Destiny 2's Season of Plunder is almost over, and ahead of next year's Lightfall expansion, Season 19 begins December 6 and all eyes are locked onto how it will lead players into the next year of content. Season 19 is expected to stick to a three-month period to tell its story and introduce changes to the Destiny 2 sandbox. Bungie has revealed some technical changes that it will be introducing for the next quarter while details in the narrative department are still being kept under wraps.

Season 19 officially kicks off December 6 and players will be able to dive into new content after the weekly reset at 9 AM PT / 12 PM ET. From there, players will have until Season 20, and the beginning of Lightfall, on February 28, 2023.

Seasonal Event

Season 19 will see the holiday-themed event called the Dawning make a return, essentially Destiny's version of the festive, holiday celebrations. Similar to Festival of the Lost and Solstice, players can expect the Dawning to have its own rewards full of unique cosmetics, weapons, and emotes for participating in the event.

New Dungeon

Essentially a mini-raid, this high-level activity will arrive on December 9 at 9 AM PT / 12 PM ET, the first Friday of Season 19. As of writing there are no details to report on the new dungeon activity.

Subclass Overhauls

Bungie is teasing a major revamp for all four subclasses ahead of the introduction to Strand in Lightfall, and a small adjustment will be felt in Season 19. While the changes are small, there will be noticeable  differences in how several Guardian powers operate after the changes. Notably Warlocks and Titans appear to be benefitting most from these planned changes, but with the direction Bungie is going, changes will add more identity to each subclass. Players can expect Solar classes to mostly remain the same, Void to be masters of dealing debuffs, Arc to be agile damage-dealers, and Stasis to be on par with original Destiny elements.

Crucible and PVP Overhaul

In short, players can expect a new "Glorious" Crucible seal to be added to the chase for glory, Control and Clash game modes are being combined into a single Quickplay playlist, and some of the lesser played modes are being added to weekly rotations. Lord Shaxx will offer engram-focusing from his vendor location in the Tower, and Bungie will start experimenting with a combination of matchmaking options across modes that favor skill, connection, and team sizes.

For Iron Banner, now only active twice a season, a new game mode is being introduced: Fortress, similar as control but with a spin - Guardians will have to deal with Empress Caiatl in addition to opposing players. This new mode will be introduced to Iron Banner January 3.

Retiring Destination Materials

As part of a move to simplify the Destiny 2 economy, Dusklight Shards, Microphasic Datalattice, Helium Filaments, Baryon Boughs, Spinmetal Leaves, and Glacial Starwort are being retired but can still be exchanged for Glimmer by Master Rahool. With this change players can expect to earn more Glimmer from Public Events.

Weapon Crafting Updates

Starting in Season 19, Deep Stone Crypt weapons from the Beyond Light will become available on the crafting block. The raid will have a chance to drop Deepsight weapons, and according to Bungie, players may purchase one per week from the final chest after defeating Taniks. Bungie has also noted that when Deep Stone Crypt is the featured raid of the week, encounter drops are uncapped and the odds of multiple Deepsight drops will be greatly increased in a single run.