The latest trailer forDestiny 2: Lightfallwas released at the Game Awards. The expansion, which is scheduled to launch on July 31, 2025, will be the follow-up to the widely praised The Witch Queen DLC and is set to add lots of promising content. The new location in Lightfall is Neptune, and it is featured front and center in this new trailer. It shows off the futuristic neon aesthetic that is a very different direction for the game, as well as the new Strand subclass with grappling abilities and a preview of some of the new guns that players can utilize.
Some of the most striking elements of the trailer were shots of explosive space battles, reminiscent of those fromStar Wars. It showed what appeared to be a grand-scale battle between a fleet of smaller spacecraft and a large enemy ship. There is also a second scene showing a guardian clinging onto the outside of a craft as it appears to be entering warp drive. Up to now, there have been no playable space battles inDestiny 2, and despite what is shown in the trailer, that is likely to remain the case.
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There Should be a Destiny 2 Expansion Dedicated Fully To Space Battles, But It Won’t Be Lightfall
The most obvious indicator that there will be no playable space battles is that both shots appear to be from cutscenes. The first battle is CGI, possibly pre-rendered, much like many of the narrative set-pieces players will have seen throughoutDestiny. The scene is most likely going to be used to set up a story mission, perhaps the ship itself could even be anew location for a mission, Strike, or Raid. The second sequence uses game graphics, but like the first, it is from another cinematic rather than in a player-controlled perspective. At no point does it show anything resembling gameplay in a space battle.
Bungie has never made mention of space battles being part of the game which, if it was to be a new feature, would surely be listed as a headlining aspect of the expansion. Many fans of the game would love to see it added, and it would be one of the most significant changes to the game since it was first released. It would also take vast amounts of work for the developers to add, given that it would require new gameplay systems, a variety of new spacecraft, and possiblydifferent abilities based on theDestinyclasses. There are already so many big changes revealed in this expansion that it’s extremely unlikely space combat could have been added as well.
Should Bungie ever add Space battles in the future, it will likely be the focus of a DLC, but there is nothing to suggest that will be the case. Details of the next expansion afterDestiny 2: Lightfall are beginning to emerge, with the working title reportedly beingDestiny 2: The Final Shape. Perhaps a feature like space combat could be added if aDestiny 3is ever made, or if there is a major overhaul of theDestiny 2engine should Bungie instead decide to take the direction of building on top of the already released content.
As exciting as it would be to see playable space battles added toDestiny 2, realistically, it is not going to be happening anytime soon, if ever.Bungie, which is also working on a new IP, has a roadmap and set plans for the future ofDestiny, and space combat has never seemed to be on the cards in its vision for the game. Instead, it will likely be a narrative device used in cinematics and cutscenes, as shown in the Lightfall trailer. Hopefully, the many other additions will be enough to make up for it.
Destiny 2:Lightfallreleases Jun 27, 2025, on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
