Everything you need to know about Shadowkeep.
Our Destiny 2 Shadowkeep guide contains everything you need to know about The Shadowkeep DLC, including its activities, raid and more.
Destiny 2’s big Fall expansion sees the return of Eris Morn and a fan favourite planet, the Moon.
As the name suggests, Shadowkeep isn’t a lighthearted jaunt through a colourful, docile planet. Instead, it’s a terrifying battle against an impending age of darkness, where players will “journey deep into a mysterious enemy citadel” and slay “nightmares” – splendid.
In a similar vein to Forsaken, Shadowkeep’s another huge content drop for Destiny 2 and offers comprehensive reworks to some of the game’s key systems.
There’s a lot to take in, so we’ve put together a guide on everything that’s arrived with Shadowkeep as well as links to content which will help you conquer everything it has to offer.
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Destiny 2: Shadowkeep – Guide Hub
We’re busy putting together plenty of guides for Shadowkeep content which will help you find hidden items, complete tough quests and unlock new activities. Below we’ll compile them as they go live, so keep this page bookmarked for all our latest guides!
Season of the Undying: Explained
If you’re unsure what’s included with your Shadowkeep purchase, especially when it comes to the Season Pass, we’ve got you covered. We go in depth on its cost, how you unlock rewards, the rewards you’ll earn and the roadmap of Destiny content Bungie has in store for us.
What’s included in New Light?
With the release of Shadowkeep, Destiny 2’s gone free to play and rebranded to Destiny 2: New Light. However, for new and veteran players, it can be difficult to know what content is free for everyone, and what content is exclusively for those who’ve forked out cash.
Our New Light guide will clue you up on what’s free, what’s paid for and more.
Where to find hidden Shadowkeep items
Shadowkeep’s filled with tough to find objects, so we’re compiling guides to help you find them nice and easily:
- Where to find all the Jade Rabbit Statues
- Where to find the Captive Cord
- Where to find the Necromantic Strand
How to complete tricky Shadowkeep quests
It’ll come as no surprise that Shadowkeep’s filled with lengthy questlines which’ll have you collecting things, grinding it out, and tackling tough missions so you can get hold of those powerful Exotic weapons and armour pieces.
Here’s a list of all the quest guides we’ve put together so far:
Quick How-To’s
Finally, we’re also putting together quick explainers for activities in Shadowkeep which aren’t immediately obvious, or ways to farm for certain materials.
ORIGINAL ARTICLE BELOW: All of the information you’ll find below was put together before the launch of Shadowkeep. If you’re feeling nostalgic, or just want a taste of the buildup once again – have a browse.
Destiny 2: Shadowkeep – Reveals and Teasers
Gamescom 2019 Trailers
Destiny teased some new Shadowkeep content with a couple of trailers and short gameplay presentation too.
First up, here’s the official Gamescom Shadowkeep trailer:
It showcases a selection of new finishing moves, new gear, new locations on the Moon and some new enemies too.
Next, we got a look at next season’s theme which begins once Shadowkeep launches:
So, Season of the Undying eh? Looks like the story line will be heavily themed around the Vex and the Black Garden’s secrets which they have seemingly been created to protect. We know that the Raid is centered around this location, so perhaps those who participate in the Raid will shift the universe for the whole playerbase, just like the Dreaming City.
Finally, here’s a link to the official Gamescom live stream which showed off some new gear and gave us a sneak peek at an upcoming Strike called The Scarlet Keep.
Luke Smith Director’s Cut (Part 3)
The final part of Luke Smith’s Director’s Cut saga is now live and he hones in on the much requested PVP side of Destiny.
Video by xHOUNDISHx
Again, here’s a quick look at all the key things from part three:
- Weapon damage buffs are now stack-ranked. Bungie has overhauled the system under the hood, so the damage calculations use only the most powerful buff on a player at a given time.
- Debuffs have changed too. Only one ability buff can be active on a player at a givn time, and enemies can be affected by only one debuff at a time. There are exceptions to be made in the form of exotics and weapon amplification perks.
- Supers will be toned down a little and brought back to how they were back in early Destiny 2.
- Heavy ammo will be communal in 6v6 playlists. The amount of ammo per brick will also be reduced for certain 6v6 archetypes.
- Trials of the Nine is on hold indefinitely. Trials, though? It could be making a return in some capacity.
- Quickplay and Competitive nodes will be removed from the Director. Instead, Classic Mix takes Quickplay’s place and includes Control, Clash and Supremacy. Survival 3v3 replaces Competitive. Control 6v6 will be its own playlist, and weekly 6v6/4v4 rotator modes have been added. These rotator playlists will be where modes like Clash, Supremacy, Mayhem, Lockdown and Countdown will appear.
- Matchmaking is seeing some tweaks to make it a more balanced experience.
Luke Smith Director’s Cut (Part 2)
Part two of Luke Smith’s beefy insight into Shadowkeep’s changes continue, and this time his focus turns to Power Levels, Powerful Sources and the World. You can read the full article here.
Video by xHOUNDISHx
Here’s a very quick summary of all the important bits:
- The Shadowkeep’s number of powerful sources will be curated down to Forsaken-launch levels. In Forsaken, an activity’s rewards would become less valuable as your Power got higher than the activity. In Shadowkeep, the system will advertise a consistent expected powerful reward, regardless of your Power relative to it.
- Prime Engrams will begin dropping once you hit 900 Power Level, and you’ll accumulate charges for them as you journey from 750 to 900. Bungie has also increased the number of Prime Engrams you can earn in a given week and rebalanced the value of each one to account for the increase in volume.
- World drops in Shadowkeep will have a chance to drop at a player’s current Power Level.
- Upon Shadowkeep and New Light’s release, everyone will have their Power Level reset to 750. Every single item in the game is being raised to a Power florr of 750. Every item in your vault too.
- Bungie is introducing Seasonal Artifacts. It’ll level over the course of the season and will become a source of seasonal artifact mods. These mods can only be equipped during that Artifact’s season. These mods may be new experimental mods or powerful mods with reduced energy cost. What’s more, it’ll offer players a Power bonus but it’s not one which is applied to gear, but instead to all of your characters. This is meant to give players who don’t want to participate in Pinnacle activities like the Raid or Iron Banner a chance to earn a High Power Level.
- Sounds like there’s also another Pinnacle activity arriving too.
What’s Armor 2.0
Bungie gave us a preview of the new Armor Mod changes dropping with Shadowkeep and put simply, it looks great.
Long gone is the restrictive armour system of old, which only gave players one mod slot. Now each piece of armour has an Energy Bar and three mod slots. Essentially, each piece of armour now has an Energy Bar which totals 10 points. You can equip up to three mods, but you’ll need to outfit each piece in such a way that your don’t exceed 10 points.
Fans will also be pleased to hear that mods are now permanent, unlockable features – nice.
There’s a whole lot more to absorb, so here’s Fallout Plays with another great video summary:
Luke Smith Director’s Cut (Part 1)
In an effort to better communicate how Bungie’s handling Shadowkeep now that it’s split from Activision and learned many harsh lessons from past content drops (never forget Curse of Osiris), Luke Smith has delivered part 1 of his “Director’s Cut”.
It’s part one of a three part series, which apparently totals a whopping 20 pages if you were to slap the script into a word processor. Smith obviously has a lot to say, and in part one he reflects on the past year or so at Bungie and what this means for Destiny moving forwards.
You can read part one over on Bungie’s official page, but if you’re after a succinct summary of all the main points we’d highly recommend checking out Fallout Plays’ video on the matter.
Teaser Reveal Schedule
In Bungie’s “This Week at Bungie” (TWAB) post on the 8th August, it announced a series of content drops in the lead up to Shadowkeep’s launch. Here’s a quick rundown of what we can expect as the release date draws closer:
- 1. ‘Director’s Cut’ with Luke Smith: (Part 1 out now)
- 2. Armor Customization Preview Livestream – You can watch the reveal here.
- 3. Shadowkeep details will be revealed at gamescom
- 4. How Seasons will change in D2Y3
- 5. PVP reveals for Shadowkeep
- 6. More PVP reveals at PAX
According to Bungie, there will be plenty more reveals throughout September. We’ll keep this page updated with all the latest as they happen, so stay tuned!
Destiny 2: Shadowkeep – Release Date
Release date delayed
Originally, Bungie were due to launch Shadowkeep on 17th September, 2019 but it’s decided to give it some “extra time in the oven”. Two weeks, in fact, which means it’s new release date is October 1st, 2019.
It’s worth noting that Bungie is also making Destiny 2 and The Shadowkeep expansion available on Steam for the first time.
Pre-orders are available now via the official website, and there are three different editions to choose from:
- Standard Edition: Shadow Keep expansion and Season Pass for Season of the Undying
- Deluxe Edition: Everything included in the Standard Edition, alongside four Season Passes, Exclusive Eric Morn themed Exotic Emote, Ghost Shell and Emblem.
Collector’s Edition
As you’d expect, the Collector’s Edition contains a host of special goodies for Guardians who’ll spend a little more Glimmer on the expansion.
Here’s everything you’ll get:
- Everything included in both Standard and Deluxe editions.
- Digital Shadowkeep Soundtrack
- A 7.8 inch Hive cryptoglyph replica
- 40-page Luna Mission handbook
- 160-page journal with additional story content.
- An exclusive emblem.
When the new expansion launches, the Season of the Undying will also kick off. This means each week will bring new content to the game, likely bolstering all the new activities introduced with the Shadowkeep. You will gain access to this Season when you purchase any version of the DLC.
Those who purchase the Deluxe and Collector’s editions will own four Season Passes. This will grant you access to the Season of the Undying and the following three future Season’s worth of content too.
Destiny 2: Shadowkeep – What’s been confirmed?
First and foremost, the Shadowkeep expansion is standalone. This means you don’t need any previous Destiny 2 expansions to purchase or play it.
Destiny 2 will be going free to play with the launch of Shadowkeep. Check out our New Light guide for information on how this will all work.
Cross Save is also launching alongside The Shadowkeep. Players on all platforms (Xbox One, PC, PS4 and Stadia) will be able to save their progress across multiple devices with only one account.
Bungie is embracing the fact Destiny 2 is an MMO shooter, and it’s started doubling down on RPG elements, evolving worlds and character customisation.
Expect new missions, a new dungeon, quests, exotic weapons and armour to feature.
Eris Morn returns, and we’ll be going back to the Moon which is now twice the size as it was in Destiny 1.
The new raid is taking place in the Black Garden, a land inhabited by the Vex and undoubtedly a place harbouring the Darkness.
PVP will see some major tweaks, including playlist adjustments and returning game types. Bungie has described this as “rebuilding the foundation”, so expect to see a lot more in the near future.
Armour 2.0 is going live and will allow players to take the mods you earn and apply them to any piece of gear you own. Expect more mod slots and more ways of creating powerful, tailored builds.
Finishing Moves will allow players to execute enemies in cool ways. There will be different animations for each class and multiple finishers – nice.
Exclusives aren’t going to be a thing anymore. Previously Bungie had released content which arrived first on PS4 (the Lake of Shadows Strike, for example) and it took an age before it finally launched on other platforms. Fans will be pleased to hear every slice of future content will now arrive on every platform at the same time.
