With the release of Destiny 2’s next expansion, Lightfall, on the horizon, it’s time for my annual condemnation of content vaulting. When Beyond Light launched two years ago, Bungie created the Destiny Content Vault, a null zone where campaigns and expansions that customers paid for disappeared for an indeterminate amount of time, sometimes never to be seen again. Bungie has framed the DCV as a necessary evil in order to manage file sizes, load times, and development schedules, and while I can appreciate the uniquely difficult position Destiny is in, I will never accept the removal of paid content.

The first vaulting remains the most severe, as the original Red War campaign, both Year 1 seasons, and nearly half of the patrol zones were snuffed out of existence overnight. Last year, Bungie cut the Forsaken campaign - one many still consider to be Destiny 2’s best - as well as the Tangled Shore, but managed to keep the Dreaming City intact. To their credit Bungie did announce that expansions will not be vaulted moving forward. The studio wants everyone to be able to play the complete Light & Darkness Saga, which evidently starts with Shadowkeep, so it won’t be rotating out when Lightfall starts.

That doesn’t mean nothing is getting vaulted though. Bungie hasn’t confirmed anything, but we can expect some content will be removed at the start of Lightfall. Patrol zones like the Cosmodrome and EDZ could be on the chopping block, since they’re not integral to the Shadowkeep, Beyond Light, or The Witch Queen campaigns, in order to make room for the new planets and activities coming in the next expansion. Even if Bungie doesn’t vault those locations, we know with some certainty that all of The Witch Queen’s seasonal content is on the way out.

Specifically, Season of the Risen’s storyline and its PsiOps Battlegrounds, Season of the Haunted’s story and the derelict Leviathan patrol zone, Season of Plunder’s story and the Ketchcrash activity, and Season of the Seraph’s story, the Heist Battlegrounds, and the Operation Seraph Shield exotic quest, are all expected to rotate out as seasonal content always has. Typically we don’t consider this kind of content when we talk about the content vault, but The Witch Queen’s seasonal storylines are more tied into the overarching story than any expansion before it. This isn’t content any one should feel comfortable losing.

I think players are more flexible when it comes to seasonal content because it’s always been temporary, but ambition to tell a more continuous, interconnected story between seasons has made seasons feel so much more important. Big, important moments aren’t just relegated to the expansions anymore, and vaulting this content pulls entire chapters out of the story.

We’ve already seen the consequences of this. The Presage exotic quest was vaulted along with Beyond Light’s four seasons, which removed essential information about Calus’ investigation into the Darkness. When Calus returns in this year’s Season of the Haunted, that context is missing for anyone that didn’t play Beyond Light when it was new, and remains unreferencable to everyone else. When Season of the Haunted expires in February, yet another piece of Calus’ story will go with it.

Crow is a particularly large casualty of seasonal vaulting, as his story has been told almost entirely through seasonal storylines, many of which are no longer accessible. Zavala’s crisis of faith, Lord Saladin becoming Valus Forge, and the growing alliance between the Guardians, the Eliksni, and the Cabal are all plot points that will be prematurely plucked from Destiny, despite their presumed importance to the ongoing story.

The Witch Queen has been Destiny 2’s best expansion because of its emphasis on cohesive, episodic storytelling, and while I appreciate Bungie’s position, I don’t think any of these storylines should be considered acceptable losses. If preserving the integrity of the Light & Dark Saga is the priority, shelving these ancillary storylines compromises that goal.