Everything New In Destiny’s Lightfall Update

With so much hype around Destiny 2, fans expect that Destiny 2: Lightfall will be no less. According to the official Twitter account Destiny 2: Lightfall is set to come out on February 28 of this year.

From what we know, this expansion will be marking the end of the decade-long saga of Destiny 2. It will certainly be a bittersweet moment for fans who have looked forward to playing each of the expansions.

Weave the future.

Our end begins February 28, 2023

Destiny 2: Lightfall // https://t.co/856URKrJ8R pic.twitter.com/mvV49hsmUP

— Destiny 2 (@DestinyTheGame) December 9, 2022

The Strand

As soon as fans saw the trailer for the game, there was much talk about The Strand. Looking deeper into the game’s lore, The Strand is part of The Weave. This means that The Strand can provide fragments of the extra dimension’s psychic energy.

It is certainly a force to be reckoned with, and only the Guardians can wield it. In fact, they can easily control the dimensions by utilizing powers The Strand grants them. 

The Verge has some interesting comments about The Strand and said it would help players wield dark energy more easily. Moreover, they stated that The Strand is quite similar to Stasis.  

Stasis was one of the major parts of Destiny 2: Beyond Light. It differs from The Strand because it heavily improves the combat and movement systems in Destiny 2: Lightfall. In contrast, Stasis is known to freeze things.

Much to fans’ delight, the advent of The Strand means that there will be a new Darkness-type subclass. This will help introduce numerous new abilities. One of the most important new mechanics that will be affected is the Grapple Hook.

Since The Strand helps improve the combat and movement system in the game, the grapple hook becomes that much faster. This means the arduous process of shifting plants will become ten times faster and more accurate. 

New Subclasses

Destiny 2: Lightfall will be introducing three new subclasses in the game.

• The Warlock Strand- BroodWeaver
• The Hunter Strand- Threadrunner
• The Titan Strand- Berserker

The official site and PCGamesN go into great detail about the different aspects of these new subclasses. The official site describes BroodWeaver best.

The site states that they are telekinetic sorcerers who manipulate the Weave, even twisting Strand into creatures that do their bidding. Hence, the BroodWeaver can summon Strand-based Threadlings that can be used to attack enemies.

Dotesports states that these Threadlings are extremely powerful and will implode as soon as they come into contact with their enemies. It is important to note that each subclass can create Threadlings.

However, the Warlock can call them back if they miss the target and summon them when needed. Hence the BroodWeaver is the strongest conjurer in Destiny 2: Lightfall. In a news article posted by Bungie, they explained this phenomenon.

Let’s say I have three Threadlings and I only need two of them to defeat an enemy. If I’m a Warlock, that last one is going to run back, hop on to me, and condense down into a form that is orbiting me, which is known as ‘perching.’ Then, the next time I attack an enemy, it will pop off and attack that same enemy, which really gives it this sense of having these minions that are doing my bidding. They love me and they want to come back and hang out with me.”

The BroodWeaver’s abilities include:

• Needlestorm: Weave a cloud of Strand before shattering it, causing a hailstorm of piercing missiles that detonate upon impact.
• Arcane Needle: Throw a Strand needle that tracks your target and unravels them.
• Weaver’s Call: When casting a rift, weave three Threadlings on the ground in front of you.
• Grapple: Weave the fabric of reality and unlock new movement, strategy, and speed elements.
• Grenades: Tightly woven threads of utility and destruction imbued with functionality from the Weave.
• Grapple Melee: Grapple toward an enemy to unleash a powerful Strand-empowered melee attack that unravels them.

Threadrunner is a subclass that is known to be super-fast. The official description for this subclass says that they are masters of lethal grace. The city becomes their playground as they use the Weave to dance unscathed among their foes.

Threadrunner has the ability to attack numerous enemies at the same time, but that is not even half of it. The Threadrunner will attack foes in mid-air.

The developers had this to say about them, “While every Strand Guardian class will have access to the grapple and the array of mobility options it brings, the Hunter takes movement and speed to an entirely new level.”

The following are their abilities: 

• Silkstrike: Combine a grappling hook and rope dart to exploit the battlefield and deftly execute your targets.
• Threaded Spike: Throw a rope dart that damages targets, ricochets, and returns melee energy.
• Ensnaring Slam: Descend upon your targets from above, slamming the ground and suspending them in the blast.
• Window’s Silk: Grapple more often and create grapple points that you and your fireteam can use indefinitely.
• Grapple: Weave the fabric of reality and unlock new movement, strategy, and speed elements.
• Grenades: Tightly woven threads of utility and destruction imbued with functionality from the Weave.
• Grapple Melee: Grapple toward an enemy to unleash a powerful Strand-empowered melee attack that unravels them.

Last but not least, Berserker is untamed and wild; they leap into harm’s way with abandon, manifesting claws to sever their targets from the Weave.

They are close-range fighters that can easily shred their foes into small pieces. Interestingly, according to The Loadout, the Titan subclass was first called Tyrant, but then it was changed to the Berserker.

Here are Berserker’s abilities:

• Bladefury: Weave powerful claws and charge the battlefield armed with new Light and Heavy attacks at your disposal.
• Frenzied Blade: Dash at your targets and slash at them with blades of finely honed Strand.
• Into The Fray: Enhance your armor with Woven Mail and increase your melee regeneration.
• Drengr’s Lash: Unleash a frontal shockwave that suspends targets caught in the blast.
• Grapple: Weave the fabric of reality and unlock new movement, strategy, and speed elements.
• Grenades: Tightly woven threads of utility and destruction imbued with functionality from the Weave.
• Grapple Melee: Grapple toward an enemy to unleash a powerful Strand-empowered melee attack that unravels them.

New Exotics

Of course, Destiny 2: Lightfall will have an array of special weapons and armor. GameSpot reported that the exotics would use The Strand subclass to help boost the weapon’s power. There seem to be five main types of exotics in the game.

Firstly, the Final Warning is a kinetic strand handgun. It can mark its targets and then will shoot Charged Tracking Rounds. The handgun has burst bullets, which means players will be able to fire a predetermined number of rounds. 

The Deterministic Chaos is a Void Machine Gun. A plus point of using this machine gun is that it will shoot Heavy Projectile bullets that will slowly but surely weaken foes. Moreover, Heavy Projectile bullets make enemies volatile and will explode.

The Winterbite, a Stasis Glaive, is one of the most useful weapons in Destiny 2: Lightfall. As the name suggests, the weapon fires balls of energy that can freeze enemies as soon as they make contact.

The Cyrtarachne’s Facade is a bit different than the weapons mentioned above. It is a helmet that will give players additional protection when grappling. It is a must-have during PvP activities.

The Abeyant Leap are boots that will provide additional armor and will spawn projectiles that will lock down its target, making it impossible to escape. 

Lastly, the Swarmers are Warlock boots. They will aid players in creating Strand Threadlings and attacking enemies.

Crucible Maps

In a recent blog post, the developers discussed the Crucible, calling it an evergreen ritual. From what is stated, there will be one brand-new Crucible Map as well as two old ones.

There’s a high probably Cathedral of Dusk, the D1 pvp map, will return S17 or S18

This is some older information, so they may have changed the map in development

— Destiny Leaks (@D2Leaks) April 29, 2022

Destiny 2: Lightfall crucible maps did suffer some leaks, and it was noted that the maps Cathedral of Dusk and The Firebase Delphi from Destiny 1 would make a comeback in seasons 17 and 18.

The new map, which will be called Neon, is a city located in Neptune. The best way to describe the map is that it is very cyberpunk-esque. Fans seem to be a little upset over the fact that the PvP section only has three maps. Forbes seemed to agree with the fan’s plight.

Guardian Rank System

The Guardian Rank System seems to have been revamped in the game. The ranking goes from 1 to 11. Polygon states in their article that the first five ranks in Destiny 2: Lightfall have been made to help players get acquainted with the game. It will help build power and gain a better insight into the game’s inner workings.

Rank six to ten will heavily focus on season-specific challenges. This will aid players’ confidence in their current skills. Since these rankings are linked with season-associated challenges, they tend to reset after the season ends.

The final rank, which is the Guardian Rank, is extremely coveted. To obtain it, players must be able to do extremely challenging master-difficulty raids as well as Grandmaster Nightfalls.

One major perk of the Guardian Rank System that Destiny 2: Lightfall will be introducing is the ability to manage loadout and equipment inside the game. Players will be able to increase their loadout slots as they progress in their ranks.

The Campaign

Destiny 2: Lightfall will also be introducing a brand-new campaign. This campaign will be heavily focused on The Strand; moreover, it will also be introducing a new set of characters. Like The Witch Queen campaign, there will be an option to play on Legendary difficulty. This means that players will get high-tier rewards, making players raid-ready faster.

The New Raid 

From what is known, the Raid will start on March 10 of this year. It is stated that Bungie developers will be on standby in case something goes south during the event. From what was reported, it is seen that the Raid’s Adpet weapons will have far improved perks.

Conclusion

Destiny 2: Lightfall seems to offer everything we desire. The new updates seem to add quite an interesting twist to the already-existing lore.

Many fans can not wait to get their hands on the new weapons and we can’t blame them. Will the game be able to live up to its hype? Well for that we will have to wait and see.