So, the long-awaited Destiny 2 expansion is already here. It’s the right time to overview all novelties and changes Lightfall brought us. Please buckle your seat belts and prepare for the flight.
Destiny 2 The Lightfall Release
The Lightfall DLC is the fifth major expansion of Destiny 2, announced after the Witch Queen DLC, launched on February 28, 2023.
When Destiny 2: Lightfall will release in your time zone:
- 9 a.m PT for the west coast of North America
- 12 p.m. ET for the east coast of North America
- 6 p.m. CET for western Europe / Paris
- 5 p.m. GMT for the U.K.
- 2 a.m. JST on March 1st for Japan / Tokyo
As in previous times, this expansion brings a lot of significant changes and fixes. The Lightfall expansion is introducing a new campaign, newly available planet Neptune with the planetary destination Neomuna, a new subclass in Strand, and in a few weeks, a new raid for six players. Also, we already know about loadout and mod managers, the new Guardian Ranks progression system, new armor, and some more.
By the way, the Bungie.net development team has launched a huge report on all the new features and fixes, but we will tell you about the most significant in our opinion and worth your attention.
The Lightfall Legendary Campaign
In Lightfall, players will gain access to the planet Neptune, and a new element of Darkness, which the Guardians will explore, will be the Strand. One of the main enemies will be the Witness – you saw him in the final Destiny 2: The Witch Queen expansion.
In addition, the expansion will return the former Emperor of Cabal Calus – he fell to the Darkness and, along with his followers, descended on the Guardians. They must gather all their forces to confront the “renewed” Cabal and their lord, and disrupt all the plans of the Darkness to arrange a second Collapse.
This new campaign has an additional Legendary difficulty. Starting the Lightfall campaign, you might choose whether you want to “Be Brave” or “Become Legend”, in other words – Classic or Legendary difficulty. But you can change your mind any moment, just find the campaign node on Neomuna’s director screen and select the drop-down in the lower right corner.
The Legendary Lightfall campaign rewards:
- Gear set fixed at 1770 Power level
- Lightfall Exotic armor
- 300 Strand Meditations
- 8 Upgrade Modules
- Unique Triumph and Emblem
Don’t forget that, just like in The Witch Queen, you should get a second (standard for Legendary difficulty) chest after each encounter to raise your chances of getting good loot and reaching the soft cap faster.
And, of course, Neomuna’s planetary destination, the hidden city on Neptune, will delight with a public event for six players and Lost Sectors. Neomuna’s celestial city will be navigable with cat hooks, one of the many innovations of the DLC.
The Lightfall Additions
The bigger part of the Ligthfall novelties is already available, but some of them will be there later:
- Strand subclass;
- New exotic items to unlock, for example, Quicksilver Storm, an Auto Rifle, that turns into Rocket Launcher that turns into Grenade Launcher that you could get for preorder (soon will see how it works), and four brand new exotic weapons;
- A new raid launches on March 10;
- The Season of Defiance, starting along with the Lightfall DLC, will launch a battle pass and a weekly storyline on Earth.
System Changes and Quality of Life additions:
- The base power level is increased to 1600, even for the sunset items;
- All armor is now universal and not tied to an energy type. Any mods can now be inserted into any armor. Armor mods are now based on weapon damage type;
- Artifact mods become passive perks that are always equipped once unlocked (until the season ends);
- Build crafting is now much easier. You can save your favorite builds and switch them with the click of a button – Loadout and mod managers will help you;
- Weapon tuning changes;
- Weapon crafting adjustments;
- Umbral Engrams are replaced with Seasonal Engrams;
- Iron Banner will return three times per season;
- An increase in difficulty and challenge across many endgame challenges;
- Ada-1 sells vintage shaders from previous years, and Zavala can use your engrams to create Vanguard-specific weapons and armor, including Nightfall weapons (after unlocking). Also, you can buy previous season weapons and armor from all vendors. You can get the Trust Legendary 180 RPM Hand Cannon from the first year of Destiny with new perks;
- Chance to get well-known The Immortal Legendary Submachine gun and the Astral Horizon Legendary Shotgun;
- In Monument to Lost Lights, you can buy ornaments for Pinnacle weapons. Finally, you can obtain every Gambit ornament hahaha =)
And last but not least, the thing many of us like best: chasing perks. The most desirable perks, since they have been redesigned to work with Strand, are likely to be:
- Osmosis
- Golden Tricorn
- Elemental Capacitor
In addition, some currencies and items have been removed, and some we will miss, but crafting, for example, will become easier – now you can buy crafting components for Glimmer and Enhancement Cores.
And here’s where our enthusiasm is slightly cooled by the news that along with increasing the complexity of the content, we have significantly nerfed many abilities and increased the base cooldown time of abilities and grenades, which means that it will be even harder to play, but it’s much more interesting, isn’t it?
The Lightfall Abilities Changes
| Hunter | Titan | Warlock | |
| Supers | Arc Staff, Golden Gun: Marksman, Golden Gun: Deadshot, Spectral Blades
Increased the maximum number of Orbs that can be created via defeating targets from 5 to 7. Spectral Blades Reduced base cooldown time from 10m25s to 9m16s. Gathering Storm, Silence, and Squall, Blade Barrage Decreased the maximum number of Orbs that can be created via defeating targets from 7 to 5. |
Fists of Havoc
Increased the maximum number of Orbs that can be created via defeating targets from 5 to 7. Increased PVE damage by 20%. Glacial Quake Increased the maximum number of Orbs that can be created via defeating targets from 5 to 7. Hammer of Sol Increased the maximum number of Orbs that can be created via defeating targets from 5 to 7. Reduced base cooldown time from 10m25s to 9m16s. Burning Maul Increased the maximum number of Orbs that can be created via defeating targets from 5 to 7. Sentinel Shield Increased the maximum number of Orbs that can be created via defeating targets from 5 to 7. Thundercrash Decreased the maximum number of Orbs that can be created via defeating targets from 7 to 5. Reduced maximum flight time from 5 seconds to 4.5 seconds. Reduced size of the damaging volume around the player and pushed it further forward in front of the player to make drive-by disintegrations more intentional. Reduced detonation size vs. players by ~20%; unchanged vs. PVE combatants. Downward vertical influence now begins earlier in flight. Ward of Dawn Ward maximum health reduced from 13500 to 8000. Rescaled PVE combatant damage vs. the Ward to compensate; in general, Ward of Dawn’s effective HP against PvE combatants should not meaningfully change. Standardized the damage dealt by each type of Kinetic and Energy weapon against the Ward. Previously, Energy weapons did 2.5x damage to Ward of Dawn and Kinetic weapons did 1x damage. Now regardless of damage type, weapons do 1.5x damage to the Ward. Armor of Light has been updated to reduce its potency in PVP: Maximum health reduced from 425 to 300. Now inherits Void Overshield’s 50% PvE damage resistance to compensate. No longer negates precision damage. |
Stormtrance, Nova Warp, Winter’s Wrath
Increased the maximum number of Orbs that can be created via defeating targets from 5 to 7. Daybreak Increased the maximum number of Orbs that can be created via defeating targets from 5 to 7. Throw cost reduced from 10% to 6.5% per swing. Increased damage vs. PvE combatants by 25%. Reduced base cooldown time from 10m25s to 9m16s. Chaos Reach, Nova Bomb Decreased the maximum number of Orbs that can be created via defeating targets from 7 to 5. |
| Class Abilities | Marksman’s Dodge, Gambler’s Dodge
Reduced base cooldown time from 46s to 38s. |
Phoenix Dive
Reduced base cooldown time from 82s to 55s. While Daybreak is active Phoenix Dive’s cooldown is significantly reduced, allowing for rapid reactivations. While Daybreak is active, Phoenix Dive’s detonation damage increased from 40/80 min/max to 100/220. Restoration duration when activated while Heat Rises is active increased from 1s to 3s. |
|
| Melees | Weighted Throwing Knife
Increased base cooldown time from 109s to 137s. Lightweight Knife Increased base cooldown time from 90s to 100s. Proximity Explosive Knife Increased base cooldown time from 100s to 111s. Withering Blade Reduced base cooldown time from 113s to 100s. |
Ballistic Slam
Now suppresses the attacking player’s base melee for 0.9s after landing, so a follow-up melee cannot be performed until the player returns to first person. Increased base cooldown time from 90s to 114s. Shield Bash Increased base cooldown time from 90s to 114s. Seismic Strike, Hammer Strike Increased base cooldown time from 90s to 101s. Shield Toss Reduced base cooldown time from 100s to 91s. |
Celestial Fire
Increased base cooldown time from 100s to 112s. Incinerator Snap Reduced base cooldown time from 90s to 83s. Penumbral Blast Reduced base cooldown time from 114s to 101s. |
| Aspects | Knockout
Reduced basic melee damage bonus vs. players from 60% to 50%. Reduced full body melee damage bonus vs. players from 25% to 20%. |
Heat Rises
Split the airborne effectiveness bonus previously granted by consuming your grenade between a passive and active benefit: Previously, granted 70 airborne effectiveness when Heat Rises was active after consuming a grenade. Now grants 20 airborne effectiveness passively while Heat Rises is equipped, and an additional 50 airborne effectiveness while Heat Rises is active, for the same total of 70 airborne effectiveness. |
The Lightfall Grenades Changes
| Arc | Solar | Void | Stasis |
Lightning grenade:
Storm grenade:
Flux grenade:
Pulse grenade:
|
Healing grenade:
Tripmine grenade:
Solar grenade:
Thermite grenade:
Incendiary grenade:
|
Void Spike grenade:
Voidwall grenade:
Vortex grenade:
Magnetic grenade:
Scatter grenade:
|
Duskfield grenade:
|
It looks pretty sad, but we’ll get used to it.
On the other hand, Bungie pleased us with some new fragments (and a lot of changes).
The Lightfall new Fragments
| Arc | Solar | Void |
| Spark of Instinct: when critically wounded, taking damage from nearby enemies emits a burst of damaging Arc energy that jolts targets (Jolts now can stun unstoppable champions). | Ember of Mercy: when you revive an ally, you and other nearby allies gain Restoration. Picking up a Solar Flare grants Restoration. | Echo of Cessation: finisher’s final blows create a burst of Void damage that causes nearby enemies to become volatile. Defeating volatile targets creates a Void breach. |
| Spark of Haste: you have greatly increased Resilience, Recovery, and Mobility while sprinting. | Ember of Resolve: Solar grenade final blows heal you. | Echo of Vigilance: defeating a target when your shields are depleted, grants you a temporary Void overshield. |
Okay, that’s probably all we can tell at the moment about what we think is important and worthy of attention. But we’ll be sure to add more information and keep you updated on all the important things in The Lightfall DLC and the Season of Defiance.
And remember, Overgear.com is always happy to help and be with you from the beginning till the defeat of the Darkness.
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