Bungie's August showcase for Destiny 2 proved to be everything fans were hoping for thanks to the reveal of the Lightfall expansion, Season of Plunder, the Fortnite crossover event, and much more. Lightfall's Strand rapidly became a hot topic within the community because of the themes of this whole new Darkness subclass and how it can pan out in terms of actual gameplay, with a focus on traversal abilities and manifesting objects into reality. Another major reveal came in the form of King's Fall being the reprised Raid for Season 18, and while it was the obvious choice for the current state of the game and its narrative, it still surprised fans who expected Wrath of the Machine instead.
In fact, one could argue that Wrath of the Machine was the better Raid for Season 18 between the two simply because of replayability value, which was quite high in Destiny due to the Raid being neither lengthy nor mechanically complex. King's Fall, on the other hand, is a solid pick considering that it has many iconic encounters that were etched deep into the history of the franchise. However, some of them might need to be rebalanced in some capacity ahead of King's Fall debut in Destiny 2, which is a wildly different game from its predecessor.
How Destiny 2 Could Improve King's Fall's Performance
Although it's not the opening encounter for the Raid, the jumping puzzle with Hive ships was one to remember, and especially so for players who went into King's Fall with no previous knowledge of it. A good way to retain this iconic aspect would be removing players' ability to mantle over solid objects in order to make this portion of the Raid more difficult, as Destiny 2 already offers too many tools to speedrun through it via sword skating, Icarus Dash, and more.
The totem encounter is the first proper encounter in King's Fall, but it feels a bit repetitive and too easy, which Bungie could change by making mechanics slightly more difficult and promote team-play via timed buffs and extra enemies. An example could be to impose a longer timer that forces players on the sides to go to the opposite side of the room, rather than back to their totem every time they need to head to the middle section of the area. As for the Warpriest encounter that follows, Bungie could randomize the pillars players stand behind for protection from the boss, and also randomize which player gets the aura after clearing the plates.
Golgoroth is another iconic boss fight that deserves a better set of mechanics when King's Fall comes back to Destiny 2. Here, Bungie could make each Taken sack mandatory for DPS, rather than letting players focus on one with a long-enough timer while skipping the remaining ones, which was often done in Destiny to shorten the encounter and melt the boss. Maybe, the new King's Fall could change the way Golgoroth's gaze works to avoid making it too similar to the Caretaker encounter in Vow of the Disciple, as both mechanics require players to shoot the boss' back to keep it focused on them.
Next up, the Daughters of Oryx encounter could use a facelift by removing randomization for the relic runner to allow anyone to pick up the runner role, which could previously be assigned to the same player twice in a row. It would also be a good idea to reduce the timer between the first sister's death and the damage phase of the second, so that players have to be wary of their moves.
Lastly, players face Oryx, the Taken King. Here, Bungie should allow players to do more damage than originally intended to make the encounter a bit shorter for more replayability, but make ogres more aggressive and spawn faster, possibly also making the Vessel of Oryx harder to take down. As a final, general improvement to the raid, Destiny 2's Champions could also be added to each encounter in Master difficulty, even though the community is not fond of this system.
Destiny 2 is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
