9 best things to do before The Final Shape in Destiny 2

Some Guardians have a ritual before new Destiny 2 content drops, and we’re no different: We have a preparation checklist for each season, and we’re using ours this time to keep track of what to do before The Final Shape.

New content launches such as seasons generally bring a lot of moving parts, and expansions have an even wider scope. Because of that, it never hurts to be prepared to enjoy the new activities when they launch, instead of worrying about vault space or resource scarcity.

Our Final Shape checklist is our way of setting goals, finding loose ends, and taking care of other minor elements that may help us when the expansion drops. Here’s the best things to do before The Final Shape. The servers will go dark one hour before reset on Monday, June 3, so plan accordingly.

Pre-Final Shape checklist: What you should do before Destiny 2‘s next expansion

Here is a checklist of what we’ve done with new seasons and expansions we’ve played. This checklist isn’t final, and we’ll update this list once we have more information about what’s coming in The Final Shape.

1. Clean your vault
2. Stack bounties
3. Get the Superblack shader and the “Shiny” BRAVE Arsenal weapons
4. Complete the seasonal stories and farm seasonal weapons
5. Farm weapons you need before The Final Shape
6. Complete all Exotic quests, weapons, and catalysts
7. Read up on Prismatic
8. Learn about the new balancing changes and systems
9. Check out previews of the new The Final Shape Exotics

1) Clean your vault

If you don’t part with your beloved gear, cleaning your vault is one of the most important steps before a new expansion. Even though Bungie is giving guardians 100 more (much-needed) vault slots with The Final Shape, deep-cleaning your vault lets you start the expansion without worrying about where to save the new drops, and it’s been a staple addition to our checklist ahead of new content drops for years.

We routinely clear up around 50 to 100 slots ahead of a season, which makes it easier to stock up on new weapons and rolls. We recommend using Destinyrecipes’ vault-cleaning tool, which has helped us clear out hundreds of slots in the past few years.

2) Stack bounties

Stacking bounties is a popular practice for players in the build-up to a season or expansion. Generally, it consists of completing bounties but not turning them in until the new content comes. That way, you’ll get a bunch of experience from those small objectives.

In our experience, stacking bounties on all three characters has given us around 20 season levels consistently, which is good to get the ball rolling in the new season. It’s particularly true with the next expansion due to its prompt raid date, and it’s on our running list of things to do before The Final Shape and other seasons/expansions. Destinyrecipes comes to the rescue once more with its pre-seasonal checklist, which displays available bounties and how much XP you’re expected to obtain once you claim all of your backlog.

3) Get the Superblack shader and the “Shiny” BRAVE Arsenal weapons

Although Onslaught is staying, a lot of elements from Into the Light will disappear or change sources with The Final Shape. The Hall of Champions will go into the Destiny Content Vault, taking with it new copies of limited-edition weapons and Arcite 99-40’s quests.

The Superblack shader will still be available normally during Into the Light, but its drop source will change. By the studio’s own admission, “the best time to grab these rewards is before The Final Shape, while they have a deterministic path.” The limited-time variants also have a doubled drop rate until the expansion, so if you’re aiming for that Auto-Loading Holster/Recombination Mountaintop, there’s no better time.

4) Complete the seasonal stories and farm seasonal weapons

The story arcs for the Lightfall seasons are bound to disappear after The Final Shape. They are essential to situating for the upcoming story beats (how did Crow go into the Portal, after all?), which should play a big role in the next expansion.

Seasonal activities are slated for the same fate. The weapons and armor from those seasons will probably be relocated to different areas, potentially including the Exotic mission rotator. Acquiring Lightfall seasonal weapons will be much harder after The Final Shape, so take advantage of the guaranteed Deepsights to obtain whichever you’re missing.

5) Farm weapons you need before The Final Shape

The Final Shape is the biggest standoff against the Witness we’ve had so far, so it’s best to be prepared. Farm the best weapons you can have in your arsenal before the season ends so you can clear the campaign more easily, especially on Legend difficulty.

6) Complete all Exotic quests

The Exotic quests this year have brought a handful of craftable Exotics like Wish-Keeper and Vexcalibur, and it’s probably better to get them done and crafted before the expansion. While they’re most likely staying within Year Seven, they’re bound to enter the time-gated Exotic mission rotator. It’s easier to complete those missions while they’re available every week.

7) Read up on Prismatic

Not everything you can do before The Final Shape happens inside the game. With a maintenance window that starts on June 3 and the usual server queues, players may have plenty of time to kill until they can drop into the Pale Heart—and luckily for them, Bungie has a wealth of literature available.

Prismatic will be one of the Guardian’s most powerful weapons throughout their journey in The Final Shape, so it may pay off to read about it early. Bungie has its own article on the subclass, but content creators such as Datto, Fallout, and Aztecross played the expansion early and shared their experiences with the new subclass. Diving into the subclass before it releases can help you plan your loadouts before going through the portal to the Pale Heart.

8) Learn about the new balancing changes and game systems

Prismatic is bound to be the highlight of the expansion, but The Final Shape also has a huge suite of balancing adjustments on the way, touching on weapons, abilities, and Exotic armor pieces. The changes to Well of Radiance are arguably the harshest of the balancing pass in The Final Shape, but they’re far from being the only major ones.

There are also some major changes to game systems, including the Pathfinder nodes, the actual removal of Legendary Shards, and a new reputation track for Rahool, which holds the key to new Exotic armor pieces.

9) Check out the new Exotic weapons and armor

In addition to Prismatic, The Final Shape is bringing a slew of new Exotic weapons and armor pieces. Still Hunt, the golden gun sniper, is arguably the most famous of the bunch. Those content creators have also tried them out, so their explanations can also answer some of your questions before the expansions—and yes, the sniper does work with Celestial Nighthawk, based on their testing.