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5 Things We Can't Wait to See in Destiny 2: The Witch Queen

From weapon crafting to the return of Mara Sov, The Witch Queen is rife with goodies for Guardians of all stripes.


Look alive, Guardians. Destiny 2: The Witch Queen is almost upon us. The latest expansion for the incredibly popular Action MMO/first-person shooter is set to debut on February 22. This massive upcoming content drop will center on Savathûn, the titular Witch Queen. A Hive God and sister to Oryx, the Taken King, Savathûn leads an ancient alien species known as the Hive, who are responsible for the fall of countless civilizations. These beings are diametrically opposed to the doctrine of the Light, the Traveler, and everyone in alliance with said groups, making Savathûn and her allies sworn enemies of humanity. Now that she’s stolen the Light, her army now wields its power. It’s your job to take it back.

However, unlike the Hive, SteelSeries have always been huge fans of humanity and are overjoyed to partner with Bungie to announce the Destiny x SteelSeries Limited Edition Collection.

Destiny x SteelSeries Limited Edition Collection

Destiny Limited Edition Collection

Take back the Light with these new exclusive items, inspired by a Guardian's powers:

  • Arctis 1: Destiny Edition

  • Rival 5: Destiny Edition

  • Qck Prism XL: Destiny Edition

  • Arctis Pro Speaker Plates: Destiny 2: The Witch Queen Edition (coming February 22nd)

Channel the Traveler's quiet serenity with crisp audio quality while playing with your fireteam thanks to the Arctis 1: Destiny Edition. Impress Shaxx with your shooting skills when you use the Rival 5: Destiny Edition, with 9 programmable buttons on the side to serve you in any circumstance. Finally, set up your station with the QcK Prism XL: Destiny Edition, encompassing your journeys with a limited-edition cloth gaming mousepad that glows with 2-zone RGB dynamic illumination, showcasing the Traveler's visage. Purchasing certain items grants you unique, in-game cosmetic items. Arctis 1 and Rival 5 buyers receive an exclusive Viral Celebration Exotic emote, while the QcK Prism XL includes a special Existential Unfoldment emblem.


Faithful Destiny 2 fans have plenty to be excited about, from the addition of a new “definitively Destiny campaign to a new weapon crafting system. We’re just as ready to jump into The Witch Queen as the rest of you, but there’s still a little while before we can dedicate weeks of our lives to exploring everything it has to offer. That doesn’t mean we can’t talk about everything we can’t wait to see, though. We’ve turned it over in our heads, and we’ve distilled our burgeoning anticipation for The Witch Queen into five major things we can’t wait to see. Sit back, relax, and let’s get hyped together, Guardians.

Weapon Crafting

Destiny 2 Weapon Crafting

This is it. The big one. Crafting is a long-awaited mechanic that will finally be touching down in The Witch Queen, and it's going to be a total game-changer — literally. Instead of discovering weapons in the wild or waiting for epic loot to drop, you'll be able to create your own. There's still a lot we don't know about how crafting will work, but Bungie has revealed a few secrets ahead of The Witch Queen’s debut. In a recent edition of This Week at Bungie, we learned a bit more about crafting and what it's poised to offer. There's going to be a quest, for example, early in The Witch Queen campaign, that teaches about crafting at a new area on Mars called the Enclave. Crafting will be completed by way of a new ability called Deepsight, combined with Patterns, an analog for weapon and equipment blueprints. You'll earn additional Patterns by completing quests and objectives. Alongside Patterns, we can also look forward to a new weapon type, the Glaive — and everyone (even players who don’t pick up the expansion) will be able to build their own during an extremely important part of the crafting process.

Once the first Glaive is crafted, additional weapons will drop with a variety of random perks, including a new ability called Deepsight Resonance. This will occur as you work toward specific mechanics you want to craft. This means you could potentially find a Deepsight Resonance weapon with a specific perk you like, then complete an objective to extract the essence of said perk to craft a weapon with the one that caught your eye — or something else entirely.

And once you've crafted a weapon, the more you use it, the higher its level will rise. You'll unlock its full potential, by simply using the weapons you craft. Further, a feature known as mementos will allow for additional customization. There are also three more Glaives, craftable weapons, and more goodies coming as Bungie continues to update Destiny 2.

The Glaive

Destiny 2 Glaive

As previously mentioned, the Glaive is a brand-new weapon archetype players will craft in The Witch Queen. It resembles a long, curved blade, much like a powerful spear. It's the newest melee weapon Guardians can look forward to playing with, and it's intriguing as it keeps the game in first-person. Using the Glaive, players can string together devastating melee combos, fire mid-range projectiles, and protect themselves using the Glaive's defensive position . There will even be additional Exotic variants to collect, each with their own unique attacks, but details on what type are still under wraps at this time. Plus, because the Glaive is an Energy weapon, it won't take up the Heavy weapon slot. While it will require ammo, as other melee weapons do, it can be used in tandem with weapons like Bows, which can make for some truly interesting alterations to the current meta as well as the potential for some intriguing builds.

Void 3.0 Redux

Destiny 2 Void

The Witch Queen is bringing more than just crafting and Glaives to the table. There's also vVoid subclass revamp, Void 3.0. The vast majority of the new Void system will be available to play at launch, though a few Fragments won't be available until after the World's First raid has been completed, all according to Bungie's latest ViDoc.

The rework adds a customization system that lets Warlocks, Titans, and Hunters use suppressor grenades, along with a host of other tweaks. Players will be able to interact with separate unlockable abilities to customize the parts of the Void subclass they enjoy down to minute details. For instance, Titans will get Bastion, an Aspect that allows them to create Void barricades, a massively useful defense against some of the new weapons and abilities we're about to see this Season. There are new Void 3.0 "verbs" to keep in mind as well, as Bungie lined out in its latest blog: Suppress, Weaken, Volatile, Invisibility, Overshield, and Devour. These words will be used throughout ability descriptions to offer insight into what abilities will do, like the Stasis system. For instance, if players see the word Devour, they'll know that the ability involves health restoration. There’s a massive wave of changes coming to the subclass, and a tasty set of morsels for customization-happy Guardians to take in as the expansion releases.

New Weapons and Armor

Destiny 2 New Weapons

We already know there are new goodies coming with every new Destiny 2 expansion. The Witch Queen is teeming with plenty of new items to collect, with a wide variety of new weapons, as well as six new Exotic armor pieces. There are also a wide variety of unique Exotic weapons to collect, not to mention the crafting we spoke of earlier.

If you play Destiny 2 for the loot, there's plenty to look forward to here. Keep your eyes peeled for the Parasite weapon, which fires explosive worms, the Osteo Striga Submachine Gun, and of course the new class-specific Exotic Glaives.

Intriguing Art Direction

Destiny 2 Graphics

The Witch Queen is set to feature some of the most intriguing art direction we’ve seen from the series and its expansions yet. According to Bungie, The Witch Queen is a product of the team's continued investment to improve its processes and best practices in terms of aesthetics and performance. From early screenshots and footage alone, we’ve had more than an eyeful of what’s to come, and it’s reminiscent of Destiny 2 at its most magnificent. There's an eerie, ethereal beauty to the areas we’ll be exploring. And the weapons themselves? As stunning as ever.

Ever-conscious of spoilers and intent on surprising players in-game, Bungie remains tight-lipped about exactly what kind of specific aesthetic updates are coming. Still, if you're a graphics nerd (and we do appreciate the way the game looks as much as the next person), you'll have plenty to feast your eyes on when The Witch Queen drops.

Destiny 2: The Witch Queen is set to debut on February 22nd, 2022.