Bungie kept the details of the newest season coming to Destiny 2 today close to its chest, but the official trailer that just dropped has finally given us a name: Season of the Seraph.
As fans have theorized and anticipated, the Warmind Rasputin is finally back in the spotlight after his narrow escape with Ana Bray from Mars during the Season of Arrivals. The new season promises a battle between Rasputin and Xivu Arath—the Hive god of war—as a narrative backdrop to a new Battlegrounds seasonal activity, dungeon, and the first Exotic mission since Dead Messenger.
The Lightfall expansion is just on the horizon, and in Season of the Seraph, getting one of our most crucial allies for the upcoming battle back online will require taking the fight to Xivu Arath’s forces across multiple Braytech facilities and an orbital platform above the Last City. The core seasonal activity is Heist Battlegrounds, no doubt the third spin on the popular Battlegrounds activity first introduced in Season of the Chosen.
Grinding out the activity will net players with a host of new Seraph weaponry, including what appears to be a new Trace Rifle, Veist Bow, and another Linear Fusion Rifle. An Exotic Pulse Rifle, Revision Zero, will serve as the reward for Guardians that take on Destiny 2’s first Exotic mission since Season of the Risen called Operation: Seraph’s Shield. But instead of random rolls for the Exotic being the carrot on a stick for multiple runs, Revision Zero is teased to have multiple Catalysts for the first time in the game’s history.
The updates coming to the Deep Stone Crypt raid were already known ahead of time, but footage of the raid in the trailer was noticeably different and points to it being reprised for a new activity as well. The player fights a horde of Scorn as well as a new House Salvation boss in the bridge area. This could potentially be the weekly Exotic mission, with Bungie re-using the pre-existing palette for a Braytech orbital satellite to tell a new story.
Alongside the new seasonal activities and loot, both The Dawning and Moments of Triumph will return to Destiny 2 during Season of the Seraph as well. The Dawning will be first, going live only a week after today’s season launch on Dec. 13, and then concluding on Jan. 2.
The seasonal armor is unsurprisingly designed to evoke Rasputin and the Seraph aesthetic, but the ornaments that can be obtained through the season pass are interestingly instead designed to be Veist foundry armor. This means that Veist now joins in-universe brands like Daito and Hakke, who have already had branded armor sets featured in previous Destiny 2 seasons. The season pass exotic SMG, The Manticore, follows this same trend as a Veist weapon with a “venomous roar,” according to Season of the Seraph’s official page.
Players need only wait a few more hours to experience Rasputin’s return in the H.E.L.M when Season of the Seraph goes live in Destiny 2 later today, alongside a major rework to the Crucible’s competitive playlist and a dungeon coming this week on Friday, Dec. 9.
