Bungie took to Twitch to discuss Destiny 2's first expansion: The Curse of Osiris.
Deej introduced viewers to Destiny 2's narrative lead, Christine Thompson, and art director, Dave Matthews, before showing off characters central to the expansion's story.
The Story
A cinematic showed a fireteam of Guardians fighting The Vex--then, suddenly--time freezes. Lazer beams are suspended mid-air, while Vex and human alike are frozen mid-combat. A masked man enters, navigating the still commotion: Osiris.
He examines a portal, and begins to leave. Suddenly, the Vex un-freeze. Osiris is determined. His ghost warns him against fighting, but Osiris responds, "If I don’t stop the Vex now, there'll be no universe to go back to." He throws his ghost out of the portal, but not before it's hit by a Vex blast. It flies free, into the sand, and the portal closes.
Osiris, Destiny 2's narrative lead describes, is in the Infinite Forest. It's a simulation of all infinite realities, for The Vex to "brute force" solutions.
Since his exile from The Tower (self-imposed or not), Osiris has wandered Mercury, exploring Vex structures. His gear reflects his studies, and is heavily modified with bits of Vex technology he's stolen and repurposed. While aware of the cult formed in his name
The Curse of Osiris takes place months after the events of The Red War. After The Traveler awoke at the end of the campaign, touching Mercury. The Vex, Bungie explains, have waited for The Traveler to do so. Their plan on Mercury, in fact, was contingent on that.
Since the events of The Red War, Ikora begins to suspect that Mercury is hiding The Vex's nefarious plans, and recruits the player character in investigating them. The player finds Osiris' ghost and returns it to her, kicking off the expansion's plot.
Brother Vance, too, makes a return. He's spent years looking for a Guardian worthy of Osiris. Vance is eager to meet his idol, and the events of 'The Curse of Osiris' are something he's spent years preparing for. Even within The Lighthouse, he's ever the scholar. We see him studying charts and machines. To Brother Vance, his destiny is on Mercury, and it's a journey we'll follow him on.
The entire cult has prepared The Lighthouse for his coming. While flawless victors of Destiny 1's 'Trials of Osiris' visited this location, all players will have access to it now. It's the game's new social hub. It's also a library and place of learning. There are expansive bookshelves, and long tables, filled with Guardians studying books and engaged in discourse. We see Brother Vance as a new vendor, with his own engrams available to Guardians who turn tokens into him. His years of loyalty have been rewarded; he's now The Lighthouse's head honcho.
Mercury: The Machine World
Like Nessus, Mercury is a machine-world, hollowed out by The Vex. At the center, is 'The Reality Engine,' a gate leading to The Infinite Forest. Within the reality engine, The Vex can jump through time and space, examining the past, present of future.
As the Vex move through each reality, new versions of Mercury are physically manifested within The Forest. Bungie promises that players will face off against 'The Precursors' and 'The Descendants,' the respective past and future of the robotic species. Players
While the environment changes, and combinations of the various locations will shift in many combinations, Bungie says that it isn't procedurally generated. Each environment is hand-crafted by Bungie artists and designers for maximum quality and enjoyment.
The Weapons
In 'The Curse of Osiris,' players will have access to crafting. In his exploration, Osiris re-forged weapons with Vex technology. There's a counter on a wall showing a symbol for each weapon players can craft. According to this counter, there are ten weapons that can be forged. According to Deej, each weapon is acquired through its own questline; meaning we'll have at least 10 new questlines to play. This is an encouraging development, as Destiny 2's base game only had four questlines.
The Planet
Deej and his fireteam demonstrate live gameplay, exploring the desolate wildlands of Mercury. We encounter 'Cabal stragglers,' who are dispatched with ease. Then, we stumble across a public event.
Bungie describes this as the largest public event to date, but we unfortunately don't see much of it. The sun is massive across the horizon, and we see The Almighty's silhouette. Deej explains that new Lost Sectors will not be marked on the map, requiring players to find them organically.
The fireteam makes its way up to a massive Vex gate, leading to The Reality Engine. The portal pulsates in familiar Vex fashion, but see new, alien patterns that hint at new Vex machinations. The bronze structures of the Vex have evolved. The design is refined, monolithic and gilded.
We encounter three Vex towers, known as 'trees.' Each of these lead to a different timeline: past, present and future.
The Dark Future
In a future timeline, the sun has gone dead, and no life remains in the Solar System. There is only Vex. We see a concept art of a dark planet populated only by red eyes of The Vex. The Lighthouse is in ruins. The Dark Future is a scary promise of our potential defeat, and motivation to fight to victory. It's represented by a dilapidated, dark tower, pulsing with red energy.
The New Map
We see the new Director, with Mercury and The Almighty represented in the top-middle. Mercury is crumbling, just as we left it in the Red War campaign. Heroic Strikes, too, are returning. A new hub for the expanded activity sits in the Strike menu for players to enjoy.
The New Raid Encounter
Deej brought on two Raid designers to describe the new Raid encounter. Deej opens The Leviathan menu once more, but now it's expanded. The designer introduces something called a "Raid Lair." The first "Eater of Worlds," will release with the first expansion; the second will drop with the subsequent one.
New encounters are coming to The Leviathan, with a brand new final boss. While it's still located on The Leviathan, it's an entirely separate encounter. It's not the same length as the first Raid, but they say it offers the same level of difficulty, and will eventually have its own Prestige mode.
Additionally, new Raid armor and weapons will be added to the loot table, across both the old and new Raid activities. The focus of the new encounter, is flexibility. Players can choose between doing a "complete" Raid, or picking with parts they can finish that night.
The new Raid Lair, "Leviathan: Eater of Worlds,' will launch shortly after the expansion's launch.
The Curse of Osiris seems to offer a lot of new activities for players to enjoy. With a brand new campaign, new Raid activities and the biggest public events in Destiny history, players will have plenty on their hands following its release.
11/15/17 Update: Phrasing has been adjusted to reflect that "Raid Layers" are in fact "Raid Lairs" and that the author will receive 14 lashes for the error, within the next applicable business day. (5:42 PM)