What you need to know
- Destiny 2: The Final Shape, the final expansion in the game's decade-long "Light and Darkness Saga," is scheduled to launch on June 4 — exactly one week away, at the time of writing.
- Earlier in May, I was invited to a press event in which Bungie developers previewed the expansion by showing off a handful of missions and answering some questions about the DLC.
- During the event, Destiny 2 game director Tyson Green confirmed to me that players will have access to additional Loadout slots in The Final Shape. These allow you to save builds and switch between them with a single button press, with the system automatically swapping your subclass, weapons, armor, and mods.
- More Loadout slots couldn't come at a better time, as The Final Shape is introducing Prismatic — a special "multiclassing" subclass that allows players to use and combine abilities from various other subclasses. With more Loadouts, buildcrafting with Prismatic will be much easier.
When the penultimate expansion in the decade-long Destiny 2 "Light and Darkness Saga," Lightfall, launched in February last year, it was fiercely and widely criticized for its lackluster story campaign, disappointing endgame raid, and the underwhelming state that Strand — the new Darkness subclass it introduced — released in. One thing fans of Bungie's space fantasy looter shooter praised universally, though, was the Loadout system Lightfall added. With Loadouts, players can save up to 10 builds per character and switch between them with single button presses, with the system automatically changing subclasses, Aspects and Fragments, weapons, armor pieces, mods, and even chosen fashion ornaments and shaders so you don't have to do so manually.
With its highly customizable subclasses and an ocean of different viable Exotics and weapons to choose from, buildcrafting in Destiny 2 has never been deeper and more rewarding than it's been in the Lightfall era. And thanks to Loadouts, it's also never been easier to keep track of your builds and all their components. I've used them extensively over the past year, and as a player that enjoys figuring out engaging and effective ways to battle the Darkness, I've fallen in love with the way they enable creative buildcrafting. The only issue I've ever had with Loadouts is that you're limited to 10 of them on your characters, but Bungie is finally addressing that in The Final Shape DLC launching next week.
Destiny 2 game director Tyson Green confirmed more Loadout slots are coming to the shooter earlier this month during a preview event I was able to attend, in which the developers showed off gameplay for a handful of The Final Shape's campaign levels and a new three-player Strike. Green went on to note that the additional slots won't be difficult for players to unlock; currently, to get all 10 of the ones available right now, you have to reach Guardian Rank 8 and then complete a Legend or Master Lost Sector by yourself without dying.
An extra set of Loadout slots couldn't come at a better time, as The Final Shape's premier gameplay addition — a "multiclassing" subclass called Prismatic that will allow players to use and combine abilities from multiple different subclasses — was built from the ground up to be a buildcrafter's dream. The base subclass I can confirm you'll get access to early in the expansion's campaign has a wealth of different Aspects, Fragments, and abilities to choose from, and Prismatic buildcrafting will be taken to an entirely new level when the DLC's new Prismatic-exclusive Exotic class items with two randomly rolled Exotic armor perks start dropping.
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As Bungie confirmed earlier in May, earning these Exotic class items will be possible "at the beginning of Week 2" (June 11 at 10 a.m. PT / 1 p.m. ET), after The Final Shape's upcoming new raid is beaten once it's made available on June 7. You'll be able to farm them from a new activity that will be unlocked at this time, with each completion of it giving you a guaranteed drop.
It's worth noting that by linking your Destiny 2 account to the popular third-party web app Destiny Item Manager (DIM), you can save as many loadouts as you want and switch to them at any time, as DIM hooks into the game's application programming interface (API). However, DIM's loadout swaps are slower than in-game ones, and there are times where DIM isn't functioning properly due to maintenance or strain on Destiny 2's servers. Because of this, I've always preferred using Bungie's in-game Loadout system, and am very happy that the studio is expanding it.
The Final Shape itself looks to be the biggest and boldest Destiny expansion ever made, which is arguably exactly what Destiny 2 needs to cap off the Light and Darkness Saga after Lightfall's extremely poor reception. It will take Guardians inside of the Traveler itself as they pursue the Witness and attempt to thwart its plan to converge the Light and Darkness into what it calls "The Final Shape," defined as "a nightmarish calcification of reality into the Witness' twisted design" that will freeze and end all life in the universe. The DLC is set to release on June 4 — exactly one week away at the time of writing.
Along with a full story campaign, a new raid, an explorable destination within the Traveler called "The Pale Heart," and the Prismatic subclass, the expansion will also feature a new arsenal of armor, weapons, and Exotics to collect, along with a fresh race of Darkness enemies to fight known as the Dread. Later in The Final Shape era, there will also be three Episodes, which will focus on the Vex, Scorn, and Hive respectively and are replacing Destiny 2's seasonal releases. Like seasons, they'll have additional story content and gear to chase, and each one will be split into three distinct acts.
Destiny 2 is one of the best Xbox games and best PC games for fans of multiplayer and looter shooters, and The Final Shape — the final expansion in the Light and Darkness Saga — looks to be the biggest DLC that Bungie's popular live service game has ever gotten. Notably, it's available to preorder now.
