We are little over a month away from the launch of the next expansion for Destiny 2, The Witch Queen.

With the launch of a new expansion comes the vaulting of content and this year will see fewer destinations and activities being vaulted than compared to the launch of Beyond Light in 2020.

To sum up the following seasonal activities will be entering the Destiny Content Vault on 22nd February:

• Wrathborn Hunts
• Override
• Expunge
• Astral Alignment
• Shattered Realm.

The only seasonal activity that will remain is Battlegrounds from Season of the Chosen which will become part of the Vanguard playlist. It’s unclear whether the Hammer of Proving and that activities rewards will be the same.

While Bungie does add weapons from past seasons to the world drop loot pool, we highly recommend grinding out these activities for weapons you may want.

We recommend focusing your Umbral Engrams for some of the following weapons if you don’t have the perks you want yet:

• Deafening Whisper (Grenade Launcher from Season of the Hunt)
• Threaded Needle (Linear Fusion Rifle from Season of the Chosen)
• Extraordinary Rendition (SMG from Season of the Chosen)
• Chroma Rush (Assault Rifle from Season of the Splicer)
• Ignition Code (Grenade Launcher from Season of the Splicer)
• Sojurner’s Tale (Shotgun from Season of the Splicer)
• Shattered Cipher (Machine Gun from Season of the Splicer)
• Vulpecula (Hand Cannon from Season of the Lost)
• Fractethyst (Shotgun from Season of the Lost)
• Canis Major (Grenade Launcher from Season of the Lost).

We recommend making use of Light.gg to find the perks you prefer.

In addition to those activities the following missions will also no longer be available come 22nd February:

• Presage (Season of the Chosen)
• Harbinger (Season of the Hunt)
• Ager’s Scepter quest (Season of the Lost).

You will need the applicable season in order to access these missions and we highly recommend completing these missions while you can. This is especially important for Presage and Harbinger which drop random rolls of Dead Man’s Tale and The Hawkmoon respectively.

Players will be able to acquire these weapons again in future as random rolls from Xur, for a fee. Players will need to pay:

• 1 Ascendant Shard
• 1 Exotic Cipher
• 125,000 Glimmer
• 200 Legendary Shards.

The Exotic Catalysts for Dead Man’s Tale, The Hawkmoon and Agers Scepter will be added to the playlist reward pool (Gambit, Crucible and Strikes) along with Outbreak Perfected, Whisper of the Worm and The Fourth Horseman.

As such unless you aren’t itching for The Hawkmoon and Dead Man’s Tale Catalysts, you could likely wait to earn those through the course of play.

Seals

While you can no longer earn seals from previous seasons, you are still able to earn the seal for Season of the Lost – Realmwalker.

However, for folks who are gilding Dredgen, Conqueror, Flawless or Deadeye, you have until The Witch Queen launches to earn those gilded seals.

The Moments of Triumph seal will also no longer be earnable at the completion of this season so if you want the MMXXI seal, you have little over a month left to knock the requirements out.

The seal for the 30th Anniversary content – Vidmaster – will seemingly still be available but we recommend wrapping that one up just in case the activity changes and the requirements can no longer be met.

Bungie has said that the Dares of Eternity and other 30th Anniversary activities will not be leaving the game anytime soon.

Bounty hoarding

While not everybody in Destiny 2 does this, the practice is widespread enough that we have to discuss how bounty hoarding will be affected by the expansion’s launch.

While generally bounties are capped as regards rewards, the reason for hoarding bounties in recent years has been to increase the amount of XP you gain right at the start of a season. This has the advantage of opening up the seasonal artefact and its unique mods more quickly.

From the most recent This Week at Bungie update the following bounties will be removed at the end of Season of the Lost:

• Tangled Shore
• Season of the Hunt
• Season of the Chosen
• Season of the Splicer
• Season of the Lost.

In addition, Bungie has said that some daily, destination and activity bounties may be removed depending on how the team balances rewards. Bounties from Gambit and the Gunsmith may disappear when the expansion launches so take note that you may lose some XP.

Bungie has also said that Gunsmith Materials will be removed from the game at the end of Season of the Lost so spend those materials but maybe hold on to the rewards.

“Players will now earn Reputation Rank progress with Banshee-44 when dismantling Legendary and Exotic weapons and armor or by completing daily Gunsmith bounties,” writes economy feature lead at Bungie, Joshua Kulinski.

With that in mind, make some space in your vault, hell, create a new character and move gear to them to maximise the reputation you earn in the new expansion.

Thankfully no raids are being vaulted and while the Tangled Shore will be vaulted, there isn’t all that much there. That having been said, the Hollowed Lair and Broodhold strikes will be sunset and The Warden of Nothing strike will remain as it’s not technically a part of the destination.

Truth be told, the run up to The Witch Queen shouldn’t be as frantic as the run up to Beyond Light was but with content being vaulted and paths to weapons changing completely.

Remember to claim all of your seasonal rewards from the Season Pass as well as these will disappear at the end of the season.

One final note, the end of the season is usually marked by down-time. As such, we recommend operating under the assumption that Destiny 2 will not be accessible on 21st February. Bungie has yet to confirm timelines for release, but we will update this story when we know more.