Summary
Destiny 2is still gripped by its Lightfall era, with two seasons left to go before The Final Shape expansion drops, and Season of the Deep being a few weeks away from the finish line. Even thoughSeason of the Deep’s lore fixed most of what was wrong with the Lightfallexpansion, Season 22 will likely equally important in many ways, as Bungie has already teased that it will revolve around resurrecting Savathun and working with her. Season 22 will also entail the return of another Raid from the franchise’s past, and while that is going to be a challenge for Bungie in many ways, the ultimate test is the one that The Final Shape’s Raid will have to endure.
Bungie’s options forSeason 22’s returningDestiny 2Raidare numerous, but all equally problematic to some degree. The developer could reprise either Wrath of the Machine or Crota’s End from the original game, but the former would need an entirely new Exotic weapon as well as force Bungie to work on assets that it doesn’t deem necessary due to SIVA being out of the current narrative loop, whereas the second is simply too short for a Raid. Bungie could also reprise vaultedDestiny 2Raids, but that could prove problematic for the community. However, these are all existing options, whereas the Raid for The Final Shape will need to be entirely new, and thus face a different challenge.
RELATED:Destiny 2’s Final Shape Seasons Are a Controversy Waiting to Happen
Destiny 2’s Raid in The Final Shape Needs Puzzles That Can’t be Cheesed With Strand
It’s no secret that Bungie has been trying to provide players with increasingly more alternatives when it comes to how they want to play the game, be it accessibility options or choices in terms of gameplay and loadouts. This is mostly a positive thing for the game, as it encourages diversity both among community members and when it comes to in-game builds.Destiny 2’s Strandis just the latest tool that players got access in the elemental department, for example.
The reception of Strand as a subclass has been incredible from the get-go, and that’s because it allows players to do things that they were never capable of before, such as flying at full speed across the map while grappling to a Cabal ship.Destiny 2’s Strand grappleis as much a great exploration tool that enables players to have fun solo or with friends as it can be a bit of a pain to balance properly, especially in endgame encounters.
Destiny 2’s Root of Nightmares Raid allowed players to grapple around to discover some of its hidden chests or even cheese some encounters, but this was extremely early in the days of Strand due to Lightfall launching only three days before the Raid itself. Still, as time passed, players were able to unlock more Strand Fragments and perfect its gameplay loop, to the point that some are cheesing the Hive ship puzzle in the King’s Fall Raid with the grapple. As such, it’s inevitable that Season 22’s Raid will have similar issues, especially since players already know what every possible option brings.
However, when it comes toThe Final Shape inDestiny 2, it needs to deliver on many levels, and one of them is the Raid. Puzzles inDestiny 2Raids are as iconic as their corresponding boss fights, and that’s because the community enjoys solving them for the first time on launch. This leads to a bit of a conundrum on Bungie’s part, as it shouldn’t limit the use of Strand in the final Raid of the Light and Darkness saga, but the grapple shouldn’t allow players to cheese the Raid’s puzzles on day one. Unfortunately, there is no be all, end all solution to this problem.
Destiny 2is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
MORE:Destiny 2’s Gambit Updates Sound a Lot Like a Swan Song
