Pyramids of the Black Fleet, and Crow is reunited with Glint. At a nearby campsite, Crow explains to Cayde that the Witness was tempting him to join its side, and that its spreading corruption throughout the Traveler is affecting Ghost as well. The Guardian, Crow and Cayde then resolve to find Ikora, where she had crash landed near a manifestation of the Io Cradle. After fighting through Hive under the control of Xivu Arath, the Hive God of War, they have an emotional reunion with Ikora, where she tells the Guardian that the Traveler is screaming out in pain due to the Witness's corruption to bring forth the Final Shape. The Guardian, Crow, Cayde and Ikora then set out to find Zavala—they find him in a manifestation of his family home on Earth, where Zavala's Ghost, Targe, explains to the Guardian that Zavala is also being tempted by the Witness, claiming it can bring his wife Safiyah and his son Hakim back from the dead. After fighting off the Fallen of House Salvation, a mysterious, dark voice reaches out to Zavala through an effigy of Safiyah, until Ikora snaps him out of it.

With the Vanguard finally back together, the Guardian, Cayde and Crow then go through a snowy manifestation of Old Russia and the Cosmodrome and scale its Wall, fighting Sol Divisive Vex along the way. Crow reveals to Cayde that he wished to Riven during Season of the Wish to bring Cayde back to life and that he also used the 15th wish granted by Riven to cross the portal into the Traveler's Pale Heart, and asks Cayde not to tell Zavala and Ikora. The Guardian soon arrives at a manifestation of the Cosmodrome beyond the Wall where the Guardian was first resurrected back in the original Destiny, but also discovers that the Witness's corruption is much more apparent with its monolith much closer in proximity. In a fissure of Light located where the Guardian's remains were discovered by Ghost, the Guardian is blessed with a new Light super by the Traveler, which they use to take down an army of Taken. Cayde and Crow soon decide to find a way to commune with the Traveler after this revelation; the Guardian, Cayde and Crow find a similar Light fissure in one of the Lost Sectors hidden in the Pale Heart, where they are assisted by an allied Lucent Hive Wizard named Luzaku. Cayde communes with the Traveler through the Light fissure, where he is granted a vision of his Ghost, Sundance, who recites the Guardian creed. The Guardian presses forward towards the Witness's monolith, going through a mountain pass filled with Ahamkara bones and a manifestation of a city belonging the Witness's origin species, the Precursors. Zavala then begins acting strangely amongst Ikora, Cayde, Crow and the Guardian, declaring that he would give himself to the Darkness in order to defeat the Witness; he goes off alone without Targe as Ikora, Cayde and Crow try to stop him, fearing that the Witness has manipulated him through the veiled statues.

The Guardian decides to go after Zavala with Targe, who decide to commune with the veiled statues to find out how to defeat the Witness and what they had communed to Zavala. As they fight through Scorn forces, the Guardian and Targe discover that the veiled statues are actually dissenting Precursors that are currently bound to the Witness but also imprisoned in statue form as they did not agree with the Witness's cause; these statues commune to Targe and the Guardian, demanding that they must "give [themselves] to Darkness" and that they must free them. The Guardian, Cayde, Crow and Ikora soon catch up with Zavala, who enters a realm of Darkness to confront the Witness directly. The Witness explains to Zavala its origins (as previously explained in Season of the Deep), while the dissenters whisper to Zavala that "what was made can be unmade" and to meet them at the site of where the Witness was created. The Witness then destroys Targe as it tries to convince Zavala to join its cause, only to be pulled out of the realm by Ikora, Cayde, Crow and the Guardian.

Despite Zavala now left Lightless due to Targe's destruction at the hands of the Witness, the Vanguard, Crow and the Guardian press forward towards the manifestation of the Sacrarium, the ritual site where the Witness was created, now armed with the knowledge on how to defeat the Witness once and for all by using the Light to break the Witness apart. The Vanguard, Crow and the Guardian fight through Dread and Taken forces to reach the Sacrarium, while the Witness tries to convince the Guardian to abandon the Light and join its cause as a Disciple and while Mara flies the H.E.L.M. into the Pale Heart to assist in the battle. Upon arriving at the ritual site, the Witness arrives to confront the Guardian directly. The Traveler then grants the Guardian an exotic sword of pure Light called Ergo Sum; the Guardian is then teleported into the Darkness, where the dissenters beg the Guardian to destroy them with the sword of Light to damage the Witness, but the Witness soon "cuts" the Guardian out. Heavily wounded, the Guardian flees the Sacrarium and transmats onto the H.E.L.M. to escape, followed by Zavala, Ikora, Cayde and Crow as the Witness, now mortally wounded, transforms into a towering, grotesque being. Mara then declares to the Guardian that while the Witness may have won for now, she had brought the Imperial Cabal under Empress Caiatl, the Eliksni of House Light under Mithrax, Kell of Light, the Awoken of the Reef, and a Hunter named Micah-10 into the Pale Heart to join and prepare for the inevitable final battle against the Witness in its monolith. She advises the Guardian to continue cleansing the Witness's corruption within the Pale Heart and weaken its hold on the Traveler and to prepare themself for the final battle against the Witness.

Shortly after escaping the Witness from the Sacrarium, the Guardian works with the members of the allied forces in preparation for their raid on the Witness's monolith. The Guardian, Crow and Mara discover that Savathûn and her Lucent Hive have managed to enter the Pale Heart. The Guardian, with Mara and Luzaku's assistance, drives back the Lucent Hive, Taken and Dread by releasing Taken energy and shifting fissures of Light into their own reality for Mara to use to help the Traveler, while Savathûn continuously taunts Mara and the Guardian. Shortly after, the Guardian assists Zavala and Caiatl in preventing the Shadow Legion from harvesting Light from the Traveler, and later assists Ikora and Mithrax in preventing House Salvation from extracting paracausal energy from the Tree of Silver Wings, leading them to a battle of revenge against Korha the Hollow, Mithrax's nemesis who killed his mother Inaaks. Following this, the Guardian is brought back to the Sacrarium by the Traveler, which grants the Guardian the Ergo Sum exotic sword to prepare for the upcoming final battle.

After a fireteam shatters the Witness' hold on the Traveler, Zavala (now wielding Stasis to replace his lost Light) leads the combined forces in one last charge. The Guardian again enters the Darkness to destroy the Witness' voices, weakening it. Ghost sacrifices himself to channel the Traveler's power through him in a great burst of Light, destroying the Witness once and for all. The Guardian pleads with the Traveler to bring Ghost back, but Cayde makes the choice to give up his own Light to do so. The people of the City reflect on their victory, but Crow, who has now succeeded Cayde as Hunter Vanguard, knows that even with the Witness dead, there are still its remaining forces at work; the Taken and the Scorn are now without direction, and Xivu Arath has gone into hiding. In addition, a strange aurora of prismatic energy has begun emanating from the Traveler, and discharged an anomalous object out towards the orbital track of Nessus.

Release

In June 2020, Bungie announced three expansions for Destiny 2: Beyond Light, The Witch Queen, and Lightfall, set for November 2020, late 2021, and late 2022, respectively. However, in February 2021, it was announced that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the crowded release window of the fall, The Witch Queen had been delayed to February 2022, thus pushing Lightfall back to February 2023. Another expansion, The Final Shape, was subsequently announced for early 2024 as Bungie felt that they needed one further expansion to wrap up the story of Destiny's first saga called the "Light and Darkness" saga. The Final Shape was originally scheduled for February 27, 2024; however, on November 27, 2023, after rumors of a delay following layoffs at Bungie the month prior, the developer announced that the expansion had been delayed by over three months to June, as they needed more time to deliver on their vision for the expansion. The three episodes for Year 7 were originally planned for March, July, and November, respectively, but were also pushed back with Echoes to release a week after the expansion on June 11, and then Revenant and Heresy tentatively releasing in October 2024 and February 2025, respectively.

Following the death of Lance Reddick, who had voiced Commander Zavala, Keith David was brought in to voice Zavala for The Final Shape and future Destiny content.

The Final Shape was released on June 4, 2024, for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S platforms. It is available as paid downloadable content (DLC), and there are various versions of the expansion. Pre-orders for any edition included immediate access to the Tessellation exotic fusion rifle (as early as Season 22 in Year 6), as well as a Ghost shell, emote, two emblems and an exotic ship. The standard version includes access to the expansion and first episode Echoes. "The Final Shape + Annual Pass" bundle includes the expansion plus access to all three Year 7 episodes, a dungeon key to access the two dungeons to be released during Year 7, the premium track of the season pass for each episode, and an exotic sparrow. All of the content can also be purchased separately. There is also a physical collector's edition which includes "The Final Shape + Annual Pass" bundle as well as a replica of the original Tower from the original Destiny, among other items.