Bungie revealed at its Destiny Showcase that all of Destiny 2’s Light subclasses — Arc, Solar, and Void — will undergo a conversion to the Darkness/Stasis system over the next year. Just a few days later, the studio gave players their first look at the first subclass getting updated: Void.
The studio first revealed that players won’t unlock a new Darkness subclass in The Witch Queen or any point before Destiny 2’s 2023 expansion, Lightfall — something creative director Joe Blackburn discussed on a Twitch stream an hour prior. Bungie also said players won’t unlock new Stasis Aspects or Fragments in Season of the Lost.
For the uninitiated, Stasis offers the traditional class ability, jump augment, grenade choice, and melee ability. But players can also choose up to two Aspects, which augment the subclass with new abilities or functionalities — like letting Hunters hold a button in midair to dive back to earth. Void 3.0 will work similarly, but it sounds like players will be able to select multiple Supers, rather than Stasis’ single-Super option.
Also like Stasis, Void will get key terms that define it, called “verbs” by Bungie. These work similarly to Stasis’ “Slow, Freeze, and Shatter” offering, and are buffs and debuffs that all play into each other. For Void, the verbs are “Suppression, Weaken, Volatile.” [Ed. note: Hey, Bungie — “suppression” and “volatile” aren’t verbs.]
Suppression is all about blinding and disabling enemies, preventing them from using abilities, or, for AI enemies, shooting at all. Weaken increases the target’s incoming damage and slows their movement. And Volatile causes affected enemies to explode after death or after taking enough additional damage. Void Guardians will also be able apply an Overshield, invisibility, or Devour (a life-steal buff) to their allies.
In addition to revealing the verbs, Bungie showed players a host of new Supers and Aspects for each updated class.
Nightstalker Hunters will get a new version of the Moebius Quiver Shadowshot, which currently lets players fire multiple arrows. In the Void 3.0 version, players will fire two volleys of three arrows each. The arrows will seek enemies out and tether them with multiple Void Anchors, which also turn them Volatile.
A new Aspect for Nightstalker Hunters, Stylish Executioner, will also turn the Hunter invisible and grant them Truesight each time they kill a Volatile, Suppressed, or Weakened enemy. Nightstalkers will also Weaken enemies if they use a melee attack on enemies while invisible with this Aspect equipped.
Sentinel Titans will get a new Aspect and melee ability. Overwatch empowers the Titan’s Barricade with Void, giving the Titan and allies behind it a powerful Overshield. Sentinel Titans will also receive a new melee ability called Shield Toss, which essentially lets them act like Captain America outside of their Super. The shield can ricochet between enemies, and the Titan will gain some Overshield charge for each enemy it hits.
It looks like Warlocks may see the most unique changes in Void 3.0. Pocket Singularity is a new melee projectile that tracks enemies and both pushes them out of cover and turns them Volatile when it explodes. Children of the Old Gods is a new Aspect that summons a “sentient black hole” when the Warlock places a Rift. The “Child,” as Bungie calls it, will latch onto nearby enemies like a Metroid, Weakening them and refunding grenade or melee energy for Healing Rift users or health for Empowering Rift users.
Bungie elaborated further on these changes by saying that while many things will change with Void 3.0, players should have more options to create new builds as well as mix and match old abilities. The studio gave some exciting examples like Spectral Blades with Vanishing Step for Hunters, Ward of Dawn and Controlled Demolition for Titans, and Handheld Supernova and Devour for Warlocks.
Bungie promised more reveals closer to Void 3.0’s debut in The Witch Queen on Feb. 22, 2022.