Image via Bungie

We're but one week and one day out from the impending arrival of The Witch Queen expansion for Destiny ii. Developer Bungie has been keeping its cards close to the chest with small teases over the final few months, but players have finally gotten to know more virtually what the new DLC has in shop this month. A trailer released Mon shows the development procedure behind the glaive, a new weapon archetype coming to the game with The Witch Queen.

New additions to the sandbox are something of a rarity in Destiny, with the concluding major one being the introduction of bows dorsum in 2022's Forsaken expansion. The video gives players a pocket-size backside-the-scenes expect at the development process behind the glaive, a hybrid between a polearm-styled melee weapon and a projectile launcher with special abilities related to your Guardian's class.

Hardcore Destiny fans accept been waiting a long fourth dimension for more than melee options across swords, and the glaive seems poised to fill that niche while having an identity all its ain. "Adding something new to the sandbox is never not going to exist difficult," Bungie designer George Kokoris says in the video, "and when nosotros commencement started running playtests with information technology, they were fashion likewise strong, which is a good thing. That'due south a good problem to have."

Ane of the biggest differentiation points for the glaive is staying in Destiny's usual kickoff-person while hacking abroad at enemies, giving its animations and gainsay an up shut and personal feel that's very dissimilar from the distant third-person view players are used to from swords. "The glaive is a much more focused, much more directed thing. It's a polearm, you're very clearly belongings it in a certain direction," Kokoris says. "We wanted to go on that experience in first-person. It has an immediacy that I think would've been lost if we were exclusively in 3rd-person."

Bungie'southward previous pre-release material for The Witch Queen let players know the special properties each class can brand use of through the glaive. Warlocks get healing turrets to go aslope them as they fight, while Titans can summon a shield to soak up enemy fire and Hunters get a flashy chain lightning effect in the vein of Riskrunner and Trinity Ghoul. The weapon crafting system coming to Destiny 2 volition introduce players to the archetype, and Guardians should exist able to tailor their Glaives to focus on the traits that fit their playstyles best.