Destiny 2: Beyond Light

Beyond Light maintains the basic gameplay of Destiny 2; the player, as a Guardian using a power called Light that gives them superhuman abilities and the ability to be regenerated, fight in a mix of first-person and third-person shooter gameplay in both player versus environment and player versus player activities in a massively multiplayer online game world. Cooperative activities include various bounties, story-related missions, "strikes," dungeons, raids, open-world public events, and special seasonal events, while competitive matches include matches with other Guardians in the Crucible or a team versus team mode in the Gambit arena. Players are rewarded with both new weapons and armor as well as various materials that are used as a form of in-game currency to gain or upgrade other equipment. Players can have up to three active characters, one from each of the game's main classes: Titan, Hunter, and Warlock, each that has several subclasses based on the type of elemental damage they select prior to missions. Players seek to improve their character's overall Power level—a rough average measuring the quality of weapons and gear they have collected—that allows them to take on more challenging activities in the game.

Prior to Beyond Light, there were three main elemental powers: Arc, Solar, and Void, which are rooted in Light; Beyond Light introduces a fourth elemental power called Stasis, which creates ice and cold-based damage, rooted in Darkness, and has a fully customizable skill options compared to the existing subclasses. Each class gets a new subclass for Stasis abilities: the Warlock's Shadebinder has them using an icy staff that shoots projectiles and unleashes an explosion to freeze and shatter enemies through their "Winter's Wrath" super, the Hunter's Revenant utilizes dual ice kamas that they can throw and create icy storms to trap and freeze enemies through their super "Silence and Squall", while the Titan's Behemoth uses frozen gauntlets to allow for melee destruction and unleash icy shockwaves on the ground that freezes enemies through their super "Glacial Quake".[2][3] Game director Luke Smith said that these new customization options for the Stasis subclasses are an "experiment...to see how this goes" and that they may later add these options to the existing Arc, Solar, and Void subclasses.[2]

Other major gameplay changes include:

• Five of the game's destinations that were available during the first three years of Destiny 2—Titan, Io, Mars, Mercury, and the Leviathan ship and their associated campaigns and other activities—as well as activities and content from Year 2's Annual Pass, were removed from the game and placed in the Destiny Content Vault (DCV), while two new areas, Earth's Cosmodrome (previously featured in the first Destiny) and Europa, were added to the game. One of the original raids from Destiny, "Vault of Glass", will also be added to the game sometime during Year 4.[4]
• The shell for the player's Ghost, who in-game provides a companion for the Guardian and aids in respawning the character if they die, can now be customized with modifications, similar to other armor pieces introduced with the Armor 2.0 system. Prior to Beyond Light, while the player could obtain Ghost shells with various properties, these were typically fixed or had some random generated perks given to them. Bungie stated this was intended to give even further customization options to the character.[5]
• The hybrid PvE/PvP Gambit mode that was added with Forsaken (2018) dropped the original three-round mode in favor of the single-round Gambit Prime mode (renamed as Gambit) that was introduced during Year 2's Season of the Drifter, tweaking some of the enemies that spawn in the mode and other timing factors. Impacts of armor from the Reckoning (a PvE arena activity that was also introduced in Season of the Drifter), which could boost certain Gambit gameplay factors, such as being able to summon more powerful blockers to the opponent's side of the map, were reworked into armor mods.[6]
• Armor transmogrification will be introduced in Season 14.[7] Transmog will allow players to change legendary quality armor pieces that they have earned in their Collections into universal ornaments, similar to those purchased in the Eververse microtransaction store, providing a means to further customize their appearance without affecting the attributes or abilities granted by the armor.[8][9]
• All non-exotic weapons and gear now have a Power infusion cap, meaning older weapons and gear introduced in previous seasons have a maximum Power infusion limit and will eventually be less viable in activities that require a high Power level. For example, gear from the first two years of Destiny 2 have a max Power cap of 1050, which is the starting Power level for Beyond Light, making them more ineffective as the player advances further into the campaign. Going forward, new non-exotic armor and weapons introduced in a season will typically have a Power level cap that will make them viable for the current and the subsequent two seasons.[10]
• Players can now re-obtain any abandoned quests through a quest archive kiosk in the Tower; this kiosk also grants veteran players access to the new player questline, which reworked the original Destiny's opening missions as a new questline for first-time players. Players also have access to an exotic archive in the Tower as well, where they can purchase exotic, pinnacle, and pursuit weapons from associated areas, activities, and seasons that were placed into the DCV. In keeping it fair to players who obtained the weapons by their original means, the weapons cost a substantial amount of various in-game currencies, as well as hard to obtain items.[11]

A new raid mission, "Deep Stone Crypt", was released on November 21, 2020, and takes place in the aforementioned Clovis Bray facility located on Europa which is the birthplace of the Exos. Subsequently, a number of new activities on Europa were unlocked for all players once the raid was completed.[12]

At the end of Season of Arrivals, the Traveler reawakened to heal itself of its wounds incurred during The Red War three years prior to defend Earth from the Darkness—its Black Fleet of Pyramid ships had just consumed Io, Mars, Mercury, and Titan. Beyond Light begins in the immediate aftermath in which the Guardian is sent out across the Solar System to patrol for further evidence of the spreading Darkness. While on Jupiter's icy moon Europa, where the Darkness had invited the Guardian to discover an ancient power, the player's Ghost detects a distress call from Variks, the Loyal, who was partly responsible for the Prison of Elders revolt that resulted in Cayde-6's death during Forsaken two years ago. Despite their wariness to his loyalty, the Guardian rescues Variks from a Fallen patrol. Variks warns them of Eramis, the Shipstealer, a former Baroness of the House of Devils who has been named the new Kell of Kells; she has brought the Houses of the Fallen together as House Salvation to fight against those that are protected by the Traveler by using Stasis, a power of the Darkness that she has learned to wield and passed on to her lieutenants—Phylaks, the Warrior; Praksis, the Technocrat; Kridis, the Dark Priestess; and Atraks, the Wildcard—through Splinters of Darkness obtained from a Pyramid ship silently hovering over Europa's surface.

The Guardian finds themself quickly outmatched against Eramis' Stasis powers and retreats to safety. The Darkness then contacts the Guardian through Ghost, drawing them via a Crux of Darkness to a remote location on Europa overlooking a Pyramid ship where they find a Ziggurat facing it, as well as the Exo Stranger, last seen at the end of the original Destiny's campaign, alongside Eris Morn and the Drifter fighting off Fallen troops. The Exo Stranger explains that she comes from a different timeline where the Darkness won. Just as she had provided aid to the Guardian against the Vex six years ago, she has returned to the present time to help prevent the Darkness from claiming victory and causing a second Collapse. She helps guide the Guardian to defeat Eramis' lieutenants, collect their Splinters, and commune with the Darkness through its Cruxes and the Ziggurat to be able to harness Stasis for themselves as to be able to defeat Eramis herself, methods that both Ghost and Commander Zavala do not trust but recognize as the only solution. Along this route, the Guardian learns that part of Eramis' plan is to reactivate a Vex portal that was built by Clovis Bray I as part of his inhumane research into Exo development.

Ultimately, the Guardian is able to defeat Eramis and three of her lieutenants and comes to have full control over Stasis after embracing their own inner Darkness inside the Pyramid. While the immediate threat to humanity is ended, Zavala cautions the Guardian to make sure the Darkness they possess does not spread. Afterwards, the Stranger assists the Guardian in further controlling their Stasis powers so that they can use it to protect humanity. The Stranger also reveals that she is actually Elisabeth "Elsie" Bray, the granddaughter of Clovis Bray I and sister of Ana Bray, revived as an Exo due to a fatal illness; she also despises her grandfather for his experiments. The Guardian also continues to assist Variks to take down any remaining Fallen threats attempting to claim Eramis' vacant throne, as well as aid Fallen refugees in escaping Europa and return to Earth to join a good faction of Fallen called the House of Light, led by Fallen ally Mithrax, Kell of Light. In the course of the Guardian's efforts to decrypt Clovis I's research on Stasis, the Stranger comes face-to-face with Ana, who is appalled at Elsie and the Guardian's use of Darkness, as well as her sister's confession that she was forced to kill Ana in her dark future.

The Guardian is later contacted by the Exo Stranger, who has discovered that the remnants of House Salvation have located the fabled Deep Stone Crypt, a Clovis Bray facility that served as the birthplace of the Exos. Fearing that Eramis' followers are using the Crypt's Exo technology and secrets for their own nefarious ends, a fireteam of Guardians assembled by the Stranger make their way through the frozen Europan wasteland in the midst of a harsh blizzard to locate the facility ("Deep Stone Crypt" raid). The Guardians make their way through the Crypt after disabling its security systems, wherein they discover "Clarity Control", a Darkness statue similar to the one found in the Pyramid, which Clovis Bray I used to commune with the Darkness and utilize it alongside Vex technology to aid in the development of Exos. It is revealed that Clovis Bray combined Vex radiolarian fluid with concentrated Darkness to perfect the Exo program, cementing the link between mind and body, and achieving immortality for humanity. They find Atraks, the last of Eramis' lieutenants, who has been converted into an Exo herself called Atraks-1, Fallen Exo, using the Crypt's Exo technology and the Darkness from Clarity Control to rebuild Taniks, the Scarred. The fireteam defeats Atraks-1 while Taniks confronts the fireteam as they board a space station orbiting Europa called the Morning Star, where Taniks activates its nuclear descent protocol to send the space station crashing down on the Jovian moon and decimate it upon impact; the Guardians manage to disarm the descent protocol as the station breaks apart and enters Europa's atmosphere. The fireteam manages to survive the crash and they emerge from the wreckage afterwards, finding themselves back at the entrance to the Deep Stone Crypt. As they investigate the Morning Star's wreckage, they discover that Taniks had also survived, who re-emerges as a grotesque mechanical being called Taniks, the Abomination. The Guardians defeat Taniks once and for all, securing the Deep Stone Crypt from further threats from House Salvation.

In the aftermath of Taniks' defeat, the Guardian continues to work with Variks and the Exo Stranger as remnants of the Morning Star perpetually rain down onto the surface of Europa, hoping to stop any Fallen from salvaging the debris for their own ends. As well, the Guardian is contacted by the artificial intelligence of Clovis Bray I, discovered to be a giant Exo head located deep within the Bray Exoscience facility. Further investigation reveals that Banshee-44, who fell unconscious at the same time the Morning Star was destroyed, is in fact the Exo form of the real Clovis Bray. Clovis-43 asked the Stranger to modify his memories so that upon his next reset, he would have no memory of the name Clovis Bray I or what the man had done. Banshee is disturbed by the revelation, but accepts it begrudgingly. Banshee assists the Guardian in finding and repairing the Lament, an exotic sword with a chainsaw blade used by Clovis during his war with the Vex on Europa. Banshee vows to never become his former, tyrannical self. Shortly after, Elsie and Ana reconcile to confront the giant Clovis AI together. Ana comes to understand Elsie's actions in killing her in that dark future while Elsie apologizes from withholding the truth, stating she was trying to protect Ana. The two sisters agree to work together and then confront Clovis and proclaim that they will use the Darkness to protect humanity from evil like him, instead of what Clovis had intended, which was to use it for research purposes only to continue the legacy of the Bray name.

Unveiled on June 9, 2020, Beyond Light was originally scheduled for release on September 22, 2020; however, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, its launch was delayed to November 10.[16] In addition to beginning Year 4 of Destiny 2's life cycle, Bungie described this release as the start of a new era for the franchise, as Beyond Light begins a trilogy of expansions where players "will explore the true nature of Light and Dark"—Beyond Light will be followed up by The Witch Queen in 2021 and Lightfall (working title) in 2022.[17] The expansion is available as paid downloadable content (DLC) and there was also a physical collector's edition and a digital deluxe edition, both of which, among other things, include the season passes for all four seasons of Year 4.[18] Seasonal content for Year 4 also changed. During Year 3, seasonal content was only accessible during the season it was active. While season passes are still available à la carte as they were during Year 3, the content of previous seasons in Year 4 can be experienced all year, regardless of when a player begins playing, much like the seasons during Year 2 of Forsaken's Annual Pass, though the player must still purchase each season's seasonal pass to access the content. Most seasonal triumphs, however, can only be completed during their respective season. The narrative across each season will also be more interconnected instead of being cut into individual seasonal arcs.[19] The expansion's first seasonal content, Season of the Hunt, began on November 10 alongside Beyond Light's release and will conclude on February 9, 2021, upon which Season of the Chosen will begin and run through May 11.[14]