Destiny 2’s latest expansion, Renegades (released December 2, 2025), is the wildest thing Bungie has ever done: a full-on, officially licensed Star Wars love letter dropped straight into the Destiny universe. Lightsabers, blasters, swoop bikes, crime syndicates, a diamond-shaped superweapon—it’s all here, and somehow it actually works.
The Star Wars Fantasy
Renegades doesn’t whisper its inspiration; it screams it through a megaphone made of John Williams horns. The campaign’s centerpiece is the Praxic Blade, an Exotic sword that is unambiguously a lightsaber. You can throw it like a glowing boomerang, block incoming fire and reflect it back, and chase different blade colors and hums through upgrades.
Missions are packed with shameless nods: garbage-compactor gauntlets, carbonite freezing traps, trench-run escapes, cantina-style hubs, and even a boss fight inside a half-built Death Star knockoff.
At first it feels almost embarrassingly on-the-nose, but the sheer confidence sells it. Bungie leans into the cheese, and by the end you’re grinning like an idiot while dual-wielding a strand blaster and a humming plasma sword.
New Mechanics That Actually Feel Fresh
Renegade Abilities are the star of the gameplay overhaul. You get a dedicated “job wheel” (bound to R3/ZL) with nine wildly different toys:
- call in Cabal drop-pod strikes
- pilot an AT-ST-style walker
- deploy healing drones
- summon an interceptor fighter
- rain orbital barrages — and more
These abilities have limited charges that refill from chests and scale beautifully from normal difficulty all the way up to Grandmasters.
Coupled with the new Notoriety system (pledge to one of three crime syndicates for escalating rewards) and opt-in Invasions that turn activities into mini-Gambit battles, Renegades makes public spaces feel chaotic and alive again. It’s the most fun Destiny’s sandbox has been in years.
New Weapons: Blasters Are Ridiculous (In the Best Way)
Blasters are a brand-new weapon archetype built around heat management: fire until the gauge maxes, then either vent for bonus damage or reload to reset. They feel punchy, look gorgeous, and come with perks specifically designed around overheating and venting.
Standouts include:
- Uncivil Discourse (Arc aggressive hand cannon)
- Modified B-7 Pistol (Stasis precision HC that freezes on vent)
- All or Nothing (Strand pulse with unraveling rounds)
- M-17 Fast Talker (Stasis SMG that feels like a mini rapid-fire blaster)
Add in the Praxic Blade, a healing Threadling machine gun called Service of Luzaku, and a bow that shoots explosive bolts, and the loot chase is legitimately exciting again.
New Areas & Activities
Tharsis Outpost on Mars serves as your Mos Eisley-style hub — bustling with shady vendors, gambling tables, and syndicate representatives.
The Lawless Frontier rotates six gorgeous maps across Mars, Venus, and Europa, each packed with enemies and secrets. The upcoming Equilibrium dungeon (dropping December 13) is a three-player infiltration of a massive Cabal warship and already looks spectacular in previews.
Verdict
Renegades is short (the story wraps in about 4–5 hours), and the weekly Notoriety grind will annoy some people, but everything else fires on all cylinders. The Star Wars homage could have been a cringe disaster; instead it’s one of the most joyful, inventive expansions Destiny has ever received.
If you ever wanted to live out a “Guardians in a galaxy far, far away” fantasy, this is it. Grab your Praxic Blade, pick a syndicate, and go cause some glorious chaos.
8
Destiny 2 Renegades review code provided by publisher and reviewed on a PS5 and PC. For more information on scoring, please read What our review scores really mean.
