Destiny 2 campaigns list – All expansions and DLC trailers in order

The Destiny 2 campaign list has grown immensely since the game’s release back in 2017. From the battle against Ghaul to the alliance with Savathun, a long, winding and epic narrative has accompanied Guardians across the years.

With the Final Shape release date now in distant sight, and the end of the Light and Darkness saga that has spanned a decade almost at an end, let’s take a look back across the full Destiny 2 campaign list, exploring the story, game changes, best exotics, and more that each campaign has brought us. For the sake of brevity here, we’re going to mostly focus on the campaigns themselves. If you’re looking for a Destiny 2 seasons list, we’ve got one on the way for you.

All campaigns in Destiny 2

Here’s a full list of all the campaigns in Destiny 2.

• The Red War campaign.
• The Curse of Osiris campaign.
• The Warmind campaign.
• The Forsaken campaign.
• The Shadowkeep campaign.
• The Beyond Light campaign.
• The Witch Queen campaign.
• The Lightfall campaign.
• The Final Shape campaign.

Next, let’s take a closer look at each of these definitive moments in Destiny 2’s story. We’re also including the trailers for each campaign, as something of a nostalgic look back.

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Did you know?

Unfortunately, Red War, Curse of Osiris, Warmind, and Forsaken are unavailable to new players, with these campaigns and some of their associated content having been vaulted by Bungie.

The Red War

The Red War began Destiny 2’s story. It saw a Cabal invasion of the Last City, orchestrated by the formidable Red Legion and their leader Dominus Ghaul. The surprise invasion of Earth leads to the capture of the Traveller with Light-supressing technology, an act which cuts of Guardians everywhere from their powers and immortality. As Ghaul attempts to harness the Light for himself and his flagship star-killer The Almighty arrives in the Sol system, it’s up to players to reconnect with the Light, rally the disparate Vanguard forces, take down the Red Legion and stop Ghaul. We eventually succeed, crippling The Almighty, battering Red Legion forces in a stunning counterattack, and killing Ghaul. In the process, the Traveller reawakens, destroying Ghaul for good, but reawakening an ancient enemy in the depths of space, too.

The Red War Campaign opened to mixed reception, but is nonetheless one of the most ambitious campaigns in Destiny’s history. It brought us a number of new locations like the EDZ and Nessus, as well as hosts of new characters like Devrim Kay, Asher Mir, and more.

The Red War, being the first campaign, had a number of trailers, with the best known likely being the “Rally The Troops” trailer that dropped shortly before Destiny 2 launched.

Curse of Osiris

The first Destiny 2 expansion. The Curse of Osiris introduced us to the enigmatic and arrogant Osiris, a Legendary Guardian and exile from the Last City, and former mentor to Ikora Rey. Osiris re-emerges at last from the Infinite Forest, a massive Vex construct on Mercury designed to simulate every reality and timeline in existence. He brings dire warnings the Panoptese, a powerful Vex mind, has almost succeeded in calculating a timeline the Vex can pursue to reach unrivalled domination over the Sol system. We’re tasked with tracking down and helping Osiris to defeat Panoptese before it can achieve its goals.

Curse of Osiris debuted in December 2017, but saw mostly negative feedback. Even today, it is widely regarded as one of the weakest DLC expansions in Destiny’s history. It did however bring Mercury to prominence, making for an exciting new vista, and introduce Osiris, who would go on to become a mainstay in the game’s cast.

Despite an ultimately poor reception, as the first expansion for the game, Curse of Osiris had a pretty exciting launch trailer that drummed up quite a lot of hype at the time.

Warmind

Warmind brought us back to Mars, this time to the northern pole. Melting ices at last revealed and awoke Rasputin, the most powerful weapon of Golden Age Humanity. This colossal AI’s re-emergence held the potential to help humanity retake the system, or destroy what remained of them. Forming a bond with Anna Bray, a daughter of Golden Age scientist and magnate Clovis, Rasputin would seek the help of the Guardians to eliminate another threat that awoke alongside him in the thawing ice – the Hive. Under the direction of one of the fabled Worm Gods, Xol, Guardians would aid Rasputin in rebuilding his defences, defeating the Hive threat, and eventually even killing Xol itself – if only to then re-forge it into the exotic weapon, Whisper Of The Worm.

The Warmind campaign came out not long after Curse of Osiris, arriving in May of 2018. While its reception was still poor, it fared better than Curse, and introduced some groundwork that would be built upon greatly in years to come. Countless seasons, expansions, and storylines to follow would involve the Brays and Rasputin in varying capacities.

The trailer for Warmind took a heavy focus on new modes, content, and loot arriving with the expansion as well as the story, working hard to paint a full picture of what Warmind brought to the table.

Forsaken

The Forsaken campaign took Destiny 2’s story in a dark new direction. Following a prison break at the Prison of Elders, Uldren Sov, brother to the Awoken Queen Mara, would successfully and permanently kill Cayde-6, the exo leader of the Hunter Vanguard. The move set Guardians on a destructive hunt for revenge through the lawless Tangled Shore, battling renegade fallen and the rising threat of the Scorn along the way. One by one, we hunted down and executed Uldren’s Scorn Barons, finally forcing a confrontation with the man himself. Uldren would pay with his life for his crimes, though was later resurrected as a Guardian by the Traveller with no memory of his past life, becoming Crow.

While it underperformed expectations at the time, Forsaken is often widely regarded as one of the best DLC expansions in Destiny’s history. Many credit it for sustaining the game’s longevity, much in the way that Taken King did for Destiny 1. It brought a number of new characters and locations, introduced the necrotic, resurrected Fallen, the Scorn, and saw a fan-favourite raid The Last Wish make its debut.

The Forsaken trailer garnered an immense amount of attention, which no doubt aided the expansion in its eventual success. It also drew plenty of criticism though for spoiling Cayde-6’s demise within the story.

Shadowkeep

With the Vanguard still reeling from the loss of Cayde-6, our attention turned to the Moon. Once a fortress of Hive activity, things had seemingly improved – until the discovery of the Scarlet Keep and the Pyramid Ship. Eris Morn called Guardians to return to Luna and battle the crimson-clad Hive forces of the massive Scarlet Keep as they fought to reassert themselves on Earth’s celestial neighbourgh. More haunting though was the discovery of the Pyramind Ship beneath the Moon’s surface. Fromerly the flagship of Nezerac, Final God of Pain, it was left abandoned during the events of the Collapse following Savathun’s betrayal of the Witness. There it remained, partially inert, but still seeping out Darkness and poisoning the minds of those nearby with Nightmares. Although we succeeded in quelling the most immediate threats, we were left with an ominous message from the Witness, telling of their approach.

Shadowkeep wasn’t beloved by fans, but neither was it particularly derided. The DLC brought back the Moon, a location Guardians had been eager to return to for some time. It’s seen as something of a halfway point in Destiny 2’s story, representing the last of the older expansions and the beginning of the build-up to our final showdown with the forces of the Darkness.

The launch trailer for Shadowkeep was an action-packed affair, promoting the new activities, exotics, updates, Season of the Undying, and new raid, Garden of Salvation, alongside the story and mystery of the Scarlet Keep.

Beyond Light

After the arrival of the Witness’ Black Fleet darkened the Sol system, Guardians travelled to Europa, where a number of familiar faces awaited. Alongside the Drifter and Eris Morn, we’d finally meet the Exo Stranger again – Elsie Bray, Anna’s sister – as well as Variks, the Eliksni responsible for the Prison of Elders. Together, we’d unlock the power of Stasis, an elemental subclass of the Darkness, and use it to defeat the rising House Salvation and their Kell, Eramis. In the process, we’d forge stronger ties to many of the remaining Fallen, who would go on to become allies against the traitorous elements of their own kind and the wider forces of the Darkness.

Beyond Light received largely positive reception, even in spite of Stasis’ rough balance in the early days. The DLC expansion introduced a host of popular features, including exotics like No Time To Explain and Lament, and the Deep Stone Crypt raid. It would also further the narratives surrounding Clovis Bray and the exo’s, who were created at his facilities on Europa.

Beyond Light marked something of a new chapter in story and expansions for Destiny 2, and it shows in the launch trailer. With a new level of polish and finesse, the preview raised the bar of expectations for many fans of the game.

Witch Queen

Before our showdown with The Witness, Guardians had another grand threat to contend with: Savathun. The Witch Queen of the Hive arrived in Sol, opening her Throne World to us in an attempt to steal and seal away the Traveller before the Witness could reach it. At her disposal however was the power of the Light itself, for Savathun had been resurrected by the Traveller following her fatal separation from her Worm in the events of the prior seasons. We’d eventually uncover details of her past that even Savathun didn’t know, proving that she and her siblings had been lied to and manipulated by the Witness from the very beginning. Eventually, we’d outwit the God of Lies herself, rescuing the Traveller, killing Savathun, and leaving the road to the main villain open.

The Witch Queen expansion is widely regarded as a major success for Destiny 2, and one of the best Destiny 2 expansions. On both a narrative and gameplay level it’s received praise and admiration. It worked well to set up the events leading to Lightfall, and brought a host of new exotics, armor, and activities to the game.

Following the moderate success of Beyond Light, anticipation for Witch Queen was already running high, something reinforced early on even with the reveal trailer for the expansion.

Lightfall

The Witness arrived in the Sol system at long last, instigating a showdown with the Traveller. When it learnt that the paracausal entity the Veil, was on Neptune, it dispatched its newest disciple, Calus, to the gas giant. Following after him, we would there discover that the Last City was in fact not the only remaining bastion of human civilisation. Neomuna, a city founded around the time of the Collapse by Chioma Esi and Maya Sundaresh, stood between Calus’ Shadow Legion and the Veil. Alongside its defenders, the Cloudstriders, Osiris, and a new substrate of Darkness, Strand, we battled Calus in a race to secure the Veil. Although we would ultimately succeed in slaying the disciple and crippling the Shadow Legion, the Witness still managed to link with the Veil, opening a portal in the side of the Traveller and closing in on its plan to enact the Final Shape.

Despite its lofty ambitions, Lightfall largely failed to exceed fears of a filler content expansion. Although the vistas of Neomuna were praised and the new raid, Root of Nightmares, is largely considered to be excellent, the rest of the DLC and its story were panned by the community and critics, beginning a decline which the game is still currently struggling to combat.

In spite of its let-downs, Lightfall managed to capture a lot of excitement on leadup to release, evident in its fantastic launch trailer.

The Final Shape

The last Destiny 2 expansion and campaign of the Light and Darkness Saga, The Final Shape is expected to be a big event. In this expansion, players will pass through the Portal on the side of the Traveller in pursuit of the Witness. Entering the Pale Heart of the Traveller, Guardians will need to once more rally the forces of the Vanguard and all their allies to traverse the strange paracausal realm and put a permeant end to the Witness and its plans to reshape the universe in its image.

Though The Final Shape pre-order is live, it has yet to release, so we can’t judge reception or content just yet. Early impressions at the reveal trailer were positive, even though the trailer itself offers only limited insight into what we can expect from this last big expansion.

Of course, the mass layoffs at Bungie in October and official postponement of the expansion’s release from Februarys to June have many players concerned about where the game may be heading. Ultimately, only time will tell whether or not this last chapter is the success the studio seems to be hoping for.

That covers the full Destiny 2 campaign list so far. With the game set to transition to an Episodes structure following Final Shape, it’s difficult to say what the future of campaign content could look like. If you’re on the hunt for more Destiny 2 knowledge in the meantime, check out some of our other guides. From basics like how to create Orbs of Power and get Ascendant Shards to rankings on the best Hunter exotics, best Titan exotics, and best Warlock exotics in the game, we’ve got you covered.

How many campaigns does Destiny 2 have?

Destiny 2 has 9 campaigns in total.

Is Destiny 2 bigger than Destiny 1?

In terms of content and campaigns, Destiny 2 is significantly larger than Destiny 1.

Will there be more Destiny 2 expansions after The Final Shape?

It’s currently unclear if we’ll see more DLC expansions for Destiny 2 following The Final Shape. However, as the game is going to move from a seasonal system to an episodes-based one, it looks likely that no DLC like those we’ve seen before will arrive for the game after TFS.