We got a lot of information yesterday about The Final Shape, Destiny 2’s upcoming expansion, from a CG trailer and some eyes-on/hands-on play from journalists and creators. One other thing we got from that? A first look at the map for the main destination of the expansion, The Pale Heart.
You can see chunks of it above and below, and you can click here if you want to check out larger versions. But let’s go through what we can see.
- There’s already an idea that this is going to be a small map because we can only see one spawn point, as opposed to two in Neptune in Beyond Light and a whole bunch in large zones like the EDZ and Nessus. However, I think it’s important to consider this may not be about size, but structure, given the winding tunnel-type zones we see that do not seem especially conducive to fast travel. It also stands to reason this is a zone Bungie wants us to explore more than most, so I don’t think we can quite gauge its size yet.
- We see the names of a number of locations that are cryptically named, and I imagine have different roles as we progress through the campaign. From what we can see: The Transgression, The Seclusion, The Blooming, The Refraction
- There are three Lost Sectors seen in these two parts of the map, two are wayyy to the left on each map shot and you might miss them. There may be more out of frame, but three seems about right for a total.
- I am not exactly sure what these little ghost-ish symbols are around the map. I’d be at least a little surprised if they were collectibles, given that those are usually hidden, not clearly marked. The symbol also matches one very large symbol at the top of the map, indication some sort of mission or activity.
- We do also have “golden chests” still on the map, a concept that has not been relevant in some time, but still exists across all destinations, I guess, for some reason. Maybe free destination weapons, hopefully.
- On the map frame, Episode: Echoes: Act 1 is already active, indicating some of the symbols on the map may be from that content, albeit I don’t see the little crying Vex eye symbol itself there. The first Episode is supposed to launch a week after The Final Shape itself.
- There is what I can only describe as an airport on the map for some reason, a bunch of overlapping planes in the northeast. Yes, the first thing that comes to mind are the dead planes of the Cosmodrome, but those are in pieces and these, for whatever reason, all look fully intact. One is sort of on its side? Anyway, it’s certainly the weirdest formation I can see on the map right now.
- The Blooming very much seems like the central zone and I am positive that it contains the Tree of Silver Wings in the middle, along with the Io “here’s where the Traveler touched down” section that used to be in the skybox of the map until we got to the tree itself.
- Based on how the map is laid out, my guess is that we have the “nice” part of the map, the beautiful Traveler bits, on the left side, and as you go further right, you get to the nasty, corrupted Witness parts like The Transgression all the way over, and it’s not clear that’s even the last zone going that direction.
So, that’s what I can extract here. Anything else you’re spotting?
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