Destiny 2 is getting two smaller expansions next year as Bungie movies away from its annual big content drop model, and with those two expansions, the developer will add a new raid and a new dungeon, along with content updates for each.
Bungie explained some of the changes it’s making to Destiny 2’s endgame content drops in a blog post, where it laid out what players can expect for the game in 2025, which it calls Codename: Frontiers. The developer previously stated that 2025 will see two smaller content expansions with major updates to follow, rather than its traditional approach of launching one big one. The first content expansion, Codename: Apollo, will come with a new raid when it launches in Summer 2025, while the second, Codename: Behemoth, will come with a dungeon in Winter 2025.
Notably, this appears to mean that Frontiers will only see one dungeon released for Destiny 2. In recent years since the Witch Queen expansion, Bungie has released two dungeons per expansion, which players could access by purchasing a “dungeon key,” or getting it as part of the bundle for each expansion that included its annual pass. Bungie notes in the blog post that because the dungeon will be included with Behemoth, there won’t be a dungeon key for Frontiers.
Bungie did not immediately respond to GameSpot’s request for clarification on the changes to dungeon content in Frontiers, but we’ll update this story if the developer does.
The blog post didn’t go into much detail about what players should expect from Apollo’s raid, but Bungie did write that it is “exploring some twists on the raid format.” It also noted that with the planned major updates that will follow Apollo, Bungie will introduce changes to the raid to freshen it up and add new challenges, moving away from the current approach of offering a Master difficulty level for raids. Instead, raids will now include a system called Feats, which could introduce new rules such as time trials or Contest mode difficulty combatants.
Bungie previously shared a mock-up of how the Destiny 2 user interface might include difficulty modifiers for different activities.
The Feats system sounds a lot like the Skulls system found in Bungie’s Halo games, where players could add different modifiers to the game by activating different collectible skulls they could discover. The more Feats you activate in a raid playthrough, the tougher that raid will be, but the better rewards you’ll receive, as well. Bungie noted in its last slate of blog posts that it intends to add a tier system to the loot rewards players receive from different activities, so adding Feats to your raid runs would be a way to earn those better rewards.
Bungie says new raids starting with Apollo will include the Feats system as part of the greater push to allow for more difficulty customization in activities–but it doesn’t sound like they’ll be applied to raids currently in the game. The new raid will also receive a “challenge update” as part of the major update following Apollo’s release, “adding new rewards, new mechanics, new Feats, and potentially even new encounters,” according to the blog post. Raids currently launch with a Raid Race, in which players try to be the world’s first team to complete the raid, and the challenge update will include its own race as well.
As for the second half of Frontiers, the Behemoth expansion will come with the new dungeon, which sounds to be somewhat expanded from what we’ve seen from dungeons in the past. Bungie writes, “the reward offering for new dungeons will be expanded to include full weapon and armor sets, on par with raids.” However, the size or scope of the dungeon isn’t discussed.
The major update following Behemoth’s release will include new raid- and dungeon-related content. Bungie describes it as potentially being similar to the Pantheon activity the developer added with the Into the Light content ahead of The Final Shape expansion. Pantheon was a very popular boss rush mode that featured raid bosses, increasing in difficulty each week and offering specific challenges and raid rewards.
In the first major update following Behemoth, “we’re planning for another Event that introduces novelty and allows our team to experiment with legacy raid and dungeon offerings to create surprising aspirational challenges.” The blog post says the event is still in its early planning stages, however, so it’s not quite clear yet what it might actually be. It does sound like the update will focus on content that is already in the game, though, rather than adding new content.
A major focus for Frontiers is bringing additional options to players to adjust the difficulty of Destiny 2 content and to add rewards that make replaying that content worthwhile, and the changes to endgame content sound like they’re all focused on that goal. A lot of what Bungie discussed includes changes and additional challenges for existing content or content released earlier in the year, so we’ll have to see how Frontiers changes how Bungie approaches making content for Destiny 2 and how it shifts the ways players engage with it.
