'What was unravelling is suddenly stabilizing': Destiny 2's last update is getting an absurd 71 pages of patch notes, but its story is closing with a shrug
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At least that big, beautiful orb is back where it belongs.
I don't know what to say anymore, man. In the two weeks since announcing that Destiny 2 will soon be entering maintenance mode, Bungie has been gradually unveiling a massive slate of changes for its final Monument of Triumph update. Those additions and quality-of-life reworks have been so well-received that D2's daily peak player counts are now almost triple what they were immediately before its retirement date was declared.
Patrol zones are being revitalized. Loot tables are being stuffed with returning weapon favorites. Each class is getting new abilities to play with. If the notion that this is a game entering life support somehow didn't already seem patently absurd, Bungie confirmed in an X post yesterday that the patch notes for Destiny 2's last update will encompass almost six dozen pages.
"71 pages of patch notes. 17k words," Bungie said. "And we're still hunting down stragglers."
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Those figures mean the Monument of Triumph will boast one of the most impressively long changelists in recent memory, beating out Baldur's Gate 3's Patch 8—an update whose patch notes clocked in at around 16,750 words.
These aren't perfunctory changes, either; they're substantial shifts in the dynamics of the Destiny 2 gameplay sandbox. Look at the ability changes outlined in today's dev insights blog, for example: In Monument of Triumph, a warlock wearing Skull of Dire Ahamkara can shoot a nova bomb, and then shoot a second, discrete nova bomb at it to make it triple explode. The Geneva Conventions would hate this.
(Image credit: Bungie)
It all just feels a bit surreal—particularly because today is also the day that Bungie unveiled the Monument of Triumph launch trailer. And that trailer makes it very clear that—however many sandbox and activity changes might be landing with the last update—Destiny's ongoing story isn't entering hibernation gracefully. If anything, it's being shoved into a locker.
As the trailer opens, foremost Destiny bald baddie Ikora Rey informs us that, conveniently, everything is pretty much fine now. Neat!
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"What was unraveling is suddenly stabilizing," she says. "Earth may yet heal, and that's something worth celebrating."
Destiny 2: Monument of Triumph Update | Launch Trailer - YouTube
It's been a bit since I was fully tapped into Destiny's evolving narrative, but last I was aware, the Earth was suffering mysterious phenomena as reality had started to fray due to the inscrutable machinations of dark matter intelligences. Meanwhile, omnicidal hive god Xivu Arath is still on the warpath out there somewhere, and I can only guess at what the Vex might be up to in their tick tock robot milk dimension.
But that's all good now, I guess. The Traveler's back now. It's whatever.
As Destiny faces an uncertain future as a franchise, its decade-long cosmic melodrama is being treated to an abrupt hiatus. The jarring conclusion all but confirms the Forbes reporting that most of the Destiny 2 developers at Bungie hadn't been informed of its approaching end of live service until the public announcement.
(Image credit: Bungie)
While the overarching plot is being put on a perfunctory hold, that doesn't mean Monument of Triumph won't have any last nuggets of lore to enjoy. Bungie says the final update "will deliver small character beats to leave the story and characters in interesting places, touching on themes across Destiny," and encourages "reading and exploring to find all the easter eggs, callbacks, reveals, and love for the lore hounds."
It's good to know that Destiny's most devoted sickos won't go unacknowledged in D2's final accounting. Hopefully, it'll give us plenty to ponder. If there is a future for Destiny someday, it could be a long wait.
