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Destiny 2: Lightfall will add several long-requested features including a loadout manager for different builds, in-game LFG tools for group content, and a guided path for new players to grab onto as they tread water in Bungie's often overwhelming MMO.
Bungie announced several key additions during today's Lightfall reveal event, which confirmed a February 2023 release date for the Neptunian expansion. Perhaps most importantly, Lightfall will add a mod and loadout manager that "will allow you to create and save a build in a single place," Bungie said in a post-show blog post.
"Switching between all your builds will also be easy: just select the build in your Character screen, and you are done," Bungie says. This should streamline the process of building and saving loadouts via third-party apps like the unsung hero that is Destiny Item Manager, making it easier to create and swap loadouts for specific activities.
A new progression system tied to Guardian Ranks is also coming in Lightfall. Guardian Ranks are meant to "not only help new players find their way into the game, but also reward veterans for helping others and for being an all-around exceptional player," seemingly following up on the spirit of Destiny 2's largely untapped Guided Games function.
The work-in-progress interface for Guardian Ranks looks like a collection of challenges that introduce different types of content and rewards, which already sounds leagues better than the current new-player tutorial of 'here's a gun and a whole universe, go nuts.'
"We believe that there are still millions more of your friends that would love to play Destiny with you, and that the things you want to see us improve are also exactly what's gonna make it easier to convince your friends to come and check out the game," said general manager Justin Truman. "It's not about removing the depth that makes Destiny so great. It's instead about allowing everyone to dive deeper with ease."
"We keep on hearing from players like, 'Hey, unless I have a friend to play with, I don't know what to do,'" added senior design lead Steve Dolan. "So what we're trying to give them [with Guardian Ranks] is a path to follow."
Guardian Ranks will roll out alongside a Commendation system which will encourage players to rate the helpfulness of the folks they play with. Some of these seem to tie directly into Guardian Ranks by asking veterans to guide newcomers through harder content. As you earn commendations for being a good leader, team player, and so on, it looks like you'll unlock some exclusive cosmetics and/or titles to show off your jolly cooperation.
Sometime later in 2023, players will get access to an in-game Fireteam Finder that will bring LFG tools from the realm of Discord and forum posts into Destiny 2 itself. "It doesn’t matter if you are looking for mentors to teach you a raid or just want to farm some Grandmaster Nightfalls; you will find someone here to help and, maybe, new friends to play with in the future," Bungie says. Collectively, these features are addressing some of the oldest and loudest requests in the Destiny community, and they seem mighty promising on paper.
Bungie promises "no more expansion sunsetting" for Destiny 2.
