Bungie’s third episode for Destiny 2 following The Final Shape arrives on February 4th, and it returns to a familiar location: Oryx’s Dreadnaught. It’s not quite the same massive ship orbiting Saturn that fans know and love, as detailed by narrative architect Nikko Stevens.
“What’s significant about the Dreadnaught’s return for Heresy is that it’s going to be changing, and we’re going to be fighting through it in ways we’ve yet to experience,” he said on the PlayStation Blog. “The Dreadnaught has reawakened for the first time in almost a decade, spurring the Vanguard and Guardians across the system to take notice. We finally get to see what has become of the Dreadnaught years after Oryx was felled and its halls were left to corrode, without a Navigator.”
Heresy introduces a new activity called The Nether, which combines patrols, “multiple bubbles full of challenging enemies,” and boss fights. Once these bubbles are complete, enemies will increase in Power. However, new boons help even the odds.
Minor boons improve stats; major boons provide passives like sprinting to accumulate Static Charge stacks; and corrupted boons. The latter will affect you negatively, but the pay-off can be worth it, like massively increasing damage dealt and received.
Senior designer Ryan Harris added, “We’ve also experimented with player modifiers, with increased health pools, no regenerating of health, low ammo drops and revive tokens, and a modification on healing in the sandbox throughout play. Players should look to build their loadouts geared for survivability as the game mode modifiers increase health pools of players significantly while also stopping all health regen.”
Players can also look forward to new weapons, including a new Support Frame Auto Rifle, Origin Perks, gear, and more. Interestingly, the livestream for the episode noted Oryx, the Taken King, as returning in “some capacity.” Perhaps he plays a role in the next dungeon, which launches on February 7th.