by RootSec
Destiny 2’s new season launches on May 11 and there is a lot that is being added with it. As in the past Destiny 2 will have a season pass with Season 14 but there is still a lot of content that will be added to the game outside of what comes with the season pass. A few of these things will bear more weight than others but it looks like the new season will benefit all players regardless.
With Season 14’s launch, fans will see these large and small changes throughout the game. For those that have become acquainted with the HELM, it will be seeing an expansion in the new season. As the continued base of operations, it will have an addition that will focus on the growing relationship with Mithrax, Kell of the House of Light.
With the role that the Splicers will be playing in this new season, the alliance with Mithrax will be important. As the new season sees the Last City plunged into an almost eternal night thanks to a Vex simulation players will be responsible for its safety. Guardians will be able to access the Vex network and push the mechanical enemies back through the new six-person mode Override and weekly Expunge missions.
Season of the Splicer features all of this through its Endless Night story which looks set to wrap up in August. While the missions may see a finale the season roadmap has a final section that has an epilogue to Endless Night listed. What this epilogue will entail is not entirely known yet but given the severity of the Vex threat, it will probably be related to their incursion on the Last City. If the story is even comparably dramatic as Destiny 2 Season 13’s then it should be entertaining from start to finish.
Season of the Splicer will also bring back a classic activity from the first Destiny game. The Vault of Glass raid is set to launch on May 22 with a World’s First Race. The Vault of Glass will have a challenge mode for its first 24 hours that has been confirmed to reappear later in the season. At launch, the mode is designed to crown a new World’s First champion and will bring with it some difficult tasks that breathe new life into the raid.
The reincarnated Vault of Glass raid does carry a slight shroud of mystery over it when it comes to rewards, but some items seem likely to come back. It sounds as though weapons and armor have been reworked to integrate well with Destiny 2’s mechanics so fan favorites like Fatebringer should make a complete return. However, this might not mean that every item will be available as the Vex Mythoclast, one of the exotics from Destiny that should be brought over to Destiny 2, has not been confirmed yet.
Season of the Splicer is also introducing at least four new exotic items to players along with a bunch of old and new weapons. The first will be included with the season pass much like Ticuu’s Divination was in Season of the Chosen. The other three are new exotic leg armors for the Hunter, Titan, and Warlock classes. The perks of these exotic armor pieces do not sound like they will be game-changing but their full effects might not be known until the season launches.
The new exotic sidearm however looks like it will be incredibly unique in its approach. While the sidearm has been teased as associated with the stasis power that was introduced with the Beyond Light expansion there is a lot of discussions that suggest the weapon is kinetic. This would place Cryosthesia 77k in the first weapon slot rather than as an elemental or heavy weapon. This does not mean that the sidearm will not have a freezing effect but the speculation around the weapon has generated buzz about how it will play in the new season.
Along with the new sidearm, there will be new quests for stasis aspects in Destiny 2. The subclass was introduced with Beyond Light and is one of the most universally powerful for all three classes. While it has had some balancing issues, it is incredibly useful. It will be interesting to see how well stasis does against classic enemies like Atheon in the Vault of Glass.
Season of the Splicer will also be bringing a host of events with it. While the obvious core activities of the Trials of Osiris, the Iron Banner, Nightfall: The Ordeal, and Grandmaster Nightfall Strikes will be welcome there is even more. This is not just the return of the Vault of Glass and its Challenge Mode, the latter of which will launch on June 15, but also the return of the Solstice of Heroes in mid to late summer.
The Solstice of Heroes which was in August of last year will be back in July 2021. This earlier start may also be a direct effect of the Season of the Splicer epilogue that is shown on the season’s roadmap. What that epilogue is going to entail should be interesting to see but there will at least be some celebratory time set aside for Guardians before a major push by the Vex.
Season 14 will also bring back the Black Armory’s Ada-1. The Exo will be the keeper of the Loom, the key part of Destiny 2’s new armor synthesis system. This armor synthesis system is something that has been requested by fans for a long time but the execution of armor synthesis in Destiny 2 it has drawn a lot of criticism. This is in no small part because of the limitations that have been placed on the system.
Adding extra steps to armor transmog in Destiny 2 is a sore spot for many that just want to build their unique armor styles. The limitations that have been set in place make this task unnecessarily difficult. While it has taken past Beyond Light to introduce the system still feels limited. An example of how limited the system is is the amount of time that would be necessary to transmog every item.
Right now, it would take players at least 13 years to complete every ornament in Destiny 2. That is a lot of time for a system that most fans feel should not only be completely free but almost instantaneous. Along with the new transmog system shaders are also being reworked slightly and will no longer cost legendary shards, just glimmer. This is a quality-of-life improvement for many but not enough to justify the Loom’s mechanics.
For the next few days, there is still some stuff to get done in Season of the Chosen but those tasks will quickly disappear. For players that have been participating in the Guardian Games, there is still a little time left to engage in that as well. Both the Games and Season 13 will officially be over on May 11 when the new season launches so there is not a lot of time left.
Destiny 2 is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.
