11 Spoiler-Free Things You Should Know Before Starting Destiny 2

The game hasn’t even technically released, but we’ve already spent more than 20 hours exploring Bungie’s universe in Destiny 2. We walked away impressed. Here are some of the things we learned during our hands-on time you might want to know if you’re still on the fence about purchasing this massive time-sink.

1) Destiny is still one of the best console shooters – Bungie has always excelled at delivering a mechanically solid shooter.

2) The music is also still great – The music in the first Destiny was iconic, and dare I say, the music for Destiny 2 might actually be better.

3) You need to be patient for a Sparrow – Destiny’s hover bikes were one of the first things you unlocked in the original game. In the sequel, you won’t get on until late in the game. Everyone will get one when you finish the campaign, but there is also a chance you can unlock one using paid currency at the Eververse Trading Co. storefront.

4) Destiny 2 is beautiful – The technology behind the first Destiny was tied to last generation consoles, which may have held it back a bit. That is no longer the case here, though, and the world of Destiny looks better than ever in the sequel.

5) You can actually understand the story – Destiny’s lore is incredibly rich, but the story for the first game required a bit of homework to understand. The sequel tells a much simpler story, but one that is much easier to follow. Red Legion is a powerful and militaristic army of Cabal lead by an emporer named Dominus Ghaul. Dominus’ ultimate goal is to seize the Traveler’s power and posses it for himself. The opening moments of the game follow Dominus as he invades earth and steals the light from every guardian in the galaxy. I found Dominus to be a pretty cool character, and look forward to getting my revenge on him in the final game.

6) The leveling system is smooth – Destiny’s original light leveling system was a bit of a headache. It was so confusing that Bungie reworked the system for its first major expansion The Taken King. If you haven’t played sense the original release, just know that you earn experience and can level naturally up to the level cap of 20. New levels allow you the equip better gear like traditional RPGs. However, your gear has a corresponding light level. This light level is your power rating, so you want to constantly equip gear that has better power ratings (also like a lot of RPGs). Basically, you don’t need a degree in advanced mathematics to figure this out, so don’t be scared.

7) Don’t know where to go? Use a map – Seriously, how did the original Destiny not have a map system? Thankfully, in Destiny 2 you have one and it works like a map should. You can see more points of interest, including secret chests, and tag missions, which gives you a waypoint to follow.

8) Public Events Should have a longer lifespan – It didn’t take long for Destiny’s public events to grow stale as the rewards you got from them during the late game were rarely worth it. In Destiny 2, however, Bungie has tinkered with the algorithms and says you you will see great rewards for participating in Public Events, even in the late game. Additionally, if you can power through the challenge more quickly than normal, the event will change as you play it. If you do well enough, a Public Event will become a Heroic Public Event, which is more challenging and offers better rewards.

9) At one point, you control a tank – Sorry, I should have said tanks!

10) Adventures are a great time – Adventures are a new mission type for Destiny 2. They function a lot like campaign missions in length and complexity, but are disconnected from the campaign and often tell their own side stories or reveal the history of the world and the characters you encounter.

11) You won’t run out of stuff to do anytime soon – From side missions to public events to hidden dungeons to nearly endless loot, Destiny 2 has no shortage of activities. Its environments feel more alive and active and even after playing for more than 20 hours, I feel like I just started to scratch the surface. If you’re still on the fence about purchasing Destiny 2, don’t be. Destiny 2 is shaping up to be one of the best shooters on modern consoles.

Destiny 2 releases tomorrow, September 6 on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, and PC October 24.