Destiny 2's Season of the Witch Deckbuilding Explained

Destiny 2's Season of the Witch introduces deckbuilding mechanics for the first time in the franchise, and there are a few things players should know.

Destiny 2's Season of the Witch has a high bar to clear when it comes to lore relevance and quality after Season of the Deep, but gameplay-wise both additions ran similar risks when it comes to how the gameplay loop changes, and Season 22 might take it to a new level. Season of the Witch's new activities include Savathun's Spire and the Altars of Summoning, which take players through a trap-filled labyrinth and multiple high-stakes encounters, respectively. Still, a big part of the seasonal loop that is not thoroughly explained in the game is Destiny 2's new deckbuilding approach, which makes good use of Eris Morn's Lectern of Divination and tarot cards that provide additional modifiers.

As is often the case with Bungie's looter-shooter, Destiny 2's Season of the Witch has time-gated progression, and only a handful of Major and Minor Arcana were revealed in its first week, leaving much of the tarot deck and its effect up in the air for a while. Regardless, players can already make their own deck in the first week of the season, as a whole deck only comprises a total of 5 Major Arcana cards, which is exactly the number of currently available cards.

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Destiny 2 players will find multiple Opaque Cards in Season of the Witch, as they can be awarded upon completion across the various playlists and activities in the game, from core content like Vanguard and Crucible to the seasonal additions. Opaque Cards can all be activated in Destiny 2's Lectern of Divination after players have completed the story for the first week of Season of the Witch, after Eris Morn's transformation into a Hive God of vengeance. Some Opaque Cards will turn into Major Arcana and others into Minor Arcana, and they differ quite a lot in terms of rewards and ways to unlock them.

Major Arcana will require players to complete an associated quest to fully unlock their powers, with them often sharing the same theme of the card's name or effects. For example, the Major Arcana called Blades will require players to defeat combatants with melee attacks, swords, or glaives in the new Savathun's Spire and Altars of Summoning activities. On the other hand, Minor Arcana will require players to simply activate the card in the Lectern of Divination and have an immediate reward that can range from Season of the Witch Engrams to Enhancement Cores or Prisms, at times even awarding more valuable items, like Destiny 2's Exotic Engrams.

Since a full deck will comprise five Major Arcana cards, players will only be able to form one when they complete all five quests for the first week, or at least a total of five Major Arcana quests further down the line if they jump into Destiny 2's Season 22 at a later time. Once this is done, the cards available in a player's deck will show up around the summoning circle in the same area as the Lectern of Divination, and players can move up to a given card to either add it to or remove it from the deck.

As more Major Arcana cards are unlocked with time, players will be able to fully customize their decks with the best cards for their builds and playstyles, but it's currently unclear how many cards will become available with every new week. Furthermore, as it stands, Destiny 2's UI only states what cards players draw in Season of the Witch's activity, but not what they do - something that is likely to be changed later on. Overall, Destiny 2's deckbuilding mechanic doesn't take too much space in the looter-shooter's gameplay loop, but it's a diverse enough addition to make it more interesting.

Destiny 2 is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

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Andrea became a gamer for life at 7, thanks to a Pokemon Red cartridge and her Game Boy. She knew she wanted to be a writer back when she got a floppy disk and wrote "My Book" on it. Her Italian lineage makes her a big pizza fan. She loves games featuring deep lore, sci-fi elements, and strategic thinking. When she is not writing or editing, she's often found playing Destiny 2 and Pokemon games. Andrea has a BA degree in Cognitive Psychology from UNISOB and an MA degree in Copywriting and Advertising from IULM.