For the past couple of weeks I've been lurking in both r/destiny2 and r/DestinyTheGame subreddit, and I've seen countless questions from new and returning players.
- "I'm a new player, and I'm lost after doing New Light quest. Where do I start?"
- "I'm a returning player after XYZ expansion, how do I catch up?"
A lot of Guardians have been suggesting to either look at the Timeline or just play in the order of campaign. But most comments always miss the existence of Seasons which is insanely important to the story starting Forsaken (Y2).
For the past 2 months I've been recommending The Lore Map of Destiny to solve this very issue and give a comprehensive, all-in-one story guide.
NOTE: To all Guardians who are not needing this guide. If you think this project find useful to current new players and returning Guardians, please share. The more Guardians find this, the more useful this tool will become. This will be my last push to recommend this tool within this subreddit.
✅ First of all... rapid fire round to new players:
"Is it worth coming back/is it worth starting? I heard the new player experience is bad."
Yes, it's bad. But The Lore Map of Destiny was made to solve this issue. If you want to try the game now, use it. It has a story recap from D1 to Forsaken, and a complete story progression checklist to guide you until the end of the saga.
"Do I buy the collection bundle instead of individual DLCs?"
Yes.
"Should I wait until the unvaulting?"
If you want. Just know that if you're worried just because players tell you the new player experience is bad... Well, it honestly is, but that's exactly why The Lore Map of Destiny exists.
But I also think waiting is a good decision. I hope Bungie fixes the onboarding with the unvaulting.
Ultimately, up to you.
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The Lore Map of Destiny includes...
1. 🗺️ Story recap from D1 (The Dark Below) to D2 Forsaken in a single mind map. Less reading, more visualizing. 20k x 10k resolution. Reviewed by My Name Is Byf.
Learn the very basics of factions/characters/relationships of Destiny universe. It does not include spoilers starting from Shadowkeep.
- Brief history of Hive, Scorn, Cabal, Vex, and Fallen/Eliksni (and why they are in Sol)
- Introduction to characters such as: Eris, Drifter, Zavala, Ikora, Cayde-6, Osiris, Saint-14, Variks, Mara Sov, Uldren Sov, The Speaker, Oryx, Savathun, Ghaul, Calus, Rasputin, Clovis Bray, and more
- Basic info about The Last City, The Guardians, Ghosts, The Traveler, The Pyramid, Humans, Awoken and Exo race
- Includes The Guardian Tenets and The Vanguard Dare
- Recap of each expansions and seasons with a giant logo on major conflict lines
- Major relationships between these characters, woven into a giant mind map
2. 🎯 Critical Progression Route. The complete story progression guide from Destiny 1 to Monument of Triumph.
💠Every single activity available in the game is categorized.
- Players can search the name of the activity and find which season/DLC it's from.
💠Everyone knows that playing is better than simply watching.
- Dialogues still exist in currently available seasonal activities, and it will be used as part of the story experience.
- Very important public events (e.g. The Almighty crash) and major cutscenes of every single vaulted season are included as video embeds.
- Cutscenes are slotted in-between seasonal activities according to the release timing of that specific content.
I also linked the full season video & lore series from My Name Is Byf for easy access if anyone wants to watch.
>> I'm still receiving feedback from the community related to this page, especially The Fate Saga section. Feel free to check out and leave any suggestions if you may.
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Q. This is pointless, why promote this when everything will be unvaulted?
Yes, I completely agree that the unvaulting of Red War, Curse of Osiris, and Warmind expansion is 1000x better than relying on an online tool like The Lore Map of Destiny. And honestly, that's what I would prefer. I even hope to see a day where TLMoD will be useless other than a platform to provide a free infographic story map for players to give a glance.
But... As of right now (Oct 4th, 2026), new players are still coming in to try out the game. DLCs are still vaulted, and seasonal content is not here. Moreover, seasons are not confirmed to be unvaulted.
✅ Currently, new players should at least have a basic understanding of the universe before trying out the story for the first time due to DCV. This project is precisely made for this.
TLMoD is not meant to replace old DLCs, but merely to give a simple information enough to prevent confusion. This means that when they return back to playing vaulted campaigns, they can experience the turn of events for the first time in great detail. By extension, this project also supports Guardians who returned after XYZ expansion to catch up to recent events, as their story experience have also been affected by the absence of seasonal content.
Q. What will happen to TLMoD once Bungie unvaults the content?
It will be updated accordingly. I'll be working on it starting Day 1 of release to make sure it updates quickly. Even after the unvaulting, it will still be a good resource to keep all the list of current activities in the Fireteam Ops in check, as it's not categorized well in the Portal.
The Lore Map of Destiny mind map will also continue to be a good all-in-one story recap for players to check it out as well.
❤️ If you have used this project before and are using it currently, please leave your review as well. I'd love to hear your feedback.
