Warmind, the second of Destiny 2’s DLCs, has been revealed via a stream on Twitch. The stream opened with some interesting news, as the developers briefly hinted at new elements that will be coming to the game with the new DLC. While nothing concrete was set, they certainly tried to give the impression that it would involve some changes that would please the fan base.
The DLC will center around a new explorable location, based on Mars. Story wise, it will center around the newly awakened Rasputin, who is up to something mysterious. The polar ice caps are receding, and have revealed the hidden secrets of Mars. Along with the story, there will be new adventures, secrets to find, ranking shall return for multiplayer, and much more. A new NPC will also be introduced, in the form of Ana Bray. In Destiny lore, Ana Bray is a famed Gunslinger, and all we know right now is that she has something to do with the company that was operating on Mars.
Gameplay was shown, highlighting the interesting setting that combines the traditional red of Mars with snow and ice. The prologue cinematic was shown on screen, and it strongly hinted that we are going to see the return of the Hive as a major antagonist. The cinematic ended with Bray facing off against some form of monstrous beast, although we never got to see the nature of the threat.
In the next portion of the stream, Bungie focused on a new end game activity called Escalation Protocol. The developers described how their goal for this aspect of the game is to create a challenging activity that would keep players engaged. The event can be joined by anyone, even people outside of your Fireteam, and can be started at any time, unlike standard Public Events. The activity centers around an escalating fight against the Hive, in the form of a seven wave long horde mode. The final wave will be a boss fight, that will rotate each week. With five bosses total, and unique rewards for the activity and each boss, it certainly seems like something that players will engage with. The third, and fifth, waves will result in chests that contain loot, with the final boss delivering the best rewards. This will be an event that is exclusive to the DLC, not something that will be rolled into the rest of the game.
PvP will see the introduction of Valor rank for Quickplay, and Glory rank for Competitive. Valor will go up when you win, with no change when you lose, while Glory can be reduced with your losses. There will be new weapons available as you rank up, with some of them looking very powerful. Bungie finished up the stream with a look at some of the reworked Exotics. The original feedback on how Exotics felt was not that good, so the developers have worked hard to make them more impactful. These changes will be coming to Destiny 2 with the main patch for the Warmind DLC.
That was most of what I could glean from the stream. Like all reveals it was just enough to whet the appetite, while not really showing enough to make any hard and fast judgement on how the DLC might perform. We will do our best to keep you up to date on all Destiny 2 news, as it happens.
