Destiny

### Game Mode(s)

Online Only: Campaigns, Crucible multiplayer, Strikes, Raids, Social spaces, Arena, Patrol across destinations

## Production Information

### Publisher(s)

* Activision (2014–2018)
* Bungie (2019-Present)

### Programmer(s)

Lars BakkenDel Chafe IIILiz M.E. ChungTyson GreenKen MalcolmSage MerrillChristopher OpdahlAlex PfeifferLuke SmithJames TsaChris ButcherBen WallaceZach Russell

### Writer(s)

Clay Carmouche, Seth Dickinson, Jonathan Goff, Robt McLees, Dave Mongan, Joshua Rubin, Lily Yu, Lucy Prebble, Felix Gilman

### Composer(s)

Paul McCartney, Michael Salvatori, C Paul Johnson, Martin O'Donnell

*(Note: This page provides brief information on Destiny, Bungie's new game universe. For comprehensive information, visit our affiliated Wiki here on Wikia.com at Destiny Wiki)*

***Destiny*** is an open-world role-playing first-person shooter video game developed by Bungie that was previously published by Activision and is now self-published by Bungie. It is the first game within the Destiny series that was originally part of the ten-year agreement between Bungie and Activision before their separation in 2019. *Destiny* was released worldwide for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One consoles on September 9, 2014, apart from Japan where it was released on the September 11.

## Gameplay

Activities are divided within the game between Player vs. Environment (PvE) and Player vs. Player (PvP) game modes. PvE features story missions from campaigns, three-player story missions called "Strikes," and six-player story missions called "Raids." Players can travel to various destinations around the Solar System and enter free roam mode, allowing players to discover locations and face-off with enemies around the destination and with planet-specific events called "Public Events. PvP features objective-based modes and traditional Player vs. Player modes.

Additionally, players can travel to certain "social spaces" within the game where the can interact with other players and other non-player characters (NPCs) non-combatively. The Tower is the main social space for players to collect objectives, unlock and/orlocate lost rewards they earned from various actives, purchase microtransactions, and store weapons, armor, and more. Other social spaces with similar features are the the Reef, the Lighthouse, and the Iron Temple. Aside from the Tower, each of these social spaces requires the purchase an an expansion to visit.

## Synopsis

*Certain elements copied from Destiny Wiki and DestinyPedia*

> *The stories tell of a golden age long ago, when our civilization spanned the system. It was a bright and hopeful time. But it didn't last.*
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> *Something hit us. Knocked us down and tried to stamp us out. No one knows exactly what, but we do know this: very few of us survived, and those that did owe their lives to The Traveler.*
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> *Legends say The Traveler sacrificed itself to save us. The mysterious sphere still hangs where it made its last stand, low above the Earth, keeping silent watch.*
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> *The years that followed the collapse of the golden age were hard, but slowly we joined together to build a city beneath The Traveler. And now we've begun to venture back into the wild, only to find that we're not alone. Strange and deadly creatures have occupied our old worlds. And they're pressing hard against The City, probing for a weakness, trying to stamp us out for good.*
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> *Your story begins at this moment of great adventure and peril. You are a Guardian of The City; a soldier able to wield some of The Traveler's incredible power. If you can find a way to save The City -- to reclaim all that we have lost -- you will become legend. If you fail, the last light of civilization will go out.*
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> ― Reveal Trailer - Official Destiny ViDoc: Pathways Out of Darkness
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#### Setting

*Destiny* is set in the distant future in a post-apocalyptic setting. Humans had spread and colonized the Solar System with the help of a spherical entity known simply as "the Traveler" who reshaped planets and moons, and taught humanity new technologies and mystical powers that led to a time later called the Golden Age. An event known as "The Collapse", an attack from the Darkness, an unknown faction or entity, saw the dissolution of these colonies and left mankind on the brink of extinction. The only known survivors of the Collapse are those living on Earth, who were saved by the Traveler. The Traveler hovers above the last remaining human city as a large spherical body, and its presence gives the Guardians of the City—the last defenders of the human race—the ability to wield an unknown power.

Upon mankind's first attempt to repopulate and reconstruct after the Collapse, it was discovered that hostile alien races have occupied mankind's former colonies and civilizations. The player takes on the role of a Guardian of the City, and is tasked with investigating and destroying these threats before the remnants of humanity are completely wiped out.

#### Plot

Centuries after the Collapse, a stray hovering robot known as a Ghost wanders through the ruins outside the Cosmodrome in Russia, searching for something. It finds the player's character among the ancient remains, and revives them, calling them a Guardian. Ghost leads the player out of the Cosmodrome and back to The Last City of humanity after finding a ship, and introduces the player to the people of the Tower. The Guardian returns to the Cosmodrome to explore; after slaying an Archon of the House of Devils that game from an enemy race called the Fallen, the player gains an audience with the Speaker, the person who is in charge of the safety of humanity who claims to hear the Traveler speak, who confides in them that the Darkness is returning, and that the player must help protect the City any way they can.

The player makes two important discoveries while in the Cosmodrome; the first is that an undead alien race known as the Hive, who had slain countless Guardians after they were beaten back to the Moon, have returned to Earth to prepare for an invasion. The second is that Rasputin, a Golden Age defense A.I. network in charge of protecting humanity from exterrestrial threats, has survived the Collapse, and has restored contact with the rest of the solar system. The player travels to the Moon to investigate the Hive threat; they receive an urgent message that the Hive are attempting to drain the Traveler of its Light, and that they must be stopped at all costs. However, they also run into a mysterious person known as "the Stranger," who tells them to meet her on Venus to stop another rising threat.

After stopping the Hive ritual, the player travels to Venus and discovers the Vex, a machine race bent on dominating reality itself. The Stranger tells the player that the only way to stop the Vex and save the Traveler is to enter a location known as the Black Garden and destroy its heart. The Black Garden is a realm isolated from space and time and often described as the birthplace of the Vex. The player seeks counsel with the Awoken, a humanoid group of people who tried to escape Earth that disappeared in a spacetime anomaly during the Collapse. Queen Mara Sov tells them that the only way into the Garden is to retrieve the eye of a Vex Gate Lord, a huge Vex in charge of guarding a Vex gate for the Vex to travel through time. They assume it to be a suicide mission, but the player returns with the eye. The Queen tells the player that they now owe her a favor in return for her information.

The entrance to the Black Garden, located on Mars, lies behind thick Cabal defenses. The Cabal are a warmongering race of giant bipedal humanoids with a heavy-set, rhinoceros-like appearance. After successfully restoring the Gate Lord's eye using dormant Vex technology, the player enters the Black Garden. At its center is the Black Heart, an abomination whom the Vex worship and seek to use to bend reality to their will. The Guardian kills its protectors, destroying the Heart and freeing the Black Garden from Vex control. Light begins returning to the Traveler. But to finish off the Vex threat, the player must enter the Vault of Glass, the source of the Vex's reality-altering powers, and kill its leader, Atheon.

## Expansions

### The Dark Below

*The Dark Below* is a downloadable content (DLC) expansion pack for Destiny. It became available on December 9, 2014 for $19.99. The expansion is included in certain editions of *Destiny: The Taken King* and *Destiny: The Collection* and can no longer be purchased separately.

> **Synopsis**
> After the destruction of the Black Garden's heart, Eris Morn lands in the Tower. As a former Guardian, Eris warns the Tower of the return of Crota, a Hive prince that is worshiped as a god. Eris is the only survivor of a failed raid to kill him. She requests the Guardian to purge some the Hive on Earth by killing the Fist of Crota. Although killing the Fist of Crota did stop some Hive, the remaining Hive attempt to take over Rasputin. The siege is led by Omnigul the Will of Crota and the Might of Crota. After killing the Might of Crota, the Guardian hunts down Omnigul. Eris then sees the Guardian as ready to stop the Hive on the Moon from resurrecting Crota. The Guardian seeks out the Soul of Crota and destroys it along with the Hive Wizards trying to resurrect it. After eliminating Crota's generals, the player finishes off Crota himself in his netherworld, the Oversoul Throne, deep within the Hellmouth.
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### House of Wolves

*House of Wolves* is a downloadable content (DLC) expansion pack for Destiny that was released on May 19, 2015. The expansion is included in certain editions of *Destiny: The Taken King* and *Destiny: The Collection* and can no longer be purchased separately.

> **Synopsis**
> The Reef is embroiled in civil war as the House of Wolves, a Fallen house whom Queen Mara Sov had conquered, are now in open rebellion. Their leader, Skolas, has declared himself the Kell of Kells and wishes to unite the Fallen under his banner. The Queen has summoned the Guardians to aid her in ending the rebellion, in return for the Reef's treasures. The player is aided by Petra Venj and Variks, The Loyal, with whom they search for Skolas and put a stop to his plans. After failing to seize control of the House of Devils and House of Kings, Skolas instead attempts to seize control of the Vault of Glass and the Vex technology within. The player finally captures him atop the Citadel, stopping him from summoning his entire House through the Vex's time portals. Skolas is sent back to the Prison of Elders, where he's finished off once and for all.
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### The Taken King

The Taken King is a downloadable content (DLC) expansion pack for Destiny. It was released on September 15, 2015 for $50. The *Dark Below* and *House of Wolves* are required to play. The expansion was the first major expansion of the *Destiny* series, being introduced at E3 2015.

> **Synopsis**
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> Oryx, the father of Crota, has sent his Hive fleet to avenge his fallen son whom we killed. Using his terrible power, Oryx creates a new army called the Taken made up of Fallen, Hive, and Crota races, and lays siege to the entire solar system. The Awoken fleet attempt to stop him before he can enter the Inner System, but they are utterly destroyed. He then starts Taking the Cabal stationed on Phobos, which catches the Vanguard's attention. Responding to a distress signal, the player is sent to investigate. Upon seeing the devastation, the player is confronted by a vision of Oryx, who tells the player that he is there to pay back humanity for his son's death. Realizing the threat that laid before them, Cayde-6 crafts a plan with the player to sneak aboard Oryx's Dreadnaught. Though they are successful, they cannot enter Oryx's inner sanctum until the player becomes Ascendant; Eris helps the player recover the last fragments of Crota's Soul, allowing entry into Oryx's chambers, where they duel.
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> Though Oryx's physical form was defeated, he retreated even further into the ship, recovering his strength. Meanwhile, the Guardians work towards pushing the Taken out of the system. Once Oryx's lieutenants, the Court of Oryx, have been defeated, the Guardians push deeper into the Dreadnaught to seek out Oryx within his Ascendant realm. There, he confronted the Guardians with his full might, even pulling them into a Darkness dimension. But in the end, using Light stolen from his pawns, Oryx was slain permanently.
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### Rise of Iron

Rise of Iron is a downloadable content (DLC) expansion pack for Destiny. It was released on September 20, 2016, for $29.99 USD. It is the first *Destiny* DLC not available on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

> **Synopsis**
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> Long ago before the story of the player began, the Iron Lords sacrificed themselves to contain SIVA, a non-technological plague, within a locked vault. The Fallen House of Devils, while looting ancient tombs from the Golden Age, accidentally unearthed the plague and used it to augment themselves and become more powerful, collapsing the Wall in the Cosmodrome. Lord Saladin, the last of the Iron Lords, rallies the Guardians to fight against and contain the re-emerged threat and become the next generation of Iron Lords to guard the Last City.
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> **ARG**
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> Prior to launch, an alternate reality game called "Owl Sector" began in and out of the game.
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## Development

Around the end of *Halo 3's* development in 2007, Bungie cofounder Jason Jones returned from a sabbatical, and he, Jaime Griesemer, and a small team of engineers and artists began working Codename *Tiger*, which would eventually become ***Destiny***.

At the time, Bungie wanted to create something different from ***Halo*** and focused more on fantasy, creating designs for knights, swords, and sorcery with a white city on a hill. However, a lot of employees had joined Bungie to work on Halo and science fiction games, so they ended up combining the two genres together.

On May 8, 2006, then Bungie-president Harold Ryan and composer Marty O'Donnell formed a company together called Podophobia Entertainment, Inc., to seemingly trademark "Destiny," a logo, with a description that read, "Computer game software; Computer game software downloadable from a global computer network; Video game software; Virtual reality game software." This was discovered in May 2011 after a disgruntled ex-employee at the time said that they were working on a game called "Destiny."

On April 29, 2010, Bungie announced that it would be entering into a ten-year publishing deal with Activision-Blizzard for Bungie's next action game series (***Destiny***), under which Bungie would own the IP and retain control of the game development cycle while Activision would have a 10-year license to publish all video games created around that franchise on multiple platforms. Bungie said that Jason Jones had already begun laying the groundwork for the new game with a core team.

Sometime in 2011, Marty O'Donnell began working on the score for *Destiny*, deciding that he and Michael Salvatori would compose the score for the entire franchise at once. To begin, they would create a prequel soundtrack entitled "Music of the Spheres" that would be released shortly before *Destiny's* release. During development, they were assisted by Sir Paul McCartney who created a song specifically for *Destiny* entitled, "Hope for the Future."

On February 11, 2013, Bungie announced their newest game, ***Destiny*** through a video documentary and reveal trailer entitled *Pathways Out of Darkness.* An alternate reality game (ARG) began the same day on Bungie.net. An Alpha Lupa forum account released cryptic images and messages over the next seven days that the community could solve prior to February 17 where more information would be released. Once solved, users could download an MP3 track by O'Donnell and a completed image of the solved puzzle. Based on images of the ARG and Music of the Spheres, it's hypothesized that this was an ARG for that prequel soundtrack rather than for *Destiny* itself.

At E3 2013, an official trailer for *Destiny* was shown off at Sony's Press Conference.

During development, Joseph Staten and his team were tasked with writing the game's story. In July 2013, a two-hour "supercut" of the complete story was put together for Bungie's leadership, comprising cinematics and major story elements. They reacted negatively, saying that it was too campy and linear, and completely scrapped the story to be rebuilt. Jason Jones created an "Iron Bar of meetings sometimes in August, where he and other creators such as Christopher Barrett and Luke Smith created a new plot, overhauling the story to be less linear and stitching together pieces of encounters that had already been created. The way destinations and enemies were introduced completely changed, some characters were overhauled, and most of the dialogue had to be rewritten. In order to make Destiny more open-world, the "Director" was created to allow players non-linear access to destinations. A lot of Staten's backstory was repurposed into lore called "Grimoire."

As a result of the game's revisions, the game's release date was pushed by from September 2013 to March 2014, and then again to September 2014.

At E3 2014 in June 2014 at Sony's Press Conference, a new *Destiny* trailer was shown off, announcing the September 9, 2014 launch date. Another trailer was created where Jason Jones gave a thorough breakdown of what to expect in Destiny, and announcing that a public beta would take place take place beginning July 17. After E3, a Destiny First Look Alpha took place for limited public availability from June 12-15.

Production The Taken King started in late 2013. It was originally planned to release for $60, and include access to Europa and the European Dead Zone. Additional fireteam activities were planned. Development was rebooted in March 2014, to focus on the Hive Dreadnaught. A public space on Mars was also planned, but was cut.

The trademark for *Rise of Iron* was registered on May 31, 2016.

The existence of *Rise of Iron* was revealed in a leaked photograph of a promotional poster for the expansion. The poster showed Lord Saladin, the Tower envoy for the Iron Banner, surrounded by wolves and holding a fiery battleaxe before a breach in the Cosmodrome's wall. Prior to this, Activision had stated that Bungie was at work on a "new large expansion" for *Destiny* that would be delivered by the end of 2016, but provided no further details. *Rise of Iron* was the last major content update for *Destiny* before the 2017 release of its sequel, *Destiny 2*.

The expansion's art direction was based entirely on Saladin himself. It also used *Game of Thrones* as an inspiration for its character dynamic. The same dog that provided motion-capture for Ghost was used in the game's development. It was intended that the expansion present the *Destiny* universe as a living place, hence the return to Old Russia, showing the detritus of earlier battles.

*Rise of Iron* is the first *Destiny* expansion to not be released on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3; it is only available on Xbox One and PlayStation 4. Players can transfer their characters to the newer generation of consoles, but will not be able to transfer their characters to the previous generation, as *Rise of Iron* content will be incompatible. Updates and hotfixes for *Destiny* on previous-generation consoles have also been discontinued.

## Trivia

* *Destiny* was teased in Bungie's 2009 video game *Halo 3: ODST*, over three years before *Destiny's* official announcement.

* Initially, Activision Blizzard CEO Robert Kotick suggested that the total investment in Destiny would be around $500 million. Bungie's COO Pete Parsons clarified that the game's development cost is not even close to $500 million, saying, "For marketing you'd have to ask Activision people, but for development costs, not anything close to $500 million." Activision subsequently confirmed the $500 million figure, stating that marketing, up-front infrastructure costs, and investment in the game's engine were included, and could be amortized over the life of the IP.
* As of August 12, 2014, *Destiny* has set a video game industry record as the most pre-ordered new franchise.

* The trademark for the The Dark Below was filed in 2013. Activision had Blizzard Entertainment file the trademark, which led to some confusion as to whether the expansion was related to *World of Warcraft*.
* When *The Dark Below* was released, *Destiny* was updated to give all players access to new weapons and armor, and new Daily Bounties.
* *The Dark Below* was rebooted a few months before release. The expansion's "crunch period" occurred over a period of nine weeks.
* *House of Wolves* is the only expansion in *Destiny* to not include a Raid.
* *House of Wolves* is the first DLC to have the Fallen to be the main antagonists.
* *House of Wolves* was the first DLC to have the Arena mode in the series of the game.
* *The Taken King* was called "Comet: Plague of Darkness" during an early stage of its development.
* *The Taken King* is the last expansion to be available on legacy consoles.
* It is also the second expansion to focus on the Hive, the first being The Dark Below.
* After the release of *The Taken King*, all PlayStation timed-exclusives in *The Dark Below* and *House of Wolves* were made available to all other platforms. Additionally, all Crucible maps pertaining to this expansion were made available to all players, including those who did not own it.
* *Rise of Iron* is the first expansion not to be available on legacy consoles (Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3)
* *Rise of Iron* is the second expansion to focus on the Fallen.
* At the launch of *Destiny*, players were able to share progression between consoles in the same family (PlayStation 3 with PlayStation 4 and Xbox 360 with Xbox One). Beginning in August 2016, progression in previous-generation consoles occurs separately from current-generation consoles.

## External Links

* Destiny Wiki - The Wiki for Bungie's Destiny
* DestinyPedia
* Bungie news article announcing game title

## Resources

1. ↑ Bungie.net - Our Destiny (January 10, 2019)
2. ↑ YouTube.come - Reveal Trailer - Official Destiny ViDoc: Pathways Out of Darkness (February 17, 2013)
3. ↑ YouTube - Official Destiny: The Taken King E3 Reveal Trailer
4. ↑ Polygon - Destiny's next expansion is The Taken King, launching Sept. 15 (June 15, 2015)
5. ↑ Vice.com - The Complete Untold Story of Halo (March 2018)
6. ↑ IGN - How Halo Got The Star Wars Treatment (November 1, 2013)
7. ↑ OpenCorporates - Photophobia Entertainment, Inc. (Deleware)
8. ↑ OpenCorporates - Photophobia Entertainment, Inc. (Washington)
9. ↑ Halo.Bungie.Org - New discovery support old rumor (May 29, 2011)
10. ↑ GameRant - Trademark Confirms Bungie's Next Game Is Titled 'Destiny'
11. ↑ Kotaku - 'Destiny' The Next Game From Halo Creators, Says Source (February 17, 2011)
12. ↑ Wired.com - Bungie, Activision Sign 10-Year Publishing Deal (April 29, 2010)
13. ↑ G4tv.com - Industry Shocker: Halo Developer Bungie Studios Signs Deal with Activision (April 29, 2010)
14. ↑ Bungie.net (via Archive.org) - Non Facete Nobis Calcitrare Vestrum Perinæum (April 29, 2010)
15. ↑ Kotaku - How Halo and Destiny's Composer Got Fired From Bungie (September 7, 2015)
16. ↑ Destinypedia - Music of the Spheres
17. ↑ YouTube.com - Reveal Trailer - Official Destiny ViDoc: Pathways Out of Darkness
18. ↑ Bungie.net - Follow Your Destiny
19. ↑ Destinypedia - Alpha Lupi
20. ↑ YouTube - The Game Station: Destiny - Official E3 Trailer
21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 Kotaku - The Messy, True Story Behind the Making of Destiny (October 20, 2015)
22. ↑ GameSpot - Destiny's Story Was 'Substantially Revised' Before Release (September 7, 2015)
23. ↑ Youtube.com - GameSpot: Destiny - E3 2014 Trailer at Sony Press Conference (June 9, 2014)
24. ↑ YouTube.com - IGN: Destiny - E3 Gameplay Experience Trailer - E3 2014 (July 9, 2014)
25. ↑ Destiny Wiki - Destiny First Look Alpha
26. ↑ CinemaBlend - Destiny PS4 Alpha Test Launches Today, Everyone Will Get Invites (June 14, 2014)
27. ↑ 27.0 27.1 Kotaku - The Messy, True Story Behind the Making of Destiny (October 20, 2015)
28. ↑ IGN - Rumored Destiny Expansion: Bungie Trademarks "Rise of Iron" (June 5, 2016)
29. ↑ Game Informer - Destiny's Next Expansion May Be Called Rise of Iron (May 19, 2016)
30. ↑ Game Informer - 'Large New' Destiny Expansion in 2016, Full Sequel in 2017 (February 11, 2016)
31. ↑ Game Informer - Gamescom 2016: Game of Thrones Heavily Influenced Destiny's New Expansion (August 18, 2016)
32. ↑ Halo 3: ODST
33. ↑ technobuffalo - Bungie Says Destiny Cost Nowhere Near $500 Million, Decade Long Story Planned (July 1, 2014)
34. ↑ GameSpot - Activision investing $500 million for Bungie's Destiny (May 6, 2014)
35. ↑ TechTimes - Bungie's Destiny is the most pre-ordered new IP in video game history: Could unseat Call of Duty? (August 13, 2014)
36. ↑ GameInformer - Destiny's The Dark Below Expansion Was Almost Uncovered in 2013 (August 16, 2014)
37. ↑ Wow Insider (via Archive.org) - The Dark Below is real (July 7, 2014)
38. ↑ IGN - Alleged Destiny Leak Reveals Possible 2015 Expansion Plans (January 5, 2015)
39. ↑ Bungie.net - This Week at Bungie (June 9, 2016)