Destiny 2: The Witch Queen will introduce Hive Guardians

The next Destiny 2 expansion will resurrect the dastardly Hive as Guardians, Bungie revealed today. Oh dear. Along with detailing The Witch Queen and new features like weapon crafting, Bungie spoke about long-term plans. They confirmed that yep they do plan to continue Destiny 2 past the end of the current 'Light and Darkness Saga', which will wrap up in an expansion named The Final Shape. Goodness me they announced a lot.

The Witch Queen will see Savathûn, the Hive god of cunning and lies, gain the ability to bless her brood with the same powers as us. They even have wee Hive Ghosts, and it looks like we'll have to crush them in our hands to finish off their fallen. Neat. We'll be busting into Savathûn's throne world, the pocket universe which she can retreat to when her physical form is crushed, presumably to give her a sound kicking. Though she does seem to have a Ghost of her own now too. Oh dear oh dear. Leaks and rumours about the events of the campaign are already out there but ah, avoid 'em.

Away from the story, the expansion will introduce a whole new weapon type, glaives. These are D2's first first-person melee weapon, packing combo attacks and the ability to fire energy blasts. Seem neat. Your first glaive will come from the new weapon crafting system. Bungie say we'll get to craft the throne world weapons, raid weapons, and seasonal weapons, and they plan to add more craftable weapons (both new ones and reissues of old) across the year of content. Curious to see more about how that will work.

Savathûn is twice as tall as Lady Dimitrescu, by the way. Some data for the pervs out there.

Destiny 2: The Witch Queen is due to launch on February 22nd, 2022. Bungie previously announced the next expansion to follow this, Lightfall, and now they've confirmed that the current 'Light and Darkness Saga' will end in an expansion named The Final Shape.

"This 10-year journey we've been on since Destiny 1, it's drawing to its dramatic conclusion. The Light and Darkness Saga will end," said narrative director Adam Grantham. "But make no mistake: Destiny 2 will not. We're building not so much to an ending but more to this transformative moment for Destiny 2's future."

No details on what will follow but ooh! 'The final shape' is a long-running idea in Destiny, the lifeforms or being who will survive to be the very last living thing in this universe. The Vex are turning everything into themselves to become the final shape. The Hive believe that their 'sword logic' will hone themselves into the final shape. Savathûn knows that the sword logic is a trap which will lead to their parasitic worm gods ultimately devouring them. Mara Sov believes in a 'bomb logic' of complexity and interreliance that opposes sword logic. Be interesting to see this philosophy reach an endpoint, or be broken.

We've a long way to go before then, mind. Bungie say that across 2022 they plan to add two brand new dungeons, as well as bring back a remastered version of an old raid. They're going to introduce legacy rotations for raids and dungeons too, which sounds like incentives to replay them. Cool cool.

Also coming, in December, is a blast of newness celebrating Bungie's 30th birthday. Expect new weapons and armour calling back to old Bungie games like Marathon, as well as the return of D1's venerated Gjallarhorn rocket launcher.

And before all that, the latest season starts today. Season Of The Lost will see the return of Mara Sov, the Queen of the Awoken, as she tries to reunite her people and uncover the Witch Queen's plans. So many queens!

For more info on everything, you can watch the archived stream.