During Tuesday’s reveal stream for The Edge of Fate, Bungie gave us a peek behind the curtain towards what we can look forward to for the next year of Destiny content. The next year, dubbed The Year of Prophecy, has so much to look forward to — two new expansions, a lot of other content, and even release dates for the whole next year of Destiny.
With so much information and a few things that you might not have noticed within the stream, we’ve got you covered. Bungie have an official recap which has the bare bones information, but there’s a lot that was only briefly shown or mentioned that is definitely worth talking about.
This article will go over everything that was revealed about the next year of Destiny, from everything that you can enjoy now and the things to look forward to in the far future.
So, let’s get started! Lock in, as there’s a lot to unpack.
Overview
The Year of Prophecy is split over two expansions and two ‘major updates’, one for each expansion. The expansions are a little bit bigger than Rise of Iron from the original Destiny game, and each major update will be around the size of 2024’s Into the Light. Both of the expansions will be focused on The IX and will kick off the next multi-year Destiny saga, ‘The Fate Saga’.
With this, we have quite a lot of content coming our way, with a new Raid in The Edge of Fate and a new Dungeon in Renegades, as well as a host of new activities in the major updates that follow. Bungie has confirmed that these activities will not be sunset at the end of the year, and so you can look forward to some new content sticking around.
Bungie has also teased that Raid and Dungeon content could be a part of the major updates, but didn’t confirm whether there would be any of it during Ash & Iron or Shadow & Order (but we’ll get to that later).
All of the major update content will be free, and you’ll only need to pay to access the Expansion content. There will also be no dungeon key or separate Season Pass to pay for — the former will be free with the expansion, and the latter will be free to everyone.
Content
Expansions
The Edge of Fate
Coming first, on July 15th, The Edge of Fate is the first expansion in the Year of Prophecy. The expansion will take place in the world of Kepler, which is on the edge of Sol (our Solar System). Kepler is a ‘labyrinthian world’, inspired by the Dreaming City and generally influenced by Metroidvanias.
Story
The story of The Edge of Fate is experimental, as it’s Destiny’s first attempt at a ‘nonlinear’ story. Rather than linearly completing the storyline, you’ll be encouraged to explore and complete it at your own pace, in any order. This means that you control how you complete the story.
You’ll meet a new character called Lodi, who is teased as a ‘fish out of water’, but ‘the most qualified fish to be pulled out of water’. This new companion is assumed to be the vendor for the world of Kepler and will play a large role in the story of The Edge of Fate. Ikora will also return, as will the factions of the Vex and the Fallen (House of Exile).
The Vex are here to find out more about the IX, as there are things that they don’t know that the Nine can accomplish. The House of Exile, however, are here to find a being called ‘The Giver’ — both will be a roadblock to your exploration of the world of Kepler, and will also potentially have some involvement in The Edge of Fate’s raid.
Mechanics
There are a few new mechanics in the world of Kepler that completely change the way that you solve puzzles and explore the wider world.
The first is the Matterspark mechanic, which essentially combines dark matter and Arc and lets you utilise dark matter to turn into an orb of energy and zip around, letting you fit into small cracks and spaces to find secrets and solve puzzles, with the Metroidvania influence fully shining through.
On top of this, there are other dark matter mechanics throughout the world that you can use throughout the world of Kepler, such as Mattermorph, which lets you combine dark matter and Strand move the environments of Kepler around to allow you to fully explore and find all of the secrets the mysterious world has to hide.
The final mechanic that was revealed was a dark matter-infused Void Fallen Teleporter Cannon that could be fired and then used as a teleporter to traverse Kepler and access new spaces and areas.
Renegades
The second expansion of the year, Renegades, is a homage to the world of Star Wars. It’s a traditional Destiny experience, but made in collaboration with Lucasfilm Games to get the feel and vibe of the Star Wars universe.
Renegades will have massive implications for the Destiny lore and for the Fate Saga, and will introduce characters and relationships that’ll shape the story that develops from there onwards.
Otherwise, we don’t know much else about it, but there will be a reveal stream prior to the December 2nd release date.
Major Updates
While we don’t know a lot about the two major updates of the year, we do know that the first of the two — Ash & Iron — will take us back to the Plaguelands from the Rise of Iron.
This could mean the return of SIVA, and possibly even the return of the Wrath of the Machine raid, but we’ll have to wait to see if Bungie will actually bring the beloved raid into Destiny 2.
Raids and Dungeons
Once again, not much has been revealed about the Raid and Dungeon that we can expect in the Year of Prophecy. Bungie likes to keep things under wraps, and so we won’t know much until we actually step foot into them.
However, we do know that The Edge of Fate’s raid will take place on 19th July, four days after the release of the expansion.
Otherwise, Bungie did mention the addition of possible Raid and Dungeon content in the two major updates, referring to Into the Light, but it could signal more Pantheon and Rite of the Nine-like events in the near future.
Gameplay and Changes
There are many gameplay and interface changes coming with The Edge of Fate, to the point that it feels like Destiny is entering a new era wholly.
Portal
The Portal system replaces the director and features a whole new menu and interface that will allow you to jump into the activities you want far more easily.
You can quickly launch into activities with the new Ops playlists, which give you whole new ways to play the game however you want:
- Solo Ops: These are designed for solo players who have a small amount of time and don’t want to depend on finding other players for activities. This is great if you don’t really want to invest much time, but still want to hop in and have fun.
- Fireteam Ops: This is for whole fireteams, but is still oriented around a quicker experience with easier modes.
- Pinnacle Ops: These are the more challenging missions that more experienced players are used to, like Nightfalls and Exotic Missions.
- Crucible Ops: The new home for Crucible activities, with the new ability to completely climb the power level tree with PvP only.
You can modify these ops with tiers, boons, and modifiers, increasing the challenge and the loot you earn. There’s even a new Ultimate difficulty that goes a step above the Grandmaster difficulty level.
Armor 3.0
Armor is being completely reworked for The Edge of Fate, being dubbed as Armor 3.0. There are a few major changes here, the biggest being the addition of Armor Sets.
As seen in games such as Genshin Impact, Armor Sets give you benefits for using two or four pieces of armor that match a set, meaning that it incentivises you to find and farm for good rolls of complete sets of armor instead of just having one set of armor that you transmog but otherwise is static.
For example, a set bonus that they’ve shown is —
2 Piece | Force Converter
After a final blow with any rocket or Grenade Launcher, sprint for a short time to gain Speed Booster.
4 Piece | Reactive Booster
Once per activation of Force Converter, sprinting while at critical health, being suspended, or being slowed by a Stasis effect will immediately grant Speed Booster for a short duration.
The other part of armor that they’ve changed is stats. This is a twofold change, as they’ve changed both the stats themselves as well as the limit for the stats. You can now have up to 200 in any given stat (with a new enhancement above 100), and the new stat categories are as follows:
- Weapons: Increases weapon reload speed and handling, and increases weapon damage against minor and major combatants | 100+: Ammo bricks from defeated targets have a chance to contain additional rounds, Increases weapon damage against bosses and opposing guardians.
- Health: Increases the amount of health you gain each time you pick up an Orb of Power. Reduces flinching from incoming fire while aiming a weapon. | 100+: Your shields recharge more quickly and have additional health when facing combatants.
- Class: Reduces your class ability cooldown. Increases the amount of class ability energy provided by all sources. | 100+: You gain an overshield when you use your class ability.
- Grenade: Reduces your grenade ability cooldown. Increases the amount of grenade energy from all sources. | 100+: Increases the damage done by your grenades.
- Super: Increases the amount of Super energy from all sources. |100+: Increases the damage done by your Super.
- Melee: Reduces your melee cooldown. Increases the amount of melee energy from all sources. | 100+: Increases the damage done by your melee attacks.
This is a massive shakeup and does mean that most of your current armor will probably become irrelevant as we reach the Year of Prophecy. But, hold onto your gear, as we don’t know if they’ll give us a way to use that gear for something greater than just a few glimmer.
Gearing and Tiers
On top of this, gear as a whole is going to change a lot as The Edge of Fate rolls around. Firstly, our Power Level is going to basically have a full reset back down to assumedly zero, meaning that we’ll need to ascend the ranks to full power once again.
Secondly, though, and more importantly, gear is now going to be tiered from 1 to 5, with higher-tier gear dropping from more challenging activities.
Higher-tier gear will roll more perks, will be Adept-style, and even have unique shaders and kill effects to show off that your gear is higher level. Armor will also get another energy at Tier 5, putting your max to 11. Unlike armor, though, it’s unclear how our current rolls of weapons will carry over — and so, don’t dismantle anything just yet.
We’ll find out more over the coming months and make a guide on what to keep and what to get rid of as we get closer to the release.
Shooting Range
Now, for damage testing, there will be a dedicated shooting range in the tower in which you can test your weapons and abilities, giving you an actual damage number with a scoreboard to compete with your friends.
Test against different enemies, races, and even jump into the range to try out close-range abilities and see your numbers.
Closing Time
The Year of Prophecy is looking like it’s going to be a vital time for Destiny, with a host of great changes to look forward to. If you’re looking to get stuck into Destiny again or want to face a new challenge, The Edge of Fate is the perfect place to start, with Renegades right around the corner.
For now, though, Rite of the Nine is here, and you can use our guide on Spire of the Watcher to catch up on the updates to the first week’s dungeon.
Otherwise, stay tuned, and see you as we get closer to exploring Kepler.