Destiny 2: Shadowkeep and beyond — the ultimate guide

With the release of Shadowkeep and New Light, Bungie has ushered in an entirely new era for Destiny 2 and the Destiny franchise. We created this centralized hub for you to find all our Destiny 2 coverage, including guides, tips and tricks, and anything in between.

Return to the dark

Destiny 2: Shadowkeep expansion

Nightmares are born

Shadowkeep is the start of a whole new chapter for the team at Bungie. Expect huge new bosses, new raids, new moves, and oh so many new weapons and armor.

The Shadowkeep expansion

Shadowkeep is the latest expansion for Destiny 2 and features some familiar places and faces, with a lot of new twists. It starts on the Moon, where Eris Morn has been getting into trouble yet again. That's right, Eris has been alive and well since the fall of the Tower and has been scouring the solar system looking for the Darkness. She found it on the Moon.

The Moon has been altered since we were last there in Destiny 1. There are still familiar places, the Hellmouth, for example, and a lot of the map you'll see in Shadowkeep is based on the original game. It's around three times the size, though, and now there is an enormous fissure running through the entire planet. In fact, in the artwork that has been shown, you can see the glowing chasm from the Earth, although no one seems to have noticed.

There is also a large red keep that has emerged from the crack, and in it are things that Eris calls Nightmares, visions from your past, sent to torment you. In the trailer, we catch glimpses of some of these monsters — Crota features quite prominently, as does Oryx — and they seem to have been beefed up and are far more terrifying.

You can expect the Shadowkeep to be a scarier, more serious expansion than the last few. Eris Morn always brings some gravitas to the game whenever she arrives, and this seems to be no exception. You can expect to see creepy caves with things that leap out of the darkness.

Read our review of Shadowkeep here.

What about raids?

Based in the Black Garden, the birthplace of the living robots, The Vex, this new raid looks to be a strong entry into Destiny 2 pantheon of high-powered content. The raid was first completed in an epic six-hour and 30-minute speed run, that had the first raid team win ahead of the second-fastest by just two minutes.

The raid can be accessed via the Moon and houses some interesting secrets about the future of the game. It even has some extra quests that are not raid related.

When does the Shadowkeep raid start?

Guides and tips

Destiny 2 has become bigger than ever, and we want to be the place you come for help when playing the game. To that end, we will be creating guides to some of the content that isn't as intuitive as it could be. We will update this regularly, so keep coming back to check for more help.

Seasons in the shadow

Now that Bungie is no longer in the shadow of a certain publisher, it has the chance to change its financial model to something different. Taking cues from a lot of the modern games, Destiny is moving to a seasonal pay structure. So instead of dropping $80 on an annual pass, Bungie will ask for small amounts of money now and then as new seasons arrive. Think how Fortnite and Dauntless do it, $10 every 40 days or so. Bungie's seasons will likely be longer, but it's the same idea.

This way, people can pick and choose the content they want to have, and the content will continuously be evolving. This change is happening alongside Shadowkeep but independent from it, so you will be able to buy Season eight of Destiny 2 without buying Shadowkeep, but whenever you decide to buy it, you will get a season free with that purchase.

The first season, called "The Undying," is all about the Vex and adds a new game mode called the Vex Offensive. It's a little like a horde mode with waves of Vex to destroy before fighting a big boss.

5 tips and tricks to help you conquer Destiny 2's Vex Offensive mode

What is cross-save?

Cross-save is exciting for someone like me, who plays on multiple systems. Essentially, you will have your progression saved across all formats of the game. Whether you play on Xbox, PC, PlayStation 4, or the new Google Stadia, all your progress — think power level, loadout, and level progress — will sync across all platforms you play Destiny 2.

An important note, however; this is cross-save, not cross-play. You won't be able to play with your friends over on the PlayStation 4 while you play on the Xbox One, you have to be on the same console for it to work. While this isn't as perfect — I have an entire clan I can't play with because I'm on a different console — it does open the chance to be on an even playing field if you do decide to shift consoles.

How to set up cross-save in Destiny 2

New home on PC

Bungie also had some more big news. Now that the company isn't part of the Activision Blizzard beast anymore, Destiny 2 on PC needed a new home. The guys on the live stream made a funny joke about its new home being an "Epic Store," but in fact, Destiny 2 is exclusively available on Steam.

This makes a lot of sense for Bungie. Steam is still the biggest place for games on PC, and Bungie has said that the transition will be quick and painless for all the PC players already entrenched in the game.

How to claim your Bungie Rewards engram

What's an artifact?

Artifacts are linked to the progression in each of the seasons. Each artifact will be unique and will offer you boosts, armor mods, and even armor that you can use throughout the season.

The first artifact was the Gate Lord's Eye, and is given to you at level seven of the "Season of the Undying." It has some excellent modes, my favorite being the barrier-breaking bullet mod. It allows your weapons to penetrate barriers and shields.

Finish Him!

Another new move coming to Shadowkeep is the finishing move. A finishing move is an awesome, stylistic final blow to an enemy you have hit with a melee strike. They showed a Titan jump into the air, pull his fist back, look at the fist, then smash the enemy to the ground. It was amazing.

Finishers are simple to execute. You will see a glowing orb above the head of an enemy that is ready for a finisher. All you need to do is run over and push in the right thumbstick to execute your move. Be careful, though; some enemies explode when you are close, and you can't escape the blast when you finish them.

Becoming the MMO it truly is

To make Destiny into the MMO we all know it is — Bungie even called it an MMO, something it has never wanted to say before — the team at Bungie is going to be completely reworking how your armor works in Shadowkeep. Eric Osbourne, Head of Community at Bungie, talked about how, right now, players have to choose between an armor set they like the look of and an armor set they want to use because it's helpful.

Bungie has changed that with an expanded mod system that will let you customize your armor in ways you've never seen before. This is something I have wanted to do for years, and it signifies a big leap forward in the Destiny 2 journey for me. Finally, I can be the Guardian I wish to be.

The future of Destiny

With all this new content and new mechanical changes, it looks like Bungie is investing heavily in its plans for the future of Destiny 2. There was a lot of talk of Destiny as a living universe, one that is continuously evolving. It makes me think that maybe Destiny 3 is further off than we thought and that Bungie has a different idea for how we play its games in the future.

Destiny 2 Shadowkeep and New Light are as close to Destiny 3 as we are going to get for a long time, and that's ok

What about new light?

New Light — now just called free to play — is Bungie's way of enticing new players into the Destiny Universe. It's free to play and has a vast amount of gameplay for you to dive into, including masses of multiplayer activities and storyline. We have a tremendous amount of information about New Light that you should check out if you want to try Destiny without heavy investment.