‘Destiny’s’ Next Expansion Is ‘The Taken King’, Adds New Enemy And Sub-Classes

Destiny leaks have come pouring out ahead of the game’s next expansion reveal, planned for E3 next week. New information emerged Tuesday that gives detail to what PlayStation and Xbox owners should expect while confirming earlier leaks.

The next Destiny expansion and the first of the “Comet” releases is titled The Taken King, according to various marketing material floating around the internet. It is currently scheduled for release on Sept. 15, almost a year after the game’s original release.

The first leak of The Taken King came a month ago when the name was trademarked (via NeoGAF). This was followed by Red Bull promotional material spotted by MMGN that mentioned the game and expansion by name.

Then the real leak for The Taken King dropped Monday afternoon and into the evening, as a Planet Destiny member posted information to the Destinysubreddit claiming to have information about the expansion. This was followed by Planet Destiny tweeting out various details before both the Reddit post and tweets were removed.

LevelSave was able to capture the information, and Kotaku was also provided with the same marketing material for Destiny: The Taken King. In short, the following is about as close to a confirmation of a rumor that you can get.

The Taken King will be released for $40 and is the first of the “Comet” expansions for Destiny. It’s easier to think of it is Destiny 1.5, as it is bigger than the The Dark Below and House of Wolves, but slightly smaller than the full game.

An earlier leak covered by Inquisitr pegged the expansion as Plague of Darkness, but that has obviously changed. What hasn’t changed, though, is that it appears to be Hive-related, as players will be taking on Oryx, Crota’s father, this time around.

The leaked image at the time also revealed the following content was to be included. This is old information and could have changed, as House of Wolves did, but it gives an idea of the scope of The Taken King.

• Story Missions: 12
• Strikes: 4
• Public Events: 1
• Patrols: 1
• Raids: 1
• PvP maps: 6

The raid is said to take on Oryx himself, which should make some Destiny players happy following the exclusion of a raid from House of Wolves in favor of the new Arena mode, Prison of Elders.

Meanwhile, Destiny players have long speculated that the empty third box for Guardian sub-classes meant a third sub-class was coming to the game, and they are correct. Titans will receive a new solar sub-class named Flaming Hammer, Warlocks will get the arc-based Electrical Storm, and Hunters will gain the void-damaging Gravity Bow.

The new enemy race is described as The Taken. There’s speculation floating around that this may be a new race under the control of Oryx, but another intriguing bit of speculation popped up surrounding the following concept art image shared long ago by Bungie.

You can clearly see a mix of the current enemy races in the picture, but they all have the same green glow. It is possible that these are Fallen and Cabal enthralled by Oryx and made to do his bidding. It also gives Bungie a way of introducing new enemy types with slightly different tactics while also re-using existing assets and staying within the storyline of the universe.

What do you think of Destiny: The Taken King leaks? Sound off in the comments below.

[Images via Bungie]