Destiny 2: Forsaken was a major expansion for Destiny 2, a first-person shooter video game by Bungie. Representing the third expansion and the second year of extended content for Destiny 2, it was released on September 4, 2018. Forsaken revolved around the player's Guardian seeking to avenge the death of Cayde-6 by the hands of the Awoken Prince Uldren Sov. Uldren, corrupted by the Darkness, was in search of his lost sister, Queen Mara Sov, both of whom were thought to have died in Destiny: The Taken King (2015). Along their journey, players faced the Scorn, undead versions of the Fallen race that had been revived and morphed into a new race.
The expansion's release coincided with patch version 2.0 for Destiny 2, which made fundamental changes to the core functionality for all players to mark the start of Year 2 of the game's lifecycle. Through the development of Forsaken, Bungie sought to address criticisms from players and critics; many changes to the game were direct responses to this. Forsaken added content across the game, including new missions, Player versus Environment (PvE) locations, Player versus Player (PvP) maps, player gear, weaponry, a brand new PvE/PvP hybrid game mode called Gambit, and a new raid. The expansion also introduced the game's first dungeon, a new challenging three-player activity. A seasonal model was also introduced, in which smaller content packages were released periodically throughout the year between the releases of the major expansions. The seasonal model continued until The Final Shape (2024), which replaced the seasons with larger episodes.
Upon the expansion's release, retailers also issued Destiny 2: Forsaken Legendary Collection, which included the Destiny 2 base game, Forsaken, and the previous two expansions, Curse of Osiris and Warmind. An Annual Pass was also released alongside the expansion, which granted access to the seasonal content for Year 2 of the game. The year began with Season of the Outlaw, which was an alternative name for Forsaken and the year's initial time period until the release of the subsequent season. The content of the Annual Pass included Season of the Forge in December 2018, Season of the Drifter in March 2019, and Season of Opulence in June 2019—this seasonal content, however, was removed from the game with the release of Beyond Light in November 2020, with the exception of Gambit Prime from Season of the Drifter, which replaced the standard three-round version of Gambit that was originally added with Forsaken.
The seasons bridged the events of Forsaken to the next expansion, Shadowkeep. Following Season of the Outlaw, Season of the Forge introduced Ada-1 and the ancient Black Armory, a secret Golden Age weapon foundry, with the Guardian helping Ada-1 reclaim lost Forges from a rogue Fallen terrorist faction, the Kell's Scourge, preventing them from weaponizing this powerful lost technology. Season of the Drifter centered on the roguish Lightbearer, the Drifter, and his controversial, Darkness-fueled game of Gambit, with the Guardian learning of his mysterious past and his shadowy dealings with the Nine. Season of Opulence saw the Exiled Cabal Emperor Calus invite the Guardian to his ship, the Leviathan, to partake in a challenge known as the Menagerie, where in exchange for loyalty and performing grand feats, Calus promised limitless treasures and crowned the Guardian as his newest Shadow.
Upon the release of The Witch Queen expansion in February 2022, Forsakens campaign and the Tangled Shore destination were removed from the game as part of a developer initiative called the "Destiny Content Vault". Ahead of its removal, Forsakens campaign was made free-to-play in December 2021. Simultaneously, a special Forsaken Pack was released, which grants access to Forsakens endgame content and exotic gear that was not removed.
Gameplay
In comparison to the previous two expansions of Destiny 2, Forsaken features a "full campaign", four new multiplayer "strike" missions (one of which was a PS4 timed-exclusive), four new Crucible maps (including one PS4 timed-exclusive), and a new mode called "Gambit" which combines elements of Player versus Environment (PvE) with Player versus Player (PvP). A new competitive Crucible mode was added, called "Breakthrough"—two teams of four fight to attempt to capture a central point called a "Breaker"; the first team that captures the Breaker can then hack the opposing team's vault, all while the opposing team defends their vault from being hacked.
The expansion introduces a new faction of enemies, the Scorn—undead Fallen corrupted by Dark Ether that have become their own race. Scorn enemies do not take cover and have the most aggressive artificial intelligence in the game. In addition, a more liberal sense to mission layout and player choice has been taken, with the initial six Barons being able to be taken out in any order the player chooses. The Tangled Shore and the Dreaming City, both located in the Reef, serve as new playable environments in Forsaken; the latter environment is accessible after completing the main campaign of the expansion and completing a post-campaign mission. At the Dreaming City's Blind Well, players can use special charges of Light to summon Scorn, Hive, or Taken enemies for public battles, each ending with a boss. All participants in Blind Well battles receive rewards. The charges of Light correspond to three difficulty levels; an optional, yet highly difficult, fourth level can be triggered at the end of the third tier of difficulty. A new raid mission, "Last Wish", was opened on September 14, 2018; unlike previous raids, there is no Prestige version. Bungie claimed that the raid had more bosses than any previous raid (including from the original game); the first completion of the raid triggered a three-week curse cycle in the Dreaming City, opening up new activities and missions for players to participate in, including a 3-player raid-like activity called a dungeon. "The Shattered Throne", the game's first-ever dungeon, was made available on September 28, 2018; the activity was initially only available every three weeks when the Dreaming City's curse was at full strength until the release of Shadowkeep in October 2019, which made the dungeon fully playable anytime. A new weapon type, a Combat Bow, was also added in the expansion. The EXP level cap was raised to 50 and the Power level cap was raised to 600.
Each of the three character classes feature three new supers for each of their subclasses, which are tied to a brand new third subclass branch. For Hunters, the new super for Gunslingers is "Blade Barrage", focusing on throwing a volley of flaming knives; "Spectral Blades" for Nightstalkers, allowing players to turn invisible and see through walls and attack with Void daggers; and "Whirlwind Guard" for Arcstriders, which allows players to block and reflect projectiles by spinning their Arc Staff. For Warlocks, the new super for Voidwalkers is "Nova Warp", allowing players to teleport around the battlefield and unleash a Void explosion; "Chaos Reach" for Stormcallers, which unleashes a beam of Arc energy that can be turned off at any time to conserve Super energy; and "Well of Radiance" for Dawnblades, allowing players to create a healing and empowering aura for players to stand in. Finally, for Titans, the new super for Strikers is "Thundercrash", allowing players to launch into the air and slam onto the ground; "Burning Maul" for Sunbreakers, where players wield a large flaming hammer that can unleash flaming tornadoes; and "Banner Shield" for Sentinels, allowing players to use their Sentinel Shield to unleash a protective barrier that players can also shoot their weapons through. Each new subclass branch, along with their new supers, can be unlocked by obtaining an item called a "Seed of Light", in which three are available for each character; the first Seed of Light is obtainable through playing the campaign of Forsaken, while the other two can be obtained by playing through high-level, endgame activities.
Gambit, the new PvE/PvP hybrid mode, consists of a best-of-three rounds featuring a new character called the Drifter as its non-player character (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. In this mode, 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 sends 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. Motes are permanently lost if a player is defeated by a PvE enemy or an invading member of the opposing team. After depositing 75 motes, a boss called a Primeval spawns in the middle of the arena; if a team member is defeated by an invading member of the opposing team, the Primeval regains health. The first team that defeats their Primeval wins the round. Gambit also features a progressive-based ranking system similar to the Crucible's Valor and Glory ranks called "Infamy"; however, each progression rank is separated into three tiers, with each rank requiring more Infamy points.
Seasonal changes Forsaken introduced the Annual Pass, which was released alongside the expansion. It included three premium downloadable content packages that were released in December 2018 and March and June 2019. This was Bungie's initial seasonal content model, however, although there were three content packages, these could not be purchased separately and had to be purchased altogether in the Annual Pass. Content in these drops included new endgame challenges, new weapons, armor, and "vanity rewards" to collect, new and returning Exotics, new pinnacle activities, new triumph records to collect, and new lore to discover. Each season's content carried over and was playable at anytime in future seasons of Year 2. All of the content of the Annual Pass became free to all owners of Forsaken on September 18, 2019, just prior to the release of the next expansion, Shadowkeep, which began Year 3 and changed the way in which seasonal content is purchased and delivered—one such difference is that seasonal content can now be purchased separately via seasonal passes. All content of the Annual Pass was accessible throughout Year 3, however, it became unavailable in Year 4 as this content was entered into the Destiny Content Vault with the release of Beyond Light in November 2020, with the exception of Gambit Prime, which replaced the standard three-round Gambit and was renamed as Gambit.
As Forsaken introduced the seasonal model for Destiny 2, there were no seasonal names for the content drops of Year 1, but the releases have been numerically categorized. The base game's original Red War campaign is Season 1, the Curse of Osiris expansion is Season 2, and the Warmind expansion is Season 3. Forsaken, which is also known as Season of the Outlaw, is Season 4, but it was not until Season 5, Season of the Forge, which was the first content drop of the Annual Pass, in which the seasonal model for Destiny 2 truly began.