Six years after Destiny 2‘s initial release, players have found a mysterious location known as “Shard,” possibly tied to the iconic Galaxy Pools area.
The journey to uncovering Shard began with a dedicated group of players delving into the depths of Destiny 2’s game files, that’s according to a Reddit thread made by Solus_Destiny in the r/raidsecrets subreddit.
Related: Destiny 2 The Final Shape Raid Release Date and Time Revealed
The Reddit user claimed that they are “99% certain” that this secret Shard location “does not exist in the game” and that they were only able to access it using third-party tools (like Alkahest), allowing them to extract in-game assets and view them in a map viewer.
“We all know galaxy pools, but what if I told you that there’s a load zone that’s in the game files, has spawn points, and has a box barrier but the load trigger doesn’t exist,” said Reddit user Solus_Destiny, explaining the Shard area. “We only know about it via a destiny package file viewer, that links the pkg files from the game to a map viewer.”
Destiny 2 Cut Content? Inside the Shard of the Traveler and Galaxy Pools
Described as a cut location, the Shard was supposed to be a part of Galaxy Pools. According to Solus_Destiny, it’s “internally dubbed ‘Shard’ as it’s quite literally inside the Shard of the Traveler, with a cave leading to it, and a light beam at the end of it.”
“It’s clearly a cut area that was supposed to be a part of galaxy pools. But was cut for whatever reason,” the user said.
Take a look at Shard below, extracted directly from the Destiny 2 game files.
Perhaps the most compelling aspect of Shard is its spatial relationship to Galaxy Pools. As described by the Reddit user, it is positioned directly above the famed destination. “On top of this, Shard sits directly above galaxy pools (spatially) and where the load zone starts,” the Reddit thread reads.
“We’ve all seen the big light beam above galaxy pools, this large beam exists in the unnamed forest load before Galaxy pools, but it also exists in “Shard” at the end of the cave. It’s very odd that Unnamed Forest, Shard, AND Galaxy Pools all share the exact same light beam.”
In 2018, Bungie’s Art Director Jesse van Dijk shared a concept art for Destiny 2 titled, “Destiny 2: Shard” that caught the attention of many fans. This led to speculations that the artwork depicted what Shard, the unfinished location in the game, could have looked like.
However, despite these tantalizing glimpses, Shard remains inaccessible to players, with no known trigger to activate its entrance.
In other news, Destiny 2’s upcoming expansion, The Final Shape will add some exciting new features, including a new subclass, exotic class items, and more.
Destiny 2 The Final Shape is set to release on Tuesday, June 4, 2024, on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC.
