The Nightfall thing feels so weird. It used to BE a difficulty level in and of itself. Not really sure what the word means now.

If nothing else, it makes it more accessible, which isn't really a bad thing. I'll give you a quick/basic rundown: The Nightfall modifier from D1(where wiping boots you to orbit) only shows up in Grandmaster difficulty now. Renamed as Extinguish, the Nightfalls now employ a shared lives system where the three(hopefully) of you have seven lives between you. Once those seven are up, anyone who dies stays dead. The only way to get lives back is to kill "new" types of enemies called Champions. The enemies are still the same, but they have new behaviors added on to make things more challenging. Champions appear semi-frequently and require special weapons to defeat. You used to have to apply those champion-breaking mods to the weapon you were carrying, but at some point Bungie changed it to apply to your arms/gauntlets, so that they automatically apply to every weapon of that type. Also, to keep strategies different, the weapon types change each season. There are three types of Champs: Barrier Champions sprout up an indestructible shield when heavily wounded. And unless someone with a Barrier-piercing weapon shoots it, their health will completely regenerate(and quickly). Overload Champions are the ones that teleport. And they teleport absolutely non-stop, like several times a second. Whenever they start teleporting, their health(almost instantly) regenerates. Unless someone uses a disrupting weapon to stun them. Unstoppable Champions are just that—they see you, they charge and shoot at the same time and they do not relent until you're dead, then they move on to the next. That requires an Unstoppable Shot to...well, stop the unstoppable. So everyone loses a life for dying, and everyone gets one back for killing a champion. It's a lot.

Re: Cayde, are they literally looking for another Hunter Vanguard in the story, or when we talk about replacing him do we just mean a comic relief character?

Honestly, both! Since Forsaken all the humor has fallen on Nolandroid here. Yeah, barrel of laughs.

But for me, I prefer the Vanguard angle. The Hunters need a leader. It's downright depressing for their hero to die off and then NO ONE replace him. I opened a New Light one day, and Ghost said something about 'no one wanting to take his place'. That's crap, and an insult to Hunter mains everywhere! There's a new character/vendor for the Cosmodrome Remix—his name is Shaw Han. He lost his fireteam, but he helped the (new) Guardian get revenge. He could be a good candidate. Or, bright idea—what about Shiro-4 from Rise of Iron? He's not doing anything right now!

I mean, somebody...