Season of the Splicer’s story is pretty much over in Destiny 2, apart from some final pieces of content releasing next month. Players have finally slain the Dreaming Mind, Quria, who was being controlled by the big bad, Savathun, and was the reason behind the Endless Night. Right now, the Solstice of Heroes event is going on in Destiny 2, with new glowy armor sets, and a new weapon – Compass Rose. In this article, we’re discussing what coming and what to expect in Destiny 2 Season 15.
Speaking of Savathun, Bungie finally revealed The Witch Queen and Season 15 showcase earlier this month on Bungie Day (7/7). The showcase is scheduled for August 24, 2021, the same day the Season of the Splicer ends. This is similar to what Bungie did with Season of Arrivals last year, revealing and launching the season the same day.
What’s Coming in Destiny 2 Season 15?
Earlier this year in February, Bungie released a Road to The Witch Queen blog post in which, Assistant Game Director, Joe Blackburn, talked about some of the plans and features coming to Destiny 2 this year. In that post, we’ve got a lot of details about what to expect in Season 15.
When does Season 15 start in Destiny 2?
Season 15 starts Tuesday, August 24, 2021, at 10 AM Pacific, on PlayStation 4/5, Xbox One, Series S/X, Steam (PC), and Stadia.
Crossplay is finally coming to Destiny 2
Originally hinted at last year during the Beyond Light reveal, and officially announced this year in the State of the Game blog post, Bungie has confirmed that Destiny 2 will get the Crossplay feature later this year in Season 15. By default, console and PC players will not be matchmaking together in the Crucible. But players can invite their console friends to join them on PC. That way, they will be able to play against PC players on the console.
In Season 14, we had a Crossplay beta live in the game for a strike playlist, which unlocked an exclusive emblem, Stars Crossed. Bungie has finally revealed more details about Destiny 2’s Cross Play, you can check out our in-depth guide on everything you need to know about Cross Play here.
Third-Person Peeking Fix in Trials of Osiris/Competitive (three-peeking)
Three-peeking is also getting a fix in Season 15 of Destiny 2. This fix will disable emotes in Trials of Osiris and the Competitive playlist and players will not be able to use any third-person weapon (swords, etc) if they don’t have ammo for that weapon.
Sandbox Changes
Season 15 will also introduce “a set of targeted buffs to our most underutilized specializations” in the Light subclasses. Apart from that, Bungie is also planning to “adjust overall ability usage rates inside the Crucible. Along with that, Bungie is also planning to tune a bunch of weapon types in season 15. Below, you can find some of the weapon types changes Bungie will be tackling next season:
- Fusion Rifles
- Breach Grenade Launchers
- Scout Rifles and Hand Cannons in PvE
- Machine Guns in PvE
- Special ammo economy, particularly in PvP
- Anarchy
- Exotic Primaries
In one of the recent TWAB blog posts, Bungie released a bunch of changes to the subclass abilities coming in season 15. You can check out them out here.
Trials of Osiris Rewards Rework
According to the ‘Road to The Witch Queen’ blog post, Bungie is planning to release a Trials of Osiris rewards structure rework by the end of this year. “We’re targeting an overhaul of the Trials of Osiris rewards structure and matchmaking paradigms, to release before the end of this year,” Blackburn said. This could very well be in Season 15, considering if Bungie doesn’t add an additional season this year since The Witch Queen is now delayed until early 2022. On top of that, Bungie is also investigating the opportunities for solo players to participate in the Trials of Osiris.
Legendary Stasis Weapons
Players in Destiny 2 will get their first set of legendary Stasis weapons in Season 15. Bungie has already introduced a new Stasis exotic sidearm – Cryosthesia 77k, in Season of the Splicer.
Armor Synthesis
After a long wait, Bungie is finally tweaking the newly added transmog system in Destiny 2. In Season 15, Armor Synthesis bounties will require 10,000 Glimmer to purchase from Ada-1 instead of Synthstrand. “Synthstrand, that was used to purchase Armor Synthesis bounties from Ada-1. In its place, these bounties will be purchasable for 10,000 Glimmer instead.”
Festival of the Lost, Dawning, and Moments of Triumph
Season 15 will have two seasonal events, Festival of the Lost (Halloween event), and the Dawning event (holiday event). Considering Moments of Triumphs return in the final season of the year (Season of Arrivals in 2020), it’s possible that we’ll see Moments of Triumph in Season 15 as well. Bungie has already confirmed the armor set coming this year in the Festival of the Lost event and its Dinosaurs-themed. Bungie has also mentioned that we may see Monster armor sets sometime in the future as well.
Crucible, Vanguard, and Gambit Rework
Season 15 will also introduce the reputation rework to Vanguard, Commander Zavala, similar to what we’ve seen with the Crucible, Lord Shaxx, and Gambit, the Drifter. Bungie has already released an in-game notice to turn in all the Vanguard tokens before August 24.
NEW: In-game notice regarding Vanguard tokens. | #Destiny2
Make sure you turn in your Vanguard tokens to Zavala before August 24! pic.twitter.com/hhPZ4gjHIf
— DestinyNews+ (@DestinyNewsCom) July 8, 2021
Bungie has also released a bunch of new details about vendor changes for Vanguard, Crucible, and Gambit coming in Season 15 in this week’s TWAB. In Season 15, the reputation system for ritual vendors will be known as Gambit, Vanguard, and Crucible Ranks. Bungie is also retiring the Valor and Infamy names from these ritual activities. However, Glory for competitive playlist will still continue to be as is. Below, you can see the changes detailed by Bungie this week:
- We’re rebalancing all ranking systems to have similar progression times.
- Our goal is to let players reset Vanguard, Crucible, and Gambit Ranks slightly faster, on average, than Valor currently allows.
- There will no longer be ritual-specific rules that impede progress.
- We are removing win streak bonuses, in exchange for activity streak bonuses.
- Reputation bonus weeks have been standardized to 2x multipliers when active.
- Bounties will no longer provide reputations as rewards, but primarily focus on XP.
Vanguard Ranks and Activity Streaks
Starting Season 15, Bungie will introduce a new feature to the game called – Activity Streaks. Players will be able to get a streak bonus depending on the time spent in a Vanguard activity. Keep in mind that going AFK will have an effect on your streak. In addition, players will be able to earn Vanguard Rank from Strikes, Nightfalls, and Battlegrounds.
Two Returning Vanguard Weapons In Season 15
In This Week At Bungie blog post on July 22, 2021, Bungie revealed that there will be two weapons from Destiny 1, The Comedian (Shotgun), and The Hothead (Rocket Launcher), that will be returning in Destiny 2 Season 15. Furthermore, there will also be reward rotation changes. In season 15, Nightfall rewards will be featured in a pair of two, one old weapon and one new (The Comedian/The Hothead). So, instead of 1/1/1/3 (right now), it will be 2/2/2/2 moving forward.
Ritual Weapons and Grandmaster Nightfall
In Season 15, Bungie will be adding Ritual weapons and ornaments in the Vendor’s reputation reward. This will require players to increase the reputation rewards to unlock the specific weapon ornament from the Vendor (Shaxx, Zavala, and Drifter).
There are some major improvements in the Grandmaster Nightfall side of things. Later in Season 15, the Grandmaster Nightfall catch-up node will become available at the same time as GM Nightfalls for players who have yet to gild their Concoqurer title in the game.
- Each Grandmaster Nightfall will be available if the fireteam leader has not completed the gilding Triumph for that strike during the Season.
- In other words, you may play each featured strike for a Season to earn your gilded title.
- Once you’ve gilded your title, the catch-up node will no longer be available.
Potential Iron Banner Rework?
In the same blog post, Blackburn mentioned that after Trials’ rework, the team will b focusing on the Iron Banner game mode and didn’t give out an exact release window for this. “After Trials, we will be targeting a similar in scope refresh to Iron Banner,” Blackburn said. One thing is clear that if we don’t see the Iron Banner rework in Season 15 of Destiny 2, we will definitely be getting this later on next year with the release of The Witch Queen expansion. Fingers crossed.
New Seasonal Weapons, Armor, and Exotics
The rest of the stuff is pretty normal and what we get with every season – new weapons, armor sets, and exotics. We’re hoping to see a secret quest similar to the Presage in Season of the Chosen since Bungie didn’t add a secret exotic quest in Season of the Splicer. So, fingers crossed for this too.
A New Dungeon?
We know that the last dungeon added was in Season of Arrivals – Prophecy, which is available for free to all Destiny 2 players. Recent rumors and the supposedly leaked document that hinted at a Destiny 2/Halo crossover later this year, also mentioned that there’s going to be a new dungeon released in Season 15. However, this information is not officially confirmed, so take it with a grain of salt.
That’s pretty much it. Everything we know about and coming to Season 15 of Destiny 2.
