Destiny 2: The Witch Queen

Lore & Background

The expansion revolves around Savathûn, The Witch Queen, sister of Oryx, antagonist of the original Destiny's first major expansion, The Taken King (2015). The story is bridged by four seasonal content offerings: Season of the Risen, Season of the Haunted, Season of Plunder, and Season of the Seraph, which lead into the next expansion, Lightfall. Season of the Risen centers on an uneasy alliance between the Vanguard and Empress Caiatl's Cabal to combat Savathûn's Light-bearing Hive. Season of the Haunted sees Caiatl and the Vanguard team with Eris Morn to stop Caiatl's father, Calus, on an Egregore-infested Leviathan ship. Season of Plunder involves the Kell of Darkness Eramis escaping her Stasis prison and gathering rogue Fallen pirate crews, with the Guardian teaming up with Mithrax, Eido, The Drifter, and The Spider. Season of the Seraph has the Guardian help Ana Bray, Osiris, and the Exo Stranger rebuild the Warmind Rasputin against Xivu Arath and the Witness.

Reader's Guide

The Witch Queen introduced weapon crafting, allowing players to obtain weapon patterns and craft their own versions with chosen perks. This system, located at The Enclave on Mars, uses Deepsight Resonance weapons to extract materials and allows indefinite modification. The expansion added a new location, Savathûn's Throne World, a new raid (Vow of the Disciple), two dungeons (requiring a dungeon key), and the reprised King's Fall raid. A new enemy, the Lucent Brood, are Hive warriors wielding Light powers and Ghosts that can resurrect them. The expansion also overhauled the Light subclasses (Void, Solar, Arc) with customizable Aspects and Fragments, similar to the Stasis system from Beyond Light. Seasonal content from The Witch Queen was later removed with the release of Lightfall, except for certain battlegrounds and activities re-added in 2025. The expansion also saw the removal of the Forsaken campaign and Tangled Shore into the Destiny Content Vault, while Forsaken's campaign was made free-to-play in December 2021.

Did You Know?

• It had over 1 million pre-orders, on track to become the most pre-ordered Destiny 2 expansion.
• The expansion introduced the glaive, a new weapon type with melee, short-range, and defensive capabilities.
• The reprised King's Fall raid from The Taken King was added on August 26, 2022, and is free for all players.