What order should you play the Destiny DLC in? Bungie’s space shooter has a storied history, and if a certain ten-hour recap video from the community’s so-called Lore Daddy is anything to go by, a lot has happened in over the years. Bungie has released 12 expansions over two different games, with additional content packs to be enjoyed, too.
Whether you prefer the golden days of Destiny 1, or the modern additions to Destiny 2, there’s plenty on offer across both games to get stuck in and enjoy. The beauty of Bungie’s space game is you don’t need to play the DLC in any specific order, although if you’re a lore nerd like me you may want to go chronologically. Here’s all of the DLC for the Destiny series along with a short recap of their events, with no major spoilers.
There are 12 expansions for Destiny, although some don’t count the first two due due to them being fairly minor. However, in the interests of completionism, we’re including them anyway.
The Dark Below
Released in December 2014, The Dark Below was the first expansion for the original Destiny base game. It can no longer be purchased separately unless you’re still rocking an Xbox 360, but does come bundled into some editions of The Taken King. After the destruction of the Black Garden’s heart, Eris Morn is introduced and lands in the Tower to warn of the return of the Hive prince, Crota.
Crota is a big bad, worshipped as a god, and Eris is the sole survivor of a failed raid to kill him. We’re tasked with purging the Hive that remain on Earth by killing the Fist of Crota. While this is a success, some Hive do survive and attempt to take over the warmind, Rasputin. Long story short, Eris eventually sees us as worthy of stopping the Hive from resurrecting Crota on the Moon. This DLC introduced The Will of Crota strike, and The Undying Mind strike, which was initially a PlayStation exclusive. It also introduced the Crota’s End raid, which was recently reprised for Destiny 2 with new mechanics.
House of Wolves
During House of Wolves in May 2015, the second base game expansion for Destiny, Queen Mara Sov, via Petra Venj, asks Guardians to hunt down the House of Wolves (she said the thing!) which is a Fallen house that broke its allegiance to the Queen under the command of Skolas. Skolas is a Fallen Captain who now plans to unite all of the Fallen houses under the House of Wolves banner. The expansion contains The Shadow Thief strike, six story missions, the Prison of Elders arena, and introduced the endgame PvP content, Trials of Osiris. Similarly to the The Dark Below, House of Wolves can no longer be purchased separately, but is included in some editions of The Taken King.
The Taken King
The Legendary edition of The Taken King, which was released in September 2015, can still be purchased and includes Destiny, The Taken King, The Dark Below, and House of Wolves. Following the events of The Dark Below which saw us taking down the Hive invasion of Earth and the Moon and killing Crota once and for all, we also destroyed a shrine intended to commune with Oryx, The Taken King. Oryx wasn’t very pleased with this, and set out for revenge, but Mara Sov took her Awoken Armada to Saturn and, along with her brother Uldren Sov, attacked Oryx’s Dreadnaught ship. Mara’s Harbinger orbs, which are usually deadly on impact, didn’t seem to leave any lasting effect.
During The Taken King the new Taken enemy race was introduced, as well as the Nightstalker, Stormcaller, and Sunbreaker subclasses. Four new strikes – Fallen Saber, Shield Brothers, The Sunless Cell, and the PlayStation exclusive Echo Chamber were introduced, as well as the King’s Fall raid and nine new Crucible maps. What a time to be alive.
Rise of Iron
Rise of Iron was the final DLC released before Destiny 2 came out, in September 2016. Pre-ordering it granted Guardians the new Gjallarhorn rocket, and Gjallarwing, a legendary Sparrow mount. The Rise of Iron DLC told the story of the Iron Lords and their sacrifice to SIVA, a technological plague. For years we’ve been pleading with Bungie to expand on the SIVA storyline.
The Fallen House of Devils unearthed SIVA and was using it to augment themselves to become more powerful. Lord Saladin called upon the Guardians to fight against this new threat to become the next generation of Iron Lords. The Rise of Iron DLC introduced the Sepiks Perfected, The Abomination Heist, and The Wretched Eye strikes along with the Wrath of the Machine raid.
Curse of Osiris
The first DLC for Destiny 2 came in December 2017, and took place on Mercury, following our efforts to rescue Osiris from the Vex in order to avert a dark future. After spending years in exile, Osiris returns having made contact with his former student, Ikora Rey. Osiris discovers the Vex from multiple timelines are gathering on Mercury. Ikora, despite her distrust of Osiris, sends the Guardian to find him in theInfinite Forest. This is an area of Mercury that the Vex have transformed into a simulation of the universe, used to bring their plans to life, and overseen by Panoptes, the Infinite Mind. The Curse of Osiris DLC introduced A Garden World and Tree of Probabilities strikes as well as the Leviathan raid lair and the Eater of Worlds raid.
Warmind
The Warmind DLC was released in May 2018 and introduced us to Ana Bray, a Guardian once thought long lost. She is searching for connections to her past and ends up in the polar caps of Mars. The Golden Age warsats assist in revealing the core of the warmind Rasputin and an ancient Hive army intent on its destruction. The Guardian was tasked with destroying a giant Hive worm god, and we were also introduced to the strikes Insight Terminus, Strange Terrain, and Will of the Thousands, as well as the Spire of Stars raid on the Leviathan.
Forsaken
Forsaken was the first DLC to be revealed during a live stream in June 2018, and was released in September 2018. The expansion introduced major overhauls to the gameplay cycle, weapons, and reward systems in addition to the DLC storyline, new game modes, and a new raid. During Forsaken we join Cayde-6 exploring The Reef, but are met with a huge prison break in the Prison of Elders strike. Here, we meet the Scorn enemy race for the first time, who are responsible for the prison break. Along with Petra Venj we seek out the eight Barons of the Scorn, which ultimately leads to us discovering the Awoken homeworld of the Dreaming City.
We wielded bows for the first time in Forsaken, as well as nine new Supers, the Gambit game mode, and four new strikes in the form of Cathedral of Scars, Emerald Coast, Kell’s Grave, and Legion’s Folly. It was also the first expansion to feature seasons, and showcased Season of the Outlaw, Season of the Forge, Season of the Drifter, and Season of Opulence. A key character meets their demise during this expansion too – and any Destiny fan will know who we refer to here.
Shadowkeep
Shadowkeep, released in October 2019, takes place on the Moon and features the return of previously-encountered enemies including Crota, Skolas, Atheon, and Ghaul. After theRed War, Eris Morn has been suspiciously absent, but it turns out she accidentally released Nightmares into the Sol system after interacting with a dormant Pyramid Ship, that we now know belonged to the Witness, beneath the surface of the Moon. Long story short, accompanied by Zavala, Sloane, Asher Mir, Brother Vance, and Ana Bray, we restore Rasputin’s core into a special engram, and decipher messages from the Darkness that end up telling us of a special power waiting on Europa. It’s during this expansion that we witnessed the Traveler healing its wounds from the Red War in response to the presence of the Darkness. The planets Io, Titan, Mercury, and Mars were sunset after the Darkness consumed them.
Finishers were introduced in Shadowkeep, along with the Xenophage, Deathbringer, and Leviathan’s Breath exotic quests, the Moon and Black Garden locations, and the Garden of Salvation raid. Shadowkeep featured the Season of the Undying, Season of Dawn, Season of the Worthy, and the Season of Arrivals.
Beyond Light
Ah, the golden years of Destiny. Lockdown came, we were stuck indoors, but who cares because Beyond Light, after a short delay to November 2020, was here! The revisiting of the Exo Stranger finally introduced us to her real name, Elsie Bray, and allowed Guardians to wield the power of Darkness for the first time in the form of Stasis. After the disappearance of the four planets, the Black Fleet remained on the outskirts of the Solar System, an ever-lingering threat, before landing one on the frozen moon of Jupiter, Europa. After finding Clovis Bray’s research station, Eventide, the Fallen established a safe house in the form of Riis-Reborn.
After learning how to wield Stasis to our full potential, Guardians were tasked with taking down Eramis, the leader of the new Fallen community, and along the way we learned where Exos come from – created by Clovis Bray with the sole goal of attaining immortality. During Beyond Light we were also tasked with heading into Clovis’s most important facility – the Deep Stone Crypt. That raid, along with the The Disgraced and The Glassway strikes were brand new with the expansion, as well as the Season of the Hunt, Season of the Chosen, Season of the Splicer, and the Season of the Lost.
The Witch Queen
Released in February 2022, after another Covid-related delay, The Witch Queen is arguably one of the best Destiny 2 DLCs that exists. After being formerly vaulted, we can once again set foot on the planet Mars where the witch queen herself, Savathun, has appeared. The opening mission begins with the Cabal aiming a cannon at her ship, while Ikora and Eris Morn explore the new camp at the Relic. We descend on her Throne World – another dimension created by Savathun using the Darkness, which grants her immortality. Savathun can only die in her Throne World due to this, but we discover that the Traveler decided to give Savathun the Light, for some reason.
Throughout the events of The Witch Queen, we discover that she was trying to keep the Traveler for herself, to keep the Light to herself, or perhaps prevent it from leaving as it had done before. During The Witch Queen we also get our first visual of the Witness itself, beginning the end of the Light and Dark saga as we know it. This expansion introduced the Vow of the Disciple raid, and The Lightblade and Birthplace of the Vile strikes.
Lightfall
Lightfall was a sticky, sore subject among the Destiny 2 community for some time. Some felt that it was a rushed expansion, forced to fill the gap between The Witch Queen and The Final Shape. Some disagreed with the characters being introduced, Nimbus and Rohan, on the new area of Neomuna. Some just hatedthat Calus boss fight. We did too, don’t worry. For what it served though, which was a narrative gateway to the final events of the Light and Dark saga, Lightfall did its job. Almost. We still don’t really understand The Veil, but that’s on us.
The end of Lightfall showed our worst nightmares – the Witness had gained control of the Veil and used it to create a triangular-shaped portal into the Traveler, before disappearing inside to do god knows what. It’s our mission now to find and stop it. That’s where The Final Shape comes in. Lightfall introduced the Root of Nightmares raid and the new Strand subclass. Don’t talk to us about the sequence where Osiris shouts at us for being unable to wield it properly. It still hurts.
The Final Shape
The Final Shape is, indeed, the final expansion of the Light and Dark saga that has spanned the past ten years. As we mentioned in our The Final Shape preview, this could be one of Bungie’s finest expansions yet. We know that it will introduce the Salvation’s Edge raid, record-breakingly soon after the release of the DLC itself. We also know we’ll be able to use the new Prismatic subclass, one which takes all of the best elements of the existing subclasses and combines them into one overpowered, hilariously fun superpower.
We’ll update this guide when we know more about the narrative events of The Final Shape, but we do know we’re on a mission to confront The Witness once and for all. Will we stop it in time? That remains to be seen.
If you’re still preparing for the newest expansion, make sure to check out our explanation of The Final Shape Exotics coming to Destiny 2. We’ve also got an overview of the Destiny 2 classes if you’re starting from the beginning.
