New Destiny 2 Concept Art sheds a little light on the upcoming expansion

We still have very few concrete details about Destiny 2’s next expansion, Codename: Apollo, but Bungie has provided some new, albeit vague, insights into what we can expect with concept art and a list of inspirations including The Doors, Slaughterhouse Five and The Reign of the Scavenger.

Bungie spoke a bit about Codename: Frontiers, the next phase of Destiny 2 content launching in summer 2025, during a recent developer livestream that also included Episode: Revenant, which starts on October 8. Narrative director Alison Luhrs showed off some new concept art for the expansion’s destination and provided some cryptic details about what players can expect as Destiny 2 enters a new story.

The next year of Bungie content, which will begin after the last of the current installments, Heresy, ends in early 2025, will feature two major expansions rather than one massive tentpole release, as has been the case throughout Destiny 2’s life These expansions are smaller and will come at a more regular pace, Bungie says, and are about the size of the original Destiny’s Rise of Iron expansion. The first, Codename: Apollo, will have a non-linear campaign structure, Bungie says, with a Metroidvania gameplay approach, allowing players to choose their path through the content as they unlock new abilities.

We know Apollo will be adding a new destination, but Bungie is being extremely coy about where it will be. But Luhrs did drop a few hints, saying during the stream that viewers should imagine the idea of ​​entering the drawing room of a mansion, where the owner says there is a secret door. That door would be activated by moving a book or a statue – something that was in front of the person’s face the entire time, but only took on meaning once they knew what they were looking for.

Luhrs also shared concept art that doesn’t provide many new insights, but could provide some hints about what to expect from Apollo. The first shows a group of people apparently performing some sort of ritual involving blue energy (or possibly goo). The symbols and other elements seen in the image may not seem familiar, but one thing is is The background is familiar: the concept art uses an image of the Cosmodrome location on Earth to create a rocky, tree-strewn landscape just outside the structure. The use of an in-game image may be an addition, but it could also indicate that this new destination is actually a hidden location on Earth.

The second conceptual artwork could also play into that theory. It appears to be an underground location, somewhere in a huge cavern with spiers of rock hanging from top to bottom. The details here are sparse, but it is possible to see structures between the rocks, such as stairs, and possibly more of that blue energy. So maybe we’re dealing with a hidden location on Earth, perhaps underground, and a group of people we haven’t encountered before in Destiny 2.

Developers also shared some inspirations for Apollo that are also remarkably cryptic. These include the music of the 1960s including The Doors, Jefferson Airplane and early progressive rock bands such as King Crimson.

They also mentioned Kurt Vonnegut’s novel Slaughterhouse Five, which is mainly about one man’s experiences with the firebombing of Dresden in World War II and his time as a prisoner of war. The main character, Billy Pilgrim, also claims that he is loose in time, with the story jumping to different points in his life, and that he was a prisoner in an alien zoo on the planet Tralfamadore. It is never made explicit whether these elements are real or imaginary.

Finally, Bungie called out Scavenger’s Reign, an animated series that originally appeared on HBO and is now available on Netflix, in which a group of people find themselves stranded on an alien planet after their ship crashes. Assistant game director Robbie Stevens specifically mentioned how Scavenger’s Reign portrays the strangeness and mystery of its alien world.

All of that leaves us with nothing but rampant speculation about Apollo, but elements like time travel are an important part of the Destiny 2 universe, especially after stories like that of The Witch Queen expansion, where the planet Mars was seen with sections where earlier times dawned. on to the present. But really, with Bungie starting a new story after completing the Light and Darkness Saga in The Final Shape expansion, pretty much anything is possible for the future of Destiny 2 – and it seems likely to get weird.