Highlights

  • Destiny 2's The Final Shape expansion serves as an epic conclusion to the Light and Darkness Saga, and its campaign has a Legendary mode for those seeking a challenge.
  • Legendary mode amps up the difficulty and rewards, providing an engaging and gratifying experience.
  • Episodes should introduce their own Legendary mode to offer more rewarding gameplay within their missions.

Destiny 2's highly anticipated expansion, The Final Shape, has arrived, complete with a climactic campaign that serves as the conclusion to the franchise's decade-long Light and Darkness Saga. The main story for The Final Shape is full of secrets, surprises, and encounters with old friends and enemies, as players navigate the nostalgia-inducing Pale Heart location and even get to witness the revival of Cayde-6, whose return was regularly teased in the months leading up to the release of the expansion. Ahead of The Final Shape's main story are Destiny 2's new episodes, which will take players through even more story arcs, much like the game's former seasons did.

As they could with the Witch Queen and Lightfall expansions, players have the option to play through The Final Shape's campaign on Legendary mode, which beefs up enemy encounters for much more challenging gameplay. Once again, Destiny 2's Legendary campaign difficulty delivers in The Final Shape, offering an altogether more rewarding experience than what Normal difficulty can provide. However, Destiny 2 shouldn't stop there. Instead, the longstanding MMO's upcoming changes might be a great opportunity for it to continue implementing its popular Legendary mode into other activities, rather than waiting for the next expansion (or the next sequel).

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Destiny 2: The Final Shape's Pale Heart Should Serve as a Blueprint for Future Locations

Destiny 2: The Final Shape's Pale Heart is one of the game's most distinct locations yet, and there is little reason it shouldn't set a new standard.

Destiny 2's Legendary Mode Shouldn't Stop With The Final Shape's Campaign

Destiny 2's Legendary Mode Is Rewarding in More Than One Way

Despite requiring a fair bit of patience and skill, Destiny 2's Legendary campaign difficulty is a highly rewarding experience. Firstly, players can usually obtain better rewards throughout a Legendary campaign and almost always better rewards once they've completed it. Usually, these rewards consist of Exotic gear, full high-powered armor sets, and upgrade materials, so they can prove worth the effort in the end. However, the most meaningful reward isn't material at all.

While it could be considered a matter of perspective, the most rewarding part of playing one of Destiny 2's campaigns on Legendary difficulty is the satisfaction of having overcome a formidable challenge. For example, playing through The Final Shape's campaign on Legendary mode is no easy task, but it only serves to enhance the sense of urgency that comes with stopping the Witness before they bring an end to everything and the feeling of accomplishment that comes from succeeding in doing so. It is this, along with the gear and materials that are rewarded to the bravest players, that proves the need for Destiny 2 to incorporate a Legendary difficulty option in more than just its future campaigns.

Destiny 2's Episodes Should Include a Legendary Mode Option

As Destiny 2's Final Shape expansion heads into the second week of its release, a brand-new form of story content called "episodes" will begin, with each of the three currently announced episodes lasting around eighteen weeks. It's not yet known what Destiny 2's episodes will look like in terms of storytelling, but if they end up being similar to a normal Destiny 2 campaign, it might be the perfect opportunity for them to include a Legendary difficulty option with a reward structure similar to the game's Legendary campaigns. This would give players even more time with the celebrated mode without requiring them to wait until Destiny 2's next major content drop.

There are plenty of ways to increase the difficulty of Destiny 2's normal activities, like Strikes and Lost Sectors. However, these hit a bit differently on higher difficulties than a full campaign does, serving only to increase the chances of obtaining better gear and items rather than to provide an overall more challenging story-driven experience with rewards waiting at the end. This is why Destiny 2's upcoming episodes would be much more effective as primarily storytelling content than the seasonal content the game has seen in the past. There, Destiny 2's popular Legendary mode might find a suitable home.