Destiny 2 has officially entered its Episode era after The Final Shape, and the third act of the ongoing Echoes Episode is packing one of the biggest Exotic missions Bungie has ever made.
Speaking with Edge magazine as part of a longer feature on the future of Destiny 2, assistant game director Robbie Stevens reveals “we have an Exotic mission coming in Echoes Act Three. It is one of the biggest Exotic missions we’ve ever built, and it’s only possible because of this new content cadence. The ability for us to build this massive Exotic mission – literally one of the biggest – it wouldn’t have been possible in the past.”
Subscribe to EDGE Magazine
This interview originally appeared in Edge Magazine. For more fantastic in-depth interviews, features, reviews, and more delivered straight to your door or device, subscribe to Edge.
We’re currently a few weeks into Act One, so with each Act lasting about six weeks, we should see this Exotic mission in about two to three months, depending on when in Act Three it’s released.
Stevens discussed the Episode model at length, asserting that with Echoes, “this is where we see the [development] team taking the opportunity, their willingness to change, their willingness to adapt to this new cadence with us, and really seize the opportunity to expand Nessus, expand this world. Because a lot of us, with Destiny, we think of it as a living world, right? A world that is expanding and changing throughout time. And we would not have been able to expand Nessus in this way without the Episode.”
Echoes opened with a new Vex activity called Breach Executable, and elsewhere in this Edge issue, Stevens confirms that its second Act will introduce a whole new suite of activities. He likens the new content model to “nine content drops throughout the year” as opposed to four Seasons.
“With Seasons today, I think a lot of it is: here’s what you’re going to get, and that’s what you’re going to have for something like 12 to 15 weeks,” Stevens says. “A lot of the thinking [with the new approach] is that players just want to see this change a little more rapidly, right? They just want new things coming to Destiny at a slightly faster cadence.”
New daily and weekly grinds and goals are always welcome, but it’s especially nice to hear that a bespoke new mission is on the way, and obviously a new Exotic weapon to boot. These are generally among the best and most memorable moments in Destiny 2, so “one of the biggest” examples ought to be a treat.