Everything You Need to Know From the Destiny 2023 Showcase

Bungie just concluded its Destiny 2 Showcase for 2023 where they revealed more about the upcoming expansion, The Final Shape, as well as what’s coming after we conclude this current saga of the game. There was a lot crammed into this showcase between an in-depth look at the expansion, a tease of new and returning Exotics, new Supers and Aspects for the Light subclasses, a reveal of Season 22, a massive switch up of the seasonal model and more.

Here is everything major you need to know from Destiny 2 Showcase 2023.

The Final Shape is the last expansion in the Light and Dark saga for Destiny 2, acting as the culmination of 10 years of storytelling. In it, we’ll chase the Witness inside the Traveler to stop it from enacting the Final Shape: death and stasis to the universe on high, an end to all life. To stop them, we’ll work alongside hard-won allies and long-forgotten friends as we try to put a stop to the war between Light and Dark.

As for the main destination of The Final Shape, we’ll be heading inside the Traveler to a location called the Pale Heart. From the brief glimpse we saw, the Pale Heart is a strange and bizarre location, one where those who enter it shape it. The Witness has already done a bit of that shaping – including bringing two new Tormentor-like enemies called the Subjugators – but when we enter, it begins to mould around us: this means that we’ll see familiar locations like the original Tower, the great wall in Old Russia and more.

A big deviation from typical Destiny expansions is how the Pale Heart works as a destination. During the main campaign experience, the Pale Heart will be a “linear” location: this means that you’ll only have access to a small slice of it and you won’t be able to free-roam around like you can on, say, the Throne World. Then, once you complete the campaign, the rest of the Pale Heart will unlock and it will begin to “respond to your actions”. Bungie has been kind of vague on how this works, exactly, but they highlighted how they really wanted to prioritise the story and narrative this time around.

The Pale Heart

One big thing is that The Final Shape won’t have new subclasses like Stasis or Strand. Instead, we’ll be getting some new Supers and Aspects for a few of our Light subclasses. For example, Warlocks will be reuniting with the Radiance Super from Destiny 1, only bought up and enhanced to D2 standards. Meanwhile, Titans have a new ranged Void one-shot Super where they throw a series of axes at enemies which can then be picked up and wielded by their allies.

Additionally, we got a brief look at a few of the Exotics coming with The Final Shape. We got to look at a special Exotic Fusion Rifle called Tesselation which can imbue itself with the power of Stasis or Strand and enhance itself at the cost of your grenade, and we got a tease for an Exotic Sniper Rifle that functions like Golden Gun. For veteran Guardians, a few are returning Destiny 1 Exotics coming, too, such as the Dragon’s Breath Rocket Launcher and the Khvostov 7G-0X Auto Rifle. On top of these Exotics, the weapons team also teased a few new weapon archetypes, including a new Micro-Rocket Sidearm subfamily and a Support Auto Rifle subfamily where shooting teammates will heal them.

Destiny 2: The Final Shape launches on February 27th 2024.

Gear for the Coming War

Season of the Witch (also known as Season 22) is what will begin our journey into The Final Shape and launches today, August 22nd. On the narrative side, Season of the Witch involves us making a deal with Savathun’s Ghost Immaru so that he will resurrect the Witch Queen as our ally. In trade, we must put a stop to Xivu Arath, Savathun’s sister and the Hive God of War. To do so, Eris Morn will transform herself into a Hive Abomination, one we can directly tithe our kills to so that they will not be sent to Xivu Arath and, hopefully, will allow us to emerge victorious.

There are two new seasonal activities in Season of the Witch – Altars of Summoning, a 3-man activity where summon foes of increasing strength to gather tithes for Eris, and Savathun’s Spire, which you must climb to gain access to the Altars of Summoning – which Guardians can partake in. This is alongside the usual suite of seasonal offerings such as new Exotic armour, gear, weapons and more.

Season of the Witch Armour

Season 22 is where Bungie are beginning to start experimenting heavily with the seasonal model and format. One example of this is the new Deck of Whispers system where players can collect a series of special cards that greatly buff a bunch of different aspects and systems. Then, with those cards unlocked, you can create a unique “deck” to enhance your build crafting capabilities.

In terms of which Raid is returning in Season of the Witch, we’ll be venturing back into the Hellmouth to face off against the Son of Oryx in Crota’s End. One of the most exciting things revealed for Crota’s End is that it will reprise the Age of Triumph iteration of the Raid armour, unlike Vault of Glass or King’s Fall, meaning that players who grew attached to the awesome Hive glow can don them again in Destiny 2.

Taking Hive Magic Back

Bungie also revealed what’s coming post The Final Shape. Instead of having four seasons in a year, we’ll be getting three Episodes which serve as longer, more in-depth experiences when compared to previous seasons. In the year post The Final Shape, we’ll be getting three Episodes titled:

Each Episode is broken up into 3 Acts, with a new Act coming every 6 weeks. Each Act will bring new story content, new gear, new activities, new Artifact perks and more. Bungie says that this new method is a vast innovation on anything they’ve been able to do with the current seasonal model and that it will allow them to create broader, stronger experiences than what we’ve been used to.

Additionally, it was revealed in the post-show that each Episode will still have a corresponding season pass where you can earn additional rewards. Act 1 of an Episode will have 100 Ranks, with 50 additional Ranks being added every Act. Bungie teased some more exciting and unique rewards for the end of an episode, using the Tiger Helmet from Dares of Eternity as an example.

As for how purchasing Episodes will work, we have a brief idea from the official Bungie.net page for The Final Shape. By just purchasing The Final Shape expansion, you will gain access to the Echoes Episode and the all content it will offer: at the same time, you will be able to purchase the Revenant and Heresy Episodes separately. Meanwhile, if you purchase the Deluxe Edition of The Final Shape, you’ll instantly unlock access to all 3 Episodes throughout the year as well as the yearly Dungeon Key.

Switch to Episodes

Bungie also announced a fair few quality of life and smaller updates coming in The Final Shape and beyond.

A big focus of these changes was for returning players or New Lights. One example is the introduction of the Timeline Reflections. This is an update to the current timeline system in-game, allowing players to experience cutscenes from previous expansions and seasons and even play a signature mission or two from each one. Additionally, a new feature called Fireteam Power is coming. When this is active, the average power of your fireteam will be added up, allowing you to take lower Light players into higher-tier activities so long as enough players are at that higher cap.

A lot of interesting stuff is coming to Destiny 2 between now and the end of The Final Shape, including in-game LFG via the Fireteam Finder in Season 23.

Fireteam Power

The Final Shape launches on February 27th 2024, whereas Season of the Witch is live right now in Destiny 2.

SOURCE: Destiny 2 Showcase 2023

Jack is a Creative Writing English graduate with a passion for writing about games. He primarily writes about Destiny 2, Genshin Impact and Xenoblade Chronicles but is especially keen on RPGs, looters and action games. KeenGamer is the third publication he has written for.

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