Destiny 2 – Season of the Witch

What’s up Guardians?  Here we are on Tuesday August 22nd and we have a ton of stuff to cover!  Welcome to Destiny 2 Season 22, Season of the Witch.  Bungie hosted their Destiny 2 Showcase this morning and provided a lot of details on changes to the game both for this season and as we move towards The Final Shape.  Stay tuned for more details on that shortly.  Let’s get into the new season!  First the launch trailer:

The season has begun today and will run through November 28th with one more season following to take us into The Final Shape.  This season Guardians will continue the pursuit of The Witness, confronting old allies and enemies along the way.  Savathûn’s ghost Immaru proposes a deal: aid in the resurrection of The Witch Queen and help defeat her sister, Xivu Arath. In exchange, Savathûn will reveal the key to the portal through the Traveler where The Witness is preparing to enact The Final Shape. Guardians will harness arcane Hive magic as they help their ally Eris Morn prepare for the showdown against the Hive god of war by transforming into a Hive god herself.

Key to Season of the Witch is the new Deck of Whispers, a new method of player progression that allows Guardians to customize their loadouts and powers in new ways. By completing Seasonal activities, players earn cards that can be used to build a customized deck full of buffs and perks for certain activities. Players in fireteams have the option to carefully strategize which cards they bring along to maximize their battle effectiveness on each run.

Alongside the adventure and action in Season of the Witch, the Destiny 2 development team is launching several new quality-of-life features to the game, designed to improve the experience of Guardians across the game. Among these key features is Timeline Reflections. These short playable missions, accessible through the Timeline feature in the Director, offer brief narrative introductions and summaries of key narrative events from Destiny 2 and are intended to help new players catch up with the ongoing story and to allow experienced players to relive and enjoy moments from the past.

With the launch of Season of the Witch, three Timeline Reflections missions are available, including Cayde-6’s final showdown with the Scorn from Destiny 2: Forsaken, the debut of Stasis from Destiny 2: Beyond Light, and the introduction of the Lucent Hive from Destiny 2: The Witch Queen. These missions are available to all players at no additional charge.

Season of the Witch will also bring with it a reprised raid from Destiny’s past: Crota’s End. Originally released shortly after the launch of the original Destiny in 2014, Crota’s End finds Guardians braving the Lunar landscape to enter the Hellmouth and confront Oryx’s son once and for all.  Crota’s End will launch on September 1 and Bungie will be celebrating with a World First Race to recognize and reward the first fireteam to successfully complete the reprised raid. Fireteams all over the world will have 48 hours to complete the raid in Contest Mode, complete the Crota’s End Challenge Mode, and earn the Superior Swordplay Triumph. The first fireteam to finish every encounter, loot the final chest, and return to orbit after completing Challenge Mode will be declared World First and have their victory immortalized with Crota’s End World First raid belts.

With that out of the way, let’s get into the breakdown of week one of Season 22.

The Weekly Nightfall this week is The Lightblade and the weapon this week is the Buzzard Sidearm.

The Hero modifiers are:

• You will face combatants with Arc and Solar shields
• Barrier and Unstoppable Champions
• Hero Modifiers – Extra Shields, Maximum Level of 1765
• Arc Threat – 25% increase to incoming Arc damage
• Fire Pit – When defeated, Acolytes spawn fire pools that cause damage over time
• Overcharged Weapons – Weapon overcharges from the Seasonal Artifact are active in this activity.  Kinetic weapons do increased damage when your subclass matches an active surge
• Strand Surge – 25% damage increase to outgoing Strand damage
• Arc Surge – 25% damage increase to outgoing Arc damage
• Overcharged Grenade Launchers – 25% increase to Grenade Launcher damage
• Galvanized – Combatants have more health and are more difficult to stun

The Legend modifiers are all of the above plus:

• Legend Modifiers – Locked Loadout. Extra Shields, Maximum effective level of 1815
• Equipment locked

The Master modifiers are all of the above plus:

• Master Modifiers – Extra champions, Locked Loadout, Extra Shields, Maximum effective level of 1820
• Chaff – Radar is disabled

The Pinnacle Reward is obtained once you reach 200,000 as a score (cumulative over your runs of the Nightfall).

Crucible this week is Momentum Control, Rumble, Rift and Control.  Countdown: Rush is for Crucible Labs and Rift, Showdown and Survival are for Competitive and the weapon is Mercurial Overreach.  Gambit has also refreshed for the week.  Three of each will give you powerful gear.  Strikes are reset as well.

The Vex Incursion Zone this week is Zephyr Concourse

The featured Raid this week is Last Wish the weapon is One Thousand Voices.  The challenge is the Summoning Ritual.

The featured Dungeon this week is Duality which will grant Pinnacle gear.  The Ghosts of the Deep dungeon will also grant Pinnacle gear.

The featured Exotic Mission this week is Presage with the weapon being Dead Man’s Tale.

Other Pinnacle Drops:

• Dares of Eternity completed with a score of 250,000.
  • Round 1 Vex
  • Round 2 Cabal
  • Round 3 Crota
• //node.ovrd.AVALAON// activity will grant a Pinnacle as well
• The Weekly campaign mission is First Contact with a score of 100,000

Seasonal Challenges

• Acolyte’s Ascent I – Complete Week 1 of “The Bladed Path” quest
• Adept Arcana – Complete Major Arcana quests (5) to collect your Deck of Whispers
• Witch’s Spoils – Open chests in Savathūn’s Spire or the Altars of Summoning (500).  Earn bonus progress by opening chests with Witch’s Keys.
• Master Conjurer – Collect offerings (5), which are used to summon combatants in the Altars of Summoning.  Complete Altars of Summoning encounters (20).  Higher difficulty encounters grant bonus progress
• Taking All Challenges – Complete weekly playlist challenges (3)
• Round and Round We Go – Generate Orbs of Power (1,000) in Vanguard, Gambit or Crucible playlists
• Precision Calibration – Calibrate marksman weapons – Scout Rifles, Sniper Rifles and Linear Fusion Rifles – by landing precision final blows (200).  Bonus progress against Guardians.

	Sony PS5 Console with disk	Amazon Best Buy GameStop
	Xbox Series X	Amazon Best Buy GameStop
	New Xbox Series S for Pre-Order	Amazon Best Buy GameStop

These are the Destiny 2 Season 22 Season of the Witch items for Tuesday August 22 2023.  What activity will you be hitting first?  Let us know in the comments below or on our Twitter account by clicking here.  Stay tuned to Culture Splat for more content.