Bungie released several massive blog posts dedicated to Codename: Frontiers, and celebrating Destiny’s 10th anniversary.
Starting with year 11 Bungie will move away from the current one expansion and a handful of seasons/episodes, to two expansions and four major free updates. Bungie expects to release one “medium-sized” expansion every six months. Not much else was revealed, though they’re said to be different from the Shadowkeep campaign structure players have come to expect.
Bungie offered the following explanation for their future plans, and what to expect from the first expansion, Codename: Apollo.
THE NEXT MULTIYEAR SAGA STARTS WITH CODENAME: APOLLO
Alison Lührs: Hello! I’m Alison, and I’m the D2 Narrative Director. I’m a fresh face at Bungie; I started doing narrative direction for seasons in Fall 2022, and my first D2 expansion was The Final Shape.
We’re proud of The Final Shape and the ending we created for the Light and Darkness Saga. And we knew that the episodes that follow would act as an epilogue, tying up Light and Dark’s hanging threads… but also setting us up for what’s next. The Episodes close doors and open new ones, purposeful ones, storylines that are set in place to prepare us for what comes next.
And what is next is our new saga.
You’ll see teases of it in the later two Episodes, and then fully kick off with Codename: Apollo. This next saga is also based around a core theme, much like Light and Darkness did. It will introduce plenty of new characters, factions, twists, and more. There’s a lot more here we will say eventually, but we don’t want to spoil the journey for you. This will be a multiyear journey, one we can’t wait to take you on.
Our first expansion, Codename: Apollo, is a nonlinear character-driven adventure.
WHAT DO WE MEAN BY ‘CODENAME: APOLLO IS NONLINEAR’?
Previously, in stories like The Final Shape, you experienced the story as A to B to C to D in a nice straight line. In Codename: Apollo, our story takes place over dozens of threads you’ll explore and discover. So, when you land on our brand new location, the story starts at A, and then you can choose if you want to explore C first, or try and get into B, or maybe investigate D.
And the options you didn’t choose? Don’t worry, those other options are still open for you to go back and play through. You’ll need to!
Because the more you play and discover, the more the story progresses, so experiencing a certain number of threads opens up the next part of the story. The order in which you explore will be something you choose, but we have built Codename: Apollo in a way the story always makes sense and flows from beginning to middle to end. There’s no time gating, no waiting for the next drop, Codename: Apollo’s story unfolds based on player progression.
Destiny is at its best when it’s mysterious, weird, and not afraid to try new things. This shift to nonlinear stories isn’t something we’re locking ourselves into, but it is the structure that fits Codename: Apollo best. The narrative structure of the releases that follow will be quite different, a structure to suit that game’s experience, and we want to continue to innovate with each expansion across both gameplay and narrative.
We are excited to try new things that challenge your idea of what a Destiny experience can be. We are actively prototyping non-linear campaigns, exploration experiences similar to the Dreaming City or Metroidvanias, and even more unusual formats like roguelikes or survival shooters. Each expansion will present a new opportunity to try something different.
As for the updates, Destiny 2 will essentially go back to the seasonal model. These updates will include Exotic missions, new modes like Onslaught, weekly events, new features, weapons, armor, and more.
Along with new content, Destiny 2 will see a number of UI, and loot improvements. To help streamline everything there will be a new portal with key information, along with better communication about expected rewards. It looks to be a major step forward, though keep in mind things are still being figured out.
Loot will move to a tiered structure, with the current baseline legendary would be approximately tier one, with an adept being what they’d now consider tier five. It sounds less like a major change, and more like an easier way to understand current gear. Bungie also provided the a look at reward pools going forward.
REWARD POOLS
Reward pools are complete sets of weapons and armor that are available as rewards from one or more activities. Some weapons are shared across multiple pools, but the majority of weapons and all armor are unique to a single pool.
A typical pool is a full armor set for each class, and enough weapons to provide multiple options for each weapon slot.
All of these rewards are available at all tiers, so each reward pool is deep and supports a range of challenge in the activity they are associated with.
The major core game reward pools will be updated in every Major Update, and will be:
- Core PVE: Rewards shared among more accessible PVE activities, like Strikes.
- Core PVP: Rewards shared among more accessible PVP activities, like Crucible playlists.
- Pinnacle PVE: Rewards shared among more intrinsically challenging PVE activities, like Dungeons.
- Pinnacle PVP: Rewards shared among more intrinsically challenging PVP activities, like Trials of Osiris.
Every expansion also contains two full reward pools:
- Expansion Story: Rewards shared among missions, exploration, or other activities in the Expansion content.
- Expansion Raid/Dungeon: Rewards for Expansion Raid or Dungeon activities.
In addition to the above pools, some activities like Events may have additions exclusive to that activity, such as individual weapons or armor sets.
Starting today, players can find armor inspired by the original Destiny concept art (this post’s featured image) around The Tower, and Pale Heart. A special title called Legend can also be earned for those who complete a couple relatively simple tasks. Earning this unlocks a purchasable pin, and earning the title before the end of this episode grants players the ability to buy a Nerf Ace of Spades.
Finally, Bungie teased the upcoming exotic for Episode: Revenant’s dungeon, which seems to be the infamous Icebreaker. Odds are it will be radically different from its original form, though time will ultimately tell.
Update: Bungie confirmed the Skywatch Engram portion of the Legend title will be increased. Players also have until Codename: Apollo to earn it.
