Every Destiny 2 Expansion In Release Order
Destiny 2 is a long-standing staple for players looking for a live-service MMO looter shooter with many expansions on its belt. Each expansion brings with it a whole host of content with campaigns, raids, loot and Strikes for players to chew through. Since there are years of content behind Destiny 2, new players will have a hard time picking which expansions to buy and which to save for later. Whether you need the full story context, best loot or to unlock certain subclasses, we’ve got you covered in this guide with a list of each expansion in release order.
Table of Contents
All Destiny 2 Expansions in Chronological Order
When first purchasing Destiny 2, you’ll be able to start the New Light experience for free, which serves as a decent primer to the story and setting of the game. However, you’ll eventually want to progress the story and try out the expansion content. Previously, this was all the expansions in release order:
- Red War Vanilla (Original Vanilla Content, 2017)
- Curse of Osiris (2017)
- Warmind (2018)
- Forsaken (2018)
- Shadowkeep (2019)
- Beyond Light (2020)
- Witch Queen (2022)
- Lightfall (2023)
- The Final Shape (2024)
Sadly, the Red War Vanilla campaign, Curse of Osiris, Warmind, and the actual Forsaken campaign are no longer available, so you’ll have to take a look at the earliest expansion that is still available, which is Shadowkeep. Much of the vaulted loot still remains in Dares of Eternity, but these go through a weekly rotation.
If you wish to buy expansions based on their overall value, it’s best to get the Legacy Collection as this bundle comes with the expansions plus access to the Forsaken pack, the 30th Anniversary pack, and access to the early dungeons which should get you the good weapons in the sandbox.
Curse of Osiris and Warmind
💡 Fast Facts
- Released: December 5, 2017/May 8, 2018
- Strikes: A Garden World, Tree of Probabilities, Insight Terminus, Strange Terrain, Will of the Thousands
Both Curse of Osiris and Warmind were mini-expansions that came with their own stories, also marking the first “DLCs” that Destiny 2 released. However, Curse of Osiris was considered by many to be the worst expansion in the game’s history with its barebones content.
Warmind was better received as it gave access to the fun Escalation Protocol activity and even had some of the most powerful Legendaries back then with the IKELOS weapons.
However, as part of Bungie’s content vaulting policy, Curse of Osiris and Warmind are no longer available to play.
Forsaken
💡 Fast Facts
- Released: September 4, 2018
- Strikes: The Hollowed Lair, Warden of Nothing, The Corrupted, Broodhold
- Raid: Last Wish
This expansion revitalized Destiny 2 and is considered one of the best expansions in the game’s history. It featured an emotional revenge story between The Guardian and Uldren Sov, murderer of the Hunter Vanguard Cayde-6; and brought a lot of positive changes to the game, including new Supers, the Scorn enemy faction and a boatload of secret content to chew through. The Dreaming City location and Last Wish raid were the central focus of Forsaken’s post-game, as it contained a lot of high-tier loot and had layers of complexity.
This expansion also brought about the brand-new Gambit game mode, which had its own unique spin on PvEvP gameplay. Another new addition was the first and best Seasonal content starting with the Season of the Outlaw all the way to Season of Opulence, which many players still remember fondly.
Shadowkeep
💡 Fast Facts
- Released: October 1, 2019
- Strikes: The Scarlet Keep, The Festering Core
- Raid: Garden of Salvation
After Riven cursed the Dreaming City, by placing it in a time loop, the Scarlet Brood made its presence known in the Moon and, with it, the return of Eris Morn, expert of Hive arcana. This expansion saw the return of the Moon as an exploration zone and saw some new Strikes and the Garden of Salvation raid. Shadowkeep is currently the oldest accessible DLC in Destiny 2 and is falling behind with the other expansions in terms of relativity.
Beyond Light
💡 Fast Facts
- Released: November 10, 2020
- Strikes: The Glassway, The Disgraced, The Devil’s Lair, Fallen S.A.B.E.R, Proving Grounds
- Raids: Deep Stone Crypt
Escalating the threat of the Pyramid Fleet hanging over Sol, the Guardians head to Europa to receive an ancient power that awaits them while preventing Eramis and the House of Salvation from wielding this power for themselves. This expansion is the first to introduce the new Darkness subclasses, starting with Stasis, which brought a whole new dimension to the combat sandbox of Destiny. This also includes the renowned Deep Stone Crypt that explores the origins of the Exo race while dropping its own powerful gear in the loot pool.
This expansion also saw the return of old Destiny 1 content with the Cosmodrome returning, as well as Vanilla D1 Strikes like The Devil’s Lair and Fallen S.A.B.E.R.
Witch Queen
💡 Fast Facts
- Release: February 22, 2022
- Strikes: The Lightblade, Birthplace of the Vile
- Raids: Vow of the Disciple
Savathûn, sister of The Taken King and one of Destiny’s most elusive villains makes her major appearance in the story as her Throne World hangs above the surface of Mars. The Hidden, agents of Ikora Rey, are sent within the realm to uncover the Witch Queen’s schemes while facing off against the Lucent Hive and their elite Hive Guardians.
This expansion was well received by the community for its detective-like story, which revealed Savathûn’s character and the nature of the Light. While this expansion didn’t offer a new subclass, it had a variety of content to explore, with more strikes and a raid that broke expectations. What was special about this campaign was the reveal that the Hive now wields the Traveler’s Light and was even granted Ghosts of their own, creating Hive Guardians that made campaign missions very challenging to beat.
Witch Queen also first revealed the true mastermind behind the Pyramid Fleet and the source of all calamity in Destiny’s narrative, The Witness. But first, this expansion’s raid Vow of the Disciple, has Guardians deal with The Witness’ right hand Rhulk, in the Pyramid within Savathûn’s Throne World.
Lightfall
💡 Fast Facts
- Released: February 28, 2023
- Strikes: Hypernet Current
- Raid: Root of Nightmares
Lightfall is Destiny 2’s most controversial expansion, as many players agreed that it has the worst expansion story in the franchise. For context, the story contains the conflict going on between the coalition of the Guardians and the Neptunian city of Neomuna and the alliance of Calus’ Shadow Legion and The Witnees’ own forces. To combat this threat, players discover the new Darkness subclass of Strand and use it to take the fight to the Shadow Legion.
Strand is currently one of Destiny 2’s most powerful subclass that provides both defensive utilities with great offensive power and easy crowd control, thanks to effects like Woven Mail, Suspend, and Sever. Separate from the main story is the Root of Nightmares raid, where Guardians assault the Witness’ own Pyramid ship to slay Nezarec, the Final God of Pain.
The Final Shape
💡 Fast Facts
- Released: June 4, 2024
- Strikes: Liminality
- Raid: Salvation’s Edge
This expansion is the finale to Destiny’s overarching saga between the Light and Dark storyline. As the last expansion in this game’s development cycle, it sends off the story with a bang. Finally, Guardians get to step foot inside the Traveler and explore the Pale Heart as The Witness works to calcify the universe into one unchanging shape by using the Light and Dark in tandem. To match the Witness’ strength, the Guardian breaks the boundaries between the two paracausal forces with the Prismatic subclass.
Taking an Aspect from every subclass, Prismatic allows players to mix and match their grenade, melee and Supers into whatever element suits them. All the stops have been removed with this subclass and the story, as players get to play their character at the peak of their power. From here on out, the Last City is finally saved and the war for humanity’s survival has ended.
Most Important Expansions for Subclasses
If you want access to the new subclasses like Stasis, Strand and Prismatic, get the following expansions to unlock them immediately:
- Beyond Light
- Lightfall
- The Final Shape
Beyond Light will allow you to unlock Stasis, but be aware that this expansion has the slowest subclass progression, as you must play through various post-campaign missions to unlock all features to earn all Fragments and Aspects. It’s recommended that you do the Aspect quests first as much of your subclass synergies rely on Aspects to proc.
Lightfall provides the Strand subclass and is generally easier to unlock. All you have to do is complete the campaign, head to the Strand Meditation room, and do some patrols on Vex Incursion zones to earn the Strand Meditation currency. It only takes a few hours to unlock all Fragments and Aspects for Strand.
The Final Shape gives you the earliest access to a subclass with Prismatic becoming available after the second mission in the campaign. However, many of your Aspects and Fragments will still be locked behind certain progression. For Aspects, you must complete the post-campaign quests Lost in Light and Found in Darkness. Fragments, on the other hand, require a lot of secret hunting in the campaign missions and the Pale Heart overworld. These are found in Prismatic Chests.
Expansions With The Best Loot
If you’re looking to get access to some of the better loot in the game, you’ll want to look at the following expansions in this order:
- Witch Queen
- The Final Shape
- Forsaken Pack
- 30th Anniversary Pack
- Lightfall
The reason why Witch Queen comes first is because this expansion will unlock the crafting system for you. This system allows you to create your own custom god roll weapons once you earn their Deepsight Pattern. Once you have this unlocked, you can move on to The Final Shape, which has two powerful weapons you can get in the campaign. These are The Call Rocket Sidearm for PvE and Someday Precision Shotgun for PvP
Next, the Forsaken Pack has some of the better Exotics from this expansion and also has good Legendary weapons within its loot pool, including the Last Wish raid gear.
The 30th Anniversary gives you full access to the Dares of Eternity activity, as well as the Grasp of Avarice dungeon, which gives access to the iconic Gjallarhorn Exotic and the best PvP shotgun in the game, Matador 64.
Get Lightfall last, as while the campaign weapons are fairly lackluster, the Root of Nightmares raid weapons are very good and also have the extremely powerful Conditional Finality exotic shotgun.
