Destiny 2 DLC Buying Guide 2025: What Each Expansion Unlocks and What’s Worth It

Bungie’s Destiny 2 has accumulated so many add‑ons, dungeons, raids, and exclusive exotics over its eight‑year lifespan that it’s easy for a beginner to get lost, and every piece of DLC comes at a price. In this guide, we’ve broken down all the paid content: which locations, raids, and dungeons each expansion unlocks, which exotic Destiny 2 weapons remain locked without purchase, and how to avoid paying extra.

Destiny 2 DLCs: Introduction

Firstly, a couple of things you need to know about Destiny 2 paid content and weapons:

• In most cases, buying the DLC doesn’t hand you the exotic weapons instantly; you’ll still have to farm resources and then buy or unlock exotics yourself.
• Craftable weapons are always valuable because you can change their stats and perks to match the meta, your loadout, or your personal preferences. However, you must first farm Deepsight Patterns, then craft and level up the gun to create the perfect Destiny 2 weapon.
• If you plan to join a clan and tackle endgame activities, both the game and your teammates will expect you to have most of the paywalled content.

There are a few ways to obtain exotic weapons:

• Monument to Lost Lights is the Tower kiosk that lets you buy most of the exotic weapons: usually, weapons cost 1 Exotic Cipher, 1 Ascendant Shard, a few Enhancement Prisms, and a lot of Glimmer, while raid exotics require Spoils of Conquest (special currency from raids).
• Xur is the weekend exotic vendor who, at the end of the week, spawns in rotating locations and sells one weapon, three armor pieces, an Exotic Engram, and now also offers Exotic focusing and the weekly Xenology quest for an Exotic Cipher.
• Additionally, some quests, campaigns, raids, and dungeons can also reward you with exotics.

Destiny 2: Forsaken Pack

The Forsaken campaign has been moved to the Destiny Content Vault and is currently unavailable; however, the pack itself is still available for purchase separately for $19.99 (now, with a 92% discount—$1.59) with the following content:

• Grants access to the Dreaming City region with various activities.
• Unlocks the Last Wish raid with eight craftable legendary weapons.
• Unlocks the Shattered Throne dungeon.
• 20 exotic weapons.
• 3 Forsaken Ciphers to instantly unlock 3 exotic weapons.
• Not required for Year-2 exotic armor, since they are included in the world loot pool.

Let’s take a detailed look at which exotic weapons you can get in the Forsaken Pack, how you can get them, and what they’re used for.

*Arbalest can randomly drop from Exotic Engrams for all players, but purchasing it from Xûr or the Monument to Lost Light requires the Forsaken Pack.
**The Wish‑Ender quest is free, but its final steps take place inside the Shattered Throne dungeon, which also requires the Forsaken Pack.

For its price, this pack is excellent: it unlocks a vast roster of meta weapons (and plenty of guns that are just fun to use), includes lots of activities, and doesn’t charge extra for the dungeon, unlike some later DLCs. If you’re planning to check Destiny 2’s endgame, Arbalest, Izanagi’s Burden, and Anarchy are especially important; several other exotics rotate in and out of the meta over time.

Destiny 2: Shadowkeep Pack

The Shadowkeep campaign has become free. The separate pack with other content from the expansion is available for $19.99 (lowest price—$1.59) with the following content:

• Unlocks the Scarlet Keep Nightfall.
• Unlocks the Garden of Salvation raid with seven craftable legendary weapons.
• Unlocks the Pit of Heresy dungeon.
• 13 exotic weapons.
• Not required for Year-3 exotic armor, since they are included in the world loot pool.

This pack is completely skippable if you’re not touching endgame content (Grandmaster Nightfalls, raids). Otherwise, it’s a must‑have because of Divinity and Witherhoard, with a few other exotic weapons cycling in and out of the meta.

Destiny 2: Beyond Light Pack

The Beyond Light campaign and the Stasis subclass are now free. The rest of the expansion’s content is sold as a separate pack for $19.99 (current and lowest price with discount—$1.59) and includes:

• Unlocks the Glassway and Proving Grounds Nightfalls.
• Unlocks the Deep Stone Crypt raid with six craftable legendary weapons.
• 12 exotic weapons.
• Six Year-4 exotic armor pieces.

The main selling point of this expansion was the Stasis subclass, but it is now free. Suppose you’re interested in PvP or GMs and raids. In that case, you can get it for a variety of weapons (DMT, NTtE, Hawkmoon, and Duality for PvP and Ager’s Scepter, The Lament, Ticuu’s Divination, and Lorentz Driver for endgame content, respectively). Additionally, it includes the OP armor piece for Warlocks, which is Necrotic Grip. Otherwise—skip. Also, the Deep Stone Crypt is, subjectively, one of the most fun raids.

Destiny 2: Witch Queen

The only free content of this expansion is the first mission, which unlocks weapon crafting. Every other piece of Witch Queen content is still behind the paywall. At the same time, the dungeons are sold separately via the Year 5 Dungeon Key (we will check this and other minor DLCs after the major expansions are covered). Below is what the expansion itself unlocks for $29.99 ($2.39 with discount):

• Grants access to the main campaign, Savathûn’s Throne World and its activities.
• Unlocks the Vow of the Disciple raid with six craftable legendary weapons.
• Unlocks the Lightblade and Birthplace of the Vile Nightfalls.
• 10 exotic weapons.
• Nine Year-5 exotic armor pieces.

Osteo Striga, Grand Overture, and the raid’s craftable legendaries are too good to pass up, so at $2.39 it’s an easy buy; at $29.99 without discount, it’s closer to a skip.

Destiny 2: Lightfall

Nothing in Lightfall is free: the campaign, Strand subclass, Neomuna, and all associated systems are behind the paywall. The Year-6 dungeons are also sold separately via the Dungeon Key. Below is what the expansion itself unlocks for $29.99 ($2.39 on discount):

• Grants access to the main campaign, Neomuna and its activities, as well as five craftable legendary weapons.
• Unlocks Strand subclass.
• Unlocks the Root of Nightmares raid with six craftable legendary weapons.
• Unlocks the HyperNet Current Nightfall.
• 10 exotic weapons.
• 12 Year‑6 exotic armor pieces.

The Lightfall expansion has one of the worst campaigns in Destiny 2, as indicated by both personal experience and Steam reviews (29% of 8,169 people rated it positively at a time). It also includes the Strand subclass, a lot of strong legendary weapons (tedious to farm), and a bunch of useful exotics. Even for Strand alone, it leans toward “buy” on the skip‑to‑buy scale.

Destiny 2: The Final Shape

This is the first saga’s finale: campaign, Prismatic subclass, Pale Heart, raid, and exotics all come with The Final Shape purchase ($49.99 without discount, $12.49 now). And again, the Year‑7 dungeons are sold separately via a Dungeon Key. The expansion adds:

• Grants access to the main campaign and Pale Heart destination.
• Unlocks the Prismatic subclass.
• Unlocks the Salvation’s Edge raid with six craftable legendary weapons.
• Includes the 12‑player Excision mission, which ends the Light and Darkness Saga of Destiny 2.
• Eight exotic weapons.
• Six exotic armor pieces and a class item.

Worth buying if you care about the endgame, both meta- and story-wise. The campaign is great but largely impenetrable for newcomers, the Prismatic subclass is genuinely powerful, the raid is one of the toughest in Destiny 2, and the exotics have real meta potential. If you’re skipping high‑end content and story payoffs, you can pass; otherwise, it’s a solid buy.

Destiny 2: Bungie 30th Anniversary Pack and Dungeon Keys

The 30th Anniversary Pack is basically the Gjallarhorn pack: it gives you the Grasp of Avarice dungeon, where you earn Gjallarhorn (meta Exotic Rocket Launcher, which is strong on its own and also supports other Rocket Launchers). Currently, $1.99, without a discount, it costs $24.99. So, if you ever plan to farm GMs or raids, it’s better to get it right now.

Dungeon Keys are bought in‑game for 2000 Silver ($19.99, no discounts). Each one unlocks two dungeons from its given year. Dungeons are engaging content on their own, but paying almost $60 for six exotic weapons is highly questionable.

TL;DR

The message is simple: buy what serves your goals and catch the rest on sale.

• Forsaken is an easy pickup for its activities and meta gear.
• Shadowkeep is only worth it if you need Divinity/Witherhoard for raids and Grandmaster Nightfalls.
• Beyond Light is now a weapon/armor package (Stasis is free) with standouts like Necrotic Grip and several core exotics.
• The Witch Queen is excellent value on discount for Osteo Striga, Grand Overture, and craftable raid guns, but skippable at full price.
• Lightfall’s campaign disappoints, yet Strand plus strong legendaries/exotics still tilt it toward “buy” for meta purposes.
• The Final Shape is the must‑buy finale if you care about endgame and story closure.
• The 30th Anniversary Pack is mandatory if you plan to raid (for Gjallarhorn), while Dungeon Keys are optional luxuries; only grab them if you intend to farm those specific dungeons.