Destiny 2: Activities New Players Should Do Before Final Shape

Highlights

• Begin your journey in Destiny 2 with the New Light Quests for essential gear, tips, and iconic locations.
• Explore the Timeline Reflections for valuable lore insights and a deep dive into Destiny 1 and 2’s story.
• Equip yourself with the power of Darkness in the Beyond Light Campaign to face new challenges and foes.

After seven years of updates, new players might find Destiny 2 overwhelming. With the Final Shape imminent, players may wonder where to start. There are various activities available before the new campaign, but it can be confusing to determine what’s worth completing and what rewards are offered. Content is scattered across expansions at different prices, so players must decide what is worth their time.

Despite the variety of content, a key part of a new player’s journey is to learn Destiny’s complex story and master their abilities to defeat the game’s final bosses. Exploring the PVE activities in this list will prepare new players for the final expansion and equip guardians with new abilities, weapons, and armor so they may finally face the Witness.

8 New Light Quests

The Beginning Is A Surprisingly Good Place To Start

• Offers a variety of exotic gear and starting weapons
• Great tips for starting Destiny in iconic locations
• Confusing but necessary starting tutorial

New players in Destiny 2 will be immediately guided through the initial stages of essential base quests. These quests are crucial learning points in a Guardian’s journey. While Destiny 2’s user interface can be overwhelming at times, and waypoints can occasionally make the initial quests confusing, the base quests provide valuable starting weapons, exotic items, and essential tips for getting started.

After persevering through some tedious missions on the Cosmodrome, players will visit the Tower for the first time. Here, they can pick up new quests and weapons. Speaking to Ikora in the Tower offers opportunities to unlock early-game exotics, providing a significant boost to new players.

7 Timeline Reflections Quests

See The History Of The Traveler And Its Greatest Foe

• Unrivaled look into the past of the franchise
• Fan-favorite missions returned
• Minimal rewards but rich in story content

Added back in 2023, the Timeline Reflections offer new players valuable insights into the lore of Destiny 2. These free missions and cinematics from past and present expansions provide minimal rewards but are rich in story content. The primary benefit of the Reflections Quests lies in their narrative value, allowing new players to delve into the timeline of Destiny 1 and 2. It’s highly recommended to play these short missions to understand the franchise’s story before engaging in the climactic battle of The Final Shape.

“Cayde’s Fate” is a particularly important mission to experience before The Final Shape, alongside the cinematics for the Witness and the Traveler found at the start of the timeline. These missions provide insight into the long paracausal war between gods using Light and Dark, enriching the player’s understanding of the epic conflict.

6 Beyond Light Campaign (Unlock Stasis)

Use The Power Of The Darkness To Freeze All Adversaries

• The stranger returns to players from Destiny 1
• A rich story detailing the Guardian’s first interaction with Darkness
• Interesting location on Europa with dynamic weather systems

The Beyond Light Campaign presents Guardians with a captivating journey through the icy landscapes of Europa. This expansion marks a significant milestone as the first to introduce the Darkness properly into Destiny 2.

The opening mission of the expansion is freely accessible, allowing both new and seasoned players to delve into the storyline and get a taste of what awaits them on Europa. To experience the full expansion, players must purchase the Beyond Light DLC from their respective console stores, Epic Games, or Steam. However, starting in Final Shape, Stasis will become a free-to-play subclass allowing players to utilize the frost class without paying for the full expansion, granting them the power to freeze their enemies for the first time.

5 Vanguard Strikes

Take On Rotator Bosses To Level Up A Guardian’s Strength

• Very easy match-made activity
• Great for farming enhancement cores
• Free exotic after completing the weekly challenge

Vanguard Strikes are a core mode in Destiny 2 and one of the three available ritual playlists. The strike playlist is a matchmade activity that presents a different random strike each time. The format of each strike is consistent, typically involving defeating a series of bosses before facing a final boss. Some strikes feature simple mechanics, making them perfect for solo players looking to learn abilities and test weapons.

While all strikes in the game have some lore relevance, many feel outdated after seven years. Nonetheless, strikes provide an excellent opportunity to level up the Vanguard rank and earn engrams. These activity-specific engrams can be turned into Zavala for strike weapons, making them valuable for players seeking to enhance their gear.

4 Lightfall Campaign (Unlock Strand)

Weave The Fabric Of Reality With Destiny’s Latest Darkness Class

• Rewards one of the strongest classes in the game
• Offers new traversal opportunities with a grapple hook
• Strong supers and build craft on all three classes with Strand

Within Destiny 2‘s most controversial expansion lies a diverse array of activities and, potentially, the franchise’s most impressive subclass yet. Lightfall, akin to Marvel’s Infinity War, serves as a pivotal precursor to the Final Shape’s emergence and the impending battle with the Witness. While not receiving the highest critical acclaim, the DLC introduces the expansive Strand subclass.

Upon completion of the DLC, Guardians gain access to the game’s second Darkness subclass. The Strand subclass empowers players to traverse the battlefield with grapples and summon hordes of threadlings to overwhelm enemies. As with Beyond Light and The Witch Queen, the first mission of this expansion is available for free, allowing players to sample it before buying.

3 Vex Strikeforce Incursions

Battle Forces On Neomuna For Easy Exotic Armor

• Difficult to find the event without help
• Consistent way to get new Exotic armor
• Event can be quick and easy in a full lobby

Requiring the completion of the free opening mission from Lightfall, the Vex Strikeforce Incursion is a crucial activity to complete when available. This rare public event rewards players with an Exotic item upon completion, prioritizing an Exotic they do not already own. The challenge lies in knowing when the event will take place. The event always occurs in the Vex Incursion zone but can appear randomly. Players might see the event happen back-to-back within an hour or not at all for twelve hours.

New players can use community tools like the Vex Network Discord to get notifications about upcoming events. During the event, players must destroy large Vex Minotaur bosses by first taking down their shields using Vex heads dropped by smaller Minotaurs. After considerable effort in defeating these big bosses, the final chest will spawn. However, the event will not drop exotics from expansions the player does not own or from the Final Shape.

2 Dares of Eternity

Star In An Intergalactic Game Show For Craftable Loot

• Features craftable weapons in Xur’s treasure horde
• Perfect activity for leveling crafted heavy weapons
• Great for solo players with matchmaking

Destiny 2 introduces a captivating and somewhat whimsical activity styled as a space gameshow. This unique challenge, accessible to players who own the 30th Anniversary Pack, presents an opportunity to acquire coveted Dares of Eternity gear. Among these items are weapons inspired by Bungie’s renowned title, Halo. As a bonus, by collecting five red-border weapons, players can craft their desired weapon from Dares, selecting preferred perks to suit their playstyle.

This six-player, matchmade activity immerses Guardians in an environment dense with enemies, providing a test of their combat prowess while offering some of the most fun loot in the game. Notably, for fans of Halo, the mode features iconic items like the energy sword and magnum pistol within its loot pool, serving as a homage to Bungie’s gaming history.

1 Onslaught

Fight The Forces Of The Witness On Earth For High-Level Gear

• Rewards some of the best loot in the game
• Great for testing load-outs and new builds
• Destiny’s only horde mode

The newly added Onslaught mode has quickly become a fan favorite as Destiny 2’s first horde-style activity. It’s the perfect environment for testing new builds and abilities. This free 50-wave activity features the Brave weapons. Fan-favorite weapons featured from past seasons returned with powerful perks. With the Final Shape update, Onslaught will be moved under the Vanguard tab and will remain free for all players.

In this mode, players must defend an area, earning scrap each round to spend on map upgrades to help fend off the hordes. Players will face a boss appearing every ten rounds with escalating difficulty. Defeating the boss rewards players with a brave weapon. Given the mode’s potential to drop some of the game’s most powerful loot, it’s an immediate priority for new players.