The studio enjoys teasing the fans with artwork showcases and it had revealed new director images before both Forsaken and Shadowkeep launched, but never this early. It seems like Bungie wants to prepare the players as much as possible for the evolution of the game following the launch of Beyond Light.

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The most important change is the loss of the four vaulted destinations but that is no secret. What is interesting is that the new destination added, Europa, is quite prominent on the screen. Destiny 2 usually doesn’t prioritize planets based on their sizes on the map but Europa seems notably larger than other locations, except for Earth. It is also the only destination with a solid backdrop (in this case, Jupiter), making it more eye-catching than the other destinations.

When Shadowkeep added the Moon back, it was nowhere this prominent on the map. This could signal Europa’s importance throughout year 4 or hint towards how expansive the zone will be. The gameplay trailer did show wide stretches of land, so, hopefully, much of that space will be explorable.

Speaking of Shadowkeep, the crimson mist that it added to all corners of the map, and heavily centered around the Moon, seems to be completely absent in Beyond Light’s director. This mist represented the Nightmare curse that spread across the system with the launch of Shadowkeep, infesting places such as Lost Sectors. Thus, there is a chance that the Nightmare curse will be lifted both story-wise and gameplay-wise at the end of Season of Arrivals.

One of the more peculiar features of the new map is that the Traveler looks ‘healed’. As veteran players know, the Traveler was ‘wounded’ at the end of the Red War campaign, hence the pieces floating around it. However, in Beyond Light, it looks repaired and more luminous.

At the start of Season of Arrivals’ Exodus preparation quest, Zavala states that the Traveler is doing ’nothing but waiting’ while the pyramids ‘darken the skies’. Judging by the Traveler’s state in Beyond Light, it could be working on repairing itself before whatever is going to happen at the end of Season of Arrivals. There could be another world-altering Almighty-style live event, but with the Traveler involved.

Furthermore, the center of the map looks exceedingly similar to the imagery used in the outros of early Destiny trailers. Interestingly enough, the Exo Stranger, who will be reintroduced this fall, narrated over Destiny’s launch gameplay trailer just like she did in Beyond Light’s gameplay trailer.

All in all, Bungie seems to be keen on establishing the idea of the game coming full circle and Beyond Light representing a re-beginning for the Destiny franchise. Even without knowing any details about this fall, players can glean that Bungie wants to turn back to its roots and reestablish Destiny 2 just by looking at the fresh director. Luke Smith even noted that the dark main menu will fully return, as players had missed it dearly from the first game.

It goes without saying but all of this is speculation and everything related to Beyond Light is still very much work-in-progress. Any observations made now may be completely untrue by the time the expansion rolls around.

Destiny 2: Beyond Light launches on November 10 for PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.

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