Bungie has revealed quite a bit of information about Season of Dawn ahead of its December 10 release, including a host of sandbox changes, quality-of-life improvements, and new activities. To let players know how they can expect Destiny 2 to evolve throughout season nine, Bungie released the Destiny 2: Season of Dawn roadmap, along with a few other additional details. We’ll cover everything we know about Season of Dawn below, including the new “Charged with Light” mods, sparrows on Mercury, randomized finishers, and more.
Destiny 2: Season of Dawn | Randomized finishers
During a recent Season of Dawn reveal stream, Bungie announced that players will now be able to use feature many have been requesting since Destiny 2: Shadowkeep’s launch: randomized finishing moves. Instead of selecting one finisher animation that plays every single time a Guardian uses a finishing move on an enemy, players can instead “favorite” up to nine finishers — including the new ones revealed in the Season of Dawn trailer — in their inventory. A random move from this selection will then play when a finisher is used.
ALSO: All Destiny 2: Season of Dawn Artifact Mods | The Lantern of Osiris
Destiny 2: Season of Dawn | Mercury changes
While the Sundial seasonal activity introduced in the aforementioned trailer will likely go away at the end of season nine, Mercury is the home of yet another player-requested, quality-of-life change: Players will now be able to summon their Sparrows in the destination, something previously only allowed in a section of the Tree of Probabilities strike mission. Sparrows will probably be restricted to the main, open section of the map and not usable in the Infinite Forest, but Bungie has not yet confirmed this assumption.
Destiny 2: Season of Dawn | Charged with Light mods
Season of Dawn introduced a new, mod-centered mechanic called “Charged with Light.” Certain mods will allow Guardians to become Charged with Light after performing certain actions, such as breaking an enemy shield its matching energy type or using a finisher on an enemy. Other mods then gain bonuses based on how many stacks of Charged with Light are active. In the reveal stream, an example mod called Protective Light can be seen. Protective light costs two Void energy slots, and it provides the following effects:
- While Charged with Light, gain significant damage resistance against combatants when your shields are destroyed. This effect consumes all stacks of Charged with Light.
- The most stacks consumed when Protective Light activates, the longer the damage resistance lasts.
- Applying this mod lowers your Strength stat by 10 points.
Mods like this one will carry over into all Destiny 2 activities, presumably including PvP, meaning the potential for crazy builds will potentially skyrocket during season nine. The fact that some of these mods can reduce your stats is particularly significant, since Destiny 2 has not had mods with that effect before.
Destiny 2: Season of Dawn | Full season nine roadmap
Along with the reveal stream, Bungie published the full Season of Dawn roadmap, as seen above. The calendar details the following event dates and reveals the names of some of the exotic weapons shown off in the Season of Dawn trailer.
- December 10
- Season of Dawn begins
- New PvE activity: The Sundial
- Boss: Niruul, The Hollow Voice
- New seasonal artifact: The Lantern of Osiris
- Solar subclass changes
- Rusted Lands PvP map returns for Elimination mode (from Destiny 1)
- Tangled Shore and Mars Obelisks open (Season of Dawn story content)
- December 17
- Nessus and EDZ Obelisks open (Season of Dawn story content)
- New The Sundial boss: Ozletc, The Sky Piercer
- “Save a legend” (Saint-14 story sequence)
- The Dawning holiday event begins
- December 24
- Iron Banner returns
- Reprised Destiny 2 season one armor set
- New The Sundial boss: Tazaroc, The Sun Eater
- Iron Banner returns
- January 7
- New Legend difficulty for The Sundial
- New exotic quest: Devil’s Run Sidearm
- January 14
- The Dawning holiday event ends
- January 28
- New exotic quest: Bastion Fusion Rifle
- February 4
- Empyrean Foundation (likely a Vex Offensive Final Assault-style update, or possibly a new story mission)
- New The Sundial boss: Inotam, Oblivion’s Triune
- February 11
- Crimson Days holiday event begins
- February 18
- Crimson Days holiday event ends
- March 9
- Season of Dawn ends
