Earlier this week, Bungie treated us to a very special video which outlined the upcoming year of content. It broke down the seasons, annual pass, and more pressingly, the first content release of the annual pass. Titled Black Armory, it launches this coming Tuesday on December 4th.
If you own the base Destiny 2, you need $40 for Forsaken; which now also bundles in all year 1 DLCs. Additionally, you need $35 for the Annual Pass. The following graphic released this past Tuesday illustrates things very well. The lower section shows what the $35 gets you.
The “Destiny 2” dog ear under “Free Seasonal Content” only requires ownership of the base game.
Dropping Some Hints
Bungie made a daring move by offering a paid Annual Pass along with Forsaken. The initial reactions were very mixed. Skeptics had a very good reason to question Bungie’s “audacity” to continue charging. Especially when it was for a product that was considered as a failure to many. However, this showed two things about Bungie and Forsaken.
The first was the extreme amount of dedication and commitment Bungie has for Destiny and its future. They don’t plan on moving away from Destiny anytime soon. It also makes more business sense to salvage what they’ve already spent a decade developing than to start from scratch. The second item of interest was in their extreme confidence in the quality of Forsaken. That it would only redeem the franchise (which it has), but also kick start an entire year of consistent content, bolstered with three themed releases.
It’s Not Pay to Play
With the release of Black Armory around the corner, the topic has been brought up again: “I have to pay again to keep playing?” The short answer is no, you don’t have to do anything. The longer answer has multiple parts and I will hopefully quell every variety of skeptic out there.
First off, you don’t need the Annual Pass to continue to get new free content. The changing Seasons bring new gear and activities for everyone. Last week I outlined the 3 new pinnacle weapons available to pursue, and those are free to all owners of Forsaken.
This week, players are encountering new High-Value Targets connected to the Forge activity coming in Black Armory. However, defeating them can sometimes drop a new year 2 version of some classic year 1 weapons, complete with randomly rolled perks. These also seem to be available to all owners of Forsaken and don’t require ownership of the Annual Pass.
Power and Weapons
Yet another example of free seasonal content is the return of the Machine Gun archetype of weapon, with the first weapon, Thunderlord, being available to everyone. In addition to all of that, for the first time ever, power progression isn’t locked behind the Annual Pass.
On Tuesday, all Forsaken players can continue their power progression journey to 650 power. This is a major step towards keeping the community less fragmented. It’s something I’ve been clamoring for over the past few years.
The point is that there is still plenty of content for those who choose to pass on the Annual Pass. You even have full access to all of the new vanity items available at Eververse.
Bring On the Pass
So what does the Annual Pass really get you? In short, it layers additional pinnacle activities and loot on the endgame. Black Armory is the first of 3 content releases included in the Annual Pass. The major items releasing in Black Armory are the Forge and a new Raid. Forges are described as a three-person match-made hoard-mode activity where you have to activate a Forge, then defend it as you place in components to craft your own weapon.
Not much is known about the process, but based on some items already acquired by some players, it likely starts with the acquisition on a weapon blueprint. If the mode is anything like the Forge in Curse of Osiris, you will need to attain a series of items before returning to a forge to craft it. The Forge activity itself has you defend the forge machinery against waves of enemies.
It also seems to involve you tossing some sort of energy source into the forge every so often. At the end, you will seemingly be rewarded by the item you’re crafting. It also seems that you will have the opportunity to craft some new special exotics as well. Here are a couple of the new exotics coming in Black Armory.
The next big activity coming with the ownership of Black Armory is of course the new raid. Despite what we saw before in older promotion material, and what the in-game text reads (c’mon Bungie, help me out here), it will apparently be a full raid and not a raid lair (the shorter mini-raids of year 1). It is set in the Last City on Earth and has been described by the developers as featuring combat pacing more in-line with Wrath of the Machine, my favorite raid from Destiny 1. They also teased some refreshing new mechanics and scenarios. This includes a segment where you and your team are on your sparrows; something we haven’t seen in raids before.
The Last City Raid
I’m happy they dropped the word lair, but at some point they must have decided to make the lair they were working on a bit longer. Maybe tossing in 1 or 2 more encounters, and graduated it to full raid status. We’ll see what they created soon enough as it launches on December 7th, mere days after Black Armory is released. Who knows, maybe it will be my favorite raid of Destiny 2 as well.
Wrapped Neatly In a Bow
At the end of the day, Bungie along with supplementing developers at Vicarious Visions and High Moon Studios, are working day in and day out to create more and more content for Destiny 2. They finally hit a stride with Forsaken, and I believe we should continue to positively reinforce that trajectory.
So as a consumer, you have a decision to make. If Destiny is your hobby, your go-to game like it is for me, then you will get or already have gotten the Annual Pass. If not, then cruise through the seasons and you will be just fine.
A long time ago, I made peace with the fact that my hobby of Destiny will cost around $80 a year. It wasn’t particularly difficult to come to terms with because for an investment game, that is among the cheapest out there. That’s not comparing it to other games. I’m just looking at whether or not there’s a return on my investment, and that answer is yes.
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