Even when Destiny 2 releases a major expansion such as Beyond Light and The Witch Queen, Bungie still introduces all players to a brand new season alongside it. For Lightfall, we received Season of Defiance, here’s everything we know about the new Season now that it’s in focus.
Lightfall is finally upon us and with so little time left before the continuation of the Light and Dark saga, players are now heading to Neomuna and taking down Calus. However, there’s more going on in the universe at home, with Season of Defiance telling the tales of the ground war on Earth.
Like other seasons before it, Season of Defiance presents its own various seasonal offerings to players. This makes it a great alternative to exploring Neomuna and also gives players who finish Lightfall more content to complete.
With that being said, here’s everything we there is to know about Season 20 of Destiny 2, Season of Defiance.
Contents
- Season of Defiance release date
- Destiny 2 season of Defiance content
- Season of Defiance story and characters
Destiny 2 Season of Defiance release date
Destiny 2’s Season of Defiance went live with Lightfall on February 28, 2023.
As per usual, it began on the weekly reset, occurring at 5 PM GMT/10 AM PT/1 PM ET.
Season of Defiance is set to conclude on Tuesday, May 23. Upon its final date, Season of Defiance will be swapped out for Season of the Deep.
Season of Defiance Trailer
Season of Defiance content
Seasonal Activity
Season of the Defiance’s seasonal activity is called Defiant Battlegrounds. It’s a 3 player matchmade activity that sees Guardians rescuing the inhabitants of the Last City as they’re captured by Calus and his Shadow Legion.
This involves traversing to the Pyramid ships and with Mara Sov’s assistance, entering the Ascendant Plane to bypass the walls of the Pyramid.
This seasonal activity is similar to the ones we’ve seen before it (Heist Battlegrounds, Expeditions) and also features the difficulty system Bungie put in place during Season of the Seraph.
Defiant Battlegrounds will seemingly take place in 3 different locations, Earth, the Cosmodrome, and the “Orbital Prison”.
Seasonal Artifact
The Seasonal Artifact has been revealed for Season of the Defiance. Titled the Ascendant Scepter, players receive this after completing the first mission of the Lightfall campaign, “First Contact”.
The Ascendant Scepter brings about the classic perks such as the anti-champion mods, whilst also bringing back fan favorites such as Volatile Flow. A couple of highlight perks from the artifact include Allied Unravelling, which grants Unravelling Rounds when defeating targets rapidly with Strand weapons.
High-end perks include Void Weapon Channeling, which grants damage to void weapons when you land a final blow, provided you have at least one Void ability fully charged. Alongside this is Prismatic Transfer, which gives everyone using a different subclass a damage buff when you cast your super.
Seasonal Weapons
With Season of the Defiance live, all the weapons have become available to those who own the Season, these weapons all have a similar ornate theme reminiscent of the Queen Mara Sov. Here’s a list of every seasonal weapon in Season of the Defiance:
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- Raconteur – Stasis Bow
- Royal Executioner – Solar Fusion Rifle
- Perpetuals – Strand Auto Rifle
- Prodigal Return – Arc Special Grenade Launcher
- Regnant – Void Heavy Grenade Launcher
- Caretaker – Solar Sword
Season Pass Exotic: Verglas Curve
The Season Pass exotic for Season of the Defiance is the Stasis Bow, Verglas Curve. Verglas Curve allows players to charge up stasis arrows, then fire them off in a volley creating stasis crystals on the ground. If these arrows hit a target they will freeze them, similar to other stasis abilities.
On top of that, all of the weapons appear to have strong Awoken and Queen’s Guard theme. This fits into the broader story of the season, which will have us working with Mara Sov and the Ascendant Plane.
Umbral Engrams and Energy
Bungie has been making major strides in recency with massive quality-of-life changes for a lot of its systems. Another system they’ve now changed with Season of Defiance is Umbral Engram and Umbral Energies.
Bungie revealed plans to remove both the Umbral Engram and Umbral Energy systems completely. According to a TWAB, Bungie initially aimed to “reduce complexity within progression systems. This means fewer competing currencies to earn”. As such, all Umbral Engrams and Umbral Energy have been removed going from Season of Defiance.
Instead of Umbral Engrams, we now receive Seasonal Engrams. These Engrams will be held onto at the Seasonal Vendor, rather than player inventories. This means managing your Engram inventory will become much easier going into future seasons.
Umbral Energy has also been removed, meaning that players will only need a Seasonal Engram and Glimmer to focus for gear.
Seasonal Currency
Seasonal Currency also received a rework with Season of Defiance. Bungie has stated that they’ll no longer be asking players to “unlock a chest at the end of every seasonal activity.”
Instead, Bungie has introduced singular keys that players can use to unlock chests at the end of seasonal activities. These chests offer better rewards to players that can unlock them, whilst making them no longer mandatory when finishing a seasonal activity. As such, Bungie also improved the rewards gained from completing a seasonal activity, and implemented the chests as true bonuses.
Keys are dropped via seasonal content as well, meaning players will no longer need to play outside of the season to reap the rewards.
Vendor Updates
Bungie has also reduced the total upgrades for Seasonal Vendors in Season of Defiance. Due to the reduction, these vendor upgrades will have a larger effect and also impact the way the player interacts with the Seasonal Activity.
Season of Defiance story and characters
Season of Defiance is about the ground war back on Earth. It contains a story about key characters defending Earth against Calus’ Shadow Cabal legions while most war efforts are focused on Neomuna.
As far as we know, Season of Defiance’s story will showcase Amanda Holliday, Devrim Kay, Crow, Mithrax, and Petra Venj.
Judging by the first trailer, this season largely focuses on us trying to save the earth. This is described as the ‘war’ back home, so expect much of the story to be shaped by the outcome of the Lightfall Campaign. We know the Shadow Legion is being deployed to earth, and they are taking prisoners.
Mara Sov is also playing a big part here, and she will be helping us in our efforts to save our home. In the trailer it says she will be knighting us as part of her Queen’s Guard. We’re also traveling to the Ascendant Plane, much like in Season of the Lost. Whatever is going on, it seems quite desperate, so expect a scrappy affair on our hands.
