Destiny 2: Lightfall is a major expansion for Destiny 2, a first-person shooter video game by Bungie. Representing the seventh expansion and the sixth year of extended content for Destiny 2, it was released on February 28, 2023, after being pushed back from its original fall 2022 release as a result of the delay of the previous expansion, The Witch Queen. Lightfall revolves around the exiled Cabal emperor Calus, a recurring character throughout Destiny 2, now a Disciple of the Witness, as he, the Witness, and their army of Shadow Legion Cabal and Tormentors attack the secret, technologically advanced human city of Neomuna on Neptune to procure a mysterious being called the Veil to herald a second Collapse.
The expansion added a second Darkness subclass for players called Strand, with powers based on unraveling, suspending, and severing opponents via manipulation of reality through an extra-dimensional matrix called the Weave. Other content includes new missions, Player versus Environment locations, a Player versus Player map, player gear, weaponry, and a new raid. Two new dungeons as well as a returning reprised raid, "Crota's End" from the original Destiny's (2014) The Dark Below expansion, were released over the course of the year.
There were also four seasonal content offerings released throughout Year 6 of the game: Season of Defiance, which was available alongside the expansion, Season of the Deep in May 2023, Season of the Witch in August 2023, and Season of the Wish in November 2023, which was Destiny 2s longest traditional season ever, lasting nearly seven months (27 weeks) due to the delay of the next expansion, The Final Shape, to June 2024. Due to the lengthened time, a free content update was released in April 2024 called Into the Light, which added a new three-player PvE activity called Onslaught, new PvP maps, the return of two previously removed exotic missions and weapons with new perks, as well as a boss rush mode featuring bosses from various raids. This was also the final content year for Destiny 2 to use the seasonal model that had been utilized since Year 2, as the seasons were replaced by larger episodes in Year 7. With the release of The Final Shape, Year 6's seasonal content was removed from the game with the exception of the Onslaught activity, PvP maps, and exotic missions and gear that were added with Into the Light; Onslaught received its own dedicated playlist. Onslaught was briefly removed when The Edge of Fate launched in July 2025, but it was re-added in the second week, along with the Savathûn's Spire and The Coil activities from Season of the Witch and Season of the Wish, respectively.
The seasons bridged the events of Lightfall to the next expansion, The Final Shape. Following the end of Lightfalls campaign, Season of Defiance focused on Earth's defense after The Witness's initial assault, with the Guardian teaming up with Queen Mara Sov, Devrim Kay, and Crow to rescue abducted citizens from the Shadow Legion's prisons using the Ascendant Realm. Season of the Deep had the Guardian work with The Drifter to travel back to Saturn's moon, Titan, which had returned after its disappearance by the Darkness at the end of Season of Arrivals, with the Guardian sent to rescue Deputy Commander Sloane, who survived the Darkness by forging a psychic bond with an ancient proto-Hive creature named Ahsa, who revealed the origins of The Witness. Season of the Witch then saw the Vanguard resurrect Savathûn to learn how to pursue The Witness into the portal it created on the Traveler's surface at the end of Lightfall. In Season of the Wish, the Vanguard struck a bargain with the spirit of the Ahamkara dragon, Riven (who was slain in the "Last Wish" raid in Forsaken), in order for her to grant a 15th and final wish to allow Crow to enter the Traveler and pave the way to confront The Witness in The Final Shape. In Into the Light, which was a prologue to The Final Shape, the Guardian worked with Lord Shaxx to fight back against The Witness's forces that encroached upon the Last City.
Gameplay
Lightfall expands on the base Destiny 2 gameplay by adding a new free roam world for the city Neomuna on the planet Neptune. Over the course of the year of content for Lightfall included one new raid, "Root of Nightmares", released on March 10, 2023, two new dungeons, "Ghosts of the Deep" and "Warlord's Ruin" during Seasons 21 and 23, respectively, and one returning raid, "Crota's End", from the original Destinys (2014) The Dark Below expansion, which was added on September 1, 2023, during Season 22 and is free for all players to access. It features the same story as the original, but accounts for differences in Destiny 2, such as gameplay mechanics and Champion enemies, as well as a new starting instance on the Hellmouth on Earth's Moon (players begin the raid in the Hellmouth area like the original, but cannot explore the rest of the Moon beyond this area). New and existing story content was expanded with a "Legendary" difficulty similar to that from The Witch Queen (2022), designed to be challenging for single players but with improved rewards for completing. Starting with Lightfall and future expansions, previous expansions and their content is no longer removed from the game and placed in the Destiny Content Vault (DCV), but seasonal content will still continue to be removed and vaulted at the start of each expansion. While the other seasonal activities from The Witch Queen were removed with Lightfall, the PsiOps and Heist Battlegrounds activities from Season of the Risen (Season 16) and Season of the Seraph (Season 19), respectively, were added to the Vanguard Ops playlist, and, alongside the Battlegrounds from Season of the Chosen (Season 13), were also made available as Nightfalls and Grandmaster Nightfalls.
Emperor Calus's Shadow Legion, Cabal warriors that carry the power of the Darkness, and Tormentors, the personal soldiers of the Witness, are new major enemies within Lightfall. Cabal Shadow Legion enemies use Pyramid technology to shield themselves in battle. Described by Bungie as the "most scary unit [players] have ever fought", Tormentors use giant scythes in battle and can suppress Guardian ability and super usage and even instantly kill Guardians by grabbing them at close range.
Beyond Light (2020) introduced the game's first Darkness subclass, Stasis, which used items called Aspects and Fragments to give the player more customization of how Stasis could be used; during The Witch Queen, the original Light subclasses of Void, Solar, and Arc were revamped to be given the same Aspect and Fragment system as Stasis. Lightfall added a brand new, second Darkness subclass called Strand, which also features this modularity. Strand's powers are based on unraveling, suspending, and severing opponents via manipulation of reality through an extra-dimensional matrix called the Weave. One such power is a grappling hook-like ability that allows Guardians to grapple onto environmental features or other characters, enabling new forms of movement. Each of the main character classes gain a new subclass based on Strand: Berserkers for Titans, who can use twin Strand blades to quickly slice through enemies through their "Bladefury" super; Broodweavers for Warlocks, who can unleash Strand missiles which explode into creatures called Threadlings upon impact through their "Needlestorm" super; and Threadrunners for Hunters, who can summon a Strand rope dart to lash enemies with through their "Silkstrike" super.
Across the board, Lightfall introduced adjustments to game difficulty levels for endgame content (e.g., Nightfalls and raids) and based on Bungie's monitoring of activities to date. Rather than setting and capping these activities at a given level, higher-difficulty activities became only available to players above certain Power levels. Further, Guardians' Power level was given a penalty based on the difficulty level, making them more vulnerable and less damaging to enemies. Accompanying these changes included an improved system of rewards to make the challenging content more worthwhile to complete. Elemental burns, which were originally fixed based on the activity, were split into season-long and weekly rotating surges (increases for Guardians' damage) and threats (increases for enemy damage). Special overcharged weapons granted additional damage during periods where its element was surging.
Among gameplay improvements, Lightfall added an in-game loadout feature, which previously were performed through third-party applications that interfaced with Destiny 2. This allows players to set pre-determined armor and weapon sets, including all mods and appearance modifiers, making it easy to switch between various loadouts for various activities. During Season 23, Lightfall introduced an improved in-game "looking for group" (LFG) feature which allows players to easily find other players to engage with content that is designed for matchmaking; the beta for the in-game fireteam finder feature began on November 30, 2023, with its full release in January 2024. A commendation system was also introduced to allow players to provide positive recognition and accolades to other players after an activity has been completed. These new features were layered atop a new Guardian level system which was designed to reflect how much expertise a player had with Destiny 2, and also serves as a new player onboarding system, with some features locked out until the player has reached a specific Guardian level.
Other significant gameplay changes included: The seasonal artifact, which provides bonus power levels across all characters on a player's account for a season as introduced in Shadowkeep, continued to be used in Lightfall. However, mods on the seasonal artifact were replaced with unique, unlockable perks which only 12 could be active per character, and these perks were applied passively when active; moreover, resetting the artifact to change perks was free. Starting in Season 21, perks on the seasonal artifact could be activated and deactivated individually instead of having to reset the entire artifact to change perks. In addition to the in-game loadout feature, a mod customization feature was added, which allows players to view and modify all weapon and armor mods and character stats on a single screen. Furthermore, armor and its armor mods no longer have elemental affinities, with some armor mods now providing benefits to weapons based on their damage type, and the general energy cost of mods was reduced to encourage more experimentation in buildcrafting. As well, the Charged With Light combat style mods was replaced with an Armor Charge system, while Elemental Wells were replaced with those of damage-type-specific spawned objects, such as Stasis shards and Arc ionic traces. The Match Game modifier was removed from high-difficulty endgame activities such as Grandmaster Nightfalls and Master-level raids, with base elemental shield resistance to non-matching elemental damage being adjusted as a result. As well, in addition to anti-Champion weapon perks that could be unlocked on the seasonal artifact, each subclass' elemental status effects could be used to stun Champions (Void volatile, Solar radiant, and Strand unravel stuns Barrier Champions; Arc jolt, Void suppression, and Stasis slow stuns Overload Champions; and Arc blind, Stasis shatter, Solar ignition, and Strand suspend stuns Unstoppable Champions).