Bungie has released a new trailer for Destiny 2's "Ash and Iron" update, sparking excitement with the reveal of new activities, weapons, exotics, and a significant expansion of the Plaguelands area. The update promises fresh gameplay content, improvements to progression systems, enhancements to the portal, and is set to be free for all players.

Trailer Reveal and Initial Impressions

• Bungie surprised the community by releasing the "Ash and Iron" trailer earlier than expected, breaking a recent trend of limited marketing.

• The trailer highlights the Plaguelands reclaim activity, new weapons, armor sets, and exotics.

• The reveal has generated renewed excitement, with many noting the quality of the trailer and the sense of anticipation it brings.

• Bungie’s approach this time feels more engaging, with a focus on building hype for the upcoming content.

Plaguelands Expansion

• The Plaguelands zone will include multiple distinct "bubbles" or areas, suggesting a large and varied activity space rather than a single, small seasonal zone.

• Several classic areas from Destiny 1’s Plaguelands are shown, now updated with new visuals and enemy factions, including Cabal and Vex, influenced by the Conductor.

• The environment features dormant SIVA elements and Warmind-themed loot, blending old and new design elements.

• The zone is not fully explorable in the traditional sense, but its scale and structure are compared to the Nether from Episode Heresy, indicating a substantial activity area.

New Activities and Loot

• The "Reclaim" activity is central to Ash and Iron, set within the expanded Plaguelands.

• Players will secure Golden Age salvage and defend Earth, as described in Bungie’s flavor text.

• New legendary weapons and exotics are introduced, including both kinetic and heavy slot options. Some may be available through the season pass or exotic missions.

• The trailer showcases a variety of new weapons, such as a rocket pulse rifle, a rocket launcher, and a shotgun with SIVA-inspired visuals.

• Thematic armor sets, possibly new variants of techsec gear, are also featured.

Dungeon Layers and Exotic Mission

• "Dungeon layers" will remix encounters from previous dungeons, including Warlord's Ruin, Pit of Heresy, and Duality, offering new challenges and rewards.

• The trailer previews a new exotic mission called "Warsat Heist," likely involving infiltration of bunkers beneath the Plaguelands and the use of Cabal buffs, such as orb shields.

• The mission features Warmind architecture and blue geometric designs, tying into the new legendary weapons’ aesthetics.

• At least three dungeons will contribute encounters to the dungeon layers, expanding endgame content.

Event and Additional Content

• The "Compete and Collect" Call to Arms event will launch alongside Ash and Iron, serving as a key part of the update’s rollout.

• The event will showcase weapons like the Midas Mini-Tool, Sturm, and Drang, with previews of upcoming changes to these exotics and their paired legendary weapons.

• New portal rewards and event activities will take place in the Plaguelands, adding more variety to the zone.

• Additional weapons teased include an exotic SMG with a Warmind theme, a shotgun, and a crossbow strung with metal cables, likely an exotic weapon.

• The event will also feature gameplay clips of these new weapons in action, including against Vex enemies in different Plaguelands areas.

Gameplay Features and Accessibility

• Mechanics from previous content, such as piloting a brig from Heavy Metal, will be integrated into new PvE activities.

• A relic weapon, possibly inspired by Young Wolf’s Howl, is shown and may be available as a temporary pickup during activities.

• The update will be free to play and does not require ownership of Edge of Fate, making it accessible to all players.

• The scale of the Plaguelands activity appears significant, alleviating concerns that it would be a small, limited zone.

Community Engagement

• Viewers are encouraged to share their impressions and feedback to support the channel.

• The creator promises ongoing updates and coverage of new content as it becomes available.

• The overall tone is optimistic, with hope that the new content will improve the Destiny 2 experience and offer more for players to enjoy.

Destiny 2 Ash and Iron Update Overview

Well, I was getting myself ready for a twid today, and of course that may still be a thing, depending on the details, but Bungie actually went ahead and dropped the hype today. And that comes in the form of a trailer for Ash and Iron. Kind of caught me off guard to be honest, because Bungie haven't been doing as much sort of hype marketing in recent times, but... Today we get some for the Plaguelands. So we see some of the Plaguelands reclaim activity, as well as some new weapons, armor and exotics.

Plus Bungie teased the upcoming exotic mission and even some of the dungeon layer content that we're going to get in Pinnacle Ops. So it's nice to feel excited, I suppose. Aside from D2's other issues at the minute, I'm actually looking forward to Ash and I, and not only because of the new content, but also the promise of adjustments to progression in the game, improvements to the portal and all of that kind of stuff.

So we're going to talk about what Bungie revealed today. If you guys find this video interesting or insightful, then a rating below very much helps us out. But now let's get into it. And we should start by initially checking out the trailer in full. So here it is.

The Conductor's forces are rampant to the Plaguelands. We're sending you in to investigate and take action. Be ready for anything. Do the next assault pull. Make every shot count, Michael.

Stay in the fight. We're almost home. So there we have it, actually a pretty exciting trailer really. Bungie do have a history of making pretty good trailers. This is the first time for a little while that I've actually felt a bit of excitement looking at this and there's quite a lot to unpack here realistically.

So first to give a bit of flavor, Bungie say the Conductor has breached the heart of the Vanguard's power, returned to the Plaguelands, secure powerful Golden Age salvage and defend Earth in the new Reclaim activity available in the Ash and Iron September update. Looking at the trailer itself, I want to talk about Plaguelands initially. One of the things I'm most pleased to see is that we actually spot numerous different bubbles of the Plagueland Zone, which indicates that it's going to be an expansive piece of content in that regard.

Obviously, it doesn't mean we're getting an explorable Plaguelands in the traditional sense, but if anything, this kind of reminds me of the Nether in Episode Heresy. Obviously, we're seeing some of the new activity content there. in the form of the Reclaim activity. And the NPCs kind of reference pushing into a new zone.

And we spot at least two or three of the major Plaguelands areas from Destiny 1 here. So sort of indicates that this will be a large activity with regards to the Explorable Zone. We do see a few different bits of Warmind themed loot here as well. Looking at the SIVA components on the Plaguelands, they appear to be sort of dormant.

Obviously, this zone is now infested by Cabal and Vex as influenced by the Conductor. And there are some visual updates there that represent that too. Very early on in the trailer, we spot a new weapon here, kind of reminds me of one of the rocket pulse rifles. This could potentially be one of the exotics for Ash and Iron, where Bungie have referenced both a kinetic and heavy slot weapon being introduced.

This could be from the season pass or indeed the exotic mission, but it looks pretty cool nonetheless. Give us your thoughts about it. We also see a bunch of legendary weapons that appear to have a similar theme, starting with the rocket launcher right here.

and then the Guardians transmatting into a ship. We see a bunch of armor that appears to be techsec as well, or at least it looks very similar, possibly a new variant of it. Before too long, though, the teaser moves on to dungeon layers, which Bungie have said will be selecting counters from particular dungeons. So we see Warlord's Ruin initially, also the Pit of Heresy and Duality.

There's a shotgun here that reminds me of SIVA stuff a little bit, probably just the color scheme. It does also have a crucible icon on the side, so not necessarily a SIVA weapon. There's a new rocket launcher there as well, which fits into the same set as things like Ahab-Char. This was in one of the trailers for Edge of Fate, but obviously is being released with Ash and Iron instead. So at least three dungeons will feature into the dungeon layers.

And then, a return to the Plaguelands once again for the final part of the trailer to preview the Warsat Heist, a new exotic mission. So probably diving into one of the bunkers beneath the Plaguelands. Looks like we may adopt some of the Cabal's buffs with those sort of orb shields around the players. Loads of Warmind architecture, but also an infusion of all this sort of blue geometry, which is actually reminiscent of some of the legendary weapons, just like the rocket launcher that comes back up on the screen right here.

And then we have Compete and Collect, the Call to Arms event. This is actually going to be an intrinsic part of launching the Ash and Iron update, according to Bungie. And in this section, they show off things like the Midas Minitool, as well as Sturm and Drang, and we had a preview of some of the changes coming up to those exotics and the pairing legendary weapons just yesterday.

And here there are a couple of frames showing off some new weapons. So there's a new SMG, which has a strong Warmind theme to it. We spot the shotgun again here. Obviously, these are going to be new portal rewards and then Sturm and Drangon action against the Vex in yet another bubble of the Plagueland zone. So looks like the event component will also be housed on the Plaguelands.

So there'll be a couple of new activities there by the looks of things. And to finish showing some more gameplay of the SMG, in this very interesting clip of a crossbow, which is actually strung with these kind of metal cables, I'd be willing to bet that that is an exotic weapon. Certainly appears to be a notch above the crossbow that we got from the raid, for instance.

And from the dialogue, suggesting that we'll be carried to some capacity in this event, we actually see a Guardian seemingly jump into a brig mid combat, so that component from Heavy Metal will find its way into other PvE content in this update as well. The very last thing is a relic weapon. I'm assuming it's a relic weapon we can pick up during these activities, and not an actual collectible weapon that we can keep.

If that is the case, then that would be absolutely awesome. But again, I would reiterate, I think Bungie actually have brought the hype with this trailer a little bit. And importantly, also keep in mind that this content is going to be free to play, so You don't have to own Edge of Fate to get the major update, I don't believe.

For the moment though, guys, there we have it. Some new exotics in there, definitely. New weapons.

What appears to be a substantial part of the Plaguelands, my worst kind of nightmare for the Plaguelands, that it would be a small season style activity that only exists in maybe one area. And while I'm not saying it will be explorable, it certainly looks like it's going to be a significant space, perhaps not dissimilar to something like the Nether. Which I think is a relatively exciting prospect. Either way, if you're interested in continuing to play Destiny 2, especially as we move from having solo ops and the current content offering, yeah, things can surely only get better from here. So pretty exciting stuff.

Also, I just realized that that relic weapon is actually reminiscent of Young Wolf's Howl in its sort of animation behavior as well. Given the link between Young Wolf's Howl and the Plague Lands, of course. Who knows, it may indeed be a collectible weapon.

Give me your impressions below guys, but for the moment, if you've enjoyed the video and found it interesting, a rating really does help me out on the channel. Be sure as well to get subscribed and I'll keep you posted with more content, but otherwise, cheers for watching and I hope you guys have an awesome day.

Destiny 2 NEW Ash and Iron TRAILER - Exotic WEAPONS, Warmind Loot, Plaguelands Activity, Exotic Mission, Dungeon Lairs, Call to Arms Event & MORE (Ash & Iron Revealed - Year of Prophecy) EDGE OF FATE NEWS UPDATES!