Destiny 2 – Everything We Know About Season 13 (Umbral Engrams, Adept Weapons, New Exotics, Returning Strikes)
Season 13 is just around the corner on February 9th and there’s a fair few details out there in the wild concerning what we should expect. Today I am going to round up everything we know so far about Season 13 in Destiny 2 including the return of Umbral Engrams, Adept Strike Loot, returning Dreaming City & Moon loot, returning strikes plus the potential name & icons for the new season.
We are little over 2 weeks away now from Season 13 in Destiny 2 and with the appearance of the random rolled Hawkmoon quest, that’s the last item on the roadmap for Season of the Hunt and the first season of Beyond Light.
Season Name & Icon
Ginsor, a well known Destiny data miner, did reveal that the new season would be called Season of the Chosen. Ginsor has a pretty solid track record when it comes to leaks, so I wouldn’t bet against him. But what does the word ‘Chosen’ relate to? Is this Crow being Chosen by The Traveler, or is this us being Chosen by the Darkness?
Potential Story
The main story this season has focused around Crow, Osiris, Spider and Xivu Arath. Now Crow is free from Spider he’s likely going to be moving to a new location come Season 13. We’ve chased down Xivu Arath’s High Celebrant and killed him, so we’re likely going to be continuing the chase for Xivu Arath in Season 13. We are building ultimately to The Witch Queen Expansion, which is due for release sometime in 2021 (although the ongoing covid pandemic may have something to say about that).
Crow believes he’s talking to the Traveler which was evident through the Hawkmoon quest and the most recent reveal of the ship that seems to have been refurbished by The Traveler, however, with Savathun the master of trickery you never know who’s really talking. Is it the Traveler, or is it actually Savathun herself?
There have been discussions in the community about a crux of Darkness showing up on the Dreaming City, and given the likely showdown with the Hive God in Witch Queen we’re likely to see Mara Sov come back at some point. This will be an interesting reunion with her former brother Uldren, who’s now a fully-fledged Guardian called Crow. Bungie mentioned he’s moving location. Could he be moving to the Tower and take the spot of the Hunter Vanguard, or will he be the new Speaker? Only time will tell.
Nightfall Loot & Adept Weapons
Joe Blackburn updated the community in December letting us know about new and returning weapons coming to our playlists:
“In addition to the weapons above, Nightfall strikes are getting three unique weapons, with The Palindrome, The Swarm, and Shadow Price all making their Destiny 2 debuts. If you’re brave enough to take on Grandmaster Nightfalls, you will be also able to earn Adept versions of these weapons.”
The Palindrome was one of the best Hand cannons in Destiny 1, and this coming to Destiny 2 can only be a good thing. The Swarm is a machine gun, which is needed in the current loot pool given many left during sunsetting. Shadow price is a Legendary Auto Rifle and it’ll be interesting to see the rate of fire it gets given.
New Playlist Weapons
We have six new legendary weapons coming to playlists – two each for strikes, crucible and gambit. This season we had The Stars in Shadow for Crucible, Xenoclast IV for Strikes and Crowd Pleaser for Gambit. The Stars in Shadow and Xenoclast are really good, so I have high hopes for these six new weapons coming to the sandbox.
“We’re adding six new Legendary weapons to our ritual activities, two each for strikes, Gambit, and Crucible.”
Returning Strikes
Fallen S.A.B.E.R. and Devil’s Lair are coming to Destiny 2, as well as the Cosmodrome being extended and built out a little more. Currently, we only have access to a part of the Cosmodrome and this will be expanded next season.
Legend & Master Lost Sectors
Legendary and Master Lost Sector rotation will be expanded to include the Lost Sectors on the Moon in Season 13, and there will be new three new pieces of Exotic armour to chase.
Umbral Engrams
Bungie talked about the returning Umbral Engrams in their recent This Week At Bungie update saying:
Back in 2020, Season of Arrivals introduced a new feature called Umbral Engrams which allowed Guardians to Focus rewards to the type of weapons and armor rolls they most desired. The system was well-received by the community so we decided to do a little tuning and bring them back for Season 13 as well as future seasons in Year 4.
While the new Seasonal activity will always provide the fastest path to earning new rewards. We want to ensure that regardless of how you spend your time in Destiny, Umbral Engrams allow you to chase new rewards.
Similar to Season of Arrivals, Umbral Engrams will drop from completing a variety of content. We have pared back the number of activities they will drop from so you can focus on the following activities if you are looking to farm some Umbral Engrams:
- Patrols
- Strikes
- Crucible
- Gambit
- The Ordeal
- Public Events
- Blind Well
- Nightmare Hunts
- Exo Challenges
- Empire Hunts
- New Seasonal Activity
You may notice fewer umbral engrams sitting in your inventory than before. While it was fun to watch umbral engrams rain down on players in season 11, the drop rates were higher than expected and so we are rebalancing the drop rate. There will be a short quest to show players how to use the new Prismatic Recaster (read more about this below) to Focus Umbral Engrams. This quest is account-wide so you only have to do it once.
Prismatic Recaster
The Prismatic Recaster returns as a kiosk with the capability to change Umbral Engrams into Focused Umbral Engrams, which contain a smaller loot-table. Because Umbral Engrams are here to stay, the new Recaster will have different pages for each Season, and you will be able to Focus engrams to the Season of your choice. Once you have used the Prismatic Recaster to Focus your Engram, you will still need to take it to the Umbral Decoder to claim your new reward!
Prismatic Lens
We have a new way to unlock different Focusing options for your Umbral Engrams through a new reward called Prismatic Lenses. A Prismatic Lens will unlock a new Focusing option so you can:
- Target a narrower collection of gear.
- Target specific armor stats.
You will be able to earn Prismatic Lenses by doing various activities in the game and you can track your progress towards unlocking lenses at the Prismatic Recaster. We don’t want to spoil everything though – so we’ll let you discover how to start earning these in Season 13.
Umbral Engrams are great as we get to target farm our loot using the Prismatic Recaster. Hopefully we’re going to be getting a new loot pool to go with these Umbral Engrams, as the loot pool has been pretty similar for the past few seasons – albeit ungie adding a bunch of new wepons in Beyond Light. This was balanced out by rotating out a whole bunch of weapons too, so it would be nice for the loot pool to be rotated. We’re likely to get another update in a coming This Week At Bungie update concerning the loot pool, but let me know down in the comments what your ideal loot pool would contain. Do you want to see any of the Black Armourry weapons come back or perhaps some more Destiny 2 year 1 weapons?
Returning Moon & Dreaming City Loot
Bungie updated us a few weeks ago related to returning loot from the Moon and The Dreaming City, which kicked off a massive curfuffle in the community related to reprised loot from recent sunset items. Bungie said:
- Reissued Dreaming City Reverie Dawn and Moon Dreambane armour.
- Reissued 4 weapons for Dreaming City with new Perk Pools. Waking Vigil, Sleepless, Vouchsafe, and Retold Tale. Dreaming City weapons that drop in the Shattered Throne dungeon can roll with perks that are unavailable from drops from other reward sources.
- Reissued 4 weapons for the Moon with new Perk Pools. Premonition (Pit of Heresy only), Heretic, Blasphemer, and Apostate. Weapons that drop in the Pit of Heresy dungeon can roll with perks that are unavailable from drops from other reward sources.
I made a video specifically with thoughts on this point, so you can go and watch that for a detailed breakdown. This is probably the weakest thing in our preview at the moment. I don’t mind strikes coming back from Destiny 1, and I definitely don’t mind Umbral Engrams coming back as that was a great system. I do think revitalising the destinations of the Moon and the Dreaming City makes sense. It’s highly likely given the pandemic Bungie probably wanted to do this for Beyond Light, but simply ran out of time and had to release something.
DDOS protection
We’re also getting DDOS protection for console players, which will be good news if play Destiny 2 there.
Old Tower Returning?
One last thing before we go and that’s the rumour that the Old Tower is returning. This can be seen at the moment if you’re in the Tower, facing Zavala and you look up to the left. The old Tower has been gone since the invasion of the Cabal during the Red War in season 1 of Destiny 2. Since that opening campaign mission in Destiny 2 where Ghaul and his Cabal cohorts destroyed our beloved old tower, we’ve been using this new tower space for over 3 years now.
Dataminers have discovered the Old Tower in cube maps, which apparently are dev files for Destiny 2, although they’ve been in the game for some times. However, with the Tower being rebuilt, and there’s also the potential for the Vanguard and the Cabal to be working together – indicated by a cutscene yet to be seen in-game used in the Season of the Hunt trailer where we see Zavala and The Cabal having a meeting.
Let me know down in the comments what you think of all the stuff we know about coming in Season 13. Where do you want to see the story go in Season 13 and what do you think of the returning items like Umbral Engrams, Strikes and the new weapons?
That’s it for this look at everything we know about Season 13. For more Destiny 2 Beyond Light content check out the full guide and subscribe on YouTube to This Week In Video Games today.