If it’s of any help, and you have interest in watching YouTube videos, I compiled a playlist of story content from the start of Destiny 1 to The Final Shape. Hope this is helpful!

Well, from a GAME world standpoint, you are a brand new Guardian. Some confusion is normal as Guardians have no memory of their previous life, but the New Light experience leaves much to be desired I'm told. MyNameIsByf is your guy on YouTube. It's a lot of info, but he was born to tell this story.

Yeah... this is a known and big issue in Destiny 2. Ask any veteran and they'll tell you the onboarding is horrible.

If you truly want the best way to understand the story. It's actually a 10 hour video by Byf. Which is terrible, not the video which is great, but that it's the best way to know the story. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzBmOeYmN_M&t=1981s&ab_channel=MynameisByf

(Keep in mind that the Byf video talks about the lore in chronological order, for example we knew almost nothing about The Witness and Rhulk when we learned about Oryx. You'll figure out who these figures are as you go.)

If you want to experience the story in game and don't mind spending money. Watch the Byf video up until he talks about Shadowkeep. (campaigns in D2 before that have been removed. Part of why you are so confused is because they removed a bunch of stuff that would ease you into the game.) Then play the campaigns in this order: Shadowkeep, Beyond Light, Witch Queen, Lightfall, Finalshape.

If you are also lost on all the UI stuff and how to actually manage the game. Which guns are good? What should I keep versus not? Don't worry about it for now. Guns are powercrept all the time. So by the time you've played it all, old guns don't matter. Just play with what you like. There are also a lot of guides on youtube, but don't watch any that are older than about 3 months, since those are not really relevant. If you get exotics, just put them in your vault for now if they are above 60 stats. (next big expansion, armor is getting a massive overhaul, we don't know exactly what the impact is, just know that a lot of stuff will change.)

So TLDR>
If you want to know the full story(lore) watch the byf video. (until he talks about shadowkeep and then play if you want to spend.) For guns and ability knowledge, just play what you like for now until you are more familiar with the game.

PS: If you want we can hop into the game together and play through some stuff. I'll be able to explain more about the lore and the story. I've been here since D1 day 1 and I'm a pretty big lorebuff.

They've cut so much content, the best thing to do to understand the story in any coherent form is watch My Name is Byf lore videos.

If there is a new content update it throws you into it when you next start, usually a cut scene then a mission.

Do follow the "A Guardian Rises" quest line first, it's the tutorial and gets you on the path to collect the first three subclasses.

You can orient yourself a bit on the map Destinations screen by going through the Timeline missions under the grey icon top right, items on the horizontal line through the middle start missions.
But what order you do actually do quest lines is generally up to the player, there isn't much guidance otherwise on order.

It’s definitely overwhelming for new players. You’re basically dropping into the end credits scene on a 10 year story arc. I’d suggest going on YouTube and looking up new player guides. If it’s lore you want, there’s videos for that too.

Did you really find it complicated? You just played the game and you'd get a bunch of different mats, then you just go to eidos lab and run around interacting with the prompts.

Personally I would rework/merge shadowkeep and beyond light into a proper campaign that introduces new players. Had a friend new to destiny try it same confusion but once the action starts it’s simpler to understand.

I disagree that reintroducing the old expansions would magically fix the narrative people forget how much narrative is in the seasons.

I’ve been this game since beta D1 and I play a lot. Basically the only game I’ve played since release. I still get lost sometimes. Also still don’t know exactly how tonics work. Just keep brewing what I can and then more are available somehow ?!? Whatever

Definitely do the campaign first! The Guardian Games event is on right now, so you can mess about a bit with that too before it leaves. The current 3 month long season/episode thing is neat too, but do it after the campaign, or you'll get spoilers.

highly recommend doing the campaign, and looking for guides on how to get alll the aspects and fragments for prismatic

I agree with getting the campaign done asap. Put most of your effort into that and check out a guide beforehand for the new subclass, prismatic, because certain missions have secret chests that contain fragments. It’ll be annoying going back into missions just for those. Also, unlock and get the exotic mission dual destiny done as it will allow you to get the exotic class items for you and unlock the ability to possibly drop them from activities and chests around the pale heart. As well as buy some from Xur during the weeks he offers them.

Guardian games has a fun game mode attached to it this year (rushdown) and a couple of the weapons are worth getting a good roll on. There’s a little over a week left for it so get some runs in while you can.

After all that I’d start working on the episodic stuff, assuming you have access to them. (Heresy season) Lots of good weapons and cool activities to participate in there, (Nether, Court of Blades) but that will be around for a little bit still so no rush on that. Good luck guardian.

All the plot relating to the witness, the traveller and the final shape will be wrapped in this expansion, this will allow bungie to move on and focus on other factions and events rather than being stuck in a perpetual state of “darkness is coming” for the next 10 years.

Most likely it’ll either be a focus on the fallen, vex or cabal. Whether that be finding the origin of the vex or helping retaking the cabal and fallen’s orginal homes. There’s also the option for one of the disciples to take the limelight, since they’ll no longer be following the witness’ orders.

We don't know. We've only gotten vague statements that TFS is not the end, but what the future will be is a mystery for now. Perhaps the 3 episodes that will come out the next year will set up the next big thing or maybe they will just wrap up other storylines. We don't know. Some leaks claim they're working on Destiny 3 with internal codename 'payback' but that might as well be made up.

Alright, let me put my boy Luke Smith on speed dial real quick.

Seriously though, how would anyone know? The only thing bungie has gave us officially is Destiny as a franchise won’t be ending, if you hear anything else it’s just fan speculations and baseless rumors.

I'm very excited for it, but I only bought the expansion. I didn't buy the annual pass for the first time in years. They've been too vague about what the future looks like and if that future is just endless, disconnected seasons (rebranded as "episodes") I'll be using TFS as a stopping point until D3

the final shape is the final expansion for this saga of destiny 2, the light and dark saga. there might be expansions in the future but it will be for a different story and plot completely

Calm your outrage, I think in an interview somebody said that when the raid is beaten, a final activity or mission opens where everyone experiences the ending.

Have you read literally anything about Final Shape.

Joe said, in like 5 different ways, INCLUDING IN THE MAIN REVEAL ITSELF, this isn't the case.

Raid team is not necessary to see the story end.

Also, shocker, you have to play content? To see the end?

All due respect, but you're basically completely wrong. TFS will very specifically have a conclusion that is available and playable by all players and NOT just people who can raid. This has already been clarified specifically because of concerns about how past expansions have featured a conclusion that was locked behind a raid

Bungie has already confirmed that the confrontation with The Witness will take place in The Final Shape's raid, but also promised that non-raiders will experience the climax of the story in full, including the defeat of The Witness. (Assuming we win, of course.) Blackburn says that the denouement won't just be a cut-scene. He explains that whereas The Witch Queen and Lightfall campaigns each had eight missions, The Final Shape will ship with seven "on day one". The implication being that the eighth mission unlocks for everyone once the raid has been beaten. He also indicates that the format of that mission will be different to the boss encounters against Savathun and Calus from previous campaigns. "When we did The Witness it just didn't pass the sniff test, so we knew we needed a different strategy."

Source: https://www.pcgamer.com/joe-blackburn-on-destiny-2-conspiracy-theories-what-happened-to-the-pvp-team-and-the-witness-being-able-to-1v1-anyone-in-the-universe/

Stay mad dude. Keep finding shit to be upset about. Learn to read.

lol. Reading and or listening comprehension not good

Final Shape will give access to the current episode. 

Final Shape Annual Pass will give access to all 3.

Stories are relatively self-contained, but all take place after Final Shape with the climax being the catalyst for the stories to begin. You shouldn't need to go to any external sources to understand them.

The episodes feel shorter than seasons were in the past. The pale heart is the best destination we’ve gotten in terms of fun I’d say. I like to farm out ergo sums and exotic class items each week. Prismatic is a lot of fun. The raid isn’t as hard as people make it out to be, most people over complicate the fourth encounter. The raid exotic is actually great. The bow from the raid is one of the best legendary ad-clear weapons in the game. 12 man activity with excision can be laggy but it’s a good time. For the experience it is as good if not better than the witch queen.

Episodes function the exact same as seasons, the only difference is the narrative structure and the pacing of content release (in other words they're self-contained stories that have three acts, as opposed to ongoing stories that build off the previous/towards the next). If you buy just the Final Shape you will get access to the current Episode (Revenant), but you will not be able to access the previous Episode (Echoes) and would have to buy the next Episode (Heresy) separately.

You should be able to follow the story of any Episode you have access to without external sources, however its pretty commonly agreed that Episode: Echoes drags on/has too much filler, and Episode: Revenant is too rushed/does not have enough content (hopefully Episode: Heresy will strike a good balance, but we'll have to wait and see). With that in mind, you may find yourself wanting to watch youtube recaps of the story regardless as both Echoes and Revenant haven't been super strong narrative-wise. (I would recommend completing the Final Shape before playing any Episodes as they're intended to be epilogues, but playing them alongside/before TFS shouldn't really spoil or ruin anything major)

If you want access to all three Episodes you will need to buy the annual pass, as the only way to get access to Echoes now is through the annual pass (or to have purchased it when it was the current season). If you are going to buy the annual pass it's better to do it sooner rather than later as all the Episodes will be inaccessible after Codename: Apollo comes out this summer, so the sooner you buy the pass the longer you'll have access to the content.

Is there a "pin and reminder" bot? :P If so, can somebody use it to pin this for say 6 months after lightfall drops, so then we can come back and repin with the date of final shape's release?

I don't think the Traveler is going to survive Lightfall tbh. As for the Winnower... as much as the Traveler's presence implicates the former existing, Bungie could just as easily make this a battle between mortals who somehow got their hands on supernatural power and/or ignore the fact that the Pyramids are alive (like half of the rest of this subreddit).

​

I think Lightfall is going to be very "Light and Dark" whilst The Final Shape is "just Dark".

More spinfoil than every Bolt-Caster quest combined

Maybe leave it for Byf.

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Ageee to disagree. I think the writing so far has been really strong. Im five missions in and I’ve loved it. Every character getting strong arcs or just nice development. Witness has been great. Cayde is that nice level of wit and sadness.

It’s not the greatest game ever made but I think it’s the strongest expansion narratively so far. It’s incredibly focused.

No idea why the Witness had to use examples for the Final Shape. Why is Taniks considered a perfect example?

All they gotta do is build up a compelling villain and then let us kill that villain. It may not be the most amazing story in the world, but at least it'll be satisfying.

My jaw dropped when the witness hugged us and said "welcome to the final shape"

"So how **is** your sister?"
*Mara immediately arrives with the Helm*

It was a joke before the game was even playable

“Cayde why do you still fight?”

“Because it’s my destiny 2”

It’s witnessing time

Welcome back! You can play the expansions in chronological order, but the most important ones are Beyond Light, The Witch Queen, Lightfall (for Strand), and of course The Final Shape. I recommend playing them on the highest difficulty to unlock the exotic gear available at the end of each campaign.

With the new expansion, Edge of Fate, the way you gain Power has changed a bit. The static Power cap is now 200, and you can reach it just by playing normally. To go beyond that, you’ll need gear with Seasonal Power. These items can be earned by playing Portal activities (PvE and PvP). The Power increase they provide depends on the difficulty of the activity or your performance in PvP.

All activities available through the Portal can help you go beyond 200 Power (the current max cap is 450), but to get better loot—with higher Seasonal Power and better tier—you’ll need to increase the activity’s difficulty. This is done using the new system that lets you choose modifiers and challenges. The harder the modifiers, the better the loot.

Of course, gear with Seasonal Power can be infused into your existing equipment, but you'll need a new currency obtained by dismantling loot with Seasonal Power.

Now, each piece of equipment also has a Tier level that goes up to 5, and the bonuses provided at higher tiers are significant. To get higher-tier drops, just play higher-difficulty activities with challenging modifiers.

Finally, the way stats work has also been updated. For more details, I recommend checking out the various blog posts Bungie has published on their website to better understand the changes.

If you have any more questions feel free to ask

Following and completing Guardian Ranks should be a good first step for newcomers. It’s what they are intended to do.

Following

We need to regroup and prepare for the final battle, everyone took a beating