Destiny 2: Shadowkeep takes the idea of Forsaken’s Annual Pass and splits it up into different chunks. Year 3 of Destiny 2 is spread across four Seasons that players must purchase to enjoy Seasonal Activities, exclusive cosmetics and special Exotic quests. Each season will set you back $9.99, though the first season, Season of the Undying, is free for everyone who purchases Shadowkeep.

Seraph bunkers and towers are unique to Season 10, most likely set to disappear after season of the Worthy's completion. Ranking up seraph bunkers gives players a bonus in firepower in the seraph tower public event as well as within the legendary lost sectors. Tier 2-3 Gear can be earned from leveling up the bunkers and the ability to complete bounties that reward seasonal weapons. Story-wise, players have yet to observe the fruits of their labors for pumping thousands of Warmind bits into the bunkers, but fully upgrading all 3 of them will award the individual triumphs for each bunker as well as "Full Stack Warmind Security" for the collective completion. The quest reward for all 3 bunker completions is the shaders Midnight Expert and Valkyrie Zero, the Knight of the Old Guard emblem, and the Absalom Knife ship. There are other Seraph triumphs rewarded for completing all the legendary lost sectors, seraph tower completions, and clearing the bunkers of enemies. All these triumphs work toward obtaining the Almighty Seal that players can show off in-g

Cloudstrike is like a smaller Thunderlord in the Special Weapon slot. It has a lot of the same utility, but with the trade-off of being a Sniper Rifle as opposed to a Machine Gun. What this translates to is a Sniper that functions in both single-target sustained damage and ad-clear on lower damage thanks to its lightning stri

For damage, Precision Instrument bumps the damage up to 25% with enough hits. The gun isn't by any means a must-have, but high-end players will want one of these around for when Void Surge is active, where it really pushes past the competit

Since its launch in the fall of 2017, Destiny 2 has led an interesting life that it turns out is going to extend far beyond that of its predecessor. A couple of weeks ago, Bungie revealed their long-term plans for Destiny 2, announcing major expansions for the game going all the way into 2022 at the very least. Instead of being on its way out, Destiny 2 may indeed only be halfway through its lifespan. With that in mind, perhaps now is a good time to look back and see how the game has grown since its dismal launch week.

The dreaded Eververse store is back and Bungie really wants you to know about it. Previously, the store was relegated to the Tower and completely skippable. That’s no longer the case as Bungie has slapped the storefront into the Director, a menu players need to frequently bring up.

Silver is Destiny 2’s premium currency that can only be purchased with real-world money. Meanwhile, Bright Dust was introduced as an in-game currency that would allow players to earn Eververse items without Silver. With Shadowkeep, however, Bungie has significantly neutered what players can buy all while increasing the amount of Bright Dust players can earn. Items purchasable with Bright Dust are hidden away in a less-than-stellar menu. Only a few items are available at a time with new ones rotating in every few hours.

There’s no beating around the bush that Destiny 2 was a disaster. Bungie has owned up to their mistakes and the result is Destiny 2: Forsaken. While it’s not cool that it’s taken $140 to get here (and Prismatic builds more if you splurge on microtransactions), Destiny 2: Forsaken presents Destiny 2 with its much-needed reset. The campaign is compelling enough thanks to its excellent boss design, though Uldren lacks the history to be a strong antagonist. The new locales are a joy to explore and provide a nice change in pace compared to the vanilla worlds. Gambit is an exciting new mode, but, like the Blind Well, is heavily dependent on what kind of teammates you have. Destiny 2 needed something to save it and Forsaken bought it a new lease on life.

As a fan of Halo-era Bungie and of Destiny in general, it sucks having to point this out now that Bungie has finally shown some signs of passion for Destiny. Forsaken has all the hallmarks of a product that’s had some real love and care put into it, and the team behind it deserves all the praise and kudos that they’re currently enjoying for it. If it manages to meet the sky-high expectations this past week’s reveal has no doubt inspired in the Destiny community, then they’ll deserve even more. Forsaken and it’s team aren’t the issue here, but rather Destiny in general and specifically Bungie’s incessant need to squeeze its player base for all they’re worth. It can be done better. It is being done better by several others. So what exactly is Bungie’s excuse for treating their fans like a bunch of simpletons with bottomless wallets? Do they even think they need one? Hopefully they’re not that far-gone, but since they’ve been employing these same practices for almost three years now and are now escalating even further, refuting such an impression is difficult to say the least.