As Destiny 2: Forsaken’s Season of the Drifter comes to a close, we prepare ourselves to drink in the fruits of golden splendor. Now that The Drifter’s mysterious game and his story are taking a backseat, Calus is stepping forward into the spotlight. We’re heading back into the Leviathan, once thought to be a threat, now a great place of mystery from a tenuous allegiance with the spurned Cabal Emperor. Here’s everything you need to know about Destiny 2: Forsaken Season of Opulence, formerly known as the Annual Pass content Penumbra.
Everything You Need to Know About Destiny 2 Season of Opulence
Wait, what happened to Penumbra?
When the Annual Pass was first announced, it was said to hold three content udpates: Black Armory, Joker’s Wild, and Penumbra. As the seasons went on, Bungie shifted away from these specific naming conventions and addressed the seasonal content under the season names rather than these content names. Due to the different nature of the ongoing seasonal content, rather than a traditional “expansion” like Warmind or Curse of Osiris, these names were dropped in order to better communicate the intention of the season of content, both free and paid. Penumbra became the Season of Opulence just as Joker’s Wild became the Season of the Drifter.
When does Season of Opulence start?
Season of Opulence starts at the weekly reset on June 4, 2019. The update download will be available when Destiny 2 goes down for maintenance at 8:00 am PST, and Destiny 2 will be available to play again at 10:00 am PST. At that time, Season of Opulence will be live.
What Destiny 2 update is Season of Opulence?
Season of Opulence comes alongside Destiny 2 update 2.5.0.1.
What new content is coming in Season of Opulence?
Season of Opulence is focused on discovery and mystery, so there’s not a whole lot known right now about what’s coming in this season of content, but Bungie did provide a content calendar for what we do know. Here’s what’s coming, both free seasonal updates and paid content with the Annual Pass:
Free Seasonal Updates
- Exotic Quest
- Power Increase (likely to 750)
- New Triumphs and Lore
- Eververse Content Update
- New Rank Rewards
- Return of Iron Banner
Paid Annual Pass Updates
- The Menagerie (new six-player matchmade activity)
- New weapons and gear
- Crown of Sorrows Raid
- Exotic Quest
- New Triumphs and Lore
- Penumbral Chalice (ties into The Menagerie)
Is there a more specific Season of Opulence calendar?
There is! Much like past seasons, Bungie released a more granule calendar for the next three months of Destiny 2 content, which includes some very interesting revelations about what to expect, including those two Exotic quests.
June 4 – Menagerie and Crown of Sorrows Raid
June 11 – New Menagerie Boss and Truth Rocket Launcher Exotic Quest
June 18 – New Menagerie Boss and Iron Banner Quest
June 25 – Menagerie Heroic Mode
July 2 – Lumina Hand Cannon Exotic Quest
July 9 – Tribute Hall and Moments of Triumph
July 30 – Solstice of Heroes and Gambit Free to All Players
Wait, did you say Crown of Sorrows Raid?
I did! The Crown of Sorrows Raid will go live at 4:00 pm PST on June 4, 2019. Unlike past Raids that have gone live days after the new content, this Raid is going to be live on the first day to give everyone a fair chance at the world’s first race for completion. Current speculation says that Crown of Sorrows will be a Hive focused Raid on board the Leviathan, but as usual, the Raid’s a big mystery ahead of the actual release.
For day one of the Raid, power will be capped at 700 for the initial encounter and 720 by the final encounter in order to even the playing field for those attempting world’s first. Manage to complete the Raid within that first week, and there are some pretty cool rewards to earn.
What are the Raid early completion rewards?
For world’s first, that team will win championship belts to celebrate their victory. If you finish on day one, you’ll get an exclusive emblem marking that 24-hour completion. If you finish within the first week, you’ll get the opportunity to buy the Crown of Sorrows Raid jacket.
New six-player matchmade activity? So what’s The Menagerie?
Most people are speculating that The Menagerie is the next evolution of activities like Escalation Protocol or The Reckoning, albeit likely more involved than the wave-based activities we’ve seen previously. It will involve an item known as the Chalice of Opulence, which combines elements of crafting to let players pick their rewards.
Tell me more about this Chalice of Opulence.
You’ll get the Chalice from on introductory quest, and once obtained, it can be shared among characters. No more needing to finish things three times this season! You earn runes to slot into the Chalice, and upon completing The Menagerie, the Chalice will reward players with different items and effects depending on the combination of runes slotted. It will be up to the community to figure out the various combinations. Over time, you’ll be able to upgrade the Chalice to get more items and do more things.
Runes? How do I get those?
You can earn runes by completing weekly bounties, opening weekly chests on the Nessus Barge (a new location on Nessus), or using a consumable to earn Runes from Strikes, Crucible, and Gambit.
You mentioned that the Chalice of Opulence is upgradeable?
As a matter of fact, it is! Triumphs and bounties will reward a new currency called Imperials. Imperials let you upgrade the Chalice to do things like earning more Imperials, unlocking additional rune slots, and increasing rune variety.
Are there new Pinnacle weapons this season?
New pinnacle weapons seem to come around every season, and this one is no different. There are three new pinnacle weapons coming.
Wendigo-GL3
- Arc Adaptive Grenade Launcher
- Earned through Strikes/Vanguard
- Explosive Light Perk—Picking up an Orb of Light increases the next grenade’s blast radius and damage
- Comes with Blinding Grenades for added utility
- You can carry up to six grenades enhanced by the Explosive Light perk
Revoker
- Kinetic Aggressive Sniper Rifle
- Earned through Crucible. 3500 points must be earned in Competitive, but losses will not subtract score
- Reversal of Fortune Perk—Missing a shot returns the bullet to the magazine after a short duration
- Custom low zoom Ambush SLH25 scope and Snapshot for close-quarters engagements
Hush
- Solar Precision Combat Bow
- Earned through Gambit
- Archer’s Gambit Perk—Hipfire precision hits grant a massive draw speed bonus for a short duration
- Archer’s Gambit is “significantly” better than Archer’s Tempo, but requires a lot of skill
Any other changes coming with Update 2.5.0.1?
Oh yeah. There are quite a few changes coming along. The headliners are the nerfs of some of the games most popular Exotics, but there are a few buffs headed to the game too, including Fusion Rifles getting a damage bump, swords getting a nice increase, and reprised versions of class-specific swords and Drang.
The pursuits tab is also getting a big change, being moved to the Director tab with an updated layout to make tracking quests a bit easier, as well as an update to 63 slots for bounties and quests.
One of the biggest changes coming is the now looping Luxurious Toast emote, which will allow players to sit for as long as they would like. There are also a bunch of other changes that will be coming, but we won’t have the full patch notes until the morning of June 4.
Looking forward, what’s happening with Solstice of Heroes and Moments of Triumphs?
As opposed to Destiny 2 year 1, which combined the two events into one, the gameplay calendar for Season of Opulence shows that these two things will be separate. It will be interesting to see exactly how they structure these two events and evolve them from prior years, but right now, we really don’t know what’s coming. We do know that Solstice of Heroes will compliment the Moments of Triumph later on in the event. Eva Levante will be back to celebrate once again, and an “empowerment” buff will be a part of the event.
It might be a little soon, but what comes after Season of Opulence?
As the last season within the Annual Pass, it’s understandable that everyone’s wondering what comes next. Bungie knows that too, and they’ll be revealing the “next era of Destiny 2“ on June 6, 2019 at 10 am PST, and will follow with an E3 panel talking about what’s next. Destiny’s always had a September release of major content, so our best guess is that what’s next is coming sometime in early September, once the three-month Season of Opulence ends.
That’s all folks… for now
For anything more, you’re going to have to jump into the Season of Opulence when it launches on June 4. This season is sure to be filled with even more secrets and things we don’t know about yet, which is one of the hallmarks of Destiny and something players love. See you all starside, Guardians.
