Bungie Follows The Battle Pass Formula With Future Seasons In Destiny 2

Bungie has revealed their plans for the future of Destiny 2, and it looks a lot like they’re following the Fortnite formula. By that I mean they’re releasing seasonal battle passes, and letting guardians choose which ones they pay for.

Destiny 2 year 3 is already bringing a lot with it. We have Shadowkeep, Destiny 2 New Light, and now a very different year 3. Bungie recently dove into how seasons are going to change with year 3, and we wanted to focus on that for this article specifically because it’s extremely new, and a big change from what we’ve seen in year 2.

Seasonal Passes

Moving forward in year 3, Destiny 2 is doing away with the Annual Pass. Now we’re going to have a pass for each season, so seasonal passes. The first of these will be for Season of the Undying, the second will be for Season of Dawn, and so on. As with the Annual Pass, there will be free content each season, and premium content.

As you can see from the image above, the season passes in Destiny 2 look to function a lot like those from Fortnite, in that there are more frequent rewards for the premium passes, but still enough for the free passes to justify playing the game. Everything from weapons and armour, to glimmer, engrams, and even specific items such as cloaks will be awarded with the season pass.

Each season pass will have a cost associated with it, though Bungie hasn’t confirmed what that is yet. This makes it easier for Guardians to purchase them, or avoid purchasing them, if they know they’ll make the most of them for that season. The passes have been designed to reward all Guardians, even those who have a family and can only play occasionally.

Seasonal Progression

Each season we’re going to earn Seasonal XP, which is how we rank up the season pass. This is earned from doing anything in the game, and it will allow us to play how we want, but still take advantage of the season we’re in. There will be a seasonal XP boost towards the end of each season, and this is targeted to help those Guardians who, like me, leave pushing their progression to the last second.

Beginning and End

Unlike how each season worked in year 2, in year 3 seasons will begin with an event, such as a portal opening in the Black Garden with Season of the Undying, and an end, which is that same portal closing for Season of the Undying. The end of the season will also bring an event that sparks the beginning of the next season, so Season of Dawn in the case of the next two seasons.

The idea behind this is to keep things flowing, but also avoid bloating Destiny 2 any further with brand new activities and content that will sit there and become irrelevant with each new season. Gambit is a prime example of this bloating, and Bungie is going to be removing some of those modes as a result.

In addition to this beginning and end, the seasonal activities, such as the Black Garden activity for Season of the Undying, will disappear with the end of a season. The gear earned from this activity will also be tied in to the seasonal content, meaning that once all the Vex are gone from the system, the best builds for PVE will need to change. Bungie is trying to keep things fresh with this new way of introducing and removing content, and personally I think it’s exciting.

Seasonal Artifacts

The Gate Lord’s Eye above is the Seasonal Artifact for Season of the Undying. Guardians can level up their artifact, and earn seasonal mods to put into it in order to build a better Guardian for that season. This is another step towards building a PVE character that can take down anything in that specific season, the way you play. Once the season is over, the artifact will be gone, replaced by a new one with the next season.

Our Take

Everything Bungie is doing is geared towards keeping Destiny 2 fresh and interesting. The Annual Pass made it feel like there was too much to do, but with seasonal passes I think that feeling will go. Now Guardians will simply focus on the current season, and it will make life a lot easier to manage if you’ve skipped one.

Let us know what you think about the new seasonal format in the comments.