Destiny 2 – The Countdown to the Darkness arriving has begun (Pyramid Ships coming, Fall Expansion? Light VS Darkness)

The Pyramid Ships (or the Darkness) have been long teased in Destiny and based on last week’s Io Bunker conversation between Rasputin and Zavala, it looks like they are on their way. The following is a short history of the Darkness and what this could mean for the future of Destiny 2 and the countdown to the Darkness arriving has begun.

Last week in Destiny we were given our latest tease of the Pyramid Ships and a countdown timer has been put into the game, showing our impending battle against the Darkness is likely to start soon. When you go into clear the bunker on Io, instead of a battle like we’ve seen over the past month or so, we’re greeted by Zavala and Rasputin having a chat. Let’s check out the dialogue first.

First constructed by Clovis Bray in the Hellas Basin on Mars in the Golden age, Rasputin was the most powerful military intelligence ever developed. Rasputin was the one to first discover the coming of the Darkness. Rasputin’s core programming was to protect humanity, but all calculations pointed to statistical failure and he went dark. In the Dark Age Rasputin was unintentionally reactivated by the Iron Lords as they were trying to use SIVA to rebuild humanity. Rasputin classified the Iron Lords as a threat reactivated it’s defence systems, killing hundreds of Iron Lords in the battle of the Plaguelands. Saladin and Efrideet survived and Rasputin went back to quietly observing Guardians.

Recently, Osiris stormed onto Mars to confront Rasputin and labelled it as a traitor for turning it’s back against humanity during The Collapse and a murderer for killing the Iron Lords. Orisis, knowing the impending arrival of the Pyramid Ships questions Rasputin’s allegiance in the upcoming battle of Light vs Darkness.

That brings us back to Zavala and Rasputin on Io, looking at the map with the pyramid ships. Zavala’s querying Rasputin’s grasp of the stakes at risk here, with Rasputin showing Zavalka exactly how close the ships are to the Solar system. They are waiting just outside. Zavala seemingly strikes a deal with Rasputin, once the immediate threat of the Almighty has been taken out that all the resources of the Last City will be at his disposal in the upcoming battle.

Now you can see in the bunkers there’s a map of the solar system, showing the sun, the planets and if you look at the outside then you’ll see an indicator of how close the Pyramid ships are. This looks to be a countdown timer, which will be updated each week until they arrive. There’s also space for a few new planets to be placed on the map too, so maybe we’ll go and meet them there and try and head off the incoming attack in a future expansion. When exactly they will arrive is not official, but I’m hoping fall 2020.

The Pyramid Ships have been long teased in Destiny 2 with their activation at the end of the main campaign when the Traveller shot out that pulse of light. Since that initial reactivation, they have been on their way, albeit fairly slowly. They were also seen in Mara’s Throne Room and in various lore entries including Calus seeing the Darkness at the edge of space and Osiris in the recent lore entry ‘What gives me pause’. It’s been a slow build, but now it’s time for this story building to pay off.

In terms of what this means for Destiny, it’s likely we’ll have a new race of enemies to fight, which will be welcome news as we’ve been battling the same core set for about 6 years now in the Vex, Fallen, Cabal and Hive. The Taken we introduced during 2015’s The Taken King Expansion, although they were redesigned versions of the same races as Scorn are remade Fallen. It’s time for a new enemy race in Destiny.

There are spoilers for the end of the shadowkeep campaign at this point, so if you haven’t done that campaign yet or don’t want to be spoiled, this is your spoiler warning.

At the end of the Shadowkeep campaign, we jumped onboard the Pyramid Ship that was buried deep below the surface of the moon and the Darkness revealed themselves as us or at least took our form. This could point to the new race we’re fighting could be Guardians rather than another type of humanoid enemy. The Darkness has been shown before in concept artwork, and they do look potentially like Guardians, albeit crude.

As well as a new enemy type, perhaps the more exciting prospect is that of making a choice – light vs dark. Do we stick with the Traveller, the Vanguard and the Last City, or is it time to go to the Darkside and fight for the Darkness? Luke Smith introduced the vision back in August 2019 by saying Bungie want Destiny to be “An amazing action MMO, in a single evolving world, that you can play anytime, anywhere with your friends”. A choice between the light and the dark would be a huge step in the MMO direction. World of Warcraft has long since had the Horde vs Alliance, and we’ve tried faction rally’s in Destiny with limited success (in fact there are no current plans to bring them back according to Luke Smith’s 2020 Directors Cut). Light vs Dark would be the ultimate faction split.

There’s plenty in the game right now where we’ve experimented with dark forces that aren’t exactly in line with the Traveller, Vanguard and the Light. With Thorn, we’re dabbling with a Weapon of Sorrow from the Hive and the lore tab says “Wield this , angry reaper. Strive to know the darkness in your own heart. Walk in the shadows of fallen heroes. And know that you are an enemy of hope”. Shin Malphur hunts Guardians tempted by the Darkness as seen in Revelations and Invitations lore entry.

In terms of a rough timeline for this, I’d imagine next Season we’re going to face some kind of SIVA challenge and then that should take us up until the fall expansion – where hopefully the Pyramid Ships will arrive. We may not make the choice of Light vs Dark immediately, that could come later down the line. If Destiny 2 is to continue to exist in its current form, and it’s looking increasingly likely that it’s going to continue into at least 2021 before we get something like Destiny 3 or a remade Destiny platform that can live longer. We have the console refresh hopefully coming in 2020, so 2021 seems like a good candidate for a next named sequel.

Nothing is confirmed, pure speculation at the moment, but that roadmap makes sense to me. It allows Bungie to take into consideration the feedback from the past two or 3 seasons concerning bounties, cheating in trials, tweaking the seasonal model and making the game deeper not wider (consolidating the activities).

We go through ups and downs in the Destiny calendar, and we’re at that time of year when everyone has played the activities, most people have the loot they want and the armour etc. Sure, Trials is tough right now, and the PVE activity this time is a little light. However, with this introduction of the countdown timer to Destiny 2 then I’m excited for the future of the game.

Let me know down in the comments what you think of the Pyramid ships, when do you think they’ll arrive and when do you think the content is going to drop. If there is a choice of Light VS Dark Guardians, which will you choose?

That’s it for this look at the countdown to the Darkness arriving has begun. For more Destiny 2 content like this check out the Shadowkeep Guide or check out the YouTube Channel.