Destiny 2

Trials of Osiris from the original game was replaced by Trials of the Nine. Like Trials of Osiris, Trials of the Nine begins on Fridays and ends with the weekly reset on Tuesdays. The game mode for this new Trials, however, has changed; instead of using the Elimination mode of the original, Trials of the Nine rotates each week between Destiny 2's two new game modes, Countdown and Survival. Only one map is featured for Trials' four-day duration, but the map also rotates weekly. Player's gear is locked during Trials, meaning they cannot change it for the duration of a match. Unlike Trials of Osiris, players can gain access to the Trials of the Nine's social space called The Spire, located in unknown space, for completing a match of Trials and earning Trials tokens. There, players will meet an NPC called the Emissary of the Nine, who will exchange tokens for gear. Gaining three, five, and seven wins on the score card, respectively, gains access to the upper tiers of the social space with greater rewards at each tier. Going flawless with seven wins allows admittance into an exclusive area with even greater rewards. Three losses resets the score card. To access Trials of the Nine, players must have completed the campaign, completed Lord Shaxx's "Call to Arms" milestone, and have a Power level of at least 260. Trials of the nine has been put on permanent hiatus, but a new trials game mode has been speculated heavily.

The periodic competitive Iron Banner PvP mode of the original game, which disabled balancing of player's gear, also returned for the sequel. Destiny 2's Iron Banner, however, does not disable balancing, with Bungie stating that "Your fighting abilities, not your power levels, will decide the outcome". This was changed following the release of Forsaken, with balancing becoming disabled like the original game. Like the original, Iron Banner lasts for one week and features milestones to complete daily. Players must have completed the campaign and be level 20 to access Iron Banner, which features the returning Lord Saladin from the original game as its NPC.[14]

A new PvP mode that was added in the Forsaken expansion is called Gambit, a best-of-three rounds mode that combines both PvE and PvP, featuring the Drifter as its NPC. A 24-hour free trial of the mode was made available to all players on September 1, 2018, three days prior to the launch of Forsaken. Two teams of four players compete against each other by defeating PvE enemies. Enemies, when defeated, drop motes which players can pick up and deposit in a bank in the center of the arena. Depositing 5, 10 or 15 motes send small, medium or large enemy blockers, respectively, to the opposing team's arena and locks their bank; the opposing team must defeat the blockers in order to reactivate their bank. Every 25 motes deposited opens a portal where one team member can invade the other team's arena. Defeating members of the opposing team drops any motes that they are carrying. After depositing a certain amount of motes, a boss will spawn in the middle of the arena; if a team member is defeated by an invading member of the opposing team, the boss regains health. The first team that defeats their boss wins the round.

One year after the , Cabal forces of the Red Legion launch an aerial assault on the Last City, destroying the main portion of the Tower, the headquarters of the Guardians. The player's Guardian and their Ghost respond by assisting the Vanguard in assaulting the Red Legion command ship. As they confront the Red Legion's commander, Dominus Ghaul, his forces attach a device to the Traveler and begin draining it of the Light, the power used by the Guardians. The Guardian loses their powers and is nearly killed by Ghaul. Waking two days after the attack, the Guardian locates their Ghost. They find a haven known as "the Farm" in the European Dead Zone (EDZ) with the assistance of Suraya Hawthorne, a non-Guardian human from the outskirts of the Last City.

The Guardian follows a vision to encounter a shard of the Traveler hidden in a forest within the EDZ. Ghost interfaces with the shard and both its and the Guardian's Light are restored. After restoring long range communications, Hawthorne intercepts a distress call from Commander Zavala, urging surviving Guardians to travel to 's moon and assist in mounting a counter-offensive. Against Hawthorne's objections, the Guardian travels to Titan, which has been overrun by the Hive. With assistance from Deputy Commander Sloane, they learn that the Red Legion was dispatched to the in response to a distress call sent during the two years prior, and that Ghaul possesses a superweapon known as the Almighty, a space station capable of destroying stars. Resistance to Cabal rule has resulted in entire star systems being destroyed. The intelligence also reveals that the Almighty is positioned near the Sun, breaking up the planet as fuel. Zavala tasks the Guardian to find Ikora Rey and Cayde-6 to assist in a counterattack to retake the Last City. During this time, it is shown that Ghaul, aided by his mentor, the Consul, overthrew Emperor Calus and took control of the Cabal, and has been studying the Traveler in order to learn how to use the Light and legitimize himself as Emperor.

The Guardian locates Cayde-6 on the centaur planet , which has almost been completely transformed by the Vex. With the aid of Failsafe, an AI from the crashed starship Exodus Black, the Guardian frees Cayde from a Vex portal loop, and claims a teleporter for use in taking back the City. Cayde directs the Guardian to find Ikora on the moon of , where she had gone to find answers about the Traveler. Ikora and Io researcher Asher Mir directs the Guardian to locate a Warmind, an ancient defensive AI for intelligence on the Almighty. Afterwards, the Vanguard reunites at the Farm and conclude that the only way to retake the Last City and save the Traveler is to shut down the Almighty first, eliminating the possibility of it destroying the Sun. The Guardian boards the Almighty and destroys the weapon, signaling Zavala to begin the counterattack. As the Vanguard begins the assault, the Consul admonishes Ghaul for his obsession with the Traveler, and urges him to take the Light; Ghaul is reluctant until the Consul kills the Speaker, whom Ghaul had captured and tortured to try and learn more about the Traveler. Ghaul then proclaims that he will take the Light, and strangles the Consul in a fit of rage.

The Guardian returns to Earth to assist in the counterattack and infiltrates Ghaul's command ship alone to save the Traveler. Ghaul forcibly takes the Light, corrupting it, and uses its power against the Guardian, but the Guardian is successful in defeating Ghaul. Ghaul reemerges as a massive ethereal figure who then speaks to the Traveler directly. In doing so, the Traveler wakes from its long sleep, destroying the device that was harvesting its power and killing Ghaul. It sends a massive shockwave, restoring the Light and decimating the Red Legion's forces. The game ends with a posthumous voiceover from the Speaker, reminding all that the Light can never be stopped. The Guardian and Ghost convene with Zavala, Ikora, Cayde, and Hawthorne at an undamaged portion of the Tower, with the Vanguard returning to their old duties and Hawthorne assuming a new post there. In a post-credits scene, the shockwave sent by the Traveler is shown reaching the entire system. The wave of Light extends beyond the Solar System and spreads beyond the Milky Way, before panning across a fleet of dark, unknown ships sitting some distance away in extragalactic space.

Following Ghaul's defeat, a massive Cabal ship called the Leviathan appears in orbit of Nessus, under the control of the exiled Emperor Calus. Calus invites Guardians to complete a series of challenges before reaching his throne ("Leviathan" raid). A fireteam of Guardians complete his challenges before facing Calus himself; however, after overcoming his strange powers and defeating him, they discover that they were fighting a mechanical doppelganger. The real Calus speaks through the machine, claiming that what they know is a lie and that there is a truth beyond what the Speaker had told them.

A sequel to was first mentioned in November 2014, two months after the original released, by Eric Hirshberg, where he said "Work has also begun on future expansion packs as well as on our next full game release". Originally planned for a September 2016 release (based on the original documents), and worked on , joined Bungie. would be joining the development team along with Activision.,

In Activision's earnings report for 2016, Hirshberg said that Destiny's sequel was still "on track for release this fall [2017]." Activision said the sequel would "broaden the franchise's global reach." Hirshberg elaborated that players who had spent hours in the original would "love" the sequel, and for those who had not played Destiny, or had not played in a while,

... we think we've made a sequel that's going to have a lot for them to love, too. The cornerstone of that is a great cinematic story that's been a real focus with a great cast of memorable, relatable characters, coupled with some very nice ways to make the game more accessible to a casual player. Without losing anything that our core players love, we've made it more accessible to someone who just wants to have a great, more casual first-person action experience.[21]

Bungie had said that players' characters and progression would carry over into future releases. Bungie awarded veteran players in Destiny 2 with in-game emblems that acknowledged their accomplishments in the original Destiny. Players' characters, progression, and items are still accessible in the original Destiny, which will continue to remain online.

On March 23, 2017, a promotional poster for the sequel was leaked by Lega Network, revealing the game's name as Destiny 2 and a release date of September 8, 2017, with the mention of a public beta for the game. The poster showed that just like the original, Destiny 2 would have PlayStation exclusive content. This was followed up with a teaser trailer narrated by character Cayde-6. The teaser showed the Tower under attack by the Cabal, one of the enemy races from the original game. 's channel showed a slightly extended teaser, officially confirming that there would be timed exclusive content for PlayStation 4, and it would last until at least fall 2018., , and would be reprising their roles as the class Vanguards, respectively. also confirmed that he would be reprising Ghost, the Guardian's companion. On May 19, 2017, Destiny 2 project lead Mark Noseworthy told that there were no plans for a version of the game. Noseworthy went on to say:

I think it's pretty unrealistic given we're an online-only game, right? The Switch, because it's a portable – and I love my Switch, I've got here, I've got it with me. It's incredible, I love the console, but in terms of where it's at, I don't want to leave anyone with the possibility of like, 'it's a thing we'll consider, maybe next year.' There's no plans right now for Switch.[30]

The Microsoft Windows version of Destiny 2 supports native and uncapped (fps), full mouse and keyboard support, text chat, adjustable field of view, and 21:9 monitor support, as well as being exclusive to 's service., an updated version of the standard PlayStation 4 that supports 4K rendering. Similarly, the Xbox One had an updated version called the that released in November 2017 after Destiny 2's launch. Bungie added 4K support for the One X, as well as support for both updated consoles, on December 5, 2017. Unlike the Windows version, however, the console versions are locked at 30fps.

Grimoire cards that were found in the original game, which detailed the lore of the Destiny universe and could only be accessed from Bungie's website and the Destiny app, did not return for the sequel. For Destiny 2, Bungie shifted their focus to in-game storytelling, which was something the original was criticized for lacking. To detail the lore of the universe in Destiny 2, there are many artifacts around the maps that can be scanned by Ghost, who will give details and backstory. Exotic gear and some legendary gear also have a lore tab. (E3), a new cinematic trailer was shown, narrated by the main antagonist, Dominus Ghaul. It showed that Bungie did focus more on the story for the sequel than the original, as Bungie was "attempting to go in-depth into the universe and the motivations of the characters." The dates for the beta on the console versions were also confirmed at E3 2017. Early access for pre-order customers began on PS4 on July 18 followed by Xbox One on July 19; non-pre-order customers received access beginning July 21. The console beta concluded on July 25, after a 2-day extension. The beta for the PC began on August 29 and concluded on August 31.[36]

The original score was composed by , Skye Lewin, C. Paul Johnson, Rotem Moav, and Peter Schlosser.

Destiny 2 was released worldwide for the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One on September 6, 2017, and the Microsoft Windows version released worldwide on October 24., which grants access to the first two of Destiny 2. as well as other in-game pre-order bonuses, such as early access to the exotic rifle "Coldheart". received a Cayde-6 collectible figure. Per an exclusivity agreement with that began with the original Destiny, the PlayStation 4 version of Destiny 2 featured timed-exclusive content until late 2018; PS4 exclusive content ended with the release of the Shadowkeep expansion in October 2019.[41]

The Collector's Edition of Destiny 2 included the base game in a SteelBook case, the Expansion Pass, a themed , a "Frontier Kit", which featured a solar panel USB charger with built-in light, a paracord, and a solar blanket, a 15" laptop/tablet sleeve with protective pocket slip, a Cabal-themed collector's box with various items, and premium digital content. The Limited Edition, distributed exclusively from GameStop, included the same physical and digital items as the Collector's Edition, minus the backpack, "Frontier Kit", and laptop/tablet sleeve. The Digital Deluxe Edition includes all of the premium digital content.