Destiny 2’s Attached ‘Witch Queen’ Season 16 Will Be Different Than Undying Or Hunt

We are less than a month away from the launch of Destiny 2’s Witch Queen expansion at this point, but one aspect of that release has essentially not been discussed at all, the unnamed season 16, the season of content that launches alongside the expansion itself, and will be one of four (we think) that air throughout the year.

So far as we can tell, we have zero information on this season, other than a general philosophy which aims to make it uh, less bad than Season of the Undying and Season of the Hunt, which many consider “afterthought” seasons, attached to Shadowkeep and Beyond Light respectively.

Season of the Undying was essentially a single activity with little variance and a few public events. Season of the Hunt had the much derided, minute-long Hunts as its primary activity, albeit it did have some cool stuff integrated into it eventually like the Hawkmoon questline. But overall it still felt lacking.

Game director Joe Blackburn actually talked about this issue all the way back in September with Gamespot, but I thought it was worth revisiting now. Here’s what he had to say about season 16:

"I think Season 16 is going to be the next big boiling point for us," Blackburn said. "We've really had trouble with some of these seasons that come out right alongside the expansion. And so we've put a lot of thought and effort into how we want to do that better this time around. I mean, you, as a hardcore Destiny player, know that it can feel tough for the season to matter when it comes out a week [after the release of an expansion], and you've already got raid weapons, and you're like, 'I don't know if I need this—does this stuff really matter?' So we're really excited to get Season 16 out day and date with Witch Queen this time and to have a lot of stuff for players to do and engage with, and really see the value immediately, not only to give you stuff to do while you're leveling up, but to give you stuff while you're prepping for some of those endgame activities."

So, season 16 launches literally the day the Witch Queen hits, and should help in some way to gear up for the raid when that launches two weeks later. Again, we have heard next to nothing about the season, not what activity it’s bringing, nor do I think we’ve seen any seasonal armor or weapons yet (I think what we’ve seen are just destination armor and weapons from the Throne World so far).

Elsewhere in the interview, Blackburn talks about how the story team is now planning out threads 2-3 years in advance, and cites the year-long Osiris reveal as the first step in that direction, referring to how they used to just start a new thread every single season and then toss it away.

That says to me that I think many of the storylines we may think are ending with Witch Queen may still be ongoing. I maintain that I believe a possible plotline for season 16 will be us helping Saint and Mithrax locate Osiris, a quest that’s been discussed a bit in the lore, but does not appear like it will be resolved by Witch Queen. There’s also the question of Crow’s journey, which yes, did take all last year, but also does not appear to be over yet, and seems like it will carry on into year 5 here (I maintain it won’t really end until he’s made Hunter Vanguard).

So, hopefully we are getting an “upgraded” expansion-based season this time around, given the complaints about Undying and Hunt feeling lackluster. We’ll see if we learn anything else about it before launch, but at this rate, it might end up being a total surprise.

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