‘Destiny 2’ Reveals Into The Light’s 50 Wave Horde Mode

Bungie has just finished their first of three livestreams for Destiny 2’s Into the Light content, which focuses on Onslaught, which for lack of a better term, is the horde mode that Destiny players have asked for since D1. Or at least the closest thing we’ve seen to one.

We learned a lot in the stream, so here’s the full breakdown of what they went over this week, with again, two more weeks to follow.

• Shaxx is the main NPC for the activity. There is a vendor currency for this called literally “hype.” Unclear if voice actor Lennie James has recorded new lines for this, or if it’s a lot of Crucible-type shouting already recorded.
• You defend a central point on the map called an ADU. In higher difficulties it moves locations. There are set spawn points for defenses that include tripwires, turrets and decoys that are upgraded with scrap you earn after killing enemies. Scrap is farmed as a team but you can spend it individually from your own wallet.
• This is a wave-based horde mode that has 10 waves in an easier playlist version, then 50 waves for two harder modes. Difficulty escalates over time, and will include things like shielded enemies and champions. There are both Fallen and Hive factions. A Tormentor showed up at one point.

• The map shown here is a pyramid-ed version of Midtown, the Crucible map. But there are also segments inside Pyramid ships including “running a spark” segments and actual boss fights, with “augmented” arenas that shed immunity faces for new mechanics.
• During waves there are optional objectives like clearing fast or shooting Pyramid shards to get rewards like heavy ammo crates.
• The stream about reward weapons is next week, but we saw Midnight Coup being used, and a new version of Hung Jury drops. The key art suggests Blast Furnace will return. Eververse data says Hammerhead and Recluse are likely too as well.

This looks…quite good, and possibly what a lot of players have wanted for literal years. We got about 40+ minutes of straight gameplay and it looked chaotic, fun and possibly better than the 30th Anniversary Pack’s Dares of Eternity, which was pretty well-regarded itself. We still have two more streams of information to get through, and rewards are obviously important, though I have to say I’m certainly curious about what the third stream will be after that.

This seems to be extremely promising, even as a somewhat jaded player as of late. This will start on April 9 and run through The Final Shape. After that, it’s not clear if it will go away or stick around indefinitely like Dares of Eternity. And yes, it’s free for everyone. My guess is that it sticks.

So, two more weeks of streams, but that was a solid debut. Looking forward to learning more about Onslaught past this.

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