Season of the Lost, the big one. The big one as in this season will be 6 months long because the Witch Queen doesn’t come out until February 2022. This isn’t to say that the 6 months isn’t filled with events and activities with things such as the Halloween event in October, Christmas event in December, and the 30th anniversary event also in December. But this is the 1st Month in review so those events don’t apply to what’s occurred so far this season. I will be discussing what’s transpired so far this season, so this is your only spoiler warning.
So all that suspicious talk from Osiris this past season finally makes sense as he was not the actual Osiris but in fact was Savathun. This is something that was widely rumored so it wasn’t to much of a surprise however it is bittersweet to finally meet and communicate with the Witch Queen herself. With Savathun revealed, the Dreaming City takes center stage and we get the long awaited return of everyone’s favorite waifu Mara Sov, Savathun wants us Guardians to remove her worm and in return she will give us back the real Osiris. So we are gathering Mara Sov’s lost techeuns so she will be able to perform a ritual to remove Savathun’s worm. Hopefully in doing this it will return Osiris safely and make Savathun vulnerable enough to kill her. That’s the story so far, it’s nice to have Mara Sov back and feels like a great prologue to the Witch Queen.
Seasonal Activity
The seasonal activity this season is called Astral Alignment. The new 6-player activity has 5 different phases, defeating the intruders, collapsing taken rifts, installing batteries, destroying corrupted ether supplies, and lastly defeating 1 of 2 rotating bosses. So the simple question, is Astral Alignment fun. I would say that it’s a very good seasonal activity. We get to visit new locations in the Dreaming City instead of adding new structures to already existing locations. The mechanics are either a different take on stuff previously in the game or entirely new mechanics never before seen. This isn’t the pinnicle of seasonal events like the Menagerie, but it’s upper mid tier which compares to activities like the Sundial and Battlegrounds.
Along with Astral Alignment there is the weekly mission, the Shattered realm. Here your goal is to use ancient awoken technology, known as Ley Lines, to find and rescue Mara Sov’s lost Techeuns. There is a 3 week rotation on the locations of each Shattered realm and the locations are completely new, based off of shattered versions of the EDZ, the Tangled Shore and the Moon. The missions are pretty straight forward requiring you to go to an area kill enemies and continue, however what makes the Shattered Realm so great is the amount of secrets once you start to explore. As you level up your seasonal artifact and complete challenges, you unlock abilities that you can use in the Shattered Realm to find hidden areas and chests. I’ve spent hours in the Shattered Realms looking for secrets and the new areas are a blast to explore.
Lastly we take a look at this seasons exotic quest. During the first 3 weeks of the season we have been getting missions to go to the Dreaming City and find things called Atlas Skews, located around the different regions. This past week we finally get the exotic quest for the seasonal exotic, Ager’s Scepter, which is a Stasis trace rifle. Once again you must find 5 Atlas Skews around the dreaming city and then you must do a bunch of different tasks in the seasonal activity Astral alignment. Doing this is fine however once you are able to get your hands on the exotic all you do is fight a small boss and that’s it. Maybe I was expecting to much, but having a seasonal exotic be a multi week quest, I was expecting there to be a mission at the end along the lines of Hawkmoon’s Harbinger or Dead Man’s Tale Presage. There wasn’t and it just left me kind of disappointed. Now the gun you get, Ager’s Scepter, might not be for everyone, however in my opinion it’s one of the best seasonal exotic’s we have gotten. It is top tier for ad clear, and just great fun to use. I do believe it will be viable for higher end content, because freezing enemies makes everything that much easier.
Guns to Grind For
With a big nerf to the overly used Anarchy grenade launcher, this season there has never been more variety to the guns we use. However we are in a fusion rifle meta so those suckers are some of the more important guns to look out for. Look out for most legendary fusions rifles ( Plug one, Null Composure, Cartesian Coordinate) with perks like Vorpal weapon, Feeding Frenzy, Reservoir Burst, and High-Impact Reserves.
Vex Mythoclast: The gun you get as a potential drop after you defeat Atheon in the Vault of Glass. Initially this gun was hot garbage, but at the turn of the season it got a much need buff to make it one of the best all around weapons in the game. There isn’t any glaring weakness and performs at a high level in most activities. It’s a must have for the collection.
One Thousand Voices: A potential drop from the last chest of the Last Wish raid, this incredibly unique fusion rifle that right now, along with seasonal artifact Particle Deconstruction, is the dps king and is what I use for most bosses.
Sleeper Stimulant: If you haven’t had good luck getting a Thousand Voices worry not because the Linear fusion rifle Sleeper Stimulant is just as good. A gun that you get from the Kiosk in the tower, this thing packs just as much a Punch as 1K the only difference is it requires you to land critical’s.
Le Monarch: With the return of Overload Bows, no bow is more handy than Le Monarch. It is the best bow to stun champions as the lingering poison effect can sometimes stun overloads twice in one shot. It’s also not to shabby killing regular mobs and it must not be overlooked for when grandmaster nightfall’s come around.
The Last Breath: With auto rifles being the only option for Barrier champions, there is no better kinetic auto rifle than The Last Breath. You can get this as a random drop in the Prophecy dungeon, it’s a 600 rpm Adaptive Frame Auto rifle. The best perks to look out for would be a combination of Subsistence and One for All or Subsistence and Rampage.
Ascendency: This seasons ritual weapon, a Solar rocket launcher. It comes with a static roll of Impulse Amplifier or Ambitious Assassin in the first slot and Explosive light or Chain reaction in the second. All great perks, but with a recent fix to explosive light, giving the rocket launcher a 25 percent damage bonus when orbs are picked up (up to x6) this thing packs a massive punch and is one of the best dps legendary weapons. Chain reaction also makes this a hell of an ad clear. Get the Ascendency by getting to level 16 in either Vangaurd, Crucible, or Gambit ranks. Also being a precision frame launcher this thing gets tracking on top of everything.
Of course everyone prefers different guns, so I recommend trying most of them. Bungie added a lot this season and most of them feel great. Find what fits you.
Conclusion
A month in and in my eyes so far so good. Like always, Bungie is great at story telling, and this season may be end up being very important to the narrative in the long run. With tons of new guns and very fun seasonal activities, it’s not a game your gonna play 24/7, but it is a game you will come back to each week to see how the story progresses and enjoy the new things that come out. I look forward to the the upcoming events as well as whatever secrets Bungie has in store.
Rongo 