Destiny 2: The Edge of Fate, drops today, July 15, ushering in a brand-new chapter for the free-to-play online first-person shooter. But before you can wield new powers or explore strange new worlds, there’s a familiar ritual to endure: pre-launch maintenance, hopeful preloads, and the high chance you’ll be staring at a queue screen instead of exploring the expansion’s trippy new content.
Maintenance downtime starts in about two hours — at 5:45 AM PDT / 8:45 AM EDT / 1:45 PM BST — and will (in theory) wrap when the expansion goes live during today’s weekly reset at 10 AM PDT / 1 PM EDT / 6 PM BST / 7 PM CEST / 3 AM AEST (July 16).
If you want to be ready the second the servers open the floodgates — or at least pretend you will be — preloading is available starting 6 AM PDT / 9 AM EDT / 2 PM BST on Steam and the Epic Games Store. Just make sure your hard drive didn’t skip leg day, because The Edge of Fate demands some serious digital real estate:
- Steam: 331.40 GB required (148.40 GB post-install)
- Epic Games Store: 329.24 GB required (182.83 GB post-install)
- Microsoft Store: A chill 138.81 GB, no bloat
Yes, those are real numbers. No, you’re not installing Starfield. Bungie’s file sizes continue to test the upper limits of SSD patience, so clear out your clips, uninstall that game you swore you’d finish, and pray your bandwidth holds.
So what are you getting for all that space? A lot, actually. The Edge of Fate kicks off Year 7 with a clean slate following the end of the Light and Darkness saga. There’s a new setting, Kepler Destination, complete with puzzles and open-world secrets. The campaign is non-linear, which means you’re free to wander and piece it together out of order. And there’s Matterspark, a new traversal power that adds a little extra juice to your movement.
On top of that, Bungie is rolling out Armor 3.0, a full overhaul of the gear system. There are new gear tiers, additive melee changes (glaive lovers, rejoice), Heavy Crossbows, and a new Firing Range at the Tower for testing your loadouts without needing a target that shoots back. Vanguard and Crucible are both getting updated activities, and the navigation UI is finally getting a much-needed cleanup.
All of it goes live today. But if you haven’t already claimed your seasonal seals, dumped your vendor rewards, or finished farming that Barrow-Dyad catalyst, you’ve got precious little time left. Once the reset hits, last year’s content disappears into the void.
Whether launch day ends in glorious victory or the usual “contacting Destiny 2 servers” purgatory, The Edge of Fate is the start of something big — and it’s happening in just a few hours. In the meantime, you can watch the official Edge of Fate trailer below.
