‘Lightfall’ May Have The Most Major Changes Of Any ‘Destiny 2’ Expansion Ever

We have gotten an absolute deluge of Lightfall information over the last month, as Destiny 2’s new expansion is just over a week way now. There has actually been so much information from six months ago until now, that stopping to take stock of it all, I genuinely believe this expansion has the most major changes we’ve ever seen come with a singular Destiny 2 release. Probably more than Taken King and Rise of Iron overall back in Destiny 1, as well.

This isn’t saying anything about its overall qualityas none of us have played it yet. But I think it’s easy to lose sight of just how many huge changes are coming to the game with Lightfall. So let’s recap:

In-Game Loadouts – This has been a request for Destiny as a series for literally its entire lifespan, and Bungie finally now has a system to instantly save and change loadouts on the fly, which will even pull gear from your vault.

Combat Mod Rework – There is an absolutely massive overhaul of all combat mods coming with the new armor charge system, which blends elements of Charged with Light and Elemental Wells, and some Well abilities have been put into subclass 3.0 builds instead. It’s going to be wholly transformative.

Artifact Mod Perks – Another long-requested change, Bungie has agreed to let us unlock Artifact mods not as mods, but instead always-on perks, meaning they will not take up room on your armor, a hugely welcome switch.

More Champion Stun Options – In addition to always-on champion mods from the artifact above, Bungie has given all five subclasses ways to stun at least two out of three champions simply by using some of their subclass verbs, which should make loadouts way less restrictive.

No Match Game – Bungie has killed off one of Destiny’s most exhausting modifiers, which makes shields borderline immune to non-matching weapons in higher difficulties. No more, and again, this means greater diversity of loadouts for all activities.

Crafting Changes – Bungie has stripped crafting down to its base elements, now having deleted practically of the crafting-specific currencies they invented for the new system. They’ve made Deepsight farming less cumbersome, and they’re now making Adept weapons drop with crafting-like traits, allowing endgame activities to offer similar value to crafted weapons.

Strand – Oh yeah, we have an entirely new subclass coming, which was not the case for three of the four Destiny 2 expansions before this. I’d argue Strand is more interesting than Stasis because it’s not just “the freeze class,” it’s something wholly unique with its reality-bending strings that Bungie invented just for this moment in time. Really looking forward to it.

No More Umbral Engrams – These are being changed into seasonal engrams that will not clutter up your inventory, and there will be less seasonal currencies overall to grind for.

Guardian Ranks – While we have yet to fully discover how this system will pan out, it’s at least meant to be a more cohesive “directional” instruction for newer Destiny players, as well as give veterans something to shoot for. Seems like something the game has needed.

Guardian Commendations – A way to encourage positive play among teams that should be a neat addition.

Refreshed Strikes and Nightfall Battlegrounds – Bungie is beginning the process of revamping some of the oldest strikes in the game to feel more modern and challenging, starting with Arms Dealer and Lake of Shadows this season. They’re also starting to make Battlegrounds into Nightfalls, starting with the Mars Heist.

Ada-1 Selling Old Shaders – This is a big deal for some people who have missed some of the best shaders in the game because they weren’t playing five years ago, and it’s something I hope to see expand in time.

Look, I’m open to counter-arguments, but I’m not sure you can point to another expansion with this many key changes that arrived at the same time. Again, we’ll see how the campaign and meta shake out for the overall quality of the expansion itself, but the level of these changes is past anything I think the game has seen before. Cannot wait.

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