Destiny 2: 10 Best Seasons, Ranked

Every three or so months, Destiny 2 sees a brand-new batch of content, or what’s known as a ‘season’, bringing a quest-based weekly storyline, activity, and more for players to enjoy. However, not all seasons are created equal, and some are much better than others. In this article, we will rank the ten best seasons using carefully cultivated metrics to provide the most objective ranking.

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Ranking the best ten individual seasons can be quite difficult, so to simplify matters, we have made five key areas that each season will be graded on, giving each one a total score out of 100. The ‘state’ of the game during the seasonal period will be taken into account for the grade as oftentimes, the season dictates the overall state of the game.

Seasons are often viewed as ‘periods of time in the game’ rather than individual releases, so it is only fair that any updates or content released within that season, regardless of marketing, will be credited to that season. These are the five scales we will use to give each season its score:

• Loot Quality (Weapons and Armor)
• Story/Plot
• Seasonal Content (Activities, Raid, Dungeon, Exotic Mission)
• Game Systems (Quality of Life, Subclass Updates, Server Stability)
• Seasonal Cadence (How ‘replayable’ the season is)

10 Season of the Haunted

Season of the Haunted, for the most part, brought the infamous Solar 3.0 update which is known for its incredible power fantasy and massive power creep, giving rise to some of the strongest builds Destiny has ever seen, especially on Solar Warlock. The loot in this season was mediocre. While it did come with some excellent options like Calus Mini-Tool, Bump in the Night, and Austringer, it also came with some very lackluster options too.

The story of Haunted was engaging. A tale of our favorite characters overcoming their inner demons combined with the return of Shadowkeep’s Nightmares was unique and executed fairly well, giving us an insight into their past. However, upon ending this short story chain, the season lost all replayability as the only things keeping Haunted going was a subpar Seasonal activity and a very buggy dungeon.

Season of the Haunted wore off quite fast for a lot of the player base, making it one to forget for most of the community, but there were some undeniable highs that came with this season too, giving it a low, but justified score of 53/100.

9 Season of Plunder

Season of Plunder is lucky that it had the return of King’s Fall to lean on, as this period of time in Destiny 2 was already lacking, even with the reprised Raid. While Plunder brought updates to the Arc subclass which allowed for some powerful Hunter setups, it didn’t instantly shake up the meta like its Void and Solar counterparts.

The seasonal story was also pretty mediocre, and the return of Eramis, a poor villain, wasn’t too compelling. However, the introduction of Eido and her relationship with her father, Mithrax, helps carry the story. Spider and the Drifter getting involved is also always a bonus.

The loot in Plunder was decent at best, with some of the better options being weapons from King’s Fall, and server/bug stability was rapidly declining, with Gyrfalcon’s Hauberk being disabled for weeks upon weeks. In fact, most would say that the Subclass updates for both Plunder and Haunted were major parts of what made the seasons passable.

Overall, Plunder was practically the same quality as Haunted, and an individual’s opinion will no doubt separate the two in players’ minds, giving it a very similar score of 54/100.

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8 Season of Dawn

Season of Dawn’s time-travel-themed story instantly causes problems in many players’ minds as more often than not, time-travel stories are not done well, and while Season of Dawn tries to avoid some common pitfalls, it still brings a dead character out of the past by using a random, magic device that Osiris created. However, players can overlook this as the missions of saving Saint-14, and Saint-14 himself, are held in high regard.

The loot in Dawn was decent, but nothing special, aside from Martyr’s Retribution of course, which was the first Wave-Frame Grenade Launcher to be added to the game.

The game overall was quite stable, and the seasonal content was passable. Sundial felt like a knock-off version of Menagerie, but the Corridors of Time missions and community puzzle were engaging for players. Overall, Season of Dawn gets a low, but reasonable rating of 59/100.

7 Season of the Splicer

Season of the Splicer brought Mithrax into the limelight to help dispel the false night cast over the Last City by Quria. While the overarching story of Splicer was solid, many lore fans will have been disappointed by the use of Quira in the final mission, as it was simply too easy to defeat such a powerful Vex Mind and prominent minion of Savathun.

The loot in Splicer was decent, with Vault of Glass bringing great weapons like Corrective Measure, but there wasn’t anything too groundbreaking, and the season did slow down quite a lot toward the end.

Overall, Splicer was a solid release that delivered on some fronts but underperformed on others, giving it a middling rating of 63/100.

6 Season of the Lost

Season of the Lost had a number of positives and negatives. The main positive is that in its release, the 30th Anniversary Pack was released, bringing some exotics like the Halo Magnum and more. Grasp of Avarice was a decent dungeon, and many PvP players look fondly upon this period in Destiny. It is seen as the season before the game started having serious stability issues, and was overall, a decent season.

However, due to the delays of The Witch Queen, Season of the Lost dragged on for around 6 months, making the game grind to an absolute halt, and this, combined with a lacking storyline and mediocre seasonal activity made Lost slow down quite quickly. Overall, Lost was a decent release that deserves some praise but is helped along massively by the Anniversary pack, giving it a rating of 69/100.

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5 Season of Arrivals

Season of Arrivals brought some of the biggest changes to loot that Destiny has ever seen through the release of Umbral Engrams and the Prismatic Recaster which is now a polished system included in every season’s loot system, which gives Season of Arrivals a massive boost. The loot was also very good, Witherhoard, Falling Guillotine, and the return of the IKELOS suite of weapons are just a few to name.

However, the rest of Arrivals is pretty mediocre. Prophecy is a solid dungeon, but the public event-themed seasonal activity wore off fast, and players got bored. This was not helped by the delay of Beyond Light, making the DLC total around five months in duration which made players take quite a lengthy break from the game.

Overall, Season of Arrivals did some things brilliantly, and other areas were left lacking, but on the whole, the season was pretty solid, giving it a strong score of 73/100.

4 Season of the Seraph

Season of the Seraph brought Battlegrounds, a common seasonal activity, back with a twist. Power Levels were capped meaning players could not breeze through seasonal content anymore, which was a bonus in the majority of players’ eyes. The loot was solid too. The third iteration of the IKELOS suite of weapons was tiring, but it is still good loot, and exotics like Hierarchy of Needs and Revision Zero were popular among the community.

The story was also quite good. Rasputin got his long-awaited conclusion, Ana Bray and the Exo Stranger interacted with Clovis Bray which brought intensity to dialogue, and the involvement of Osiris hunting for any trace of Neomuna served as a solid side-plot in one of the best dungeons in Destiny, Spire of the Watcher. However, there were some server stability issues that frustrated players for quite some time, concerning the community regarding the stability of Lightfall.

Overall though, Season of the Seraph was a success, with an emotional storyline, decent seasonal content, and good loot, giving it a good score of 74/100.

3 Season of the Chosen

Season of the Chosen kickstarted the new Vanguard Op, Battlegrounds. This mode was popular among players due to its simplicity and swarms of enemies to overcome which was quite satisfying. However, the novelty did wear off quite fast for some and players did get bored by the repetitive nature of Battlegrounds. The loot was solid, with weapons like Dead Man’s Tale, Extraordinary Rendition, Multimach CCX, and more. The story was also pretty good, with humanity being locked into a war with the remnants of Ghaul’s empire led by Calus’s daughter, Caiatl.

Season of the Chosen also brought the H.E.L.M and the Prismatic Recaster into the mix which have been focal points for future seasons.

Season of the Chosen may not have been the flashiest season by any means, but it was for sure one of the strongest seasonal releases that Bungie has made, giving it an excellent score of 79/100.

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2 Season of the Forge (Black Armory)

Black Armory is a relic of a different time in Destiny 2. Riding off the success of Forsaken, Black Armory did drop with some initial controversy regarding Power Level, but as the season progressed, and players accessed some of the brilliant loot the season had to offer, sentiment towards Season of the Forge shifted, and now many players are clamoring for a return of these fabled weapons. The story introduced Ada-1, a unique Exo with a rich backstory for lore enthusiasts to feast upon, and overall, the season ‘felt’ good.

Secrets like Niobe Labs, while tedious, kept players engaged, and Scourge of the Past is still viewed today as one of the most fun raids the game has ever seen, and players were gutted when it was placed into the Destiny Content Vault.

Black Armory does a lot well, but makes a couple of mistakes, however, these can be overlooked due to how strong certain parts of Season of the Forge is, giving it a brilliant score of 85/100.

1 Season of Opulence (Penumbra)

Hands down, the greatest seasonal drop that Bungie has ever released, Season of Opulence has been said to rival the quality of expansions. Coming with a revolutionary seasonal activity in Menagerie, and excellent loot like Beloved, Austringer, Bad Juju, Lumina, and much more, Opulence came out swinging on practically every single front.

Arguably, the only weakness of Opulence was the slightly lacking story, however, the story on the whole wasn’t too bad, and it is surrounded by a Raid, brilliant loot, an engaging seasonal activity, and more, letting players overlook almost all downsides of this season.

Opulence is most likely a season that will never be dethroned from the top spot and will remain a special period for Destiny in many players’ minds, giving it a near-perfect score of 93/100.

NEXT: Destiny 2: Hardest Raid Bosses, Ranked