Destiny stepping into new era with Fall expansion "Beyond Light," two new expansions in 2021, 2022

Bungie has just hit the Destiny 2 community with one of the biggest content reveals in recent memory with not just the reveal of the September expansion but also 2 additional expansions set for release in 2021 and 2022.

This was all shown during a live reveal stream at 9am PT June 9 to an audience of almost 300k viewers. Here’s a quick summary of all the juicy details.

Let's start with the September expansion, known as ‘Beyond Light’ which will release September 22.

Beyond Light will task Guardians, along with a team comprising of The Drifter, Eris Morn and the Exo Stranger, with unlocking the secrets of a newly active Pyramid Ship on Europa while fending off a new Fallen enemy known as Eramus.

Eramus is a female Captain who has the goal of taking revenge on The Traveller for abandoning her people to The Darkness. Unfortunately for us,  Eramus has discovered a way to harness this Darkness against the Guardians but it seems that in Beyond Light the Guardians will also learn to wield this mysterious power.

In the trailer shown during the live stream the Exo Stranger can be heard uttering the following words: “The line between Light and Dark is so very thin, let’s cross it together.”. While this line is being said a group of Guardians can be seen engaging with various enemies while using abilities that have never been seen before.

Adding to this, the words “Go beyond The Light, wield The Darkness.” flash on screen during this sequence. Yes you read that right. Coming in Beyond Light the long awaited Darkness subclass, as well as a new damage type known as ‘Stasis’, will be coming to Destiny 2. This will be the first new damage type added to the Destiny franchise and will sit alongside the trinity of Arc, Solar and Void.

The Deep Stone Crypt, the mysterious vault hidden deep under Europa where Exos are created, will also make an appearance in Beyond Light although not a huge amount of info was given about this.

It’s extremely likely that the Exo Stranger will have a large role in uncovering the secrets of the Deep Stone Crypt in this expansion.

So for Beyond Light we have the new destination of Europa, new storylines featuring the Pyramid Ships, Erasmus and the Deep Stone Crypt, as well as a new Darkness Subclass and damage type.

As a complete blindside Bungie also delivered a brief look at their plans for expansions in the years to come with ‘The Witch Queen’ announced for 2021 and ‘Lightfall’ (working title) announced for 2022.

No information was given on these expansions apart from a title card but a small amount can be gleaned from the titles alone.

The Witch Queen seems very likely to revolve around the Hive Queen Savathun, the sister of Oryx. Savathun’s schemes have had rippling effects across Destiny 2’s world for many years and so it could be that the Guardians will be heading towards a final confrontation with her before too long.

The name of the 2022 expansion, Lightfall, certainly has some concerning connotations. Could the Guardians be stripped of their Light for a second time and have to rely on their newfound Dark powers or could this be another Collapse?

Destiny 2 Game Director Luke Smith and Destiny 2 General Manager Mark Noseworthy said the following about these future expansions: “We’re building Destiny’s future today right inside of Destiny 2. It starts with Beyond Light coming this Fall, it’s going to continue with the next major expansion The Witch Queen, and Lightfall is gunna kinda drive this all to a uh...a ‘moment’ “.

It seems Bungie has finally taken criticism to heart and is creating a long and connected storyline instead of numerous unfinished threads that have plagued Destiny’s story structure for years.

This is certainly an exciting era for Destiny 2 as this is the first time we have ever known so far into the future what content and storylines are in store for us. On top of this reveal, Season of Arrivals has launched today which will function as a lead into Beyond Light later in the year.