One of Destiny 2‘s biggest weaknesses is its new player experience—new players are tossed right into the current seasonal story with little to no explanation as to who they are or what they’re doing, meaning they have no context for its crazy alien space drama. Alongside the disorienting story experience, D2 is also a huge game. It has over ten years of lore to catch up on and a ton of activities to choose from. Thankfully, the new Edge of Fate DLC has sought to improve this new-player onboarding, making picking up this iconic game easier than ever before, though it can still be tricky.
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Edge of Fate Introduces a New Saga of Destiny Story
The Light and Dark saga, the arc that spanned all of Destiny 2 thus far, wrapped up with the defeat of the Witness, who heralded the Darkness and tried to bend the universe into its Final Shape, but was ultimately defeated by the combined powers of the Guardians and the power of the light. With this portion of Destiny‘s story wrapped up, the Fate saga begins, making Edge of Fate a great time for new players to pop in.
While new players will still be missing a lot of general lore about the different factions, races, and characters, the story itself has begun a new cycle, meaning new and veteran players alike will be introduced to new characters, settings, and conflicts. The previous New Light intro quest remains the same, introducing the player to the faces they’ll see around the Tower and in various missions—it’s the actual DLC that pulls new players into the story, starting from this first entry into the Fate saga. With the new DLC comes with more than just story changes; the Destiny team at Bungie has also made some structural changes to the game that make it more accessible for players not used to its unique menu system.
The New And Improved Portal Serves All New Light Needs
For the longest time, the main navigation menu in D2 was the Director, a map of the solar system that allowed players a more immersive way of navigating from activity to activity. However, it’s a confusing menu even for those players who have been here since the Red War, and it can be tricky to know where your next activity is supposed to be. The new menu screen, the Portal, changes all that.
Gone are the days of trying to figure out where your next story mission is—instead, there’s one button that takes you right to your mission without any of the confusion of clicking through planet after planet looking for the quest marker. Additionally, the Portal menu adds categories for quick, one-off missions that can be run solo or with a fireteam, dropping players into a ten-minute activity at their convenience.
Though veteran fans might miss the pretty planets menu, the Portal menu is a more straightforward way to onboard new players to what’s already going to be a relatively confusing experience. There are a lot of moving parts in Destiny 2; by supplementing the Director with the more straightforward Portal menu, newer players will be able to find the activities they want to play, always knowing what they can do next.
With The Meta Wiped, The Grind Begins Anew
One of the other big barriers to new players in D2 is that getting up to power with veteran players was a huge grind—reaching base power was annoying enough, and then the grind up to soft and hard cap was even worse. With Edge of Fate, everyone has been reset to 10 power, leaving Guardians new and old at the starting line of power together. In order to rank up, players have the choice of playing Portal activities or playing the Edge of Fate campaign on Legend difficulty, allowing New Lights to reach pinnacle power quickly or through a grind.
Not only did they reset power level, Bungie has also completely changed weapon and armor ranks, leaving equipment that used to be must-have by the wayside in favor for new stats and perks to chase. This brand-new grind leaves no player behind, shaking up the meta with new, powerful gear.
Even with all these new changes, Destiny 2 is still a tough game to get into. It’s got a decade of established lore that, even with the work of lore-keepers on YouTube and online, is a complicated tangle of inter-species politics and conflict. However, the changes being made with the Edge of Fate expansion release offer new players a smoother inroad than what existed before. While it’s by no means perfect, the changes allow new players a softer landing when they jump into the wild game that is Destiny 2.
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