Destiny 2: Curse of Osiris - everything we know about its first DLC
Destiny 2: Curse of Osiris release date
A trailer at Paris Games Week announced that Curse of Osiris will release on December 5. Bungie have assured us it'll arrive on PC at the same time as on console - no more waiting.
Destiny 2: Curse of Osiris story
In Curse of Osiris, we return to Mercury to search for Osiris's help against a Vex plot. Warlock Vanguard Ikora Rey learns that the malevolent machines have opened a gate on Mercury during the Red War, and are gathering a massive, trans-temporal army. You go to investigate, and to judge by the opening cinematic (see below), you'll discover Osiris's Ghost, Sagira.
Sagira is voiced by Firefly alumna Morena Baccarin, and will be your guide through much of the new story. Brother Vance, the Cult of Osiris's ambassador in the original Destiny, will also return as the world overseer for Mercury.
According to a possibly premature listing on the Microsoft Store, Ikora will feature prominently, as we "rebuild the ties" between her and Osiris, her teacher. A Vanguard scout named Shiro, who first appeared in the original's Rise of Iron expansion, is also mentioned in voice lines datamined from the PC version of the game.
Osiris's DLC is teased throughout Destiny 2. He's referenced in the lore tab of the Vigilance Wing Exotic pulse rifle, which apparently was once a reward from the Trials of Osiris, and in two adventures on Nessus. 'Deep Conversation' sees him feed you information from within the Vex Network, while 'Hack the Planet' hints that he's trapped there (hence the need for a rescue, I guess). He should have plenty to tell us about the malevolent cyborgs and their plans for the galaxy.
Though we can surely expect plenty of missions on the surface of Mercury, the idea of exploring the Vex network - a labyrinth of gates criss-crossing time and space - is a tantalising one, with plenty of possibilities. Could we see the Vex homeworld? Could we travel through or even beyond Destiny's timeline?
That MS Store listing suggests so, saying players will "journey through time and space to learn the secrets of Osiris, [and] avert a dark future."
Destiny 2: Curse of Osiris power cap
The experience level cap is being raised to 25 - presumably to accommodate the new story missions - while gear-based power levels will be raised to 330. Mods can then push you further to an absolute max of 335.
Destiny 2: Curse of Osiris Mercury setting
After featuring only in Crucible maps, Mercury is finally being added as a full location. The Lighthouse, a hideout that appeared in the original game as a reward for conquerors of its Trials PvP mode, will return - it's like the Church in the EDZ in that it's not a fully-fledged social space, but an island of calm amidst the chaos of the planet outside. Brother Vance will hang out here, where the Trials chest used to be, and will have his own reputation and engram system. Excitingly, we hear you'll be able to build guns with Vex technology in the Lighthouse, giving you some direct choice over the expansion's new loot. You'll use Mercury's planetary materials to do this.
The Lighthouse's immediate surroundings are a playable space called the Plains of Glass. Here you'll find a new type of public event and a bunch of Cabal who fled the Almighty, but there's also a unique area called the Infinite Forest, built by the Vex in the hollowed-out core of Mercury. It is a simulated reality that the Vex use to observe all of time, and will randomly reconfigure itself each time you explore it. This is the foreboding tangle of vanishing spires - called trees - that you can see in the reveal trailer. You'll access it via a teleportation gate, and some of its trees will contain gates of their own that lead to past, present, or future versions of Mercury.
According to the Destiny grimoire, Mercury was once a garden world. Presumably, like all the inner planets, the Traveler's powers enabled humanity to terraform and inhabit it during the Golden Age. It seems you'll get a glimpse of Mercury at this idyllic time by traveling to its past. During the Collapse, the Vex undid this work within days, transforming it into one of their machine worlds - in the future, the Sun has died, and there is no life on Mercury but the Vex. We'll also get to see something of this.
Destiny 2: Curse of Osiris raid lair and activities
Curse of Osiris will include a new mini-campaign that's roughly two to three hours in length, according to IGN (who were not hugely impressed). There will also be a new World Quest, new missions, new strikes, new adventures, new Crucible maps, and new free roam activities, but the big question has always been: will there be a new raid?
It seems the answer is no. Curse of Osiris will add a "raid lair" - that is, a new section to the existing Leviathan raid named Eater of Worlds. The big door at the front of the ship will open up (see the image above) and, according to senior game designer Brendan Thorne, we'll tackle "an entirely new set of encounters, new puzzles, new loot, completely new places to explore [...] and then we have a brand new final boss for you to fight."
Eater of Worlds will be just as challenging as the original Leviathan raid, but will take less time to complete. It will go live "a short time" after Curse of Osiris launches on December 5, with its own Prestige mode following after that. A second raid lair will be added to Leviathan in the Rasputin DLC, which probably means no entirely new raids in Destiny 2's whole first year.
We don't know what a raid lair is, but we know it's not a full raid, which is why this stings a little - and we say this as fans of Leviathan, which many in the community are not. Maybe we'll be pleasantly surprised: Thorne said the main reason raid lairs exist is because Bungie "wanted to make more raids."
In other activities news, it's worth noting that Destiny 2 will reintroduce the Heroic strikes playlist from the original game - a new strike difficulty level with better loot - and note the Eververse icon in the UI of that screenshot above. It seems Destiny 2's microtransactions store is getting its own activity - could this be a new way to get cosmetics for gameplay?
Destiny 2: Curse of Osiris trailers and cinematics
This is the opening cinematic of the Osiris DLC, courtesy of IGN. It shows the man himself pausing time and wandering casually through what looks like the Vault of Glass, using a puzzle-like device to see visions. He sees something he doesn't like, and his time-controlling powers appear to slip. He then throws his Ghost, Sagira, through another gate onto Mercury's surface. Presumably, we'll find her when we travel there to investigate.
This is the reveal trailer from Paris Games Week, courtesy of Bungie.
Destiny 2: Who is Osiris?
As with all of Destiny's most interesting lore, Osiris's backstory is mostly buried in the original game's grimoire cards. Here's what you need to know.
Osiris was a prodigious Warlock who fought so viciously in the Battle of Six Fronts - one of the City's earliest and most desperate sieges - that he "appeared to be everywhere at once." Shortly thereafter, the beloved Titan Saint-14 recommended him to the Speaker as Vanguard Commander.
He served ably for a time, and the Speaker even took him as an apprentice. The story of their subsequent estrangement is told in this grimoire card, which is a classic example of Destiny's lore raising far more interesting questions than the game itself ever tackles:
"How much of a Guardian's personality and memories were true? How much had been fabricated by their Ghost? Did Guardians share particular personality traits - a willingness to yield to authority, a tendency to do anything anyone asked for the promise of uncertain reward, a blind knight-errant mentality? Had the Traveler manufactured all of [them] as living weapons?"
These questions - rather than the basic defence of the City - became Osiris's preoccupations. "And then it got worse," says the Speaker, as Osiris chased after Xur and The Nine and delved into the nature of The Darkness. This led to him prophesying the coming of Oryx, and coming "too close to understanding the Vex." As he began to invest resources the City couldn't spare into these divisive and dangerous obsessions, the Speaker felt obliged to intervene.
Osiris was exiled from the Tower along with his followers, who the Speaker describes as a cult of Guardians "who wanted a clear idea of why they were fighting, what they faced, and how they would ultimately win." Seems pretty reasonable to us, whereas the Speaker preferred them to take a lot more on faith.
The Tower doesn't know much of Osiris since his exile, so we don't either. Hopefully though, you now understand a little more about why Destiny fans - especially lore nerds - are excited to finally meet him.
Destiny 2: Curse of Osiris speculation
Finally, a pet theory of mine, with spoilers for Destiny 2's campaign (so don't read on if you haven't finished it yet).
Still with us? Okay. Consider: could Osiris replace the Speaker? Last we saw of the latter, he was motionless on the floor beneath Ghaul's feet, his mask discarded. The implication seems to be that he's dead - though it's not obvious how, it's not like he was shot or stabbed or anything. Anyway, there's no sign of him in the Tower after the campaign.
So the Speaker is gone, and the City needs a philosophical leader to ask questions about the nature of the Darkness and the Light. From the Speaker's own description of his disagreement with Osiris, the rogue Warlock was always more interested in these subjects than in his duties as Vanguard Commander (and indeed, more determined to get answers than the Speaker himself). Who better to don the white robes?
Osiris is clearly a divisive figure, and his succession would ruffle some feathers. But perhaps that's why we're repairing his relationship with Ikora Rey. It would also set the stage for Osiris to be a much more active Speaker than the original - presumably, his voice actor will be easier to book for future expansions than Bill Nighy.
Update, 30 October: after the PC launch, voice lines were datamined suggesting that Osiris will return to the Tower at some point. This theory just got tighter.
