• Bungie garnered goodwill when it revealed a new sub-class and enemy faction arriving with Destiny 2: The Final Shape.
• Prismatic allows players to craft a sub-class using the existing abilities from Solar, Arc, Void, Strand, and Stasis.
• The Dread are a new enemy faction based on Tormentors which debuted in 2023’s Lightfall expansion.

On Tuesday evening, Bungie streamed a gameplay preview of the forthcoming expansion for Destiny 2, The Final Shape.

Originally scheduled for release in February, the launch was delayed to 4th June and in that extra time, Bungie has been working hard.

When The Final Shape was first showcased it received a middling reception. Players were disappointed that a new sub-class wasn’t announced, that The Witness was being used as a way to avoid a new enemy faction being introduced and much more. It was, fine, but for the culmination of a story years in the making, it looked like it was going to be a middling end.

To say that Bungie reignited hype for The Final Shape on Tuesday night would be an understatement.

The developer started its gameplay preview off by announcing a new sub-class – Prismatic.

Prismatic allows players to craft a sub-class using abilities from Arc, Solar, Void, Stasis, and Strand. We could describe it, but it’s better if you see it.

A feature of Prismatic is Transcendence.

“You’ll be able to break the known limits of Light and Darkness by entering Transcendence, a state only possible when using the Prismatic subclass. By dealing both Light and Darkness damage you will charge two meters that, when filled, enable a temporary state of Transcendence that unlocks a new unique grenade ability and weapon damage bonuses,” writes Bungie.

The unique grenades differ from class to class.

• Hunters receive a Stasis and Solar grenade while Transcendent;
• Titans receive a Strand and Arc grenade while Transcendent;
• Warlocks receive a Stasis and Void grenade while Transcendent.

Prismatic will have Aspects and Fragments that players can use to customise the sub-class and the journey to unlock these will only need to be completed once.

Players are very excited by this reveal and while it looks incredibly unbalanced, that’s part of the appeal.

“I’m finally, for the first time, actually hyped for Final Shape,” Destiny creator Kujay said on X.

Along with Prismatic, Bungie will reintroduce Exotic class items to the Destiny franchise. This time however, the class Exotics will be expressly for Prismatic. With these Exotics, players will be able to make use of two additional Exotic perks while use Prismatic. These perks are random but according to Bungie they can be perks from Exotics of other sub-classes.

Bungie chose chaos and we love it.

Dread the future

In Lightfall players were introduced to Tormentors. Bungie ran with that character design and has now created an entirely new enemy faction in the Dread.

Units within this faction include Grim which are bats with guns and melee fighters called Husks that unleash a flying Geist when destroyed. There is also the Stasis-empowered Attendant and the Strand-empowered Weaver. The final new unit is the Subjugator which appears to be the ranged enemy in the lineup along with the Tormentors that, like Hive Ogres, have a ranged and melee attack.

“I think everyone is freaking about the fact we got a new enemy type in the first place. Especially one that looks so damn good. They look amazing, they have amazing designs and concepts, and they open the floor to a lot of more discussion,” a Reddit user said of the new faction.

These enemies look to be incredibly tough from what we saw during the showcase so now might be the best time to farm for high-stat armour in Destiny 2 ahead of The Final Shape.

The Final Shape preview definitely reignited interest – and hope – in Destiny 2, but the launch of Into the Light has done wonders for the play population.

On Monday evening, 36 299 players were logged into the game on Steam, on Tuesday, as many as 123 000 players were online.

Into the Light brought with it a new horde mode in Onslaught as well as the return of The Whisper mission. Onslaught offers up tantalising weapon rewards which has clearly drawn players back and from our own experience, it’s a fantastic addition to the game.

Social media and forums are awash with praise for Bungie and considering the bleak state of the game and developer mere months ago, that’s a notable change.

While we were begrudgingly looking forward to The Final Shape, with this preview we’re more now as excited as we were for The Witch Queen and Forsaken. Here’s hoping the finale of Destiny 2 lives up to the hype.