7 Things To Do In Destiny 2 Before Lightfall

Destiny 2: Lightfall is just around the corner. If you don’t feel like taking a break before the new expansion or are trying to get back into Destiny ahead of the new release, here’s some things you can do to keep busy and prepare ahead of February 28.

Lightfall is promising some big changes and a whole new power called Strand that will give players access to a host of glowy green telekinetic powers, including little spider bombs. In addition to seven new pieces of Exotic gear that have been revealed so far, the expansion will also pit players directly against an evil army trying to smother the solar system in Darkness. I’m excited. But before any of that there are still a few things left to do in Destiny 2’s current expansion.

Finish The Witch Queen

It never hurts to catch up on the last expansion before popping into the new one, and The Witch Queen offers the best story campaign Destiny 2’s had in years. If you’ve already completed it, congratulations! If not, take a few hours and enjoy its eight-mission journey into the heart of trickster Hive god Savathûn’s Throne World. Better yet, take a few nights and tackle it on Legendary difficulty which will make the smooth-brained loot shooter feel a little more like classic Halo, especially if playing solo or with just one friend.

The final cutscenes are also key to understanding the big showdown between light and dark that Bungie’s setting up and will continue to build on in Lightfall. The Witch Queen is still $40, and unlike 2020’s Beyond Light not free with PS Plus this month or through Game Pass. Still, the campaign earns its keep and won’t force you to deal with the rest of Destiny 2’s loot grind if you don’t want to.

Catch up on the seasonal drama alerts

With The Witch Queen complete you’ll have a good handle on what The Witness is about and the threat posed by his world-destroying disciples. But there’s a lot more to Destiny 2’s universe than just big bads and cosmic stakes. Seasons 16 through 19 provided a ton of new character developments and important reveals that helped explain motivations and build intrigue in between the main boss battles. The main things you need to know are that Cabal Empress Caiatl is on your team now, her daddy is working for the manifestation of evil, Fallen Kell Mithrax made a potion to revive Osiris, and Warmind Rasputin can now talk directly to the player and wax philosophical.

But rather than tell you everything that happened over the last year in Destiny 2, I’ll tell you the best way to catch up on your own time. Like to read? The Destiny Lore subreddit has some incredible one-pagers that go through literally every miniscule plot beat with links to those corresponding moments in the game if you want to see them play out in real time: Season of the Risen, Season of the Haunted, Season of Plunder, Season of the Seraph. Prefer to watch videos? In addition to Destiny Lore Vault which contains footage of every piece of story ever shared in the game, resident maester “My name is Byf” has made hundreds of hours’ worth of YouTube videos going over everything in detail. For now I recommend this video discussing Calus’ motivation, this one about Osiris and Saint-14 being reunited, and this one about the complex story behind Clovis Bray’s trap and Rasputin’s new identity

Clean out your Vault

There’s nothing worse than starting a new Destiny 2 expansion and taking a break mid-campaign to figure out what you’re going to junk to make room for all the new loot you’re swimming in. Vault cleaning is easier said than done, of course. I’ve gotten less precious about all my old guns in recent years and I still routinely have over 450 pieces of gear in mine. But if you’re not already using it, the Destiny Item Manager is an amazing tool for streamlining the Vault management process.

One good rule of thumb is to get rid of anything you haven’t used in over a year. Also, if you have clear playstyle preferences, don’t hold onto a bunch of weapons from a class you hate using. Never find yourself sniping? Get rid of them except for one or two. Hate swords? Then why do you have 10? Amor is even easier to clear out. Thanks to transmog and big improvements coming to mod management next season, there’s no reason to hold on to extra pieces. Focus on maintaining one set of high-stat armor.

Collect some seasonal guns

Still, it’s good to go into each new expansion with some tried-and-true weapons that will carry you through the new content regardless of how lucky you are with new loot. Plus, with seasonal content disappearing at the end of each year, your avenues for getting some of the best guns from the current seasons won’t be around much longer. I’d recommend chasing one or two of the following guns and perk rolls based on your personal preference:

CALUS Mini-Tool (Solar Submachine Gun): Unrelenting, Feeding Frenzy, Incandescent

Bump in the Night (Stasis Rocket Launcher): Chill Clip, Chain Reaction, Stats for All

Tarnished Mettle (Arc Scout Rifle): Dragonfly, Explosive Payload, Voltshot

Brigand’s Law (Arc Sidearm): Threat Detector, Perpetual Motion, Surrounded

IKELOS_SMG_v1.0.3 (Arc Submachine Gun): Frenzy, Tap the Trigger, Perpetual Motion

Disparity (Stasis Pulse Rifle): Headstone, Outlaw, Frenzy

Mini-Tool is the biggest pain out of these because you need to first find it in a chest in the Derelict Leviathan before you can start target farming it at the vendor. The rest are all unlocked through the standard seasonal activities. Disparity and Tarnished Mettle are both great longer-range weapons for handling new Lightfall content solo. Also, Bungie is currently letting players decrypt one red-border weapon per day, making it easier than ever to unlock the crafting patterns for all of these guns. The latest IKELOS SMG will never let you down if you decide to target that one.

Farm a bunch of Legendary Shards

Bungie recently announced an end to Blue Engrams once players hit the soft power cap. In the lead up to Lightfall, however, the studio is also replacing those Blue Engrams with Purple ones, leading to a huge windfall in Legendary Shards. Since focusing Engrams is currently the game’s main way of letting you grind for specific pieces of loot, and that process requires a lot of Legendary Shards, many players have been tearing through their reserves.

As a result, there’s never been a better time to run a few Nightfall strikes and pocket a couple dozen extra shards. They will no doubt come in handy during Lightfall, especially if you don’t play Destiny 2 as much and haven’t already amassed big stockpiles. Blind Well and Dares of Eternity are also great places to efficiently shard farm.

Hoard some weekly bounties

This one is for try-hards, but if you’re planning to play a few hours of Destiny 2 between now and when Lightfall is live, it’s easy enough to do. Long story short: Any bounties you complete now will stay in your inventory until you turn them in. Doing so after Lightfall comes out will let you get a huge head start on XP right at the beginning. This will let you unlock Seasonal Artifact mods earlier and make faster progress on the Season Pass rewards.

Weekly bounties offer the largest amount of XP at 12,000, and are less overwhelming than filling up your quest log screen with tons of smaller ones. Public Disturbance and Full Spectrum in the Cosmodrome are easy ones, Courageous Expedition on Europa is another straightforward weekly bounty. Plus if you’re already doing Dares for extra shards you might as well knock out some bounties for Xur in the Treasure Room.

Visit the space station (and grab Revision Zero)

Season of the Seraph’s Exotic questline is a bit involved but completely worth it. In addition to a satisfying journey to an orbital space station you’ll also nab one of the best new Exotic pulse rifles and its four distinct Exotic Catalysts. Once you’ve completed all of Seraph’s weekly story missions you’ll unlock the Operation: Seraph’s Shield exotic mission. It’s a bit involved but offers some fun solo puzzle solving. If you don’t want to figure it out for yourself you can use this guide

Once you’ve obtained the red-border version of Revision Zero you can dismantle it and then go to Mars to craft your own version. After that you can embark on the four-part “Should You Choose To Accept It” mission to collect each of the Exotic Catalysts by solving more puzzles and retrieving dead Exos. Here’s a guide to where they’re located. Finally, if you find the 50 security drones, you can unlock a special room in the Seraph station. It’s worth the trip and is a great way to cap off Destiny 2’s fifth year.