Bungie recently announced that Destiny 2 would be receiving a PvP map pack containing older, vaulted maps that haven’t been available to play in over three years with the launch of the DCV (Destiny Content Vault). While a date for when this will occur has yet to be revealed (other than sometime next year), it stands to reason that Strikes should receive the same treatment.
What Is The DCV?
In late 2020, the Beyond Light DLC was released. While the DLC itself didn’t bring many memorable changes outside of the new Stasis Subclass, one significant addition was the introduction of the DCV. The DCV was Bungie’s method of removing an abundance of the game’s content, such as Raids, Strikes, PvP maps, and modes, including all guns and armor before 2020.
Bungie’s reasoning for doing this was, “To create a sustainable ecosystem where the world can continue to evolve in exciting ways, and where we can update the game more quickly, each year we will cycle some destination and activity content out of the game (and into the DCV) to make room for new experiences.” This was also for the first DLC that launched after Bungie had split from Activision, thus reducing their workforce by a significant amount. However, since then, the game has now exceeded the previous size of what it was before Beyond Light launched, so this begs the question, “Why do we still need DCV?”
PvP & Strikes Are In The Same Boat
Over the years, Bungie has brought back a large majority of the previously vaulted armor and weapons; now, the major items still locked away are older Raids, Strikes, and PvP maps. While Raids are an entirely different discussion, it’s only fair that if the Crucible gets a “map” pack, Strikes should get a “Strike” pack.
Players have asked for a “map” pack for the Crucible mainly due to not receiving hardly any new maps over the years and being forced to play the ones that weren’t vaulted repeatedly for the last three years.
However, the same can be said about Strikes. The Beyond Light DLC introduced only one new Strike when it launched and one more during the year until the next DLC, The Witch Queen, was released. The Witch Queen expansion gave us two new Strikes immediately, and that was it until March of this year when the Lightfall DLC arrived which only gave us one new Strike. Thus, in total, we’ve only had four new Strikes released in the last three years, which is more than PvP received, but PvE players have been playing the same content repeatedly as well.
Which Strikes Should Come Back
Now, while it would be nice to have all nine vaulted Strikes return in some shape or form, we have to be realistic, given their respective destinations have yet to be unvaulted. That said, Bungie has had multiple opportunities to bring back a few Strikes with the unvaulting of various locations in the game.
Prime examples include Savathun’s Song, Will of the Thousands, and Strange Terrain. Very recently, specifically last Season, Season of the Deep, we saw the return of the Moon of Saturn, Titan. While the destination itself didn’t become available, Bungie based the entire Season on the location itself, allowing players to play new Story missions, Seasonal activities, and even a new Dungeon on Titan from the Helm. However, they didn’t bring back the Titan Strike, Savathun’s Song, which was definitely a missed opportunity.
Another missed opportunity came when Destiny 2 brought back Mars for the Witch Queen DLC. Once again, players can play a story mission, a Dungeon, and even an Exotic mission on Mars, though the destination isn’t available. Thus, Bungie had an opportunity to bring back the previous Mars Strikes, the Will of the Thousands, and Strange Terrain. One of the seasonal battleground activities literally takes place in the opening section of the Will of the Thousands Strike.
It seems like Bungie has had a lot of missed opportunities as of late to help benefit the game’s overall health. While they’re finally making strides to help PvP by giving it a map pack, it’s only fair if Strikes were treated the same and gave us the Strikes mentioned above back.
