Destiny 2's Io Is Coming Out Of The Vault Next Week For A New Roguelike-Inspired Activity

During its developer livestream on March 4, Bungie confirmed that Destiny 2's Io location is coming back to the game. It will be the one of the locations where the new Heresy Act 2 activity, Court of Blades, will take place.

Io was sunset back in 2020 with the launch of Beyond Light to a critical response from players. In recent years, Bungie has also reprised formerly sunset planets and moons including Mars, which was home to Savathun's Throne World, and Titan, where we rediscovered Sloane. This time around, Io's Remnants of Silver area will be the home of a new activity inspired by the roguelike elements that Bungie has been playing with in recent months.

Io is completely engulfed in Darkness, which Oryx, The Taken King, is desperately seeking out to regain power following his discovery that the Guardians were the ones to kill him. As he heads to Io, players will take part in the new Court of Blades activity and have direct interactions with him for the first time in years.

The Court of Blades is a matchmade activity designed to feel unique and challenging on each run. Bungie says it has "borrowed the concept of Augmentations from Onslaught" but that they differ in this case, as they provide challenges that players can find other ways to overcome. The Court of Blades also features a randomized set of armaments that are available for purchase between phases in order to combat those challenges.

Building a loadout will differ from day to day. Augmentations, the challenges applied to each run, begin to stack the more players complete the activity. It's possible to get a good combination that makes the run simple to complete, or a bad combination of certain bosses or Augmentations that just don't work together well. "We wanted players to have opportunities to shortcut those challenges, or combine the armaments to find a cool combo," Bungie says. Armaments will rotate on a daily basis, and Bungie hopes that this will generate a new meta each day.

The Court of Blades activity is designed to take "around 10 minutes," activity designer Quentin Quinones-Rezin said during the livestream. There won't be any raid-like mechanics, nor will there be the health scaling seen in Act 1's Nether activity. "This is intended to be a bit of a less stressful, more fun activity, but the difficulty does escalate after every two challengers," continues Quinones-Rezin. The mechanics that Guardians can buy as armaments will sometimes provide antidotes or shortcuts to the Augmentations. Some you may recognize from the Nether, some will be brand new, and some will be borrowed from Exotics. For example, the Sunbracers effect can now be purchased in the Court of Blades using its currency, and could be effectively combined with something that increases ability regeneration.

Court of Blades will also feature an Expert mode for players looking for a challenge. While completing the Court of Blades activity will drop the Aptitude Heresy weapons more frequently, their Adept versions will only drop in Expert mode.

Bungie has also revealed a new Rite of the Nine dungeon-focused event, as well as a PvP mode where you can pilot a brig.