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Lightfall launch trailer and new Quality of Life features revealed, from 28th February – PlayStation.Blog
With the upcoming release of Destiny 2: Lightfall on February 28th, Guardians are thrown into a new adventure as they prepare for the arrival of the witness and his apprentice Calus. Challenge and thrills await players in Lightfall – from brand new enemies like the formidable Tormentors to an immersive campaign, complete with a Legendary difficulty setting for those Wardens looking for the ultimate test of their skills.
Destiny fans got their latest look at Lightfall in the launch trailer, which debuted today during today’s State of Play. Take a look and whet your appetite for all the skeinweaving, destroying the Shadow Legion, and exploring Neomuna action to come:
Guardians don’t go into combat against Calus empty-handed. A new elemental damage type, Strand, lets players pull the strings of cosmic consciousness and use the weave to sow destruction and chaos against the enemies of mankind. There will also be a host of new weapons and armor to add to your Warden’s arsenal, including powerful Exotics, as well as a new Strand-able Grapple ability that gives Wardens movement options never before encountered in Destiny 2.
At Lightfall, the Destiny 2 team has also been hard at work developing a variety of gameplay improvements, armor customization, and more behind the scenes that will not only make your life as a Warden easier, but also more effective in combat.
Here we’re taking a look at some of the quality-of-life features coming to Destiny 2: Lightfall, to learn a bit more about how they’ve evolved in development and how Guardians can best take advantage of them once they’re done they reach the neon streets of Neptune’s hidden city of Neomuna.
Make a better guardian
Guardians are built for combat. Between powerful armor and abilities, and an arsenal of weapons that can only be described as “plentiful,” there are countless ways to design and customize a monster-killing machine that suits virtually any style of player. But arming yourself is only the first step. If you progress far enough in the game, you’ll come across mods – upgrades that can be added to weapons and armor that offer new perks and abilities. These mod effects stack to create a Guardian as individual as the person holding the controller.
Using mods to create a great build has been a part of the Destiny 2 experience for years, and with Lightfall the team aims to make the process of taking your Guardian to the next level easier than ever. They’ve achieved this through some major updates aimed at making buildcrafting more accessible without losing the complexity and depth that Destiny 2 players love.
There’s a lot to unpack with the updated buildcrafting system; from getting rid of the old mod energy system, to artifact mods being converted into passive perks, and more. Check out the recent post on Bungie.net for the key details on how mods will change the game in Lightfall. Let’s focus on two buildcrafting features in particular: mod customization and loadouts.
mod customization
Much like appearance customization revolutionized the way players can quickly and easily customize their Warden’s appearance, the upcoming mod customization feature will allow players to manage their mod collection with a dedicated interface that’s all in one mod-focused screen.
As Bungie’s Rodney Thompson explains, one of the main goals for the buildcrafting updates was to save time.
“[Previously] It took a lot of time for a player to go in and mod a build,” Thompson said. “And since the mods were spread across multiple armor slots, there was a very good chance that when you switched weapons, for example, you actually had to go in and switch five different pieces of armor because your mods weren’t set up properly.”
The new mod customization screen lets you navigate an all-in-one screen that shows all your mods and armor pieces at a given point in time, allowing you to quickly insert mods without having to click on individual armor slots. Additionally, you can easily access important information like your current weapon’s perks and stats without having to return to your character screen.
charges
If you’ve ever gone from a strike to a Grandmaster Nightfall to an epic raid in a single Destiny 2 session, you know that changing gear is a must for the seasoned Warden. While third-party apps have traditionally been a big help in shifting gears, Lightfall’s new Loadouts system aims to give players all that convenience without having to leave the game.
With Loadouts, you can swap out entire sets of gear (yes, even gear in your vault) on the fly, as well as save, label, and visually identify new Loadouts as they’re created. You start with six slots to store Loadouts in, and you can earn more as you complete additional Guardian ranks (more on that in a moment). You can also switch between loadouts mid-activity (excluding activities where your gear is locked, such as Grandmaster Nightfalls), not just from orbit.
Bungie UI designer Xavier Durand-Hollis explained that the loadouts and mod customization systems were designed for easy access, with each just a button press away from the character screen. “When you open your character screen, there are two buttons on either side that you can press using the directional keys. If you press left, the Loadouts panel will open. You press right into the character screen and then you can quickly access all of your different gear mods.”
By reducing the number of navigation screens, mod customization and loadouts were designed to save players time. “The time between conceptualizing a build and the time you play with it is much less,” Thompson said. “Basically, it means more time shooting aliens in the face.”
Up through the ranks
Another pair of new features for Lightfall – Guardian Ranks and Commendations – were designed with social gameplay in mind. At its core, Guardian Ranks are a visual shortcut that allows players to easily understand the experience and abilities of other Guardians they encounter. Players who complete activities in the game progress through the Guardian Ranks hierarchy as a natural result of the game, and some ranks are only available to those who complete specific activities such as Dungeons, Nightfalls, or Raids.
Destiny 2’s new Commendation system allows players to compliment Fireteam members after the end of an event or activity. Examples of commendations are Joy Bringer, Selfless, and Playmaker, each used to recognize positive qualities of gameplay and teamwork. Earning Commendations not only helps you reach the top ranks of the Guardian Ranks, but also lets everyone know that you’re a good person on their strike team.
Bungie Designer Steve Dolan said behind features like Guardian Ranks and Commendations is a lofty goal: to motivate the player to get better, not just in terms of their skills, but also in terms of… a person. “The reason you want a good one [Commendations] Score is because many of the highest ranks are about helping the community,” said Dolan. “You can get a pretty high Guardian rank just by being good at the game. If you want to reach the highest ranks, you need to be good at the game and make a positive contribution to the community. All of a sudden you have someone who says, ‘Yeah, I’m ninth, but I want to help that rank five because I want to get some awards and I really want to improve my score.’”
With its consistent focus on trying out new activities – from seasonal challenges to proven modes like Strikes and Nightfalls – the Guardian Rank system also serves as a handy tool for letting players know what optional activities are available to them as they progress would like . At the start of each season, players will be reset to Guardian rank six (assuming they achieved that rank in the previous season), and they will have to progress through seasonal and higher value content such as dungeons and raids to reach rank seven and above.
[With these systems in place] There’s this great gradual understanding of the systems of the game,” Thompson said. “You’ll have all your progression in the narrative and then you also add in the progression of the Guardian ranks where as you complete the challenges and then move up through the ranks you’ll learn the things you need to know as you go . It’s a huge improvement over the way we’ve done it in the past because now we can say there’s an evolution, there’s a logical next step.”
An epic new adventure filled with challenges, mysteries and thrills, all supported by a variety of features designed to make your life as a Warden not only easier, but friendlier too. It’s all coming with the release of Destiny 2: Lightfall on February 28th.
Play The Witch Queen for free this weekend
Destiny 2 fans can prepare for the release of Destiny 2: Lightfall by battling Savathûn and her Lucent Brood for free this weekend. From February 23rd to February 26th, The Witch Queen Standard Edition will be available to PlayStation players at no additional cost. The Throne World awaits, Warden!
