Bungie wants to make Destiny 2 better with the Content Vault—but it’ll come with a cost
Back in June, Bungie first introduced Destiny 2 players to the concept of the Destiny Content Vault—and now, we’re getting a better idea of the impact it’ll have on the game.
The Destiny Content Vault is “an approach to evolving the game that will allow us to add new content, bring back some of Destiny’s greatest hits from the past, and support Destiny 2 for years to come,” reads a new official post from Bungie.
Basically, the idea is this: Destiny 2, as a full game, is getting to large to be easily manageable by the dev team. Because of how much content there now is, adding even the smallest additions or changes can have huge unintended effects, leading to “more bugs and less innovation.” Instead of just throw everything away and make a Destiny 3, Bungie wants to keep supporting the current game “for years.”
So, enter the Destiny Content Vault. Through this new plan, certain older content will be “vaulted,” meaning those portions of the game will be removed from active accessibly, with the potential of being rotated back in for a limited time in the future.
The main points stated back in June were that “all content from Destiny 1 and anything that cycles out from Destiny 2” would be going into the vault, with the first of that D2 content going away being Io, Titan, Mars, Mercury, and Leviathan when Year 4 kicks off on November 10th. Meanwhile, the first unvaulted content will be “the Cosmodrome… as well as its three strikes and the return of the Vault of Glass raid.”
To help give more clarity on what it means when content is vaulted, today’s post starts off with a “rule of thumb” to keep in mind: “When a destination goes into the DCV, so too do its PvE activities and associated rewards.”
From there, Bungie offers up a much clearer list of what’s leaving the game in a few months:
Strikes
- Io (The Pyramidion, The Festering Core)
- Titan (Savathûn’s Song)
- Mars (Strange Terrain, Will of the Thousands)
- Mercury (Tree of Probabilities, A Garden World)
Gambits
- Cathedral of Scars (Dreaming City)
- Kell’s Grave (Tangled Shore)
Crucible Maps
- Meltdown
- Solitude
- Retribution
- The Citadel
- Emperor’s Respite
- Equinox
- Eternity
- Firebase Echo
- Gambler’s Ruin
- Legion’s Gulch
- Vostok
Crucible Modes
- Supremacy
- Countdown
- Lockdown
- Breakthrough
- Doubles
- Momentum Control (returning at some point during Year 4)
- Scorched (returning at some point during Year 4)
Dungeons
- None
Raids
- Leviathan
- Eater of Worlds (Leviathan)
- Spire of Stars (Leviathan)
- Scourge of the Past (Last City)
- Crown of Sorrows (Leviathan)
In all of that, one particular concern comes up: a lot of the Year 1 content target at new Destiny 2 players is going away. To that, Bungie offered the following response:
With some of the core Year 1 destinations entering the Vault, it’s true that the free-for-all-players Red War, Curse of Osiris, and Warmind campaigns will no longer be playable.
We are building a new, expanded Guardian origin story on the Cosmodrome that will launch alongside Year 4 and will be available to all Guardians to play. It is designed to introduce you to the world and mechanics of Destiny and prepare you to play the action MMO game we all enjoy. The Forsaken and Shadowkeep story campaigns will still be playable in Year 4 for owners of those expansions.
There are a number of import details about how all of this Destiny Content Vault is going to be going down, so if you’ve got additional questions, or want to see the full list of what’s leaving, make sure to check out the official Bungie blog post.
