Destiny 2 – Five Reasons you MUST Play Season of The Chosen

Season of the Chosen has got off to a very strong start. Destiny feels like it’s in the best place it’s been for a long time, due to a combination of factors. Today I am going to look into five reasons why you should play Season of the Chosen, and why it’s worth the $10 for the season pass.

Before we dive into why I think you should play Season of the Chosen it’s worth looking back at Beyond Light and the relatively rocky launch. The sense in the community has been frustrating, sometimes veering into outright anger since the launch of Beyond Light. This has been a combination of things including the addition of stasis, the lack of support for the PVP community, destinations being removed and put into the Destiny Content Vault and sunsetting of weapons. Beyond Light was always going to be rough with so much content going away, but it could be seen as a soft reset for the game.

Let’s jump into the five reasons why I think you should play Season of the Chosen.

5 Story

Beyond Light and Season of the Hunt may have been light on loot and things to chase, but the story was good. This season that story is continuing along the right path. Caital, Calus’ Daughter and leader of the Cabal has arrived in the Solar System looking for a partnership with the Guardians to battle the Hive and the Darkness. However, she asks a little too much of the Vanguard and Zavala, by asking him to bow to her to form the alliance. Zavala says no rather emphatically and the battle begins on many fronts including Europa, The Cosmodrome and Nessus in the Battlegrounds activity. We don’t know exactly where the story is going here but it’s likely we’ll align with Caital at the end of the season by proving our power to her through the ongoing battles against her Warlords.

Another very interesting story strand is that of Crow. Osiris has taken him under his wing and he’s brought him back into the Last City. Crow has been assigned the task of a scout Hunter out there in the field. Last season he was under the control of The Spider on the Tangled Shore working as a makeshift enforcer, but we won his freedom by killing The High Celebrant. At the moment he’s hanging out in the H.E.L.M looking pretty shady in his mask to conceal his face. This is building to some kind of confrontation between him, Zavala and Amanda Holliday over the death of Cayde-6 – the former Hunter Vanguard. How is Zavala going to react when he finds out? Only time will tell.

We also have a large cast of characters doing voice work this season including the previously mentioned Zavala, Crow, Amanda Holliday, Osiris and the surprise additional of Lord Saladin. Saladin has been brought in to lead the offensive against the Cabal in the Battlegrounds, and he’s been brought in from the relative cold having played a small part over the past few years as the Iron Banner vendor. He’s now got more of a central role and it’s good to hear some of the banter between them.

Let me know down in the comments what you think of the story and where you think we’re heading with Crow.

4 Battlegrounds

Battlegrounds is the new seasonal activity this season which ties into the story. We’re fighting the Cabal in a 3 player fireteam. The game mode is much like mini strike where we’re placed onto a planet or moon and then have to go through 3 phases of enemy waves and then fight a boss at the end.

This is much more satisfying than Wrathborn Hunts. The hunts from last season felt like they were over very quickly, they didn’t seem challenging and they were pretty boring. One major improvement with Battlegrounds is the enemy density. Cabal just keep coming and coming in wave after wave and you do feel overwhelmed at times. There’s an element of danger at any moment as the Cabal drop in a crush you. I’m sure I am not the only one who’s been crushed MANY times by a falling Cabal drop pod.

There were 2 at the start of the season on Nessus and Europa, and we’ve recently had one more added on the Cosmodrome which adds Hive into the mix. I like this type of big open space against enemies. There’s something very satisfying about batting the cabal up the hill on Nessus, beating them back and ultimately taking down the boss. The mechanics in Battlegrounds is pretty light. You drop in and have to defeat 3 waves. At one point you have to destroy generators with orbs, but don’t get too close as you’ll blow yourself up. This activity reminds me of Escalation Protocol, which was one of the better horde modes Destiny 2 has come up with over the years.

So far do good with Battlegrounds. I am sure as the season goes on the activity will get repetitive. However, one thing I like about this activity is the chance to try to put new builds with exotic weapons, subclasses and armour. The Contact public event was good for this in Season of Arrivals a few seasons ago, but Wrathborn Hunts did not seem worth it for builds as they were so easy.

3 Loot

Next up we have the loot and there’s plenty to chase this season including 35 new and returning weapons, some excellent new exotic weapons and some brand new perks. All of this adds up to a valuable loot chase, something which Destiny has been missing for quite some time. We also have the Umbral Engram system added into the game as a permanent fixture and a bunch of catalysts added to the game for weapon quests that have been added to the Destiny Content Vault.

One of the best examples is probably the Trials of Osiris Weapons. We have 3 new weapons to chase, albeit one of them a returning weapon. However, that returning weapon is The Messenger which has the Desperado perk available in the loot pool. I managed to get a drop of Desperado and Rapid Hit on my second drop last week, and this was motivating enough to head into Trials and get a couple of drops on two characters. That’s more trials than I have played since the return of the game mode approximately a year ago. The Messenger with Desperado is as good if not better than any pursuit weapon we’ve seen over the past few seasons in Destiny 2.

There are other great new weapons as part of playlists including the brand new weapons from Battlegrounds including Far Future, Code Duello, Imperial Needle and Extraordinary Rendition. We’ve got a new pursuit weapon in Salvagers Salvo, a new energy breech-loading grande launcher and a suite of playlist weapons to chase.

Gambit, Strikes and Crucible have their new weapons to chase including Bottom Dollar, a new energy 120 hand cannon from Gambit. Crucible has Frozen Orbit and in Nightfalls we have The Palindrome, Shadow Price and SWARM as well as Royal Entry. We’ve got new perks including Lasting Impression for Rocket Launchers, alongside a 30% increase in damage for Rockets. Frenzy is another great new perk. These new perks make the chase for the loot much more appealing and the weapons more effective.

The loot chase has seen a remarkable improvement in Season of the Chosen when compared to Season of the Hunt. We’re still playing the same activities we have done for years, yet the rewards seem worth it.

Let me know down in the comments what loot you’re chasing this season and what god rolls you’ve already got!

2 Nightfalls

I am grinding Nightfalls again as I did in Destiny 1 and I haven’t done that for the duration of Destiny 2’s lifespan. In the first week, we had the return of Sepik’s Prime and the old D1 Strike. It’s a long one for sure, but it’s very satisfying and was fun to run through.

We also have the returning weapons in The Palindrome, SWARM and Shadow Price although the drop rates do seem pretty low. I don’t mind that so much though because it motivates me to go in there again and again. I did manage to get a Shadow Price in the first week and I’m looking forward to jumping in again this week and trying to get a Palindrome.

I haven’t enjoyed running strikes this much for a long time. I’m only running 1270 Hero Nightfalls at the moment, but maybe for the first time, I am going to go after Grandmaster Nightfalls when they come out and try for the Conquerer title I’m having that much fun.

1 Exotic Quest & Dead Man’s Tale

There are 4 good reasons to jump into Season of the Chosen right there, but the number 1 reason for me is the new Exotic quest called Presage. This is Bungie at their best with an awesome exotic weapon and an amazing quest to go along with it.

This week at reset we had a new secret area put into the Arms Dealer Strike, which was exciting in itself, but it led to the discovery of the distress signal coming from the Cabal Ship near the Tangled Shore. I did the exotic mission solo and blind, which I think is probably the best way to go in. I won’t give away too many details here but the exotic mission is one of the best exotic missions or set pieces since Destiny 2 came out. I always thought the Whisper of the Worm quest was the best, but this has to rival it.

It’s creepy, the sound design is amazing, the storytelling that unfolds during the mission is a very high standard and the mission is tough if you run it solo. There’s a lot of puzzling in this mission, and there’s a great exotic at the end in Dead Man’s Tale. This is a new Tex Mechanica Scout Rifle, which is one of the best feelings and sounding weapons in the game. Before the season started I didn’t think a Scout Rifle was going to be my favourite new weapon, but this gun has changed my mind.

The exotic mission for me is worth the price of the season pass alone. It’s Destiny 2 at it’s finest in terms of storytelling, weapon design, location design, puzzles and combat. Bravo Bungie.

Let me know down in the comments what you think of Season of the Chosen, and let me know your favourite thing about the season so far.

That’s it for this look at five reasons you must play Season of the Chosen in Destiny 2. For more Destiny 2 Beyond Light content check out the full guide and subscribe on YouTube to This Week In Video Games today.