Destiny 2: The Edge of Fate — hands-on report

“Why send a train to invite us to a black hole?”

This mystery sets the stage for Destiny 2: The Edge of Fate, Bungie’s upcoming expansion to the FPS looter shooter launching July 15. Guardians receive an invite to new planetoid Kepler via a time-displaced train car, seemingly from modern-day Earth. Kepler is precariously held together by a black hole, which threatens the entire solar system if destabilized. The resulting quest introduces time distortions, new enemies, and novel abilities unique to Kepler. 

I spent hours with Bungie’s upcoming expansion, which includes a robust single-player campaign and other game-changing updates. I adventured across Kepler testing out a powerful new arsenal, transformed into a nimble ball of energy, teleported through traps, and much more. I also tinkered with Destiny 2’s new Portal system, SoloOps, and Arms Week updates, which will be available to all players (no The Edge of Fate purchase necessary).

Let’s dig into some of the highlights.

Kepler’s unusual terrain: The new planet’s exterior is rocky and dusty, overgrown with a yellow webbing and bulbous growths evocative of alien fungus. Time distortions affect the environment, features abandoned facilities and technology. Trains seemingly from Earth have mysteriously crashed on Kepler, hosting portals into unknown realms.

New friend Lodi: This fresh face greets players on Kepler, who seems mighty interested in the Guardian’s ties to Earth and a possible path back. Consistent with Kepler’s time distortions, Lodi looks and talks more like someone more from our time, dear reader, rather than the world of Destiny. He also serves as a handy narrative device for Bungie to introduce the universe of Destiny 2 to new players.

Explore with Matterspark orb: Guardians can tap new energy reservoirs and hold Square button to morph into a crackling Matterspark orb. This new contextual ability lets you zip around the battlefield, blast enemies with electricity, and explore nooks and crannies. During one combat encounter I disabled a miniboss’s shields by overcharging generator pylons hidden in the battlefield. It’s an energizing and novel change of pace. Guardians can eventually summon this power at will for even more combat and exploration options.

Teleport with the Relocator: This new piece of tech lets you take aim in third-person on distant nodes and create a temporary portal. This transportation tool lets you squeeze through narrow openings or traps, and cross vast distances to continue the quest. Bungie combines this new device with the Matterspark to create fun, inventive environmental puzzles to change up the pace.

Change the environment with Mattermorph: Pluck a chunk of potent fungus to imbue yourself with a curious Dark Matter ability – Mattermorph. Hit R1 (melee) to throw strand projectiles at glowing environmental objects like rocks and wall panels, which morphs them into new pathways through the air and across the environment. Players eventually combine these abilities to assemble craft paths through complex environments.

Potent new Exotic weapons: I experimented with three of The Edge of Fate’s intoxicating new exotics:

• Graviton Spike: A hand cannon with arc and stasis modes – one charging the other as you shoot. 
• New Land Beyond: Stack up precision hits with this sniper rifle to stack up massive damage multipliers.
• Third Iteration: My favorite. A heat-vete scout rifle that rewards precision by erupting fallen enemies in a blast of energy and making you temporarily invisible. 

Desperate mission to restore power: The “Charge” mission is the latest campaign mission I played, and it was also my favorite. The quest to restore generators is sprinkled with a mix of environmental puzzles and intense fights. Stitching together Matterspark, Mattermorph, and Relocator abilities to power generators resulted in some tricky-yet-satisfying obstacles. The mission culminates in a battle against two bosses with shields that can only be destroyed by the Matterspark’s powered-up overcharge ability, activated with L1 + R1 buttons. 

Power Plant siege: The “Transient” campaign mission tasks players to disable the House of Exile’s power plant. This cavernous facility hosts tech drawing energy from the planet’s fungal colonies. At one point in the mission enemies rig explosives that must be defused by defending a radius for a set time period. The ultimate goal is to overload the station’s core to disable an enemy warship with an immense power surge.

Portal menu: This new menu offers all players a new option to dive quickly into Destiny 2’s most popular content. Bungie’s goal is to spotlight modes with guaranteed paths to growing Guardians’ power and arsenal. This quick-play shortcut highlights modes like SoloOps, Fireteam, Pinnacles, and Crucible. The World map still provides the traditional interactive galaxy map Guardians are used to.

SoloOps: These new single-player challenges let players customize challenge modifiers (e.g. enemy melee attacks slow you, you take more damage in mid-air, enemies drop fire hazards, etc.) to increase chances for valuable rewards. Below are three of the Solo Ops I played:

• The Salt Mines:  Hunt and destroy Splinter targets throughout a cavern and blast through a gauntlet of bosses in the final stretch.
• The Conflux: Clear entrenched enemies from a cave network, then fight a shielded boss across floating platforms in the final section. Disable its shield by throwing fallen energy orbs at it.
• K1 Logistics: Venture beneath the Moon’s surface to exterminate old enemies. Deactivate a series of shielded control panels to carve a path to the end boss.

Armor set bonuses: New set bonuses entice all players to collect matching gear for extra benefits. For example, the Aion Renewal armor characteristic rewards two matching set pieces with a weapon-based speed boost, and four matching set pieces with a reactive speed boost when afflicted with slow or stasis.

Arms Week and the Shooting Range: This event launches shortly after The Edge of Fate, available to all players. The marquee feature is a new Shooting Range on The Tower that lets one to six players test their arsenal, calculating damage numbers as individuals and as a team. Arms Week also features new weapons and mods to chase, events to complete, and more.

Set your Fireteam’s course for Kepler when Destiny 2: The Edge of Fate launches on July 15.