Destiny 2’s upcoming Renegades expansion may be looking to draw fans in with its Star Wars inspirations, but don’t expect to come across C-3P0 or Chewbacca while going through the add-on's story. Renegades pays homage to George Lucas’ beloved IP in a dozen different ways, but it never calls it out by name.
Developer Bungie was careful to make sure that this is still an inherently Destiny experience, even if it is heavily inspired by Star Wars. It’s surprising how many parallels can be drawn between Destiny and Star Wars, most especially the dark vs light motif, but anyone going into Renegades expecting something completely different from what has come before won’t find it here. This is Bungie doing what it does best: telling a compelling story with intriguing characters and letting its top-tier gunplay shine through.
Going Hands On With Destiny 2's Renegades Expansion
The Best War Games was invited to an early preview of Renegades, where we were able to go hands-on with a massive chunk of the Destiny 2 expansions’ main quest, as well as test out tons of the new weapons, experience the new exotic mission, and the Lawless Frontier activity. It was a comprehensive look at what’s next for Destiny 2 that was preceded by a genuine mission statement. After missing the mark with the Edge of Fate and Ash and Iron content drops, Bungie wants to do better by its players, and Renegades is the first step toward that.
A Story With Teeth
If Renegades is an indicator of the next big step for Destiny 2, then it feels like the game is headed in the right direction. Without getting into story spoilers, Renegades’ main story missions feel like the epic conflict that the series does so well. There were cool moments between fan favorite characters like The Drifter and Spider, and some new faces that will become core parts of Destiny 2’s narrative moving forward.
It’s funny, but you don’t start to see the parallels between Destiny and Star Wars until they are put right in front of your face. Drifter as Han Solo, for example, makes so much sense, but doesn’t feel forced. Seeing Spider as an intergalactic gangster a la Jabba the Hutt fits so perfectly, you have to imagine Bungie planned this all along. So many parts of Renegades pay homage to Star Wars without directly ripping it off, with the few exceptions being things like the Praxic Blade (lightsaber) and Behemoth (AT-ST).
Renegades feels like a proper Destiny 2 adventure in the spirit of the game’s best expansions. There are stakes, but they aren’t on the level of Final Shape. It is a narrative carving out its own lore within a specific section of the larger Destiny 2 universe, bringing appropriate characters into the mix and giving players an incentive to dig deeper.
In particular, I found the character of Dredgen Bael to be one of the most exciting antagonists Destiny 2 has created. He’s got flashes of Kylo Ren in him and is the perfect representation of a darkness-wielding foe – he's ruthless but also conflicted in his aims. Bungie has crafted a conflict that has layers, with the Barrant Imperium of the Cabal posing a larger threat to the Guardians, and the promise of more Praxic Order lore stringing diehard fans along.
I can’t say whether Renegades' story sticks the landing, but my introduction to this new expansion offered everything that a great Destiny 2 expansion could. There typically are other elements of an expansion or new season/episode that determine its longevity or staying power, but the campaigns are typically solid, and this was right there along with some of the best.
New Destination: Tharsis Outpost
Renegades introduces a new destination in Tharsis Outpost, which is where Destiny 2 players will pick up new quests, meet familiar characters and new faces, and align themselves with one of three factions. Think of Tharsis like Tatooine – it's a den of scum and villainy where the shady characters in Destiny 2’s universe like to hang out.
Tharsis Outpost is not a destination for combat, but rather a HUB world. It fits the Renegades milieu, and it does have a greater purpose in the campaign, but I can’t say more than that.
New Activity: Lawless Frontier
I’ll have a full impressions post on the Lawless Frontier, but Destiny 2’s new ritual activity has some really cool ideas at play, but not all of them felt successful. Bungie is reticent to call this an extraction mode, but you can see some inspiration in the way you can call down offensive, defensive, and support utilities. Obviously, the Behemoth walker is going to be a major selling point for Renegades, a pilotable vehicle heavily inspired by the AT-ST, but there are other useful Renegade Abilities like a healing drone, a Pike, or a strafing run.
The idea in Lawless Frontier is that you touch down on one of the locations, complete a few objectives, collect lock boxes, and exfiltrate. If all goes according to plan, you’ll come back with a good amount of loot and currency (to spend on even more loot), but the activity can get pretty challenging, and success is not guaranteed. Those Renegade Abilities offer a major advantage to keep the hordes at bay, but even then, chaos can erupt at a moment’s notice if players want to be bold.
Lawless Frontier has an invasion mechanic (optional) that can force teams to keep their heads on a swivel. Whether Bungie wants to call Lawless Frontier an extraction mode or mention Helldivers 2, there is that feeling of fighting tooth and nail for survival within the activity. My one concern is that some objectives are more fun than others – the Smuggle objective is a bit too tedious – but this was in a unique environment. With a fireteam of two friends, Lawless Frontier could be a lot of fun and very rewarding.
New Weapon Archetype: Blasters
An activity is only worth grinding if the loot is good and Renegades has some really exciting new gear to grind. At the top of the list are the new blaster archetype weapons, which use a heat mechanic to generate ammo. Fire too often, and a weapon will overheat, locking you out until the heat meter resets back to zero. However, if you trigger a “reload” within a certain threshold, you can dissipate that heat faster and get back to firing sooner.
Blasters are nothing new for the world of shooters, but they feel fresh in Destiny 2. With the different build synergies that eliminate reloads (hello Lucky Pants!), there are some really exciting possibilities with blasters. New perks like those that generate heat more slowly or those that do damage at higher heat are sure to make blasters even stronger, but what was most engaging was how they made me rewire the way I think about combat. I no longer needed to reload every few shots to ensure I had enough ammo to take out a higher-tier enemy. Instead, I could stay in the fight longer, knowing that if I pull off that perfect exhaust, I won’t be out of it for too long.
I don’t necessarily think blasters are going to completely change the game for Destiny 2, but they are different enough to make things interesting. You want to try out the new stuff because it’s new, but whether or not it replaces the current meta is yet to be determined. I will say, though, that the new crossbow blaster that’s clearly inspired by Chewbacca’s Boltcaster packs a punch.
It’s also worth mentioning that the new Renegades gear was provided to us to test out, but the sources were not all from the activities we had access to. Some of the weapons we were using – in fact, some of the best weapons we were using – came from the new Equilibrium dungeon. Bungie seems to have done well to spread out its weapons, while also making sure there are a variety of blaster types available (pulses, sidearms, hand cannons).
New Exotic Weapon: Praxic Blade
If there is to be one selling point for Destiny 2: Renegades it has to be the Praxic Blade, Bungie’s version of the lightsaber. For this preview event, we were able to jump into the exotic mission that rewards the Praxic Blade and then use it in activities like Lawless Frontier or the campaign missions.
The exotic mission has everything I want/expect out of a good Destiny 2 weapon mission: unguided exploration and a unique puzzle mechanic. I will say that the mechanic can make things a bit tedious to “unlock” once you figure it out, but I appreciated that things weren’t spelled out or handed to me without any friction. And once you get the Praxic Blade, boy, is it a game changer.
Destiny 2 has plenty of swords, but the Praxic Blade is something else – an incredibly cool blade that fits in the kinetic slot. It has the look and the sound of a lightsaber, and the utility of one too. It can slice through enemies, block incoming fire, and you can throw it to take out baddies from a distance, but that’s just the beginning. I can't get into specifics, but the weapon's utility will expand to meet a variety of play styles
I was surprised by the different ways that the Praxic Blade can fit into a Destiny 2 player’s toolkit, beyond just being a fun weapon to use. I can’t say if it’s going to become a meta weapon or something that you would take into challenging content, but for an exotic it has a lot more under the hood than you expect.
I got to play around with the Praxic Vestmant exotic chest piece for Titan, which lets you fly around like Iron Man for a few seconds. Utility is pretty low but the awesome factor is very high!
New Portal Category: Arena Ops
Alongside the new campaign and Lawless Frontier activity, we also took some time to check out Arena Ops, which is Destiny 2’s upcoming 6-player Portal activity. For the preview, we were able to jump into Astral Alignment with other members of the media and content creator guests, but when Renegades launches there will be additional activities included as part of the Arena Ops rotation. Since its debut, the Portal has been a solo or 3-player fireteam focused, so it’s nice to see Arena Ops come in and expand the matchmade activity offerings.
There are so many 6-player activities that have been retired from Destiny 2’s past, this is an opportunity to bring those back into the rotation, give players rewards to grind, and put coordinated teams to the test on higher difficulties. Astral Alignment was never the most challenging activity originally, but in Arena Ops it was no pushover. I can’t wait to see what Bungie does with Arena Ops at launch and moving forward, because the content calendar makes it seem like the devs are highly invested in keeping the offerings growing.
Destiny 2: Renegades Final Impressions
My hands-on preview for Destiny 2: Renegades began with a clear message. Bungie wants to do better by its fans and is willing to admit it has missed the mark as of late. Renegades, in part, feels like a response to those player frustrations, but it was already in the works well before Edge of Fate released. So, while the core systems that are wrapped around the Renegades content might be familiar, the hope is that they will honor players' time and reward them accordingly.
As far as whether the content I played was any good, it ticked all the boxes I want out of a new Destiny 2 expansion and that's reason enough to be excited for early December for me. I can't say whether or not I will be grinding Lawless Frontier or Arena Ops for blasters a month or two after Renegades releases, but I know I will be there Day 1 to see how the story plays out and to chase some of those slick new blaster weapons.
Don't go into Renegades expecting it to be a complete departure from Destiny 2's identity — it's not that. The Star Wars elements are homages or inspirations, but this is still Destiny 2 at its core. If you've been along for the ride and are curious what's next, there is some exciting stuff on the horizon. And if you are a lapsed player looking for a reason to get back into the game, Bungie has put together a pretty stellar package with Renegades.
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Destiny 2's Renegades expansion releases December 2, 2025, for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S. The Best War Games was provided travel and lodging for this preview.