Bungie has revealed more details about next year's Destiny 2 Witch Queen update along with some ambitious plans for how it will evolve its flagship action MMO game.
Destiny 2 is a constantly evolving game; most recently, Season 13 of the game has launched with near gear, new challenges, and new story content for players to enjoy. This is just one small part of a greater whole, however, and Bungie has some big plans for the game's future.
"The Witch Queen represents an important evolution in the ongoing story of Destiny 2. Beyond Light built the foundation and allowed us to weave the world-building of Destiny and Destiny 2 together, but The Witch Queen will light the fire on a strongly interconnected narrative across Lightfall and beyond, unlike anything we’ve ever attempted before, with characters, arcs, heroes and villains that persist over multiple future releases," read a blog post from Destiny 2's Assistant Game Director Joe "Joegoroth" Blackburn. "Even more importantly, the conclusion of these releases will also conclude the “Light and Darkness Saga,” the conflict we first introduced with the launch of Destiny many years ago."
Unfortunately, there's not a whole lot we've learned beyond the narrative bits. Bungie, however, has taken the time to explain some of the things players can expect to see in Season 14 and Season 15.
Destiny 2 Season 14 and 15 Changes Teased
Alongside the short Destiny 2 Witch Queen details, Bungie's blog post breaks down some of the changes coming to the game in the next couple of Seasons.
Infusion Caps Are Going Away
Infusion Caps were first introduced in Season 11 of the game. However, this had the unintended effect of making your gear feel like it wasn't as useful when the next Season rolled around — and that's why Infusion Caps are going away for good.
"While we still strongly believe that Destiny needs a method to shift our meta in the game’s most challenging activities, we don’t believe that infusion caps are the right answer," the blog post continued. "We’re taking time this year to research and validate a plan that creates a fresh and balanceable ecosystem for our most aspirational content, one that doesn’t make our rewards feel like they have an expiration date."
Power Cap is Being Reduced
Another similar issue is the Power Cap — Bungie feels that a seasonal increase of 50 might have been a bit much and felt too much like a "reset" for players. The Power Cap will now only be raised by 10 (instead of 50) starting with Season 14.
'Three-Peeking' Tackled with PvP Changes
PvP players haven't been forgetting and Bungie is taking the time to tackle the issue of "three-peeking." Three-peeking is where a player will emote or equip a third-person weapon so that they can see around a corner without actually exposing their body.
Season 15 will have two big changes for Trials and Competitive PvP: emotes will be disabled in these game modes and you'll be unable to pull out a third-person weapon if it doesn't have any ammo. Bungie considers this a "starting point" for the problem and is actively exploring a more robust solution.
The Vault of Glass and Ada-1 Are Coming Back
The Vault of Glass is a fan favorite and it will be coming back to Destiny 2 sometime in Season 14. The experience will largely be the same, but Bungie says that it's also going to update it in subtle ways, too. That means Vault of Glass veterans will still have a reason to come back and play this content.
Ada-1 will also be coming back in Season 14. Ada-1 will allow players to turn armor into a universal ornament, but only after they've completed a series of quests.
Crossplay is Coming with Season 15
Aside from a few details about the Destiny 2 Witch Queen update, Bungie has some happy news for those of us who are separated from our friends in the digital world — Destiny 2 Crossplay is coming in Season 15.
"We’ll be doing some internal rollouts and alpha tests in Season 14 to prepare for a widespread launch this fall. With Crossplay, you’ll be able to play with all your friends no matter what platform you call home. And don’t worry, we won’t be matching console and PC players together in the Crucible unless PC players specifically invite their console friends to play with them in the PC Crucible pools."
When is the Destiny 2 Witch Queen Release Date?
The Destiny 2 Witch Queen release date will be sometime in Early 2022. That means that we're not going to see a release towards the end of the year as we had with Beyond Light and other expansions.
"With COVID-19 keeping us away from the office, and the large amount of work on our plates, we needed to move the date in order to make sure that both this year's updates and The Witch Queen were both delivered at the quality we strive for, and on a schedule that made sense for everyone involved," Blackburn explained.
Critically, this isn't a one-off change — Bungie will be shifting the release of its annual expansions to earlier in the year as a general rule going forward.
"We’ve long thought about moving Destiny’s annual release to the early half of the year primarily for the health of the team, but the Witch Queen and not being tied to legacy expectations allowed us to make this choice early[...]" read the blog post.
"Making this choice is not one we took lightly. Believe me, as someone close to The Witch Queen’s progress, there's no one more than us that wants to get it out as soon as it’s ready. But at the end of the day, we know we’re making this call for The Witch Queen and future chapters in Destiny 2 for all the right reasons, ones that puts our team first and our game at the quality bar we strive for ourselves."
Things are shaping up nicely for the future of Destiny 2! These are just some of the big changes on the way; you can read about the Destiny 2 Witch Queen update and all of the Season 14 and Season 15 changes in the works in today's blog post; more details on Bungie's next annual expansion will be released in the coming months. If you haven't yet jumped into this great game, you can play Destiny 2 for free on PC, PlayStation, Xbox, and Google Stadia via its official website.
What do you hope to see in the Destiny 2 Witch Queen Update? Do you think this game is headed in the right direction? Let us know in the comments below!
