Bungie previews 18 changes coming soon to Destiny 2, including the death of bounties

On Thursday, Bungie dropped a massive “State of the Game” post for Destiny 2. Written by game director Joe Blackburn, the post is mostly a preview of Bungie’s upcoming Destiny 2 Showcase, which will fully debut The Final Shape expansion on Aug. 22.

Still, despite being a teaser, the article does contain a lot of details about changes coming to Destiny 2 over the next year. And the post is very long, so we’ve taken the liberty of summarizing the most important info below.

Most of these changes are slated for season 22, which starts Aug. 22 after the Showcase. Some changes won’t appear in-game until season 23 (late 2023), The Final Shape (expected early 2024), or later.

General

• The Final Shape’s main area will include a new bounty replacement tentatively called “Pathfinder.” Bungie hasn’t revealed any information on it yet outside of its existence and that it’s potentially coming to the rest of the game after The Final Shape.
• Season 22 will include three new Strand Aspects, one for each class. Hunters will get the Whirling Maelstrom, Titans will get the Banner of War, and Warlocks will get one called Weavewalk.
• Bungie will no longer release a playlist-themed armor set alongside every expansion; however, a new ritual armor set will come in The Final Shape.
• Starting in season 22, players can favorite up to 100 shaders, ornaments, and emotes in order to propel them to the front of the increasingly long in-game menu list.
• All Stasis Aspects and Fragments will be much easier to get in season 22 and will now work on a vendor system, similar to the Light unlocks via Ikora.
• Some existing weapon types will get entirely new subfamilies starting in The Final Shape.
• Unlike Lightfall, The Final Shape (and its raid, apparently) will offer a conclusion to the Light and Darkness Saga’s story.
• Bungie won’t be raising the power cap in Season 22.
• Bungie promised a change to the progression system in The Final Shape, which will further reduce friction when playing with new friends.

PvP

• The new Vex Network map, Multiplex, is coming to the game in Season 22 — but don’t expect new maps to come to the game very often, as they take development resources away from story missions and Exotic quests
• Bungie will debut two new PvP modes — Checkmate and Relic — in its Crucible Labs test environment next season. Checkmate revolves around primary weapon play rather than special weapons or abilities. Relic lets players take control of some of the special weapons that players have seen in raids and other activities, like the Season of the Risen Synaptic Spear, the Season of the Haunted Scythe, and the Aegis from Vault of Glass.
• The Citadel map from Destiny 2: Forsaken will return in Season 23, reworked for modern times
• Trials of Osiris is getting a new armor set in Season 22. The Titan armor is bear themed

Vanguard

• Vanguard Medals — essentially just an elaborate scoring system for Strikes, as debuted in Guardian Games — are coming to the game as a permanent feature in Season 22
• More Battlegrounds will enter into the Nightfall and Grandmaster Nightfall rotation in both Season 22 and Season 23

Gambit

• Gambit isn’t as popular as other parts of the game, so the studio doesn’t want to devote too many resources to it. There are no plans to rework Gambit again.
• During The Final Shape era of the game, the old Cathedral of Scars map will return to Gambit
• Bungie will add the Shadow Legion and Lucent Hive as potential enemy combatants after The Final Shape

Bungie also reiterated several of its past statements about cheating (it will continue to pursue litigation against people caught doing it) and acknowledged the stability issues with the game, as well.