In a tease for what’s to return in Act 2 of Episode: Echoes, Bungie confirmed off some wholly new content material for Future 2. And evidently the second Act of Echoes is bringing some warmth, as new Battlegrounds, weapons, and armor will quickly be accessible to gamers.

Although The Remaining Form left gamers on a excessive, the identical couldn’t be mentioned for the debut Episode. Whereas Episodes have been meant to current a possibility to interrupt away from the drained conventions of Seasons, the primary Act of the premiere Episode, Echoes, felt lots like a Season with extra timegating. Bungie did announce it could experiment with eradicating time-gates in Episode 2, however the studio additionally had new stuff to indicate off for the rest of Echoes in a preview livestream.

Blurring the road between Battlegrounds and Strikes

Bungie introduced that three new Battlegrounds have been inbound for Act 2 of Episode: Echoes. Most fascinating of all, the studio is breaking away from Battlegrounds’ typical Patrol Zone-based cookie-cutter design to attempt one thing extra akin to a collection of interconnected Strikes. All three Battlegrounds are set to evolve the continuing story, taking gamers deep into the middle of Nessus.

The Battleground proven throughout the stream, Delve, has gamers investigating the Cistern on Nessus, making an attempt to discern why Radiolaria is draining across the space. The exploration reveals that the Fallen have entered the arms race for the Echo fragment, pushing Guardians deeper into the Nicely of Flame.

Senior Exercise Designer Ryan Harris mentioned, “Gamers shall be wanting on the story of like, ‘the place is Radiolaria going, the place is it flowing via?’ So, for Battleground 1 you’re form of like discovering out and finding the place all this Radiolaria goes to, Battleground 2 you’re seeing the precise stream and path of all of the Radiolaria to the middle of Nessus, and Battleground 3 you’re truly seeing the place it’s being directed to. So, it’s actually making an attempt to inform that story concerning the journey to the middle of Nessus.”

Harris continued explaining the brand new Battleground experiences, noting that they’d predominantly function new geography and belongings. Along with the surroundings change, Harris highlighted that Wyrvern enemies have teleportation as a brand new capacity and that the group needed to interrupt conference to experiment with bosses. The designer even hinted that one boss may not also have a well being gate.

Episode: Echoes Act 2 weapons

Bungie confirmed off three new weapons arriving with Echoes Act 2, together with a returning favourite. First up, the studio provided a peek at Aberrant Motion, a brand new rocket sidearm. The photo voltaic weapon was proven with a Heal Clip and Incandescent roll, igniting and therapeutic the participant throughout the presentation. The sidearm additionally incorporates a distinctive animation when aiming down the sights, with the highest of the gun folding out to disclose a reticle.

The following weapon mentioned was the Corrasion heavy pulse rifle. This two-round burst Arc weapon was proven off with Excessive-Affect Reserves and Voltshot. The studio additionally famous that Frenzy could be accessible on the weapon and that it was anticipated to carry out nicely in PvP. Rounding out the weapon preview was the return of the Good Paradox shotgun. Not solely will gamers have the ability to search out outdated favourite rolls, however a couple of new Perks have been added to its pool.

First take a look at Solstice 2024 armor

Together with the brand new content material arriving solely for Episode: Echoes Act 2, Bungie briefly touched on the upcoming vacation occasion, Solstice. Whereas not diving into the particulars of the occasion’s exercise, the group did present a fast take a look at what Guardians can anticipate the upcoming vacation cosmetics to seem like.

The studio confirmed off the looks of all three lessons, noting that it was going for an adventurer-inspired design. The default tones for the Warlock armor are predominantly gold and brown, that includes round yellow projections on the helmet and gloves. The robes cowl many of the decrease physique, ending in a peacoat-like cut up close to the shins.

Titans shall be sporting armored army pants and a fur-lined, with a sizeable visored helmet adorned with a fin within the again. The Titan armor equally options a couple of yellow circle projections across the legs and helmet, however the shoulders additionally appear to radiate orange gentle. As a cool facet observe, it appears to be like like Titans’ boots are affixed with little rockets.

Lastly, Hunters can deck themselves out in a glossy physique go well with accompanied by armored boots and a cropped jacket. A gasmask helmet accents this with some candy sun shades and a hood, cape, and scarf combo for the Class merchandise. Like the opposite lessons, yellow circles challenge out of varied spots on the armor, and the arms and sun shades seem to provide off the identical orange glow because the Titan cosmetics.