Destiny 2: The Final Shape

Destiny 2: The Final Shape
Cover art featuring the three Guardian classes (Hunter, Warlock, and Titan) with the Witness, a fleet of Pyramid ships, and the Witness's monolith in the Pale Heart of the Traveler in the background
Developer(s)	Bungie
Publisher(s)	Bungie
Director(s)	Joe Blackburn Tyson Green Catarina Macedo
Producer(s)	Chris Lang
Artist(s)	Dave Samuels
Writer(s)	Julia Nardin Adam Grantham
Composer(s)	Michael Salvatori Skye Lewin Josh Mosser Michael Sechrist Rotem Moav Pieter Schlosser Paul McCartney
Series	Destiny
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows PlayStation 4 PlayStation 5 Xbox One Xbox Series X/S
Release	June 4, 2024
Genre(s)	Action role-playing, first-person shooter
Mode(s)	Multiplayer

Destiny 2: The Final Shape is a major expansion for Destiny 2, a first-person shooter video game by Bungie. Representing the eighth expansion and the seventh year of extended content for Destiny 2 and 10th year of content for the Destiny franchise, it was released on June 4, 2024, after being delayed from its original February 2024 date. The Final Shape revolves around the player's Guardian seeking out the franchise's major villain, the Witness, who had disappeared through a portal that it created on the surface of the celestial Traveler at the conclusion of Lightfall (2023). The Guardian and the Vanguard must stop the Witness from creating the titular Final Shape—the calcification and destruction of all life in the universe—and end the war between the Light and Darkness, concluding Destiny's first major saga, the "Light and Darkness" saga. The expansion also sees the return of the character Cayde-6, who had been killed during the events of Forsaken (2018).

In addition to new super abilities for the existing Light subclasses, a new subclass, "Prismatic", was added, allowing players to combine and use Light and Darkness abilities in tandem. The expansion also added new content across the game, including new missions, Player versus Environment (PvE) locations, Player versus Player (PvP) maps, player gear, weaponry, a new raid, and the series' first-ever 12-player PvE activity.

Unlike prior years, Year 7 does not follow the seasonal model in which the year is divided into four seasonal content offerings. Instead, there are three large episodes to be released throughout the year, which are standalone experiences, and each episode is divided into three acts, telling the aftermath of the expansion. The episodes, titled Echoes, Revenant, and Heresy, were originally set to release in March, July, and November, respectively, but these were also pushed back due to The Final Shape's delay; Echoes began a week after the expansion's release on June 11 with Revenant released on October 8 and Heresy set for February 4, 2025. Two new dungeons will also be released over the year during the episodic content. This will be the only year to utilize the episodes as Year 8 will instead have two minor expansions with updates in between.

The Final Shape expands on the base Destiny 2 gameplay by adding a new free roam destination, the Pale Heart, located within the celestial being, the Traveler, with areas influenced by previous destinations explored throughout the history of the franchise. The destination is the first patrol zone that can be explored solo, unless a player has a pre-made fireteam.^[1] New and existing story content was expanded with a "Legendary" difficulty similar to that from the previous two expansion packs. Additional content for The Final Shape includes one new raid, "Salvation's Edge", which released on June 7, 2024, and takes place in the Witness's monolith in the Pale Heart, as well as two new dungeons which will be released during the episodic content throughout the year.^[2] Upon the world's first completion of Salvation's Edge, the game's first-ever 12-player activity was unlocked called "Excision", the final story mission of The Final Shape in which players take on the Witness for a final time.^[3]

The expansion introduces the first new enemy race since Forsaken (2018) called the Dread, who are the personal soldiers of the Witness. These include Grims, flying bat-like enemies that can shoot players from midair and can unleash a sonic scream attack to suppress and slow players; Husks, which are fast-moving and attack players using blades and unleashes a homing Geist enemy upon death; Attendants and Weavers, Cabal Psion-like enemies that respectively use Stasis and Strand powers; Subjugators, which are tall, slender, bipedal beings that use glaives that are split between Stasis-wielding Omens and Strand-wielding Harbingers; as well as Tormentors, a singular enemy type that was first introduced in Lightfall (2023).^[4][5]

The Final Shape introduces three new Light-based supers for each of the Guardian classes: "Twilight Arsenal" for Sentinel Titans, where they throw three Void axes at enemies which can be picked up by other Guardians from the ground; "Song of Flame" for Dawnblade Warlocks, where they imbue themselves with Solar energy to unleash unlimited powered melee attacks and grenades, similar to the Sunsinger Solar subclass in the original Destiny (2014); and "Storm's Edge" for Arcstrider Hunters, where they throw an Arc dagger at enemies and then teleport to it to unleash a spin attack.^[6] In addition, the expansion introduces a sixth subclass called "Prismatic", which combines both Light and Darkness powers together, allowing players to mix and match abilities and supers from the other five subclasses (Void, Solar, Arc, Stasis, and Strand). The Prismatic subclass introduces two meters that fill when damaging and defeating enemies with either Light or Darkness weapons and abilities; Kinetic damage charges both at a slower rate. When both meters are fully charged, players can activate a super-like ability called "Transcendence", which grants supercharged melee and grenade regeneration, increased damage resistance, and increased weapon damage. Players can also unleash unique grenades of combined elements depending on their class while Transcendence is active—Electrified Snare (Arc and Strand) for Titans, Freezing Singularity (Void and Stasis) for Warlocks, and Hailfire Spike (Solar and Stasis) for Hunters.^[7] Prismatic also features an increased number of Aspect and Fragment slots compared to the other subclasses.

The expansion also features the first appearance of exotic class items since the original Destiny's final expansion, Rise of Iron (2016), with one for each class. These exotic class items work specifically with the Prismatic subclass and can mix and match exotic perks from other exotic armor introduced in the game from across all three classes, allowing for further buildcrafting.

Other significant gameplay changes include:

• The Power level system received some major changes in The Final Shape. Activities now show if a player is Power enabled or Power disabled; for example, if an activity is Power enabled, there will be an indicator showing the activity Power cap and whether or not a player has reached that Power level cap for that activity. The Fireteam Power feature adjusts players' Power levels to five levels below the fireteam leader who has the highest Power level, allowing more players to play Power enabled activities regardless of their current Power level. Account-wide Power allows for gear to drop on any player's character with a Power level relative to the character with the highest Power level. As well, Power enabled difficulty modes were renamed (from lowest to highest difficulty) to Standard, Advanced, Expert, Master, Grandmaster, and Contest Mode. Upon release of the expansion, new and existing players' Power level was increased to the new minimum Power level of 1900, a soft cap of 1940, with the hard Power level cap set to 1990, and the Pinnacle reward cap at 2000.^[8]
• Bungie reversed weapon sunsetting that was first introduced in Beyond Light (2020) as a result of the new Power level system, allowing these weapons to be used in new content without penalties. Any legacy weapons players that dismantled were unable to be recovered, but Bungie plans to reintroduce sources for most or all legacy weapons and updating them to the latest sandbox with origin perks introduced in The Witch Queen (2022) as well as buildcrafting perks.^[9]
• A three-tier weapon enhancement system for non-craftable weapons was introduced as part of the weapon crafting system first introduced in The Witch Queen. Weapons obtained post-Season 17 from Vanguard Ops, Crucible, Gambit, Iron Banner, Trials of Osiris, the Prophecy dungeon, the 2024 Guardian Games event, the BRAVE weapons from Onslaught, and Adept weapons from the "Vow of the Disciple" and "King's Fall" raids, can now be upgraded with enhanced perks, and do not require visiting the Mars Relic for the enhancement process.^[10]
• Destination patrols, weekly vendor challenges, and the bounties from Vanguard Ops, Crucible, and Gambit were consolidated into a new "Pathfinder" system. The Pathfinder system gives players 20 objectives divided into five tiers to complete and progress through to earn rewards. At launch, two Pathfinder systems are available, one for ritual activities (Vanguard Ops, Crucible, Gambit, and Onslaught) and one for the Pale Heart destination.^[11]
• The player's HUD (heads-up display) and user interface were updated to better display critical information. Important activity information, such as wipe mechanics and modifiers, appear on top of the HUD beneath the player's health bar. Weapons-related information, such as active weapon perks, appear above the subclass Super meter. Buffs and de-buffs continue to appear on the left hand side of the HUD.
• Legendary shards, which were first introduced during Year 1, were depreciated at the launch of The Final Shape, to make it easier and more fair for all players to purchase in-game items. As well, fully masterworked exotic armor pieces can now be further upgrade to include an artifice armor slot, which costs an exotic cipher and 10,000 Glimmer. Bungie also increased the amount of vault space by 100, bringing the total vault space to date to 700 spaces.

Episodes are Bungie's delivery model of ongoing content released during Year 7, replacing the seasons that had been utilized since the Forsaken expansion. Previously, each year of content was divided into four seasons, typically lasting three months each (excluding delays), with the year's first season releasing simultaneously with the expansion, and the seasons narratively tied the previous expansion into the next expansion. For Year 7, there are instead three large episodes released over the course of the year. Each are standalone stories told in three acts, and each one explores the aftermath of the events of The Final Shape. There is also more content and rewards than in the seasons. Although the episodes replaced the previous seasonal model, there are still season passes for each episode with a free-tier and paid-tier of rewards—the season passes also increased to having 200 levels of rewards instead of 100, with the first 100 available in Act 1, the next 50 accessible in Act 2, and then the final 50 obtainable in Act 3.^[12] The episodes for Year 7 are titled Echoes, Revenant, and Heresy, focusing on the Vex, Scorn and Fallen, and Hive, respectively.^[13]

Episode: Echoes began a week after the launch of The Final Shape on June 11, 2024; Act 2 began on July 16 followed by Act 3 on August 27.^[14] This episode's story focused on the Vex on the centaur Nessus, and took place shortly after the events of The Final Shape campaign, the "Salvation's Edge" raid, and the "Excision" activity. The player worked with the Exodus Black artificial intelligence Failsafe to investigate what was causing Nessus and the local Vex to change under the influence of the Echo of the Witness that landed on the planetoid. Each act of the episode added new three-player activities: Act 1 added an arena called Breach Executable, where a fireteam investigated the disturbances on Nessus and collected data before facing one of three final bosses, as well as an activity called Enigma Protocol in which a fireteam infiltrated the Vex Network in an attempt to stop the Vex from stealing Golden Age data; Act 2 added three Battlegrounds—Delve, Conduit, and Core—where a fireteam battled Vex, Fallen, Shadow Legion Cabal, and Taken to progress from the surface of Nessus to its planetary core; and Act 3 added the exotic mission, "Encore", taking place in Nessus's core and awarding a craftable special ammo auto rifle, Choir of One. The artifact featured during this episode was the Hunter's Journal (with perks focusing on close- to long-range weapons and Void, Solar, and Arc abilities).^[15]

Episode: Revenant began on October 8, 2024; Act 2 will begin on November 19 and Act 3 on January 7, 2025. The soft Power level cap was raised to 1950, the hard cap to 2000, and the pinnacle reward cap to 2010. The episode focuses on the Scorn and the Fallen/Eliksni; the player works with Mithrax, Kell of Light, his daughter, Eido, and Crow as they face the Archon of the Scorn, Fikrul, the Fanatic, who has taken over an Awoken Watchtower in the Reef and has seized an Echo of the Witness, causing the Scorn to change under its influence. Additionally, the Eliksni are trying to find a new home after the Witness destroyed their home world of Riis several millennia ago. A tonic-crafting system was also introduced, where players can create tonics that provide different combat buffs and boost certain artifact perks and influence what loot drops are received.^[15] Act 1 added a new version of the Onslaught horde mode activity introduced in Into the Light called "Onslaught: Salvation", in which a three-player fireteam defends the Active Defense Unit (ADU) from up to 50 waves of Scorn, Shadow Legion Cabal, and Vex enemies; every sixth wave sends the fireteam into a Scorn nest to rescue Eliksni captives, while every 10th wave features a boss. New defenses such as airstrikes and a manual turret (previously seen in the original Destiny), as well as new maps are featured in this new Onslaught variant. In addition to new non-craftable weapons, including those reprised from Season of the Splicer (Season 14), the weapons from the "Garden of Salvation" raid from Shadowkeep were updated with new perks and can be crafted at the Mars Relic. A new dungeon, "Vesper's Host", was released on October 11, 2024, and featured the Contest Mode difficulty during the launch weekend (Contest Mode difficulty was initially only reserved for Grandmaster Nightfall strikes and for the launch weekend of new raids). The artifact featured during this episode is the Slayer Baron Apothecary Satchel (with perks focusing on close- to mid-range weapons and Void, Arc, and Stasis abilities).

Episode: Heresy is set to begin on February 4, 2025, and will focus on the Hive, specifically the relationship between the Hive pantheon (Oryx, Savathûn, and Xivu Arath). This episode will see players returning to the Dreadnaught ship from the original game's The Taken King expansion, where an Echo of the Witness has made impact and causing it to change under its influence.^[15]

This section's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. Please help improve it by removing unnecessary details and making it more concise. (June 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

The Final Shape centers on the Witness, the main overarching antagonist of the Light and Darkness saga (which began with the original Destiny) who was first introduced at the end of The Witch Queen. The Witness is an extremely powerful, primordial being of Darkness that commands the Black Fleet, and is the product of an entire species having merged into one entity and a single gestalt consciousness through the mastery of the Darkness. It has spent eons chasing the Traveler as part of its eternal pursuit to impose "salvation" upon all reality through the titular Final Shape—the calcification and destruction of all life in the universe. The Witness has been ultimately responsible for humanity's Collapse, as well as for the destruction of countless civilizations across the universe throughout millennia, either by its hand or through the actions of its Disciples and other servants, such as the Hive.

During the events of Lightfall a year ago, the Witness and the Black Fleet attacked the Traveler in Earth's orbit, where it was granted a vision of the Veil, the counterpart of the Traveler, on Neptune; the player's Guardian was sent to the human city of Neomuna on Neptune to locate the Veil and defend it from Emperor Calus—the newest Disciple of the Witness—and his Shadow Legion Cabal; however, after Calus's defeat, the Witness used the Light from the Guardian's Ghost to perform an uplink with the Veil, allowing the Witness to use the Veil's power to open a portal on the Traveler's surface and enter its Pale Heart to begin enacting the Final Shape. During Season of the Deep, the proto-Worm God Ahsa revealed to the Guardian the origins of the Witness, and that Savathûn, the Witch Queen, needed to be revived in order to find a way into the Pale Heart. During Season of the Witch, the Guardian forces Immaru, Savathûn's Ghost, to revive the Witch Queen, who reveals a 15th wish (from the Wish Wall of Forsaken's Last Wish raid) upon her resurrection that could be granted by the spirit of the deceased Ahamkara Riven of a Thousand Voices in the Dreaming City. During Season of the Wish, the Guardian retrieves Riven's clutch of eggs as part of a deal with Riven to grant the wish, allowing singular passage into the Pale Heart; Crow volunteers to go through the portal and unlock the way for the Guardian and the Vanguard due to his connection with his sister, Queen Mara Sov. During Into the Light, while awaiting contact with Crow, the Last City comes under attack by the Black Fleet and the forces of the Witness, prompting the Guardian and the Vanguard to utilize Lord Shaxx's personal collection of powerful and dangerous weapons and gear to defend the Last City. The Guardian then returns to the Black Garden at the behest of Osiris, where they discover that the Sol Divisive Vex had recreated the Black Heart (revealed to be a failed replica of the Veil created by the Witness) in a final attempt to prevent the Guardian and the Vanguard from passing through the portal, and the Guardian destroys it once again; meanwhile, Crow successfully passes through the portal and arrives in the Pale Heart, where he is greeted by the spirit of Cayde-6, who initially attacks Crow but relents as he discovers Crow is a Guardian and not his murderer Uldren Sov.

The Final Shape begins shortly after the events of Season of the Wish and Into the Light. The Guardian, Commander Zavala, and Ikora Rey take their jumpships through the portal on the Traveler against the Awoken Queen Mara Sov's advice, as the portal is unstable. Upon entering the portal, the Guardian crash lands in its threshold, while Zavala and Ikora somehow manage to make it through. Mara guides the Guardian as they make their way through the threshold while the Witness attempts to retaliate using the Taken and the Dread, the Witness's personal soldiers of Darkness. Soon after, the Guardian manages to pass through the threshold where the Traveler gives the Guardian a vision where the Witness is infecting it with Darkness, and arrives at its Pale Heart, an otherworldly dimension inside the Traveler where its locations are shaped by the memories of those dwelling in it due to the terraforming powers of the Light. The Guardian explores the Pale Heart, noticing that it has taken the form of the Last City and the old Tower, and picks up a Vanguard signal which they follow. The Guardian soon discovers a well of both Light and Darkness powers combined within the Vanguard command center, which grants the Guardian the power of Prismatic, allowing them to use both their Light and Darkness powers in tandem. The Guardian later discovers the signal in the old Tower's main courtyard, and defeats the Dread using their newfound Prismatic powers. The Guardian soon discovers the spirit of Cayde-6 in the former Speaker's chambers, astonished that the former Hunter Vanguard is alive. Cayde explains to the Guardian that Crow had gone on ahead deeper into the Pale Heart to scout the area but has not returned.

Heading deeper into the Pale Heart into a further manifestation of the Last City called the Lost City, the Guardian and Cayde discover that Crow ended up getting separated from his Ghost, Glint, upon entering a small cave corrupted by the Witness. After defeating Cabal Shadow Legion forces as well as the Dread, the Guardian enters the cave to search for Crow, where the Witness attempts to sway the Guardian to its side. The Guardian finds Crow in front of a veiled Darkness statue similar to ones found in the Pyramids of the Black Fleet, and Crow is reunited with Glint. At a nearby campsite in a manifestation of the Dreaming City, Crow explains to Cayde that the Witness was tempting him to join its side, and that its spreading corruption throughout the Traveler is affecting Ghost as well. The Guardian, Crow, and Cayde then resolve to find Ikora, where she had crash landed near a manifestation of the Io Cradle. After fighting through Hive under the control of Xivu Arath, the Hive God of War, they have an emotional reunion with Ikora, where she tells the Guardian that the Traveler is screaming out in pain due to the Witness's corruption to bring forth the Final Shape. The Guardian, Crow, Cayde, and Ikora then set out to find Zavala—they find him in a manifestation of his family home on Earth, where Zavala's Ghost, Targe, explains to the Guardian that Zavala is also being tempted by the Witness, claiming it can bring his wife Safiyah and his son Hakim back from the dead. After fighting off the Fallen of House Salvation, a mysterious, dark voice reaches out to Zavala through an effigy of Safiyah, until Ikora snaps him out of it.

With the Vanguard finally back together, the Guardian, Cayde, and Crow then go through a snowy manifestation of Old Russia and the Cosmodrome and scale its Wall, fighting Sol Divisive Vex along the way. Crow reveals to Cayde that he wished to Riven during Season of the Wish to bring Cayde back to life and that he also used the 15th wish granted by Riven to cross the portal into the Traveler's Pale Heart, and asks Cayde not to tell Zavala and Ikora. The Guardian soon arrives at a manifestation of the Cosmodrome beyond the Wall where the Guardian was first resurrected back in the original Destiny, but also discovers that the Witness's corruption is much more apparent with its monolith much closer in proximity. In a fissure of Light located where the Guardian's remains were originally discovered by Ghost, the Guardian is blessed with a new Light super by the Traveler, which they use to take down an army of Taken. Cayde and Crow soon decide to find a way to commune with the Traveler after this revelation; the Guardian, Cayde, and Crow find a similar Light fissure in one of the Lost Sectors hidden in the Pale Heart, where they are assisted by an allied Lucent Hive Wizard named Luzaku, who reveals that she and other Lucent Hive stowed away inside the Pyramids that entered the Pale Heart with the Witness. Cayde communes with the Traveler through the Light fissure, where he is granted a vision of his Ghost, Sundance, who recites the Guardian creed. The Guardian presses forward towards the Witness's monolith, going through a mountain pass filled with Ahamkara bones and a manifestation of a city belonging to the Witness's origin species, the Precursors. Zavala then begins acting strangely amongst Ikora, Cayde, Crow, and the Guardian, declaring that he would give himself to the Darkness in order to defeat the Witness; he goes off alone without Targe as Ikora, Cayde, and Crow try to stop him, fearing that the Witness has manipulated him through the veiled statues.

The Guardian decides to go after Zavala with Targe, who decide to commune with the veiled statues to find out how to defeat the Witness and what they had communed to Zavala. As they fight through Scorn forces, the Guardian and Targe discover that the veiled statues are actually dissenting Precursors that are currently bound to the Witness but also imprisoned in statue form as they did not agree with the Witness's cause; these statues commune to Targe and the Guardian, demanding that they must "give [themselves] to Darkness" and that they must free them. The Guardian, Cayde, Crow, and Ikora soon catch up with Zavala, who enters a realm of Darkness to confront the Witness directly. The Witness explains to Zavala its origins (as previously explained in Season of the Deep), while the dissenters whisper to Zavala that "what was made can be unmade" and to meet them at the site of where the Witness was created. The Witness then destroys Targe as it tries to convince Zavala to join its cause, only to be pulled out of the realm by Ikora, Cayde, Crow, and the Guardian.

Despite Zavala now left Lightless due to Targe's destruction at the hands of the Witness, the Vanguard, Crow, and the Guardian press forward towards the manifestation of the Sacrarium, the ritual site where the Witness was created, now armed with the knowledge on how to defeat the Witness once and for all by using the Light to break the Witness apart. The Vanguard, Crow, and the Guardian fight through Dread and Taken forces to reach the Sacrarium, formed from the Witness's memories, while the Witness tries to convince the Guardian to abandon the Light and join its cause as a Disciple, while Mara flies the H.E.L.M. into the Pale Heart to assist in the battle. Upon arriving at the ritual site, the Witness arrives to confront the Guardian directly. The Traveler then grants the Guardian an exotic sword of pure Light called Ergo Sum; the Guardian is then teleported into the Darkness, where the dissenters beg the Guardian to destroy them with the sword of Light to damage the Witness, but the Witness soon "cuts" the Guardian out after they do so. Heavily wounded, the Guardian flees the Sacrarium and transmats onto the H.E.L.M. to escape, followed by Zavala, Ikora, Cayde, and Crow as the Witness, now wounded, transforms into a towering, grotesque being. Mara then declares to the Guardian that while the Witness may have won for now, she had brought the Imperial Cabal under Empress Caiatl, the Eliksni of House Light under Mithrax, Kell of Light, the Awoken of the Reef, and a Hunter named Micah-10 into the Pale Heart to join and prepare for the inevitable final battle against the Witness in its monolith. She advises the Guardian to continue cleansing the Witness's corruption within the Pale Heart and weaken its hold on the Traveler and to prepare themself for the final battle against the Witness.

Shortly after escaping the Witness from the Sacrarium, the Guardian works with the members of the allied forces in preparation for their raid on the Witness's monolith. The Guardian, Crow, and Mara discover that Savathûn and her Lucent Hive have managed to enter the Pale Heart. The Guardian, with Mara and Luzaku's assistance, drives back the Lucent Hive, Taken, and Dread by releasing Taken energy and shifting fissures of Light into their own reality for Mara to use to help the Traveler, while Savathûn continuously taunts Mara and the Guardian. Shortly after, the Guardian assists Zavala and Caiatl in preventing the Shadow Legion from harvesting Light from the Traveler, and later assists Ikora and Mithrax in preventing House Salvation from extracting paracausal energy from the Tree of Silver Wings, leading them to a battle of revenge against Korha the Hollow, Mithrax's nemesis who killed his mother Inaaks. The Guardian also assists Micah-10 in rescuing lost and wounded Ghosts throughout the Solar System and within the Pale Heart, as well as assisting Cayde and Crow in dealing with the Scorn. Following this, the Guardian is returned to the Sacrarium by the Traveler, which grants the Guardian the Ergo Sum exotic sword to prepare for the upcoming final showdown.

With final preparations complete, a Guardian raid fireteam storms the Witness's monolith to face the Witness directly and defeat it before it completes the Final Shape ("Salvation's Edge" raid). The Guardians enter the monolith by channeling and pulsing Darkness resonance while facing Sol Divisive Vex and then defeat the Herald of Finality and its army of Taken. They continue fighting their way up, channeling and pulsing resonance, confronting dark statues of themselves, and defeating the Dread, Shadow Legion Cabal, Xivu Arath's Hive, and Scorn along the way. The Guardians eventually reach the monolith's apex, where they finally confront the Witness, which has transformed into a gigantic, god-like form and revealed to be the monolith itself, and manage to weaken it, shattering its hold on the Traveler.

Shortly after, Zavala (now wielding Stasis to replace his lost Light) leads the combined allied forces and Guardians into the Pale Heart in one last charge ("Excision" activity). The Guardian, alongside the raid fireteam and countless other Guardians, again enters the Darkness to destroy the Witness's dissenting voices, crippling the Witness even further. Ghost then sacrifices himself to channel the Traveler's power through him in a great burst of Light, destroying and unmaking the Witness once and for all and preventing the Final Shape. The Guardian pleads with the Traveler to bring Ghost back, but Cayde appears and makes the choice to sacrifice his Light and consciousness to resurrect Ghost. The people of the Last City reflect on and celebrate their victory after 10 long years of war between Light and Darkness, but Crow, who has now succeeded Cayde as Hunter Vanguard, knows that even with the Witness dead, there are still its remaining forces at work—the Taken and the Scorn are now without direction, House Salvation has fallen into a schism with Eramis's whereabouts unknown, Xivu Arath has gone into hiding, while Savathûn and her Lucent Hive are trying to make a stronghold in the Pale Heart. In addition, a strange aurora of Prismatic energy called the Valence has begun emanating from the Traveler, and discharged three objects—Echoes of the Witness—out towards the orbital track of Nessus, the Reef in the asteroid belt, and the dormant Dreadnaught in the rings of Saturn.

Shortly after humanity's victory against the Witness, Ikora Rey sends the Guardian, Saint-14, and Osiris to Nessus, where one of the Echoes of the Witness that was discharged from the Traveler, known as the Echo of Command, had made impact, and they are contacted by the Exodus Black artificial intelligence Failsafe, who advises the Guardian that the Vex are starting to change due to the influence of the Echo that landed on the planetoid. The Guardian meets up with Failsafe in the ruins of the Exodus Black, where she advises the Guardian to destroy the Vex quarantine preventing her from making scans. After breaking the quarantine for Failsafe, the Guardian heads to the impact site of the Echo, where paracausal Prismatic energy is radiating from the crater. The Guardian then activates a nearby data array for Failsafe to scan the area, but comes under attack by the Vex. After destroying the Vex, the planetoid all of a sudden begins to "heal" itself with Vex architecture and seal off the impact crater. Saint then advises Failsafe that she would be uploaded to the H.E.L.M. thanks to Osiris's efforts.

The Guardian meets up with Saint, Osiris, and Failsafe in the H.E.L.M., where Failsafe reveals that from her scans, the Vex had responded to the Echo's impact, but a new yet distinct signal emerged from the impact site which the Vex also began to respond to. Failsafe then asks the Guardian to return to Nessus and gather more data for Failsafe to analyze in order to determine what is happening with Nessus and the Vex in the wake of the Witness's death. The Guardian eliminates Vex, Shadow Legion, and House Salvation forces on Nessus and gathers data for Failsafe to decipher, then later gathers samples of a new material named radiolite and a unique specimen that was revealed after a minor quake. They bring the samples and specimen back to Failsafe in the H.E.L.M. for further examination; Failsafe then tells the Guardian that based on the data collected, Nessus has been undergoing strange changes in its environment with the Vex acting strangely due an unknown force emanating from the Echo of Command.

After collecting more samples from Nessus, Osiris summons the Guardian to the H.E.L.M., where he advises them that Saint has gone missing and has not responded to any of his comms. The Guardian returns to the Well of Flame on Nessus, where they fight through an army of Vex that have now shown tactical and strategic prowess similar to that of the Cabal and Fallen. Failsafe then manages to isolate Saint's comms, where Saint starts murmuring that he does not belong in this timeline and a "new Golden Age is coming, free from falsities like [him]". The Guardian takes down the Vex and Lydrion, Symphonic Mind, and Ikora snaps Saint out of his trance-like state after mentioning Osiris. The Guardian and Ikora take Saint back to the H.E.L.M., where he reveals that a mysterious being that was controlling the Vex on Nessus known as "the Conductor" began brainwashing him into thinking he is a lie and that the real Saint-14 was not meant to live. Ikora and Osiris reassure him that he is real and they know him well, but Saint requests to be alone due to the Conductor's voice still attempting to manipulate him.

A few weeks later, the Guardian speaks with Ikora in the Tower, who reveals to them that the Echoes of the Witness that were discharged from the Traveler's Pale Heart are in fact memories of the civilizations that were annihilated by the Witness and the Black Fleet, taken physical form due to the powers of the Light. As one of these objects of immense power landed on Nessus, the Conductor was granted the ability to take full control the Vex there to carry out its will. Ikora sends the Guardian back to Nessus to enter its depths to follow the draining radiolaria deep below the planetoid's crust and find out what the Vex and the Conductor are building in its core. The Guardian lands on Nessus and fights their way through Vex and Fallen House Dusk forces and enters the Well of Flame to head deep below the surface of the planetoid, hoping to find where all of the drained radiolaria has gone. They eventually find Kalliks, Baron of House Dusk, and kill him to release a Vex Hydra, Hypolydron, Captive Mind, and destroy it for Failsafe to extract and decipher data from its tail in order to find way further deep into Nessus and learn of the Conductor's motives and to recover the Echo of Command.

After assisting Failsafe in obtaining Vex code mutations to further decipher the data from Hypolydron's remains, the Guardian returns to the Nessian caverns where they had defeated Kalliks and Hypolydron and delve deeper into the planetoid, following the flow of radiolaria while defeating Shadow Legion Cabal along the way, who have also taken interest in the Echo alongside House Dusk. The Guardian arrives in a giant radiolaria aqueduct complex, but is prevented from going deeper by Kamarian, Radial Overseer, which the Guardian eliminates. Unable to follow the radiolaria further into the planetoid, Failsafe asks the Guardian to return to the H.E.L.M., where Saint then contacts the Guardian, explaining how the Conductor was whispering to him and causing his existential crisis. Failsafe then advises the Guardian to release nanobots in the planetoid's radiolaria so she could track its movement; through the nanobots, she discovers that the radiolaria is actually being redirected to the planetary core of Nessus. Returning to the aqueduct complex where the Guardian had destroyed Kamarian, the Guardian fights through Vex as well as Taken forces (which are free from the Witness's control following its death but are now being drawn to the Conductor's influence) as they make their way towards Nessus's core; however, they are stopped from entering the core by Antioptes, Hypogean Sentinel, which they destroy. The Guardian is then summoned by Ikora, who advises them that Failsafe has devised a plan to open a portal directly to the Conductor itself, but will require centuries worth of Vex data that can be retrieved from the mind of Saint-14's corpse in the Infinite Forest on Mercury (as previously seen at the end of Curse of Osiris), which poses a huge risk for the Guardian and Saint himself.

The Guardian, Saint, and Osiris then return to the Nessian depths where the Guardian had defeated Antioptes, with the way to the planetoid's core now fully unlocked. Osiris reveals that while Saint's tomb is located in the Infinite Forest on Mercury, they could still access it through Nessus as the Vex use the planetoid as an archive and digital storage. The Guardian unlocks the way into the archived version of the Infinite Forest and into the tomb of Saint-14. Saint interacts with his corpse, merging his current memories with those of his past self and giving him renewed conviction, while Failsafe uses the data to locate the Conductor. After defeating Agioktis, Archived Mind, the Guardian, Osiris, and Saint enter the core of Nessus, where they confront the Conductor, revealed to be Maya Sundaresh of the Ishtar Collective. Saint orders Maya to stand down, but Maya declares that she will use Nessus's radiolaria through the Echo of the Witness to bring about a Golden Age where everything is turned to Vex under her control. The Guardian, Osiris, and Saint then flee as Maya commands her Vex to attack them. At the Tower, Saint advises the Guardian that Failsafe is working to reestablish access to Maya's stronghold at the core of Nessus.

Several weeks later, Failsafe intercepts a transmission from Maya Sundaresh, who explains her history with her wife, Chioma Esi, and how she destroyed her relationship with Chioma by becoming obsessed with the Veil and finding the perfect timeline in the Vex Network in which she and Chioma could live peacefully in a Golden Age in Maya's own image. Failsafe advises the Guardian that she had overridden the Vex security in Nessus's core, allowing the Guardian to return there and stop Maya from bringing forth her Golden Age through the Echo of Command she possesses and the radiolaria she redirected to the core. With guidance from Osiris and Ikora, the Guardian returns to the Nessian core and makes their way through while facing heavy resistance from both Maya's Vex and Shadow Legion Cabal under the leadership of Yirix. The Guardian defeats Eexonios and Iziira, Pyramid Remnants, and the Shadow Legion forces as they go deeper into the planetary core, finding themself in an Ishtar Collective research facility containing dozens of kit-bashed and degaussed Exo frames of Chioma from different Vex simulations that Maya was experimenting on with Vex technology. There, the Guardian finds a disturbing recording of Maya killing Chioma after she fails her fidelity test. Osiris assumes that Maya is using Chioma as a baseline to find their Golden Age among the simulations. The Guardian then enters the heart of Nessus's core, where they take down an army of Maya's Vex led by Parodos, Choral Mind; after defeating Parodos, Osiris concludes that Maya was not just commanding the Vex on Nessus, but also taking control of the entire collective and using the radiolaria with Chioma as collateral to search for her Golden Age within the Vex Network. The Guardian then returns to the H.E.L.M. and speaks with Ikora, who advises the Guardian to continue working with Failsafe to get back into the Nessian core and put an end to Maya's search for her Golden Age; they then receive a message from Maya, who attempts to sway the Guardian to her side.

Saint later contacts the Guardian on behalf of Osiris, ordering them to return to Maya's laboratory to discover what she is trying to achieve. After the Guardian acquires data from Exo bodies on Europa, they return to Maya's lab and find another recording of Maya testing and discarding another copy of Chioma, leading Osiris to conclude that Maya was searching for a perfect version of Chioma who agreed with her vision. After the Guardian defeats Stasimon, Choral Mind, Osiris contacts them at the H.E.L.M., remarking that he sees a dark reflection of himself in Maya, of what would have happened to him if he had not found Saint and instead became consumed by obsession. Afterwards, he passes the Guardian another recording of Maya, revealing the extent of her obsession with finding her ideal Chioma, and concludes they must find the real Chioma to convince Maya the error of her ways. Ikora then contacts the Guardian and suggests that they find the real Chioma first as they cannot counter the Echo of Command directly. Ikora sends the Guardian to Neomuna where Failsafe obtains Chioma's signature from her logs in the vault containing the Veil; the Guardian then installs a Vex network relay in the city as a contingency for Failsafe. The Guardian returns to Maya's lab in Nessus's core a final time and locates the real Chioma's Exo frame, where Chioma speaks to Maya directly, vehemently condemning her actions before Maya degausses her again. Angered by Maya's cruel treatment of Chioma and her blind and arrogant obsession with finding her Golden Age, the Guardian takes down Exodos, Choral Mind, and confronts Maya directly with Saint and Ikora. Maya uses the Echo of Command to force Ikora, Saint and the Guardian into submission, but they break free of her grasp and retaliate, forcing Maya to retreat into the Vex Network with the Echo.

The Guardian returns to the H.E.L.M., convening with Saint and Failsafe; Saint hopes that Maya, now in the Vex Network, will abandon her search for her ideal Chioma but fears that she may already be beyond reason. Failsafe then advises the Guardian that she had detected a temporal anomaly in the Bray Exoscience facility on Europa; the Guardian heads there and finds the anomaly, revealed to be a Vex simulation. Maya speaks through the anomaly, where she condemns Chioma. The Guardian then locates several other anomalies in Nessus's core, where they get a glimpse of the lives of the other copies of Maya and Chioma scattered within the Vex Network.

Following Maya Sundaresh's defeat on Nessus and her escape with the Echo of Command into the Vex Network, the new Hunter Vanguard Crow contacts the Guardian, who had received a distress call on Europa, where the Fallen of House Salvation had come under attack by a new breed of Scorn led by Fikrul, the Fanatic, the Archon of the Scorn who had re-emerged after disappearing since the events of Forsaken, and that Mithrax, the Kell of House Light, had fallen gravely ill due to the curse of Nezarec, Final God of Pain, infecting him since the end of Season of Plunder. As Fikrul and the Scorn were created by Crow (as Uldren Sov) due to a wish granted by the deceased Ahamkara Riven of a Thousand Voices, he would personally deal with and rectify the situation with the Guardian's help. The Guardian lands on Europa under orders not to attack any House Salvation civilians as well as to detain Eramis, Kell of Darkness, who had returned to Europa to fight off the Scorn. The Guardian fights through Scorn forces to reach Eramis and discovers that these new Scorn were created from living Eliksni captives instead of using Dark Ether to create Scorn from Eliksni corpses. Fikrul then appears before Eramis and the Guardian, wielding a second Echo of the Witness, and declares that he now wields the Light; Crow discovers that the Echo granted Fikrul the power to turn living Eliksni into his new breed of Scorn by mutating the Ether in them. Eramis tries to flee from the Guardian after encountering Fikrul, but is cornered by the Guardian and Crow, who negotiates her arrest. Eramis is then detained and taken onboard the H.E.L.M. by Crow, who promises he would grant the innocent House Salvation civilians refuge in the Last City.

At the H.E.L.M., Eramis sends forth her Ketch in an attempt to escape, but is once again cornered by the Guardian and Crow. Fikrul suddenly appears in front of the War Table, addressing Crow as Uldren and declaring he had obtained the power to turn all Eliksni into Scorn through the Echo of the Witness. Proclaiming himself as Kell of Kells, Fikrul then uses the Echo to convert the Fallen on Eramis's Ketch into Scorn and rams the Ketch into the H.E.L.M., causing major damage and forcing Failsafe to crash land the H.E.L.M. on Europa; it was later salvaged by the Vanguard and taken back to the Tower for repairs. The Guardian then arrives in the Last City's market district, where Eido welcomes them into her tonic shop. Eido advises the Guardian that she has been researching and creating tonics from old Eliksni records from their home world of Riis to find a cure for her father and to aid the Guardian in their fight against Fikrul and his new Revenant Scorn army birthed from the Echo. The Guardian then speaks with an ailing Mithrax, as well as Variks, the Loyal, who states that Eramis—now incarcerated in a correctional facility underneath the market district—may be also be able to assist in searching for a cure, and tells Mithrax to trust in his daughter. Mithrax then tells the Guardian about the Slayer Barons, powerful Eliksni warriors who are capable of stopping the most dire threats to the Eliksni race; he begs the Guardian to stop Fikrul and rescue Eliksni captives before he turns them into Scorn, and proclaims the Guardian as his Slayer Baron for House Light, giving them the Slayer Baron Apothecary Satchel to assist them in the battles to come. Variks then contacts the Guardian, who regrets his actions that led to Cayde-6's murder by Uldren in Forsaken and reassures them that he will assist Eido in her research and Scribe duties.

Eido then speaks to the Guardian, who reveals that Eramis knew of Eliksni apothecaries who could assist with her tonic research. She then advises the Guardian that she gave Crow coordinates to a House Salvation enclave in the Tangled Shore in the Reef that may need rescuing, which Eramis then confirms. The Guardian and Crow head to the enclave on the Tangled Shore, already overrun by Fikrul and his Revenant Scorn. Fikrul then speaks with Crow, still addressing him as Uldren, declaring that he and Crow can rule together thanks to his efforts with the Echo of the Witness. Crow then tries to convince Fikrul to let the Eliksni captives go and to stop converting them into Scorn, but Fikrul realizes Crow is no longer Uldren and commands his Revenant Scorn to attack him and the Guardian. The Guardian and Crow defeat the Revenant Scorn and then rescue the remaining House Salvation captives and take them to the Last City. Variks then contacts the Guardian who advises them that there are Eliksni prisoners somewhere in the Reef that could help Eido, but is interrupted by a transmission from Fikrul, who swears to the Guardian that he will kill them. Mithrax then reaffirms his and Eido's faith in the Guardian, until Nezarec's curse briefly takes him over and sinisterly warns the Guardian that "the time is at hand".

During these events, the Guardian is contacted by the Spider, who has now relocated to the Last City's market district inside a bar called Variisis Core just next to Eido's tonic shop. Spider informs the Guardian that one of his agents was sent to investigate a derelict Clovis Bray orbital station in Europa's orbit for salvage but had lost contact, fearing that House Salvation may have killed them, and the Guardian heads there to investigate ("Vesper's Host" dungeon). The Guardian makes their way through the derelict orbital station, facing heavy resistance against House Salvation forces and discovering a mysterious anomaly in the form of a Vex portal controlling and corrupting them. After restoring power to the station and defeating the Prime Servitor Raneiks Unified, the Guardian discovers that one of Eramis's former lieutenants, Atraks-1 (who was thought to have been defeated by a Guardian raid fireteam during Beyond Light), is alive but changed by the anomaly, turning her into a grotesque being called the Corrupted Puppeteer. The Guardian defeats Atraks-1 once and for all and shuts down the anomaly, securing the facility from further threats from House Salvation.

In June 2020, Bungie announced three expansions for Destiny 2: Beyond Light, The Witch Queen, and Lightfall, set for November 2020, late 2021, and late 2022, respectively.^[16] However, in February 2021, it was announced that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the crowded release window of the fall, The Witch Queen had been delayed to February 2022, thus pushing Lightfall back to February 2023. Another expansion, The Final Shape, was subsequently announced for early 2024 as Bungie felt that they needed one further expansion to wrap up the story of Destiny's first saga called the "Light and Darkness" saga.^[17] The Final Shape was originally scheduled for February 27, 2024; however, on November 27, 2023, after rumors of a delay following layoffs at Bungie the month prior, the developer announced that the expansion had been delayed by over three months to June, as they needed more time to deliver on their vision for the expansion. The three episodes for Year 7 were originally planned for March, July, and November, respectively, but were also pushed back with Echoes to release a week after the expansion on June 11, and then Revenant and Heresy tentatively releasing in October 2024 and February 2025, respectively.^[18]

Following the death of Lance Reddick, who had voiced Commander Zavala, Keith David was brought in to voice Zavala for The Final Shape and future Destiny content.^[19]

The Final Shape was released on June 4, 2024, for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S platforms.^[20] It is available as paid downloadable content (DLC), and there are various versions of the expansion. Pre-orders for any edition included immediate access to the Tessellation exotic fusion rifle (as early as Season 22 in Year 6), as well as a Ghost shell, emote, two emblems, and an exotic ship. The standard version includes access to the expansion and first episode Echoes. "The Final Shape + Annual Pass" bundle includes the expansion plus access to all three Year 7 episodes, a dungeon key to access the two dungeons to be released during Year 7, the premium track of the season pass for each episode, and an exotic sparrow. All of the content can also be purchased separately. There is also a physical collector's edition which includes "The Final Shape + Annual Pass" bundle as well as a replica of the original Tower from the original Destiny, among other items.^[21]

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The Final Shape received critical acclaim upon release.^[22]