Destiny 2

Destiny 2

Developers
	Bungie
Windows	Vicarious Visions
Publishers
	Bungie
2017-19	Activision
Engines
	Tiger Engine
Release dates
Windows	October 24, 2017
Reception
Metacritic	83
OpenCritic	84
IGDB	82
Taxonomy
Monetization	Expansion pack, Free-to-play
Microtransactions	Boost, Cosmetic, Loot box
Modes	Multiplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	First-person
Controls	Direct control
Genres	Action, FPS
Art styles	Stylized
Themes	Post-apocalyptic, Sci-fi, Space

Warnings

This game requires a constant internet connection for all game modes.

Destiny 2 (also known in Korea as Destiny: Guardians) is an online multiplayer FPS game developed and published by Bungie. Its predecessor Destiny was a console release in 2014, but a port of the game never released on PC.

Destiny 2 was first released on October 24, 2017 on Windows exclusively to Battle.net, making it the first non-Blizzard Entertainment title to be distributed via the platform. On January 2019, Bungie and Activision cancelled their publishing agreement, leaving Bungie as the game's publisher for the PC version. On October 1, 2019, Destiny 2 was removed from Battle.net and then released on Steam. The relaunch saw over 214,000 concurrent users playing the game on Steam.

Players are able to migrate their progress from Battle.net to Steam using Bungie's transfer service. Furthermore, Destiny 2 base game was branded Destiny 2: New Light and made into a free-to-play game, which contains elements from previous 'paid-for' expansion packs: story campaign of Curse of Osiris, Warmind, and elements of Forsaken. Expansion packs Shadowkeep and Forsaken are offered as additionally purchaseable content. Account data can be transferred from other platforms using Bungie's Cross Save tool, however DLC and Silver cannot be transferred between platforms.

Destiny 2's Bright Engram loot boxes were purchasable using currency Silver, but were removed from the store on March 10, 2020, however they can still be earned as part of the Season Pass which is a real money purchase.

As of May 2020, Destiny 2 is in active development and received content updates such as Season of the Worthy which released March 10, 2020. The game is one of the most popular on Steam as of April 2020, with an average daily peak of 82,517 players. Bungie has expressed an interest in implementing cross-platform play, and confirmed they plan to enable the feature by season 15, which is slated to launch in fall 2021

PC-specific discussions can be found on Steam Community Discussions. Destiny 2 also has an active subreddit r/destiny2, an official Discord server which also caters for players from all platforms, PC-specific Discord server called Destiny 2 PC LFG.

General information

Bungie's Vital Information and Known Issues page

PC Support forum

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Epic Games Store
Microsoft Store
Steam
Retail (unavailable)
Battle.net (unavailable)

All versions require a constant internet connection for all game modes.

Cross-progression is supported for Steam, Epic Games Store, Microsoft Store, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PS5 and PS4. However, Microsoft Store, Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One also supports single account cross-progression. The same goes with PS5 and PS4.

Gear you've earned from expansions still carries over between platforms, regardless of if you own the expansion on whatever platform you're playing on.

Season pass transfers across accounts, as do any seasonal rewards. If you buy the season pass once, you'll have access to it everywhere. The only exception is Destiny 2: The Collection on Stadia. This version includes the season pass for Seasons 9-12 by default, and you can't transfer it to other platforms.

Cross-platform play is supported.

You can't merge two accounts. If you have two different characters on Xbox and Steam, for example, you can't combine them into a single account.

Silver is only available on the platform you purchase it on. If you refund Silver on one platform to buy it on another, you won't be able to use cross-save until you re-buy the Silver on your main platform.

Monetization

Type	Notes
Expansion pack	Game is primarily supported through expansion packs and cosmetic microtransactions.
Free-to-play	Game is free-to-play.

DLC and expansion packs

Name	Notes
Expansion Pass	Grants access to the game's first two expansions Curse of Osiris and Warmind, now included as part of New Light. Both of these expansions have been removed and are vaulted within the Destiny Content Vault.
Destiny 2: Forsaken Pack	Grants access to the associated content in Forsaken. The campaign has been removed and is vaulted within the Destiny Content Vault, as of the launch of The Witch Queen on February 22, 2022.
Destiny 2: Shadowkeep	Grants access to the Shadowkeep campaign and associated content.
Destiny 2: Beyond Light	Grants access to the Beyond Light campaign and associated content.
Destiny 2: The Witch Queen	Grants access to The Witch Queen campaign and associated content.
Destiny 2: Bungie 30th Anniversary Pack	Grants access to the associated content in the Bungie 30th anniversary event.
Destiny 2: Lightfall	Grants access to the Lightfall campaign and associated content.

Microtransactions

Type	Notes
Boost	Season Pass is a real money purchase which provides Bright Engrams and bonuses for unlocking other cosmetic rewards. Bungie removed their character level 750 boost item, but this is now included in the 'New Light' version of the game.
Cosmetic	Shaders, emotes, etc. are purchaseable using Silver.
Currency	Silver currency is a real money purchase, and is used to unlock cosmetics.
Free-to-grind	Season Pass gives bonuses for acquiring cosmetics, but can be acquired through grinding on the free tier.
Infinite spend	Silver can be purchased with real money over and over again without a practical limit. New items to buy are added to the store constantly including cosmetics and battle passes.

Destiny 2's Bright Engram loot boxes were purchasable using currency Silver, but were removed from the store on March 10, 2020, however they can still be earned as part of the Season Pass which is a real money purchase, or earned by maxing out the free pass, and levels after that.

Bungie received criticism for turning the cosmetic Shader from the original Destiny, into a single-use consumable. Shaders are a reward from the Bright Engram loot box or are earnable from in-game Engrams (standard loot). As of Beyond Light however Shaders are now unlockable rather than consumable, and are shared among a player's characters using the wardrobe system.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	%APPDATA%\Bungie\DestinyPC\prefs
Microsoft Store
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/1085660/pfx/

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
Epic Games Launcher
Steam Cloud
Xbox Cloud

Video

In-game video settings.

Graphics feature	State	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution			FMVs are letterboxed 21:9. This excludes 16:9 cutscenes.
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen			Native 21:9 FMVs are fullscreen.
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)		Between 55° and 105°. Weapon models do not scale.
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Anti-aliasing (AA)		FXAA, SMAA
Vertical sync (Vsync)
60 FPS and 120+ FPS		240 FPS cap. FMVs capped at 30 FPS.
High dynamic range display (HDR)		Has white and black point adjustment, but changing black point breaks the HDR gamma curve. SDR brightness also affects the HDR brightness.
Color blind mode		Includes options for deuteranopia, protanopia, and tritanopia.

How to set your HDR settings correctly

Adjust SDR brightness first then HDR settings. In HDR settings adjust white point as instructed on the screen and leave black point at default. This is the general method to achieve best results however those results vary depending on display calibration, function's like dynamic contrast, black level, color gamut setting and whether it's an LCD or OLED display.[citation needed]

Input

In-game controls settings.

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping		↵ Enter is permanently bound to text chat and cannot be bound to commands.
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity		Adjustable from 1 to 100. Does not support decimal values.
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion		Can also invert the X-axis.
Controller
Controller support		XInput controller and DualShock 4 supported.
Full controller support		Menus are navigated with a cursor controlled by the left stick.
Controller remapping
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion		Can also invert the X-axis.

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers
Xbox button prompts
Impulse Trigger vibration

DualShock 4 controllers
DualShock button prompts
Light bar support
Connection modes	unknown

Generic/other controllers

Additional information
Controller hotplugging		A prompt shows up if your controller is disconnected that can be closed either by reconnecting or hitting Escape.
Haptic feedback
Simultaneous controller+KB/M		Can switch between inputs without restarting, keyboard unlocks after ~second of no inputs from controller.

Add/edit secondary bindings by manually editing configuration file

Instructions

Go to the configuration file(s) location. Edit cvars.xml. The XML file has all keybindings under the appropriate <namespace name="key bindings"> block The syntax is key binding 1, exclamation mark, key binding 2: <cvar name="primary_weapon" value="1!mouse wheel up" /> Notes As described in the reference Reddit thread, it is possible to assign actions not possible in the game's options screen, such as: mouse wheel up mouse wheel down middle mouse button extra mouse button 1 extra mouse button 2

Audio

In-game audio settings.

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		SFX, Dialogue/Cinematics, Music, Chat
Surround sound
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Simplified Chinese
Traditional Chinese
French
German
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Polish
Brazilian Portuguese
Russian
Spanish
Latin American Spanish

Network

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Notes
LAN play
Online play		Co-op

Connection types

Type	Native	Notes
Matchmaking
Peer-to-peer
Dedicated
Self-hosting
Direct IP

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	11

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Physics	Havok
Audio	Wwise
Cutscenes	CRI Movie
Anti-cheat	BattlEye

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	7	8.1, 10
Processor (CPU)	Intel Core i3-3250 3.5 GHz AMD FX-4350 4.2 GHz	Intel Core i5-2400 3.4 GHz AMD Ryzen R5 1600X 3.6 GHz
System memory (RAM)	6 GB	8 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	105 GB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce GTX 660 or GTX 1050 AMD Radeon HD 7850 2 GB of VRAM	Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 or GTX 1060 AMD Radeon R9 390 4 GB of VRAM

A 64-bit operating system is required.