Everything You Need To Know About The First Expansion For 'Destiny 2' (Updated)

Update, 12/5/2017, 9:40am PST: Bungie finished its Destiny 2 maintenance earlier than expected so you can try the new expansion now. The studio also released patch notes, which you can read here.

Original story, 12/5/2017, 9:30am PST:

After a maintenance period today, Bungie will release “Curse of Osiris,” the first of two planned expansions for Destiny 2. Before you continue the journey on Mercury, here’s a few things you need to know about the new content.

To Mercury

The expansion will be available after Bungie’s maintenance session, which starts now and ends at 2 p.m. PT. In the meantime, you can pre-load the downloadable content (DLC), but make sure you have adequate space on your storage drives. The studio said that you should have at least 68GB of free space during the pre-load. PlayStation 4 and Xbox One players need 88 and 44 GB of space, respectively.

When the maintenance period is over, you and your fireteam can explore Mercury, which is infested with the time-traveling Vex. You’ll encounter Sagira, the Ghost companion of the famed warlock Osiris, who needs your help in taking out the Vex threat. The partially organic foes transformed Mercury for their own purposes and added a “reality engine” to replace the planet’s core. The player level cap will be raised to 25 and the overall power level is up from 305 to 330, which means you’ll have to find more powerful weapons to take on the endgame activities.

The main hub on Mercury is the Lighthouse. In this area, you’ll find a vendor, Brother Vance, who provides Prophecy Tablets quests. These are special missions that require you to participate in multiple activities to obtain specific materials. Once all the required materials are gathered, you can put them in the Forge, which is also located in the Lighthouse, to create one of twelve unique weapons.

Just like other planets, Mercury will also have its fair share of activities. This includes the largest public event in Destiny 2 to date as well as Adventure quests. Bungie is also providing an additional incentive to try Adventures by giving them Heroic modifiers, which makes them even more difficult to complete in exchange for offering better rewards. The modifier also extends to the three-player Strikes, but if you want an even tougher challenge you can try the new Raid Lair. According to Bungie’s livestream, the six-player activity is just as challenging as the usual Leviathan Raid. However, it doesn’t as long to complete the new activity.

Updates

In addition to the DLC, players will also receive the first batch of major updates today, which contains new and improved gameplay features. This week, players will see an increase in tokens rewarded for specific activities, changes to the weapon Mod system, and the return of armor ornaments. If you want a guaranteed Legendary item, you can visit Rahool in the Tower to purchase engrams.

Next week will see the addition of Masterworks weapons, which are Legendary-tier weapons with a random bonus Mod. You can also use your hard-earned tokens from multiple activities to purchase specific weapons and gear from different vendors. When playing Strikes or Crucible matches with your friends, you can now use new consumable items that will give you better rewards. Xur, the Exotic engram vendor, also has new features in the form of Fated Engrams,which should reduce the chance of acquiring duplicate items.

At some point next year, Bungie plans to introduce even more updates to the game in an effort to give fans a reason to play every day. This includes better rewards for Prestige activities, Adventure quests, and Lost Sectors. Player-versus-player fans will also get some new features such as private matches and ranked play. Those who leave a Crucible round before it ends will also receive a penalty, which should encourage everyone to fully participate in gameplay even if they’re losing.

Moment Of Truth

The launch of “Curse of Osiris” is a make-or-break moment for Bungie. Players weren’t happy about the base game’s approach to endgame content in multiple ways. This included the new token system, the types of engrams rewarded in activities, and most recently, the amount of experience points granted after Public Events or Crucible matches. By releasing new content along with major updates, Bungie is hoping that players, specifically the hardcore fans, will be satisfied with the changes.