Destiny 2's Shadow & Order major update was set to launch on March 3, but Bungie uncerimoniously delayed it by three months. The next big piece of content is scheduled for June, leaving even less to do in the game until then.

With less than two weeks to go until the scheduled update, Bungie made an anemic announcement of the delay in official channels, where it promised to bundle a slew of other improvements to the game by June 9. The Shadow and Order name is gone altogether, though it doesn't have an official replacement.

While Destiny 2 is in dire need of a shakeup, delaying a major update doesn't pose a good short-term scenario for its dwindling player counts. Here's why Shadow & Order was delayed and Bungie's ambitious promises for when it drops in June.

Shadow & Order delay, explained

Marathon is often mentioned as one of the reasons behind the Shadow & Order delay. The major update was slated to release on March 3—just two days before the controversial extraction shooter's debut on March 5. Forbes' Paul Tassi reported this would be the reason, and it seems to be among the top drivers behind the delay. The new June 9 release date is way off, giving Marathon enough time to settle.

That said, it's also likely that Shadow & Order was simply not up to the standards of what the game needed right now. Destiny 2 has been bleeding players for years, with The Edge of Fate accelerating the vertiginous downfall in its user base. Far from being a necessary revolution, the Ash & Iron update halfway through The Edge of Fate was largely a lackluster, more-of-the-same piece of content—down to the reissue of weapons such as Drang and the MIDA Mini-Tool.

Pushing another lukewarm update as Destiny 2 faces its biggest player crisis in history would likely only make it worse. Given Bungie's recent track record, there might not have been enough time to concoct anything above mediocrity, so putting it back in the oven might be the right move.

The next major update (which we're still unofficially calling Shadow & Order until an actual title comes along) is bringing a slew of much-needed, long-requested improvements to the game—though one can easily argue The Edge of Fate should never have launched without them in the first place.

The announcement promises "sizable quality-of-life updates," including a few hot topics. As its release draws closer, Bungie will inform players of items like tier upgrading, Exotic armor pieces being tier five, reissued gear for raids and dungeons, and a "Pantheon 2.0." The wording here is telling: "We will provide exact details closer to release," the announcement reads, so temper your expectations.

"Shadow & Order" also needs to bring in more content. This is theoretically implicit in Bungie's wording, but it's still worth highlighting. The Portal is already a syncretism of reused, worn-out activities, so all these changes are borderline meaningless without new missions to put them to use. Bungie's initial vision for The Edge of Fate—a grueling, resetting slogfest—is more than enough to make fans wary about how the studio will handle content after the next major update, too.

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Destiny 2 players may have already heard the news: Shadow & Order is delayed. Naturally, eager guardians are wondering when the game's next major update will be—and when it will get any meaningful new content.

"Major updates" is how Bungie calls the intermission between one expansion and the other, after a two-expansions-a-year cadence instated with The Edge of Fate and Renegades. It's essentially an extremely light new season, complete with a new rewards pass (a season pass minus the season). Shadow & Order was supposed to be

A delay can be bad enough on its own, but with the dropping player count, some are afraid the game will shut down. Here's when Destiny 2's next big updates release.

When does Destiny 2's next major update release?

The next huge update for Destiny 2 is scheduled to drop on June 9—a three-month delay compared to the original March 3 release date for Shadow & Order. This is presumably in part due to Marathon's release on March 5.

Until then, players can expect a couple of smaller in-game novelties. Guardian Games kicks off in March, and Bungie teased "the return of a more frequent Iron Banner cadence" (by that, the studio means "actually adding an Iron Banner cadence"). The same old Portal mutations like Accelerator are set to appear.

Outside of that, Bungie hasn't yet mentioned a new rewards pass, the release of the remaining Conquests, or other reasons for players to come back to the game. Wacky Portal modifiers will continue, but that wasn't enough to push the needle even when the player count was at less critical levels.

Is Destiny 2's major update Shadow & Order?

Destiny 2's next update will presumably build upon Shadow & Order, seizing what was in line for the update, throwing much-needed, long-requested quality-of-life features in the pile.

That said, the next big update won't be called Shadow & Order—though we're still using that name as a placeholder. The extra time in the oven may also alter the story arcs that would surface, so a name change is more than in order.

What's on Destiny 2's next major update?

We don't know a lot of what's coming in June for now. Bungie has given us a baseline of what to expect in the announcement:

"We will provide exact details closer to release covering previously announced Weapon Tier Upgrading, but also additions like expanding Tiered Gear to all Raid and Dungeon activities, Pantheon 2.0, Tier 5 stats for Exotic Armors, and more," the studio said.

This is undoubtedly an ambitious move for a struggling game, and the verbiage on the announcement is enough to maintain a degree of caution. Bungie said it would give details, so theoretically, "we're working on it and it's coming in a future release" could qualify for that. It's unlikely they'll reissue weapons for all raids and dungeons within a few months, so there's bound to be a small selection of these to get the ball rolling, with plans of doing more at fixed intervals.

Presumably, the next major update will also bring in some new content. This has been the formula for the bigger content releases since time immemorial, and providing these shiny new tools without a new stage to use them in would be counterproductive.

In the meantime, Bungie will continue with the basics, including Guardian Games in March and bringing back Iron Banner in April. This time, there's no Into the Light-esque content to pull out of a hat, so the player counts will continue to struggle until Destiny 2 gets meaningful content.

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Destiny 2's next expansion looms, and some guardians are already engaging in their usual rituals before the new content drops. If you didn't get everything you wanted, you can still farm some weapons before Renegades kicks off on Dec. 2.

Our usual pre-expansion rituals include getting our builds ready, keeping a clean inventory, and figuring out the seasonal fashion—arguably the most important part. Farming gear is a part of the preparations: it's a good way to guarantee certain items before their drop sources see potential alterations, and it also offers powerful gear that should be in any guardian's arsenal.

For instance, you shouldn't drop into Renegades without a Mint Retrograde in your vault, after all, even if you're probably swapping it out for some of the Star Wars-inspired guns in the expansion. Here are the top weapons we recommend farming before Renegades lands on Tuesday, Dec. 2.

Mint Retrograde

• Source: Pinnacle Ops

The gun that's at the top of the food chain in the current Destiny 2 sandbox is, unsurprisingly, at the top of our list of the best weapons to farm before the next expansion. Mint Retrograde will maintain its high damage but take a nerf to its ammo economy in Renegades, so you can still keep it glued to your Kinetic slot—just like the other 45 percent of guardians using this weapon, as per Bungie's own stats.

Unfall

• Source: Portal

Rocket sidearms may not be as much of a big-ticket item as they were when the archetype was born in late 2023, but they're still in quite a comfortable place in the sandbox. Bungie added Unfall in the Ash & Iron update, bringing with it a new perk pool, synergy with Sturm, and a New Gear tag. This weapon performs just fine without its Exotic counterpart, though. It doesn't roll Voltshot like Indebted Kindness, but it does bring Jolting Feedback and Master of Arms to the mix.

Returned Memory from the Crucible is another great option—good enough to make the cut into the list, thanks to a little help from Zavala.

MIDA Mini-Tool

• Source: Portal

After the reissued CALUS Mini-Tool made a splash in Season of the Haunted, it's time for the post-Edge of Fate MIDA Mini-Tool to shine. This SMG is a powerful workhorse weapon with some best-in-slot perks and Solar synergy. Heal Clip and Incandescent, the usual suspects, now have a new sibling in Burning Ambition, and the Mini-Tool can roll with all of those—plus old favorites such as Attrition Orbs, Frenzy, and Master of Arms.

The MIDA Mini-Tool is a good weapon to get before Renegades, especially if you're using a Solar build. Odds are you won't ditch a god-rolled Yeartide Apex for it, but this SMG is the best option if you missed Solstice's most coveted gun.

Outrageous Fortune

• Source: Pinnacle Ops

Grenade launchers have stayed steady in the meta for a couple of years now, so Outrageous Fortune is a great option to bring into your first run of the Renegades campaign. This powerful heavy weapon can roll Envious Arsenal paired with Bait and Switch, which is top-tier for damage, and it comes with a New Gear tag to match.

Submersion or Synanceia

The Call to Arms weapons aren't farmable, but they're still obtainable. Opening the daily event chest in the Tower awards all sorts of gear, with a chance of dropping your attuned weapon. Change your attunement by speaking to Devrim.

Out of the event weapons, Submersion is arguably the most important, though we're getting a Void heavy crossbow with Renegades based on videos from content creators. Synanceia is also a good option for a New Gear sword with Eager Edge (y'know, in case you need to endlessly run Salt Mines again for the next Call to Arms).

Returned Memory

Rocket sidearms are never out of style, and Returned Memory is another entry to this weapon family. This Crucible gun comes with great perks such as Heal Clip and Impulse Amplifier paired with Redirection, Incandescent, Burning Ambition, and One For All.

If you'd rather not set foot in PvP, however, Zavala is selling this as the featured weapon this week. While none of his rolls have all those perks at the same time, the offerings are still quite spicy.

Theodolite

• Source: Pinnacle Ops

The Mountaintop has a younger sibling, and this time, it goes on your Energy slot. Theodolite is the new Arc-aligned micro-missile frame with strong damage potential for Majors. Aim for Reconstruction or Blast Distributor with Voltshot, Reaper's Tithe, Frenzy, or Elemental Honing for big damage numbers.

Lionfish-4FR

• Source: Portal

Even now, over three years after its debut, Riptide is basically synonymous with Stasis fusion rifles, so Lionfish-4FR has some big shoes to fill. And it seems up to the task.

Lionfish has Reconstruction paired with Chill Clip, an improvement on Riptide's Auto-Loading Holster/Chill Clip. It also rolls with Controlled Burst, Elemental Honing, or Reservoir Burst in the fourth column, which you can use for a more damage-based role.

Honorable mention: Smoke Jumper armor

The Smoke Jumper armor is, by most definitions of the word, not a weapon. That said, it's one of the most popular and powerful new sets in Edge of Fate. Community figure TheAegisRelic put this "disgustingly OP" set in the S-Tier in their endgame list, which is high praise. Since this list is about grabbing good gear before Renegades, Smoke Jumper couldn't be off the menu, even if just as an honorable mention.

The best part of the Smoke Jumper set by far is Ride Together, Die Together, its two-piece bonus. It gives a short-lived damage reduction when picking up orbs of power, which are easy to generate in the current sandbox. The four-piece isn't bad (Aegis gave it a B), but grab at least two well-rolled pieces of armor before Renegades.

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Destiny 2's Renegades was a good change of pace compared to The Edge of Fate. The Star Wars-inspired expansion is shorter and more dynamic than its predecessor, with fewer main missions and a faster run time.

There's quite a bit of both franchises in the campaign, lending a unique tone to the story. The stakes feel real, too, which may be hard to get right when your character is an immortal weapon who has killed pantheons of gods for loot.

And if the story is a highlight, the drops from the campaign are nothing to scoff at either. In addition to an arsenal of Star Wars-esque weapons, you unlock your Praxic Blade (your own lightsaber) on the tail end of the campaign, just in time for you to bring it in your final push against Dredgen Bael. Here's what you need to know about Destiny 2's Renegades story.

How many missions are in Destiny 2: Renegades?

Destiny 2's Renegades campaign has five main missions, though the story will also throw you into a few runs of the Lawless Frontier activity. The major story quest, Renegades, has 45 steps, which you can use to gauge how far along you are. Here are the missions in the campaign:

All missions in Destiny 2: Renegades

The five main missions are:

• Imperium
• Fearsome Retainer
• Out in the Cold
• The Long Con
• Glory Beyond

There are a couple of Lawless Frontier activities between Imperium and Fearsome Retainer, another between then and Out in the Cold. A run of Fire and Ice, the Exotic mission that drops your own lightsaber, takes place on step 33 of the main Renegades journey, at which point you're bound to dive into more Lawless Frontier missions before rounding out the final two activities.

How long is Destiny 2's Renegades campaign?

Unlike The Edge of Fate's drawn-out campaign, Renegades' main story is closer to the usual length for Destiny 2. Expect it to last roughly five to six hours, with some variance on either side depending on your pace.

Without hurrying, we finished the Legend campaign in around six hours with a full fireteam, including the usual breaks and more than a few delays due to bugs and server issues. Each Lawless Frontier mission took around 20 minutes, in our experience, and Fire and Ice's labyrinthian structure was the longest single part of the campaign.

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Nothing Manacles got a huge glow-up in Destiny 2, going off an individual balance pass in tandem with some general buffs to Void. You may have missed this Exotic when it released, but there's still a way to get it.

Nothing Manacles released in Season of the Lost, when the main way of getting new Exotics was by running higher-difficulty Lost Sectors. The process has since changed drastically and is now much easier. Here's how you can snag this Exotic for your Warlock.

How to unlock Nothing Manacles in Destiny 2

You can get Nothing Manacles by focusing it with Master Rahool in the Tower. If you're looking for your first copy, go to the Novel Decryption tab in the Focused Decoding section of his inventory. This is where you can unlock the Exotic at the cost of one Exotic Engram and one Exotic Cipher.

That latter resource is slightly time-gated, but can be obtained from season passes, by exchanging Chronologs, and, of course, the classic way: by completing the Xenology quest from Xûr, who shows up at the Friday reset and flies off on Tuesday.

After you've unlocked Nothing Manacles, you can grab it from any suitable source of Exotic Engrams, including Master Rahool. He's the most reliable way to farm this, letting you choose to decode an Exotic Engram into Nothing Manacles as long as you're willing to pay 60,000 Glimmer and two Ascendant Shards. You can continue to use Novel Decryption if you'd rather save your golfballs, though.

What Nothing Manacles does (and why it's good)

• Scatter Charge: Gives you an extra Scatter Grenade charge, enables tracking for its submunitions, and final blows create more projectiles.

Nothing Manacles on its own can be quite strong, but it really shines with Chaos Accelerant and Feed the Void equipped. Feed the Void grants an enhanced version of Devour, which should be glued to any Void subclass—especially one based on grenades.

Chaos Accelerant, on the other hand, improves the tracking of your Scatter Grenades and grants you an extra grenade charge. With that combination, you're heading into an activity carrying three high-powered, tracking Scatter Grenades.

This is one of the best add-clear builds for Warlocks. Think of it as a turbocharged Graviton Lance in your pocket. Damage isn't this build's strongest suit, however, so this mostly excels at taking down smaller enemies.

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Destiny 2 got a bona fide lightsaber in Renegades. The Praxic Blade is one of the most exciting Exotics in the game, and you get it in the latter half of the expansion's main quest. Getting it, however, is just the beginning of your journey.

The Praxic Blade, like any good lightsaber, boasts a slew of customization options, both for gameplay and for cosmetics. While yes, some of them are indeed in the Eververse, the lion's share as of launch is unlocked through regular gameplay.

Here's how you get the Praxic Blade in Destiny 2 Renegades and how you can use it.

When do you get the Praxic Blade (Lightsaber) in Destiny 2 Renegades?

The Praxic Blade drops from the Fire and Ice mission, which is step 33 of the Renegades campaign. The game asks you to "Visit the Praxic Temple with Aunor," giving you your own version of the Jedi training. Completing Fire and Ice grants you the Praxic Blade with one colored crystal (blue or green), as well as the starting versions of each trait.

After getting your lightsaber and completing the campaign, Aunor will lead you into the Praxic's Path quest, essentially a tutorial on how to improve your Praxic Blade. This teaches you how to unlock more upgrades for your lightsaber and grants you an extra colored crystal (blue or green, depending on which one you didn't get at first).

What does the Praxic Blade do in Destiny 2 Renegades?

The Praxic Blade has a slew of unique traits. The more Exotic of them are:

• Cormorant Reversal: The Praxic Blade reflects incoming projectiles when blocking.
• Cormorant Combo: Using three light attacks and hitting the heavy attack does a high-damage hit that consumes no ammo.
• Ranged Throw: Pressing heavy attack throws your Praxic Blade. Attacking recalls it toward you. Holding the button sends a more powerful throw in a straight path and recalls the blade when releasing.

Like Wolfsbane, however, you can also unlock a litany of upgrades that touch on the weapon's stats, tie it into subclass verbs, and even apply catalysts to your lightsaber.

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Destiny 2's Star Wars-inspired expansion is finally here. Renegades offers a campaign available in Legend and Normal difficulties, as has been standard fare since the wildly popular The Witch Queen started doing so in 2022. This presents a choice: should you do the campaign on Legendary or Normal?

Completing the campaign in either difficulty gets you access to most post-campaign activities, and in Renegades, this opens up the Lawless Frontier activity. It takes after The Nether in Heresy, lack of health regen included, and you can get a slew of goodies there by siding with different factions.

What do you get by completing the Renegades campaign in Legendary difficulty?

Based on the tooltip, completing the campaign on Legendary gets you a set of Powerful gear and the Renegades Exotic for your class (Deimosuffusion for Warlocks, Praxic Vestment for Titans, and Fortune's Favor). This means you'll get one set of armor at five levels above your maximum account level.

In The Edge of Fate, you could obtain the expansion's Exotics on your main character by doing the Legendary campaign, then unlock the others through the Sieve, Kepler's post-campaign activity. Renegades could see a similar formula.

Can you change the Renegades campaign difficulty in Destiny 2?

Going by The Edge of Fate, you can change the difficulty for the Renegades campaign before launching a mission. This lets you rerun missions in a different difficulty even after you've cleared the main story, so there's no harm in changing your settings along the way.

To redo your missions, click the node with the Renegades symbol in Tharsis Outpost. This opens a list of all missions, allowing you to retry them individually and change their difficulty. There are six main story missions, with some runs of Lawless Frontier sprinkled in between.

You can get all rewards from completing the campaign even if you change your difficulty along the way, but you must finish every mission on Legend difficulty to unlock the additional goodies.

Is it worth doing the Renegades campaign in Legendary difficulty?

There's no set answer for this since it depends on your skill level, your tolerance for a challenge, and how quickly you'd like to complete the campaign. If you can take on the Legendary campaign on your first try, it's worth accepting the challenge. If you're torn, give it a go and adjust the challenge as you see fit, and if you're just aiming for a quicker, more relaxing clear, normal can do the job just right.

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Destiny 2's space wizards were in a good state in the Edge of Fate sandbox, and some Warlock builds will remain on top now that Renegades landed. A series of gradual tuning passes gave this class powerful options for every element.

Not all Warlock builds are created equal, however, and some of them easily rise to the top of the meta (yes, I am talking about Getaway Artist on Prismatic, how did you guess?). Here are the builds we're running in Destiny 2's Renegades expansion.

Why are these our best builds in Renegades?

The builds in this list don't account for any artifact mods and rarely rely on specific weapons. A lot of it is up to personal preference as well, so the entries on our list can certainly be more optimized, but should be enough to get you through the campaign, either on Legend or Normal.

Contraverse Hold + Grenades (Void)

Warlocks got a much-needed, high-powered buff to their Void grenades with Contraverse Hold. This Exotic was already good, but a new built-in Weaken effect and an extra grenade charge made it even deadlier, and that's why it's easily among the top builds in Destiny 2 going into Renegades.

Contraverse works with a slew of different grenade options, depending on your playstyle, but Axion Bolt is our favorite. This grenade unleashes a series of tracking projectiles with a somewhat long range, giving you a relatively safe way to take down foes.

You can also go for Scatter Grenades, Vortex Grenades, or Handheld Supernova to spice it up. Handheld Supernova in particular deals a devastating short-range blast when using a Magnetic Grenade (and others). That said, Axion Bolt is usually good enough as long as your projectiles don't go rogue and blow you up. It happens.

Getaway Artist + Storm Grenade (Prismatic)

Getaway Artist with Prismatic continues to be a force of nature, especially given the buffs to Arc Soul (and buddies in general). The Final Shape's most effortless Warlock build now works with Facet of Dominance to jolt enemies and interacts better with grenades, with Hellion's damage increasing with that stat.

As far as your Aspects go, Feed the Void is almost a must-have to keep your grenade energy topped up. The second fragment slot is usually Bleak Watcher, though Hellion makes for a good substitute to spice up the formula. Plunderthabooty runs a version of a buddy build with Hellion, Weaver's Call, and Facet of Mending, which grants you surprisingly great sustain without resorting to Feed the Void.

Consume your grenade, get ability kills to get Devour, then continue mowing down enemies until your grenade is full. Rinse, repeat, and try not to trip on all the orbs of power you make with Firepower.

Mataiodoxía + Needlestorm (Strand or Prismatic)

Mataiodoxía is also in the running for the most juiced-up Warlock Exotic in Renegades, and its odds are looking pretty good. In addition to its base effect of giving you Suspend with Arcane Needle, as of the new expansion, it also improves the power of your Needlestorm—like Cuirass of the Falling Star does for Thundercrash.

You can run this build with Strand or Prismatic. Strand gets more firepower on Needlestorm through Thread of Evolution (increased damage from Threadlings), but Prismatic has a more versatile kit with better survivability, grenade spam due to Devour, and Transcendence.

Lightning Surge + Winter's Guile or Solipsism (Prismatic)

Winter's Guile may make for a devastating new take on the old Lightning Surge Prismatic builds. This Exotic got some new life, working close to a Warlock version of Wormgod's Caress with a Transcendence-like effect built in. With the Exotic's new effect, melee and finisher kills grant a stacking damage bonus to that ability. When at max stacks, you can enter a "berserk" mode with even more melee damage and regen.

Your second aspect is up to your preference, but the sustain from Feed the Void makes this a given for us. To fall back on a classic, though, this build also works marvelously with Solipsism, especially if you have an Inmost Light/Synthoceps roll. You can even run Mataiodoxía if you're looking for a little oomph in your Needlestorm.

Starfire Protocol + Fusion Grenades (Solar)

Gone are the days when Starfire was an unending missile barrage, but the stat rework made this already-strong build even better, and the fact that it finally works with Radiant is just icing on the cake. Hellion is a natural pairing for this since you get your Rift back on grenade kills, and you can use it to trigger your Solar synergies through Scorch. Bring Ember of Torches and Ember of Empyrean for Radiant uptime, giving you extra grenade regen from Starfire. Ember of Resolve works if you need more sustain.

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