Destiny is essentially a first-person massively multiplayer online game (FPS MMO). Developed by Bungie, best known for the original Halo trilogy, Destiny takes Halo’s core gameplay mechanics and expands on them with an epic loot system, character classes, and a truly operatic sci-fi universe. To bring you up to speed, here’s what happened during the events of Destiny.

Destiny’s story

The story of Destiny begins just after the “Golden Age” of technological advancement. Approximately 700 years into the future, when peace has spread across the solar system. A mysterious sphere the size of Earth’s Moon reaches Earth and begins altering other planets in the solar system to make them habitable. Calling this sphere “The Traveler”, humanity benefits from its efforts and begins colonizing other planets.

But not everything is rosy, for the Traveler (through no fault of its own) has invited darkness into the solar system. This in turn has marked the beginning of what is called “The Collapse” and a never-ending conflict with the darkness. All colonies on each planet have been overrun and the only safe haven is the last city on Earth, located beneath the Traveler. The Traveler has at this point sacrificed himself to save humanity from the threat of darkness and floats lifeless in the sky above the Last City.

From here, the player begins the game as a Guardian, a protector of the Earth who can harness a power called the Light, which also serves as fuel to resurrect the Traveler. The game begins and the player’s mission is to harness enough Light to resurrect the Traveler and defeat the Darkness once and for all.

As the events of Destiny progress, the player will be able to restore the Traveler’s Light. First, they stop a ritual performed by an alien race called the Hive that robs the Traveler of his light. The Guardians then soon learn of the Black Garden, an alternate dimension that houses the Heart of Darkness and is guarded by the Vex, a deadly cybernetic alien race. The Black Garden is destroyed, and the Traveler begins to recover.

The Dark Below

Destiny’s first expansion expanded the story, focusing on Eris Morn, a simple trader in the Last City. Eris hears that Crota, the Hive God, is being resurrected to stop the Traveler and destroy the Milky Way once and for all. In this story, players will battle hordes of Hive and then face off against Crota himself to save the galaxy. Of course, Crota is destroyed and the Hive’s plans fail.

House of Wolves

A side story focusing on the Awayne race, who live on a reef at the edge of the solar system. The House of Wolves is an awakened rebellion led by Skolas, aka Kells, who attempts to assassinate the Awakened Queen. The Queen opens a portal to the Reef, allowing the Guardians to defeat the House of Wolves once and for all.

The Guardians pursue Skolas through the solar system, eventually capturing him on Venus, where Skolas uses Vex technology to drag the House of Wolves through time in an attempt to kill the Queen and wipe out the Awakened. Skolas is captured and executed, ending the Wolf Rebellion.

The Taken King

Destiny’s third expansion once again focuses on Eris Morn. After the Guardians defeated and killed the hive god Crota, the god of the hive, Oryx, King of the Gods (known as the Taken King), seeks revenge. Oryx brings his massive swarm spaceship, the Dreadnought, into the solar system and launches an invasion with the help of the Taken, beings possessed by darkness and now enslaved by the Taken King himself. Thus began the infamous “Battle of the Taken”.

Oryx is finally defeated, but not all is won, as Malok, the Taken Prince, plans to take over Taken and continue what Oryx started. Malok was at Oryx’s temple on the moon, where he was killed by the guards.

Rise of Iron

The fourth and final Destiny expansion tells the story of former Iron Lord, Lord Saladin. Lord Saladin wants to assemble a new generation of Iron Lords to defeat the alien race, the Fallen Devil Splicers. Rediscover a self-regenerating nanotechnology called SIVA, which transforms organic lifeforms into cyborgs.

After a long and hard battle, the Guardians are able to stop the spread of the SIVA virus across the galaxy and destroy the SIVA technology once and for all.

Destiny 2’s Story

Now that we know the story of Destiny, the question is what happens next in Destiny 2. According to the trailers we have seen, we are about to witness an event of apocalyptic proportions. Could this be an entirely new Taken attack, or something much bigger? For more on what’s coming next for Destiny 2, check out our What’s New article.