Eyes On Savathûn’s Beautiful, Disgusting Throne World And Weapon Crafting In Destiny 2: The Witch Queen

The battle for the Light against Savathûn and her Lucent Brood is fast approaching in Destiny 2’s newest expansion, The Witch Queen, pitting Guardians against their Hive counterparts who share similar powers to our own. In a recent event, we watched some never-before-seen gameplay set on Savathûn’s Throne World, one of the main locations for The Witch Queen. We were also offered a glimpse at a versatile new weapon called the Glaive as well as a tour of what crafting our very own weapons will look like.

You can view the new ViDoc above. It runs down the trials and tribulations Guardians will go through in the battle against Savathûn, as well as the new toys at our disposal. The Witch Queen has an army of Guardians that have access to the same classes and powers as us. We saw this firsthand during a gameplay demo when our demoist came across an Arc-wielding Wizard, which started the battle by popping its super and shooting lightning forward, hoping to catch our Guardian with its deadly voltage.

Savathûn’s Guardians, like us, have Ghost companions capable of reviving these tenacious foes. The moment is a rare morality test to eliminate the enemy. For each of these Lucent Guardians we’ll come across in the expansion, we will have to take out the Ghost as well as the Guardian. We’ve been aware of how vital a Ghost is to us, so dealing the final blow will require us to take hold of the Ghost and squeeze the life out of it.

The demo we watched took place during the second mission of the expansion, which gave a great look at the opulent cathedral where Savathûn’s seizure of the Light has manifested an ivory structure into the Throne World. From afar, the area looks pristine and elegant with its too-white surface and blood-red accents in surrounding flowers/decor. But closer inspection will reveal the hideous, skin-like Hive architecture. The cathedral is only one of the areas we’ll explore on the Throne World, though. Other sections of the new location are less … put together. The terrain changes into a dank, muddy swamp as you travel to the area around the cathedral. This bog is what all of the Throne World looked like before Savathûn took over the Light.

Bungie spoke about the Legendary that was introduced with the expansion during the demo mission. It’s meant to provide more of a challenge and is recommended to Destiny veterans or those who like their missions to be extra spicy. Legendary players can start the campaign from scratch and not have to complete any additional steps. These challenging missions can be replayed at any point to increase the difficulty to challenge players who wish to continue. Legendary difficulty has more difficult enemy encounters and will reward you with more gear and double the rewards than standard campaign missions.

This expansion also includes the Glaive, an innovative weapon archetype capable of pulling triple duty on battlefields. Glaive looks like a polearm and has a longer shaft with a shorter blade attached to its head. This gives it melee potential. Glaive can be used as a melee weapon, but not like the sword. That’s because it’s also a ranged weapon capable of shooting projectiles from the bladed end. According to Bungie developers, it’s intended to allow you to fire a few shots and then close in on your enemies before unleashing the melee stab. What’s not apparent looking at the Glaive is its defensive potential. Your Guardian can build energy while attacking and use that to put up a shield against any bullets or attacks. You can expect interesting interactions, not just in PvE but also in Crucible and other PvP scenarios.

Bungie is making a big push for personalized items in The Witch Queen and is starting with the weapons you’ll carry into battle. With the help of what was called “The Relic,” you can craft the perfect weapon for your class, spec, or playstyle. You’ll shape brand-new weapons or reshape one you’ve been upgrading over the hours spent in the expansion. Starting with the base component (or the “frame”), you’ll determine the weapon type and, in turn, the various perks and traits you can imbue it with. The Witch Queen will be introducing about 50 new weapons, many of which will be crafted in their frame’s image to create your optimized version.

While many of the crafting frames are identical to the weapons that you’ll find in the wild, there are many big advantages to making your own. Crafting and using, say, a pulse rifle may offer more perks and traits than those you’d find from an engram. Although to access these additional perks, you’ll either need a higher level frame to reshape the weapon or you’ll have to level it up by using it. The dev team noted that looted items may contain perks and traits you are not able to access via crafting. Therefore, you will need to bring non-crafted weapons into Dungeons, Strikes, Raids depending on what loadout you want.

Whether it’s the reworking of the Void spec across every Guardian class (which I didn’t get into here, but yeah, it’s happening with much more coming down the road), the unraveling narrative with Savathûn and her Lucent Brood, or the deep weapon crafting system, there’s so much more coming in The Witch Queen that I can’t wait to dive into. Destiny 2: The Witch Queen will be available for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.