I'm looking for another good mmo/live game to just spend some time with other than WoW. I was hoping Outriders would be that game, but with their lack of commitment to post launch updates....that doesn't look like it will be the case.

I have Game Pass, so I also have access to all of the Destiny 2 content. I haven't played since before Forsaken though, so I'm not really sure what the current activity loop/progression is nowadays.

The lore has always intrigued me so I would probably want to do any story content there is, not sure how that is pieced out though. Once I finish that, what's the "stuff to do", other than strikes and raids of course? For instance in WoW currently, after hitting max level you can do your covenant quests, level up your sanctum, do dailies for rep, etc.

I think Foresaken and Shadowkeep are still worthless now in terms of loot, the shadowkeep story was okay. I haven't played beyond light expansion so the game was pretty empty after they got rid of all the old content. The gameplay loop is basically bounties(or I think they changed it to challenges or something now) and buy the season pass and grind that every week.

If you really like Fomo that's pretty much what it is, you pay to grind time exclusive weapons and gear that may get sunset in the future if they decide to bring that back on a whim. Also who knows what will be in the game by next expansion.

It's not correct that Forsaken and Shadowkeep are worthless in terms of loot. All of the loot from the raids in those expansions are still 100% relevant, and some of the world drops from those expansions are being refreshed and made relevant again as well. The Forsaken, Shadowkeep, and Beyond Light campaigns are the main "story" content at the moment, and they're all included in Game Pass, so that would be the place to start.

As for the post-campaign "loop," it's somewhat similar to WoW in that you probably won't be high enough item level to complete the end-game PvE content after you finish the story campaigns. The Director will mark what activities can drop higher level items, so the loop would be completing those activities (a mix of strikes, pvp, gambit, etc.) to gear up for the endgame PvE content, which at this point are raids and grandmaster nightfalls (similar concept to a mythic dungeon in WoW). Those endgame activities drop unique loot. And of course, PvP is infinitely replayable if that's your jam and has unique loot as well.

If you haven't played since before Forsaken, they reintroduced "random rolls" with Year 2/Forsaken. For a lot of the people, the ultimate Destiny endgame is grinding for the 'god roll' of a specific weapon. Each weapon generally has 4 perk slots (2 main ones and 2 minor ones), and each "roll" of the weapon will pull from a pre-determined pool of perks for each of those slots. So if you want 4 specific perks on a random roll weapon, it might take a lot of attempts to get one. Some weapons, including all exotic weapons, are "static" rolls, so you'll only ever need to acquire one.

They've eased up on the FOMO recently because seasonal content sticks around for a full year now, as opposed to just the season (destiny seasons are 3-4 months). They've also gotten better at gradually telling a story over the season, with the current season arguably being the best example of that so far. Each season generally has a unique seasonal activity as well as at least one exotic quest, which is story-related. Each season also introduces at least a dozen weapons or so, so there's new loot to chase every few months.

A big thing is the seasons, which last about 3 or 4 months. It's definitely worth doing them, since that's when a decent amount of the new stuff is added.

More importantly, the story progresses through those seasons as well. (This may have always been the case, but I only started playing through the seasons when I got back into Destiny during lockdown) To give a high level example:

• Season of the Arrivals: This was the leadup to Beyond Light. There was a lot of talk about the Darkness arriving, which manifested in content being vaulted and the main campaign that takes place on Europa.
• Season of the Hunt: This was focused on the Hive doing what Hive do. This launched alongside Beyond Light and it was a nice counterpoint to the Beyond Light campaign. While Beyond Light was focused on the Fallen and Stasis on Europa (and like a mission on the Cosmodrone), the Season of the Hunt was about a Hive infestation which largely took place on the Dreaming City and the Tangled Shore.
• Season of the Chosen: This is focused on the Cabal and dealt with a possible war between them and the Vanguard. Part of the context for that conflict is because the Cabal had a pretty significant blow dealt to them from the Hive in the previous season.

With the current loop of Destiny, there are several milestones between doing your weekly bounties, to larger campaigns, to triumphs that require a lot more grinding. The grinding part is where I generally fall off.

If you are looking to come back to Destiny, here's what I would recommend focusing on:

• New campaigns you haven't seen (i.e. Beyond Light and Shadowkeep). Beyond Light I really enjoyed. Shadowkeep...eh. There's some good stuff, but not as strong as Forsaken and Beyond Light in my opinion.
• Seasonal content: This gives you new stuff to do while giving you new story which builds out the world and leads to major events. Even with older seasons, some of those events are still around. (Not sure if the full blown story are still there to be honest, but you can do the actual "hunts" that were introduced in the Season of the Hunt)
• Exotic quests: If there are quest lines for exotic weapons you haven't done, those are generally worth doing (particularly Presage)

Late game stuff like raids I would probably hold off a little on. Garden of Salvation (the Shadowkeep raid) is good, and Deep Stone Crypt (the Beyond Light raid) is probably my favorite thing to do in Destiny, but those are almost like capstones. Not in the sense that those raids are so hard they are the last thing you should ever do.

What I mean is, if you are looking for just stuff to do in Destiny, those top three items are what I would start with and will generally feed into each other. Raids on the other hand are a 2 to 3 hour commitment (depending on which raid, if you have an experienced crew, etc.) In terms of getting back into the live service aspect of Destiny, working on those three items will give you more stuff to do long term than preparing for a raid, if that makes sense. (At the same time, I've cleared the Deep Stone Crypt 36 times over approximately 72 hours, so you can definitely spend a lot of times doing raids if you have the crew, haha)

@tds418: Drops from those expansions aren't sunset anymore?

Raid drops never were, and yes they added non-sunset drops of shadowkeep and dreaming city gear to the pit of heresy and shattered throne dungeons.

@tds418: So only end game stuff? I never play the raids or stuff you can't matchmake into.

@oursin_360: I don't remember specifically beyond the dungeons. They weren't added to the playlist activity loot pools, no, but they probably would have been removed from those regardless of sunsetting when beyond light dropped.

The armor sets for the Dreaming City and the Moon were re-introduced, all versions of them that drop from any source on those destinations will have relevant power level. The Pit of Heresy and Shattered dungeons can drop high stat level (60+ stat rolls) versions of the armor.

Additionally, 4 weapons from each destination were reprised and only the power level relevant versions of those will drop, while the weapons from those loot pools that were not reprised are still sunset. Versions of these weapons that drop from the dungeons have unique perk pools compared to the versions that drop in regular destination activities. The Premonition pulse rifle only drops from the Pit of Heresy, as it was originally a Pit of Heresy only drop even during Shadowkeep.

Most of this information is either outdated or wrong. FOMO has been severely reduced if not outright removed. Beginning with the launch of Beyond Light, seasonal content and weapons do not go away when a season ends. Seasonal content, including the season activity, exotic quests, story missions, and gear, stay around for entirety of the year (until the next major expansion). While this does mean that as we get closer to the next expansion, new seasons will not be in the game as long as the ones earlier in the year, it is still a massive improvement over what it was in the past to the point that complaining about FOMO feels somewhat out of touch with the current state of the game.

Additionally, bounties have not really been the core gameplay loop for many seasons. Many of the tasks that were bounties in the past have been streamlined into a much improved progression system that is always active, removing the need to make constant trips to the tower to pick up more bounties. Additionally, the core progression for this season revolves around engaging with the Battlegrounds activity and completing various challenges, including story quests that released on a weekly basis, to unlock bonuses for the umbral engram decoding and Hammer of Proving drops.

Finally, to suggest that sunsetting would ever come back is just looking for something to complain about. They tried sunsetting, most people were against it from the start, when implemented it didn't work out well, everyone continued to express their issues with the system, Bungie decided to remove it. I don't know how anyone can look at the series of events and imply it's even remotely possible they would re-introduce sunsetting. It was a failure both functionally and from player feedback perspective and they have admitted that failure by abandoning the concept. There is just no way they try to implement it again.

Wasnt too sure if I should bump this or create a new thread...

Anyway - Destiny 2 (2023) - whats worth playing/purchasing?

I havent touched the game since Forsaken. I think I'd like to atleast play through the story campaigns of the other expansions before the newest - if they're worth playing that is. Is there continuity? Are there cool visuals worth the price of admission? Things are on sale for a couple bucks right now in my region, I imagine in lead up to the newest expansion.

As someone who has been playing Destiny 2 since it came out and kept up with all the changes, let me break it down for you.

1. The game is now a free to try model, not free to play. Because in order to really do anything in the game now, you have to keep up with the seasons and the expansions. I believe this happened after Forsaken, but I don't remember for sure.

2. And this one will answer your question. As far as the expansions go, Beyond Light and The Witch Queen are worth getting. Shadowkeep is okay if you want to return to the Moon, but its not as good as the other two. If you have PS Plus extra, you can get Beyond Light as part of the subscription without paying anything.

3. Is the game worth playing today? Yes and No. If you enjoy the gameplay of Destiny 2, then its worth it. Just understand that a lot has changed since Forsaken. A lot of things have been added and a lot of things have been taken away, including whole areas to explore that were in the game before. The latest expansion, Lightfall, is a huge disappointment and not worth getting. A huge step back from The Witch Queen. If you must play it, wait for the price to drop months from now. Also, if lore is important to you, then you'll want to keep up with the seasons, as most of the plot development in the game happens during them, which the expansions setup before hand. I myself purchased the latest one for 10 bucks without getting Lightfall.

Destiny 2 is still a good game, but it will take you sometime to get used to how the game plays now then it did when Forsaken was new.

@av_gamer: Thanks for the reply!

Ive played a lot of Destiny since whenever the first one came out. I still dont know if I even like the game... I think I do... but its one of those things that is so almost amazing I think I judge it harsher then it maybe deserves... but also it deserves it!

I also just really enjoy romping through sci-fi landscapes.

I see that I do have Beyond Light now vis PS+ - and the others are on sale. Ill grab Witch Queen and the Moon one (its like 8 bucks) and see if I get burnt out before I get to Lightfall.

What did you not like about it? I havent followed it at all but seems like some outlets are saying its "their greatest campaign yet" but i imagine there is some PR $$ involved. I dont think any of their Destiny level design comes anywhere close to what they did with the Halo games but its also a lot better then many of their competitors so idk.

@junkerman: If you're asking about Lightfall, its simply bare bones compared to the other two expansions before it. It's built up to be the big showdown against The Witness, but it doesn't happen. The veil subplot is a big point in the story, but it's left unsolved when the campaign is over. The new strand ability is lackluster compared to the other ones that have gotten good upgrades, and the grappling hook that was heavily promoted is a gimmick you really don't need. The trailers made it seems like the game was going to get a huge overhaul, changing Destiny 2 as a whole, but it turns out to be the same grinding concept of completing bounties and whatnot. And the new characters introduced on Neptune are annoying MCU ripoffs. And the planet Neptune itself seems interesting at first with the neon colors, but its very empty and lifeless once you start exploring the planet.

But again, the serious lore happens during the seasons, but as a setup for those seasons, Lightfall is a failure compared to Beyond Light and The Witch Queen. But this is my opinion, you might end up liking it, if you get around to it. For me, its not worth 50 bucks.

@av_gamer: That seems like sound feedback; and not surprising given my hot/cold journey with Destiny.

I'll jump through Beyond Light/Witch Queen and see where the dust settles. Seems like people had really good things to say about Witch Queen.