Destiny 2.0 as a solo experience?

My only experience with Destiny is playing the PS4 beta back before we really knew what Destiny was. I enjoyed it enough, but at the time I was worried how much content it would offer to players who prefer to play alone. The reviews hit, and as I had feared, it seemed the best content in Destiny was intended to be played with others, and thus I gave it a miss.

With the overhauled levelling system and the additional content brought to Destiny with the release of the expansions, I'm curious if there's enough game there for someone like myself to enjoy? Is it now possible to out-level the infamous Vault of Glass raid so that I can manage it by myself? Can I engage in the wave-based survival mode without the aid of friends? Is there simply enough story content there for me to sink my teeth into? I've been eager to give Destiny a shot since it's release, but I'm still not sure it's a game made for people like myself.

It's still an MMO.

@sunbrozak:

I played Destiny last year solely in single-player and had a good time. It's not the best experience, but the shooting mechanics are enjoyable enough to make it worth the 20 hours or so it took to max out my level. Haven't tried the new stuff yet but I'm planning on soloing as much as I can.

I don't think you are capable of outleveling Vault of Glass since Destiny doesn't really work like other MMOs where you do amazing amounts of damage to things under your level. But I could be wrong!

You can, from my experience thus far, seemingly solo all the way to 40. The raids are kind of the big capstone events for each story it seems, so you will miss out on the big story beats, but the next mission acts as if you did it anyway so it will not gate your progress.

• Can you do the wave based survival? Well as a recently returning player who only got it originally because it was a pack in with my PS4, and for some ungodly reason decided to buy the collectors edition even though I didn't like it originally... this is actually the first I've heard of the mode. So, no idea.
• Is there enough story content to sink your teeth into? Destiny isn't really about story really, but the Taken King is better about it, having a more coherent and understandable narrative that while not going to win any awards gives a decent enough set up for the missions. If you are a story based player, not much here for you though.

The Legendary edition will get you the game and all expansions for 60 bucks, and that isn't a bad price for the content, the shooting is mostly solid and the new content helps make for a more compelling story experience, but as a solo game exclusively, I don't think I'd recommends it. I've played the majority of the way to 40 (36 I think last I looked) and can say that... I don't see it as being that great of an solo experience. But I intend to try and get involved with some of my friends who play and even get into the GB clan/guild/whatever destiny calls them, and if you would be willing to give it a try on the multiplayer side of things it is probably worth a revisit.

@sunbrozak: You cannot solo Vault of Glass. It's mechanics prohibit you from doing so. Crota's End, the second raid, is doable if you know the tricks.

Thanks for the answers, guys. I guess I'll keep an eye on the physical version of The Taken King and watch for a price drop. It seems like there's some fun to be had there, but maybe not quite enough for a solo player to pay full price.

I did all of the Taken Kings story missions solo. Moving onto the strikes now, but they have matchmaking. I'm really enjoying it!

I've played Destiny for hundreds of hours completely solo outside of matchmaking during strikes and using LFG for raids, Prison of Elders, nightfalls and Trials of Osiris and even then I never used a mic.

Edit: I guess to be specific, yes you can solo most of it, except Vault of Glass, since the way it works requires multiple people. Not sure if Crota's End is still soloable, but even if it is, it ain't gonna be easy. Prison of Elders is probably doable at the lower levels, but 34 and 35 are likely to be tough.

The only things you really can't do solo are the raids and nightfalls, and even then there are people that do/have solo'd them

I've played destiny alone the whole time and it's been super fine

I just actually played through the Destiny story for the first time today. I bought it a few months back and played a few hours and got bored. The game scratched the FPS itch that I had but not much more than that. The game (first 20 levels-wise) kinda lacks anything different from what i guess was in the beta. As for solo-ing it, you should be able to level through to 20 at least on your own, it just a little more bearable with other people. I kinda wish the classes were more unique and fun to play because that may have made me enjoy it more. As for content in the main game, its basically the story (8ish hours), strikes, patrols and the crucible if you're interested in the multiplayer. I played a bit after the story but it felt like grind since there was just strikes and patrols. Maybe I'm missing something that I haven't explored yet.

If you want to do all the story missions solo there is about 16 hours of content there probably. There are also some side missions that you can solo that would add a bunch more time. If you are willing to matchmake with some players you can do the strikes, they have associated missions, the four new ones introduced with The Taken King are pretty fun and the old ones have been updated. You don't really need to communicate during the strikes you just need to try and revive the other players if they go down.

Its also worth jumping into a public event if you happen to run past one, they can be some fun ad-hoc cooperation though if no one else is around to help some of them can be impossible. I randomly ran across a public event to kill a level 7 enemy last night on earth. I was the only person around but I was 30 levels higher than the target, he still was doing tons of damage. I got him down to a sliver of health just as he made it to his goal and I lost, so yeah not worth doing if no one else is around.

You cannot really do the raid content, or at least your not meant to, but they have worked parts of the raid experience into some of the missions. House of Wolves has a couple sections of Vault of Glass tuned for solo play and I have a mission to go back into the Vault of Glass for a post-story Taken King mission. There might even be some Crota's End stuff in there but I haven't seen it yet. I suspect the King's Fall content will stay exclusive to the Raid for a while.

As someone who primarily has played Destiny up to this point as a solo experience with a bit of fiddling with the Crucible competitive content here and there I think The Taken King does a good job of giving solo players some stuff to do, just be aware that some of the coolest content and gear is out of reach without a clan. But it is better than it was and there is some stuff worth seeing as a solo player.

Taken King definitely has a ton of solo content, though I still wish they had matchmaking for stuff. Nightfalls sort of got nerfed so there's less of an excuse now to not have it.

I'm doing this on 360, and it's been pretty fun so far. Level 21, I think.