Destiny 2: Season of the Witch Impressions — Destiny Deckbuilding

At the end of Season 21 of Destiny 2, Season of the Deep, I really thought things were headed downhill for my favorite FPS. Fortunately, Season 22, Season of the Witch, changed my mind. This season introduced – and reintroduced – some of the best features the game had seen in a long time. This season delivered a powerful narrative arc, fun activities, plenty of worthwhile loot, and best of all: an engaging seasonal vendor that rewarded exploration and experimentation. I strongly believe this season was one of Destiny 2’s best, and will be remembered fondly.

Eris Morn was the star of the show during this season’s main story. The Vanguard, namely Ikora, Eris, and you, the Guardian, form an uneasy alliance with Immaru, Savathun’s Hive Ghost. The purpose of this coalition? To turn Eris Morn into a Hive god according to the Sword Logic (crazy Hive philosophy) and defeating enemies in her name to make her strong enough to confront Xivu Arath, the Hive God of War. Safe to say the “space wizard” fantasy got turned up to 11 this season. This sacrificial killing is what the Vanguard referred to as “tithing”, and served as the backdrop motivation for completing this season’s story missions and seasonal activities. A few weeks of Hive killing, puzzle solving, and Immaru insults later, and Eris manages to become the most powerful Hive alive and sever Xivu Arath’s connection to her Throne World. This essentially means she is now mortal, and foreshadows an inevitable final confrontation with her and her forces.

Similar to many seasons before it, the story missions of Season of the Witch were quick at best and uninteresting at worst. A few of the weeks during the main story period did not feature a unique mission but instead a slightly different version of a Throne World Lost Sector. These weeks were a special kind of bummer as they relied on recycled content with modified enemy spawns and elemental focuses, never delivering on the same excitement that weekly missions deliver. However, there were a handful of missions that provided some impactful moments, many of which deepened our understanding of Eris Morn. I enjoyed the short puzzle missions based within the Imbaru Engine, a standalone level that provided plenty of exposition on Savathun’s experiments. The final cutscene provided plenty of shock value and a teaser for the next season of Destiny 2. Overall, I found the story experience of Season 22 generally satisfying.

I found both seasonal activities on offer during Season of the Witch very enjoyable, and for different reasons. Savathun’s Spire, a three-player matchmade activity, saw guardians ascending Savanthun’s towering laboratory and slaying either Hive or Scorn as they did. The closer to the top, the more involved the encounter. It should go without saying that this activity was a blast. A short 15 minute experience, Savathun’s Spire consisted of heavy density fighting mixed with light platforming and a boss fight to tie it all together. The slight variations in encounter design, whether it be punching crystals, shooting crystals, or dunking crystals, shook things up just enough to not overstay its welcome on fresh runs.

As fun as Savathun’s Spire was, the marquee seasonal activity was Altars of Summoning. Throughout the season players were rewarded with “offerings” by completing ritual and seasonal activities. Depositing an offering into one of three banks determines the difficulty of the following encounter, with higher tiered offerings filling greater amounts of a meter that leads to activity completion. There was a good variation of encounters on offer including time trials, objective completions, and multi-staged boss fights, including a very difficult matchup against a Tormenter. One of the best parts of this mission type was the fact that once the mission ends and rewards are claimed, players can hang out for a minute or two and start over from the beginning of their run, with the possibility of new players dropping in and out. This added a bit of momentum the game had sorely been lacking, and came close to the wave-based mode that players have been wanting for years.

Now arguably the best part of Season of the Witch was the addition of the Deck of Whispers. This was essentially a seasonal progression board the likes of which we had not seen before within Destiny 2. By completing seasonal activities, finding hidden secrets, and completing weapon and ability objectives, Guardians were able to collect different cards to fill out the deck. Within the deck were currency rewards, engrams, and, most importantly, encounter-altering cards usable during the seasonal activities. Before certain fights the game would randomly choose a card from the deck of each fireteam member. Cards have different gameplay effects, from enhanced arc damage to increased heavy ammo drops. Because of this, grinding the Deck of Whispers was very rewarding since it tied directly into the seasonal activities.

Though there was no new exotic mission this season, the Exotic Mission Rotator was added to the game, allowing players to replay previous Exotic Missions from past seasons. Included in the Rotator are the missions Presage, Vox Obscura, and Operation: Seraph’s Shield. Completion of the missions allows players to secure any exotics they may have missed in the past and experience the unique levels.

Season 22 also saw the return of Crota’s End, the first DLC raid originally introduced in Destiny 1. I did not play through the raid (my normal fireteam took this season off) but from what I can tell the community was generally satisfied with how the reprisal was handled, especially the Day 1 version which offered a hearty challenge.

On the PvP front, Season of the Witch introduced a brand new map to the Crucible rotation called Multiplex, a neon-soaked arena based within the Vex Network. Multiplex is a well-designed map that encourages long-range engagements and deliberate rotations in a mode like Control. It was definitely a very welcome addition to the game, and I hope to see future maps added to Destiny 2 follow the same mold. Iron Banner and Trials of Osiris remain a fun challenge for PvP players (psst… the new Trials armor is ugly, sue me). And oh yeah, remember Gambit? Good times. 

The season pass and seasonal weapons were both a worthwhile chase, a trend that I am really enjoying as of late. Though I didn’t get one, aiming for a god-rolled Eremite remains a goal of mine. The season pass offered the usual abundance of currencies, bright dust, shaders, emotes, and the seasonal weapon, Ex Diris, which is a super fun to use but generally impractical Hive Knight grenade launcher. Festival of the Lost, Destiny 2’s Halloween event, also made a return. I love Festival of the Lost, as I find the Haunted Lost Sectors genuinely fun. However I do not love chasing the Manifested Pages, so I did not go for the event title, nor do I see myself doing so in the future.

Over the course of Destiny 2’s 22nd season the Destiny community and Bungie itself went through some tumultuous events. Player frustration over community engagement, a feeling of neglect over player issues, and internal turmoil at Bungie cast a dark shadow over the season and should not be overlooked. Nevertheless, Season of the Witch offered just the right amount of engaging new content, challenging activities, satisfying story beats, and rewarding items to be considered a positive experience. I believe it will rightfully be cemented as one of Destiny 2’s best seasons. And Destiny 2 is a deckbuilder now. Go figure.