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Wave after wave of enemy forces advance, seemingly without end. Attacks arrive from every angle at once. The lives of innocent Eliksni captives hang in the balance. In response, Guardians do what they do best: take up arms and run headlong into the fray.
One of the major features introduced in Destiny 2’s latest Episode, Revenant, is Onslaught: Salvation. A defensive wave-based activity that pits three-Guardian fireteams against increasingly intense waves of enemies, Onslaught also allows Guardians to purchase powerful defensive units to use against the invading hordes. In its original form (introduced in Destiny 2: Into the Light), Onslaught was a packed and intense mode, full of ratcheting tension and ‘Did you see that?’ moments. Now, with Onslaught: Salvation, the development team is raising the bar.
“There were a lot of great and constructive feedback from the community with the original Onslaught,” said Destiny 2 designer Clayton Kisko. “The one we heard most often was that they wanted Bungie to invest in the mode with new maps, new enemies, and new defenses, and that is exactly what we are doing with Onslaught: Salvation.”
From a thematic perspective, Onslaught: Salvation’s three new maps – Widow’s Court, Eventide Ruins, and Kell’s Grave – are leaning into the gothic horror that is fitting with Revenant’s chilling visual theme. If the original Onslaught was about protecting the Last City from the forces of the Witness, this time around the theme leans into slaying monsters, fighting evil, and saving the innocent.
By their nature, Onslaught maps need to pack a lot of punch into some relatively tight spaces to provide maximum tension and action. The three new maps each have their own unique layouts, while also building on lessons learned from earlier Onslaught maps.
“This time around we were able to identify the design pain points early and got ahead of the enemy teleporting issues,” said Kisko. “We ensured that there were at least three wide lanes for each Advanced Defense Unit (ADU) location. For Eventide Ruins, the larger map, we took our learnings from Mothyards (from the original Onslaught) and set out to make sure enemy spawn locations were closer to the ADU to ensure a closer time-to-complete to the other two maps.”
Alongside the new maps, Guardians will be pleased to know that they’ll have new defensive countermeasures available this time around. The new Air Strikes will rain down retribution on humanity’s enemies and, for those who want to get a bit more hands on, there’s the Rideable Turret.
“The Rideable Turret is good at mowing down clumps of enemies or damaging a single heavy unit like those deadly Demolitionists who like to attack the ADU,” said Kisko. “It can overheat, though, so players will need to balance when they fire and for how long. The defensive upgrades increase the health of the turret and the damage. The final upgrade will add scorching rounds to the bullets. What is so cool about that is the sandbox team was able to design it so the turret will combo with any of the rider’s Solar fragments or buildcrafting around scorching rounds.”
While defending the ADU is one of the key mission components in an Onslaught: Salvation game, it’s certainly not the only thing that will keep Guardians moving. Augmentation waves and bonus objectives will take players out of their comfort zones (and away from the safety blanket of relying on defensive countermeasures). This time, players will be infiltrating the Revenant Nest to free captured Eliksni. For one bonus objective, new shielded enemy units will appear, requiring Guardians to use special ether-light cannons to stop them.
Jonathan To, narrative lead for Destiny 2, said the team has worked hard to include narrative hooks in Onslaught: Salvation to keep things moving from a story and character standpoint.
“The main writers for Onslaught: Salvation created some excellent character-building and exchanges between Spider, Crow, Eido, Eramis, and others. Crow is figuring out a new role for himself in the City, Eido is the player’s partner this Episode in a role we can’t wait to share more about, and who knows what Eramis will be up to when she returns, having both helped and fought against us in the past. Fans of the Eliksni and the saga of the Fallen up to this point in Destiny will love what the team has done here.”
Onslaught: Salvation is playable with the release of Destiny 2: Revenant, starting October 8.