August 23 was a date to remember for Destiny 2 fans thanks to the showcase Bungie held live on Twitch and other platforms, with the company finally revealing what it has been working on. The Lightfall expansion was one of the biggest highlights for the community due to it being the penultimate chapter in Destiny 2's Light and Darkness saga, which will come to an end sometime in 2024 with the release of The Final Shape. Lightfall focuses on the conflict that Calus and The Witness are starting with a hidden city on Neptune, where the bionically-enhanced Cloud Striders strive to protect humanity from a second Collapse.
In Neomuna, players will learn how to use the powers of Strand, an entirely new Darkness subclass that is all about movement. Strand has interesting connections with Death Stranding in how players use traversal abilities over combat abilities to achieve their goal, and that's something Destiny 2 players don't see often with the way subclasses are currently built. Still, Strand is a compelling addition to the game when it comes to exploration and freedom of movement, especially seeing how Bungie confirmed that the new grappling hook ability works everywhere and at any time, but that is not enough for this element to be effective in Destiny 2.
Why Destiny 2's Strand Needs More Than Just Traversal Abilities
Destiny 2 is quite a complex game when it comes to activities and how players can complete them, as many pieces of content in the game can actually be completed easily even solo or with a small, dedicated team. Because Strand is predominantly going to be a traversal subclass that puts a lot of emphasis on enhanced motility, players shouldn't expect it to be as good for endgame content as it can be for speedruns or easier activities. Speedruns are frequently a hot topic within the Destiny 2 community because Bungie has been steadily providing more tools to players over time for them to quickly complete most of the game's content in minutes if they know what they're doing.
As such, adding Strand to a game that already has things like sword-skating and Icarus Dash might seem repetitive, but Lightfall's new subclass is going to be an invaluable tool for this side of the game. An example comes from the recently added Duality Dungeon, which players started to complete solo in under 15 minutes with near-perfect runs, something that a subclass dedicated to traversal abilities could make even more cutting-edge compared to previous techniques.
However, this is not something that most Destiny 2 endgame activities can truly benefit from because survivability and damage are the most valuable things one can bring to the table, especially in content like Grandmaster Nightfalls or Raids. In fact, having a build that consistently can stay alive throughout the various encounters and also deal decent damage to bosses is the best thing one can have when tackling hard content, be it solo or with a full team.
Because of this, it's possible that if Strand takes its movement-related capabilities to another level, it could leave something more important behind, thus becoming a great subclass for some niche parts of Destiny 2 rather than the game as a whole. Endgame builds in Destiny 2 often treasure a good combination of offense and defense to make the most out of every situation one might find themselves in, particularly so when Champions or tough bosses are involved. In theory, Lightfall's Strand looks like one of the most compelling subclasses in the game, but at this point, it's hard to judge whether it will also be worth its weight in gold or not.
Destiny 2 is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
