Bungie has announced that when The Witch Queen expansion for Destiny 2 launches, more content will be getting vaulted. This time it’s content from Destiny 2’s first expansion, Forsaken.
For context, Bungie has started to place old content from Destiny 2 into what they call the Destiny Content Vault (DCV). What it means is that old content will be inaccessible, essentially removed, to make way for new content, with the promise that these will come “unvaulted” sometime in the future.
This practice started last year with the Beyond Light expansion, where most content from Year 1 of Destiny 2 (including the main campaign and the three DLCs pre-Forsaken) were vaulted.
When The Witch Queen, Year 5, these content will be vaulted:
- Forsaken campaign
- The Tangled Shore destination
- Year 4 Seasonal content (except Battlegrounds activity, Proving Grounds and Warden of Nothing Strike)
The Last Wish Raid, the Shattered Throne dungeon, and all Forsaken Exotics gear will remain in the game when Witch Queen launches, accessible still if you have the Forsaken expansion, or if you purchase the new Forsaken Pack.
The Forsaken Pack is granted to everyone who purchased the Forsaken purchase before the vaulting. The pack also includes three Forsaken ciphers for you to immediately Forsaken exotics, which is replaced into Ascendant Shards should you already own all the unlockable exotics.
In addition, Master Rahool in the Tower will allow you to exchange currency replacing the Spider, since the Tangled Shore will be vaulted.
Bungie made it clear that this is the cost in continuing to update Destiny 2 as a live game rather than making a sequel, and in the post expressed how vaulting gave them “a great deal of technical ‘breathing room’ that the team has devoted to important improvements to the Destiny experience”.
Faster patch response times, faster loading, faster UI are some of the direct benefits of putting old content into the vault.
However, this should also reinforce the idea that Destiny 2 is a live game where you need to be there right now to experience it in full. Wait too late and some content will be gone. Like an evolving MMORPG, something that Bungie so much aspires this game to be. But the yearly subscription is replaced with buying a new expansion and season pass every year.
There’s still one more chance to experience the Forsaken campaign, which sees a tragic end to an important character (and the origin story of a new one). The Forsaken campaign will be free for everyone to play through from December 7 to February 2022.
Destiny 2 The Witch Queen expansion releases on February 22, 2022.
Source: Bungie