Say what you will about Destiny 2, but it gets a ton of content every year, and that’s a big part of the reason the best time to play it is the end of the year.
Late February is the busiest period, with an annual expansion releasing alongside the year’s first season. The next nine months, starting with The Final Shape will see three Episodes packed with additional content that can be played in any order. There are also new Raids, new Dungeons, and even the occasional secret Exotic mission sprinkled in. On the face of it, you’d think that much content would easily cover you for the full year. Here’s the funny part: it doesn’t even come close. As such, if you want the most bang for your buck, the best time to play Destiny 2 is only in the three months before the next expansion comes out — and that’s being generous.
The Drought Remains
See, Destiny 2 has a content drought problem, despite what Bungie will tell you. You might get a month or so of playtime out of the yearly expansion and first season. But at best, you’ll get a few hours a week out of the later seasonal drops unless you go hardcore for the perfectly rolled and crafted weapons and armor sets. Most seasonal stories actually only last until week eight or nine, leaving you with at least three or four weeks of additional grinding with much less reason to do so.
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Should you instead choose to wait until the last Season/Episode to play D2, you’ll have access to the expansion and all the episodic content, all the Raids and Dungeons, and more loot than you can shake a stick at. Even if Episodes last four months instead of the seasonal three, cramming a year’s worth of game into three months — especially when getting Raid loot is entirely random — is still a lot.
You’ll also benefit from those in the community who played all year (we can’t stop them, so why try?). They’ll have all the best strats for taking on endgame activities and quickly grinding the new gear. They’ll also know the rolls to look for, which items to spend Bright Dust on in the Eververse store, which stories are worth experiencing, and which you can just skip all the cutscenes.
If I were to put a guesstimate on how long it will take you to play everything in a Destiny 2 year if you mainlined it, I’d say about two months, tops. You could probably extend that to three months if D2 wasn’t the only game you played and you didn’t invest any time to getting good at the Crucible PvP mode.
Worth the Cost (in Context)
Bear in mind that you would still need to spend at least $100 for the yearly expansion and annual pass for all the extra content, but when one game gives you almost two full months of four or five hours of play every day, I’d say the value is pretty good.
The problem, however, should be pretty obvious. Destiny 2 is a live service game, and the goal of any good live service is to keep players engaged all year round, every day of every season. And for most casual players who only have a couple of hours every night or so, it can almost do that. If you put any additional time into the game, however, the content gap quickly comes into view. Bungie simply cannot create enough game to keep the whole community invested 24/7.
Now, I’ll grant you that there has been no Taken King-level drought. Destiny players no longer have to wait six months for a new Strike and some short story missions. You can and will get something new every week for around eight weeks every few months. In that sense, D2 is as lively as it’s ever been. And if the Episode model coming with The Final Shape can exceed what previous Seasons could do, then things might be looking upward for the storied franchise.
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The Future is Uncertain
However, based on Bungie’s track record thus far, I somehow doubt it. The quality of each season varies wildly. The Season of the Deep was, in the mind of a large portion of the community, filler. It provided little they were asking for and even less of what they wanted. The Season of the Witch is much better, both from a narrative and gameplay perspective. That’s not even discussing some of the worst seasons from when Destiny 2 first went that route. Should Episodes be as patchy and disjointed as Season of the Undying or Worthy, what was once a bright future quickly devolves into something else entirely.
That’s why I advocate for waiting until year’s end to play any Destiny 2 at all. Sure, there’ll be plenty of FOMO while you wait to experience all the new hotness, but I can almost guarantee you’ll be able to really geek out on everything they’ve added to the game. And if you want to, you can always jump into the yearly expansion story to see what all the fuss is about, then take another long break.
