I believe that later today we might finally get our first bit of indication as to what’s going on with Black Armory, a piece of smaller, December Destiny 2 DLC that Bungie has yet to discuss at all. It’s going to be unlike anything the game has seen in the last five years, part of a new model of ongoing content where Bungie asks players to pay $35 for a year’s worth of three, smaller DLC packs.
How small? That’s the question. Probably no new cutscenes, no expansive new areas, but some kind of…content, in whatever form that takes. This is likely to be smaller than what we’ve seen from Curse of Osiris or Warmind, though I do wonder if it could echo past, small DLCs in the Destiny 1 era like say, The Dark Below, minus the raid. Looking back, that was a tiny DLC compared to what we’ve seen with D2’s offerings, so perhaps that might be a good starting point.
But size speculation aside, here are five things I am hoping to see from Black Armory.
1. Weapon Catalysts
It feels like Bungie has been saving a bunch of weapon catalysts for Year Two of D2, and what better place to release them than Black Armory? We are still missing a number of catalysts from year one weapons, but also literally no Forsaken-era weapons have them either. I doubt that Black Armory will dump just like, 16 catalysts on us, but I wouldn’t mind that. Catalysts farming, when it’s not strike catalyst drop rate level bad, is one of the most fun endgame activities in Destiny if you ask me, and that would likely keep me occupied until the next DLC by itself. Really I just want to Masterwork my Wavesplitter, that’s the only thing that matters to me.
2. Armsday
We have been hearing about the return of Armsday, or Armsweek, for ages now, yet the activity just…never arrived. Black Armory seems like the correct time to bring Armsday back, and I know at least few of the year one weapon catalysts are supposed to be tied to it. I would hope for something a little more involved than what we saw with the old system (killing enemies with purposefully crappy weapons got old pretty fast), but I do want to see the activity return as a weekly goal in some capacity.
3. Actual New Weapons And Perks
I am talking about fully new weapons here, not just more and more reskins of existing ones. That’s just not going to cut it, and while I would also accept some Destiny 1 weapons making a return, because why not, I want to see a lot of fully new weapons, not just some Legendary HMGs and them calling it a day. But past the weapons themselves, I also want to see new weapon perks. The chase for god roll weapons was fun until you realized that every “god roll” was simply some combination of Outlaw/Kill Clip-Rampage. More viable perks, more interesting rolls.
4. More Story Than That Damn Thunderlord Quest
As much as I appreciated going to the Cosmodrome again and getting the Thunderlord, that quest, if it was supposed to serve as an introduction to Black Armory, was woefully lackluster both in tasks but also storytelling. This was a weird moment as Destiny has actually been really good about worldbuilding and storytelling in the Forsaken era, so this was an odd step back. I am hoping that even if Black Armory isn’t giving us actual cutscenes, that it will have some semblance of a story that’s actually interesting to hear and read, if nothing else. Bungie did great with most other Forsaken content in this regard, so I’m hoping the Thunderlord quest was just a misstep.
5. An Expanded Zone, If Not A New One
I understand that these DLCs are not going to be delivering entirely new planets to us each time, but I do think we need some new areas to roam around in that are not what we’ve been rolling through non-stop for the past year. For Black Armory, I’m not exactly sure where that would be. Earth? Clovis Bray on Mars? The Archology on Titan? Unclear, but even if we can’t get a new planet, expanding current zones with new areas and a new fast travel point or two would be welcome.
Past this? I don’t know, I just want something engaging. I just hit 600 on three characters so I suppose a power level increase is in order, though I’m not super eager to restart that grind. I just want to hunt cool weapons and play some new strikes/missions/more Gambit (how did I become this addicted to Gambit?).
Given how well Forsaken went, I have faith that Black Armory will be cool, but it is an experiment, and I don’t want to take anything for granted, lest we end up with another Curse of Osiris-style failure on our hands.
