Im back! And er... kind of lost

Hey folks, how have you all been?

I finally picked up D2 now that it's gone F2P, as my existing grievances with Bungie/Activision/Eververse dictated that I wouldn't be buying it at launch (and unlike Cody, I stick to my principles even when its inconvenient).

I did however try a few hours at a friend's place about 18 months ago, and got to the DMZ, the Farm etc.

Coming back after such a long time, I started over on my Warlock as I didnt remember much more than the broad strokes, and wanted to experience the story from fresh.... ony to find its not there??

Ive been hit with what I understand is a revamped version of the D1 starting mission instead of the Cabal Invasion story I was expecting, and been welcomed to the Tower, which seems remarkably intact(!?). Everywhere I look are vendors for content that I have no context for or understanding of, and when I went to Banshee as instructed by the mission prompt, he gave me an Exotic Quest involving Nightfalls and Strikes, concepts I recognise from d1 but certainly have no experience with as a "new" player.

(On further inspection, talking to him a second time continued the starting quest and gave me a Blue pulse rifle. For some reason it was buried behind the Exotic interaction).

Have Bungie finally embraced that they're an MMO, and dispensed with guidance for new players and old content? What's all this talk of seasons? Can I still access the "old" version of the story, with the Cabal invasion, ruined tower etc? If I log into my Titan will I be able to continue that story where I left off?

It's very disorienting (and not a great first impression for new/returning players). Can anyone point me in the right direction for how I should be going about things to get the most enjoyable narrative experience?

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It's very disorienting (and not a great first impression for new/returning players). Can anyone point me in the right direction for how I should be going about things to get the most enjoyable narrative experience?

Talk to Amanda Holliday in the Tower hanger. She will give you quests that will allow you to play through the main narrative missions.

Bungie purposefully got rid of the requirement to do this for new players. One of the main complaints about Destiny prior to the "New Light" change was that it would take hours and hours of slogging through the missions before new players could participate in endgame content. I know I personally always recommended to friends not to bother unless they had a whole bunch of time to dedicate. Now the path to raiding or Crucible is much quicker, but there are obviously points of confusion (like this) that Bungie could more effectively address.

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I'll definitely be working my way through the story on at least one class, but will probably appreciate not having to do it three times!

So does this mean I can launch into the "season" content which appears to be time-limited? Im personally a fan of season-pass models as a concept, although only time (and Bungie's respect for mine) will tell if this is one I sign up for.

Also does anyone want to sherpa an old Deeply Flawed Alumnus through some legacy content? :D

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I'll definitely be working my way through the story on at least one class, but will probably appreciate not having to do it three times!

So does this mean I can launch into the "season" content which appears to be time-limited? Im personally a fan of season-pass models as a concept, although only time (and Bungie's respect for mine) will tell if this is one I sign up for.

Also does anyone want to sherpa an old Deeply Flawed Alumnus through some legacy content? :D

I think you have to buy Shadowkeep extra. I'm kind of fuzzy on the dividing line.

I'm not much of a sherpa, but we should definitely do some stuff. The old raids for instance are actually a good place to get good armor, so I've heard.

You should probably let it be known you're on PS4--the population is a little lower over there now. I personally trace it back to the first update after D2 (the one where they reintroduced grinding). I think that's where some of the multiplatform people gave up.

On the plus side, now with cross-save, there's a greater number of people who would be up for both.

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There are so many terms and currencies and proper nouns being thrown around.

Is there a primer or something to tell me how this all works? What's valor? How do I gain reputation? Which items in the Collection can I safely ignore as bullshit microtransactions vs things I can work towards in-game? Do triumphs do anything meaningful? What's a Flashpoint?

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There are so many terms and currencies and proper nouns being thrown around.

Is there a primer or something to tell me how this all works? What's valor? How do I gain reputation? Which items in the Collection can I safely ignore as bullshit microtransactions vs things I can work towards in-game? Do triumphs do anything meaningful? What's a Flashpoint?

Not too long ago, I saw a beginner's guide on Reddit (it included a 100 page Word document as a download). Lemme see if I can find it:

https://www.reddit.com/r/DestinyTheGame/comments/da3crl/desiny_2_the_game_the_complete_guide/

I haven't read through it, so it might be totally shitty... but it's aimed at people like you, so it MIGHT be good. ;)

To answer your questions above:

Valor is earned by playing Crucible games; earning it progresses you through ranks, and gives you drops at each major step. It is separate from Glory, which is earned through specfically competitive games (you also earn valor during comp games). Glory is used as a gate for certain high-level weapons (earnable at specific stops along the progression).

I'm not 100% sure what you mean by reputation.

The Collections tab shows you all of the gear you've earned (well, that has dropped for you) during your playtime. If it has fixed rolls (Exotics, Year 1 gear, specific gear that only comes in one flavor), you can use the Collection to re-acquire an item you've discarded (usually at a relatively nominal price). If the gear did not have a fixed roll, you cannot re-acquire it - but Collections will still show if you EVER had it. (This can be useful to know when working for stuff where you need all of a set of items.)

Triumphs, in general, just let you know that you've done something. There are points (that don't count for anything) that are earned when completing most of them. (Some triumphs are 0 points - ALL they do is tell you that you did something.) A small subset of triumphs have a reward at the end of their completion - an emblem, or in very rare cases, a pinnacle weapon. Mostly, they're a way of keeping track of progress.

A Flashpoint is an event that moves from planet to planet - one planet per week; doing a certain quantity of specific activities (Public Events, Lost Sectors, Heroic Adventures, Killing a High-Value Target) earns you a powerful reward. (You can see your progress towards the completion of the Flashpoint by mousing over - well, controllering over - the vendor on that planet - Devrim, on earth, or Asher Mir, on Io, for example. As long as the Flashpoint hasn't been completed, the vendor icon should be light blue, making it semi-easy to find.)

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You can gain Reputation with each vendor. This is accomplished by giving them a currency (usually tokens) that you earn during play. For example, Strikes give you Vanguard tokens that you give to Zavala. Doing so, among other things, gives you engrams.

You'll probably learn a lot of that by playing through the story, assuming they left the tutorials intact.

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