Because of all the secrecy surrounding Season 17 and the element rework coming with it, Destiny 2 fans are coming up with theories as to why this is the case and what it means, both in terms of narrative and gameplay. A very likely answer to this question may be that the story beats of Season 17 and the new Solar 3.0 or Arc 3.0 update might be much more closely linked than one would think, hence why Bungie didn’t reveal anything about either of them. If that is the case, there is a very plausible route that Bungie might be taking with Season 17, and it revolves around events that go back as far as Season of Arrivals before the Beyond Light expansion was released.
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Destiny 2’s Season 17 and Element Rework Might be Closely Connected
Season of Arrivals was the last Season of the Shadowkeep era, and it was one of the most story-advancing Seasons to date because of how it tied the changes being made to Destiny 2 through the Destiny Content Vault with narrative reasons for them. Another reason why Season of Arrivals was such a big release is that it served as a bridge to connect the Pyramid ships’ presence in the Solar System with the Darkness granting Guardians the powers of Stasis in Beyond Light, paving the way to the Final Shape expansion.
Destiny 2’s Season of Arrivals is also when fans saw the last of the Warmind Rasputin, who tried to launch an attack on the Pyramid ships to eliminate the threat but was ultimately shut down in a way that forced Ana Bray to salvage the remains of Rasputin’s mind. Ana’s intervention guaranteed that what was left of Rasputin was placed inside an Engram, with the hope of “reviving” the Warmind in an Exo body to make Rasputin sentient once again.
In Season of the Risen, players learn through lore cards that Ana is now working closely with both Mithrax’s Splicers and Caiatl’s Psions to make the process of reviving Rasputin faster and possibly more effective. Rasputin has been out of the picture for around two years now, and making his resurrection part of the plot for Season 17 would make sense. What would make even more sense is that the Warmind has always been linked to the Warmind Cells mods and the various IKELOS or Seventh Seraph weapons that create the Cells in the first place, which could be why Solar 3.0 is coming in Season 17.
Warmind Cells are connected with Solar damage, and having a whole Season revolving around Rasputin would seal the deal on which element rework is coming first, with Solar 3.0 being the only sensible option. As such, the lack of a trailer and a full breakdown of the changes made with the upcoming element 3.0 update could actually be an indication of how linked the themes for Season 17 and its element are. In this case, Solar 3.0 and a Rasputin-based Season would go hand-in-hand, and they would perfectly fit the direction Destiny 2 has been headed towards for a while.
Destiny 2 is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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