At the time and still true today, Cayde-6 was a fan-favorite character in the Destiny 2 community, known for taking daring risks, providing comic relief, as well as having a love for pet chickens and spicy ramen. Killing Cayde-6 off in the old Forsaken expansion was a wild twist for the ongoing story of Destiny 2, yet the character was never properly honored afterward. Cayde-6's death in the Forsaken expansion happened in 2018 and is finally getting closure 5 years later thanks to the new Lightfall expansion.
Giving the character an updated memorial in Destiny 2's Tower social space has been a well-received addition to the game, though more needs to be done before the character can be properly honored. Despite the majority of the content that features the beloved character having been sent away to Destiny 2's Content Vault, there are still fragments of the character that linger throughout some of the older activities still available in the game.
New Cayde-6 Memorial and Updated Strikes in Destiny 2
The new Cayde-6 memorial in the Tower social space is near the Ironwood Tree where players can meditate to increase Guardian Ranks in Destiny 2. The Cayde-6 memorial includes a plaque that previously served as the character's memorial in the Tower, as well as a new sculpture that depicts his likeness. Different from the previous plaque memorial, players can now interact with it to hear other Destiny 2 characters mourning and reminiscing about the beloved Hunter.
Cayde-6 stayed in the game long after his death, voicing guidance and exposition to players throughout a few of the Strike activities in Destiny 2. Since the Forsaken expansion ended up retiring to the Destiny 2 Content Vault, and especially after the New Light update changed the onboarding experience for new players, Cayde-6's existence in the game can be highly confusing for new players to comprehend.
Even for longtime players, it's just a very awkward point in Destiny 2's long history at the moment. Nowadays, Cayde-6's death and existence have very little presence in the game's story, except for the memorial at Tower. Before too long, the memorial will be all that is left of Cayde, and as sad as that may be, it's been long overdue.
Some of the old Strikes that featured Cayde-6 have finally been reworked alongside the release of the Lightfall expansion, while the rest of the Strikes that feature Cayde-6 are getting updates in the near future. Removing the late Cayde-6 from the relevant Strikes wasn't the only change, with these Strikes receiving plenty of modified encounters that were geared toward making the activities last longer. The updates to the old Strikes align with the game's new model for earning Destiny 2 Vanguard rewards, which aims to emphasize longer time commitments instead of hasty completions.
The post-game rewards from the Strike playlist are no longer about opening the final chest as soon as possible. The few Strikes that received updates alongside the release of the Lightfall expansion are the Lake of Shadows, and the Arms Dealer, both located on Earth. These two Strikes were adjusted to increase their length and Cayde-6's presence was removed from the activities entirely.
The remaining Strikes that still currently include Cayde-6 are located on Nessus, and the older Strikes on this planet will receive similar updates to the likes of the reworked Earth Strikes. While the outdated Nessus Strikes await updates, their frequency has been reduced in the standard Vanguard playlist that features all the available Strikes in Destiny 2. The old Nessus Strikes can still be played by going directly to them on the Nessus map in the directory.
Destiny 2 is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
