Destiny 2: Beyond Light

Beyond Light maintains the basic gameplay of Destiny 2; the player, as a Guardian using a power called Light that gives them superhuman abilities and the ability to be regenerated, fights in a mix of first-person and third-person shooter gameplay in both player versus environment and player versus player activities in a massively multiplayer online game world. Cooperative activities include various bounties, story-related missions, "strikes," dungeons, raids, open-world public events, and special seasonal events, while competitive matches include matches with other Guardians in the Crucible or a team versus team mode in the Gambit arena. Players are rewarded with both new weapons and armor as well as various materials that are used as a form of in-game currency to gain or upgrade other equipment. Players can have up to three active characters, one from each of the game's main classes: Titan, Hunter, and Warlock, each that has several subclasses based on the type of elemental damage they select prior to missions. Players seek to improve their character's overall Power level—a rough average measuring the quality of weapons and gear they have collected—that allows them to take on more challenging activities in the game.

Prior to Beyond Light, there were three main elemental damage types, Arc, Solar, and Void, which are rooted in a power called Light. Beyond Light introduces a fourth elemental damage type called Stasis, which creates ice and cold-based damage, and is rooted in the power of the Darkness. Each class gets a new subclass for Stasis abilities: the Warlock's Shadebinder has them using an icy staff that shoots projectiles and unleashes an explosion to freeze and shatter enemies through their "Winter's Wrath" super, the Hunter's Revenant utilizes dual ice kamas that they can throw and create icy storms to trap and freeze enemies through their super "Silence and Squall", while the Titan's Behemoth uses frozen gauntlets to allow for melee destruction and unleash icy shockwaves on the ground that freezes enemies through their super "Glacial Quake". Further, other abilities of this subclass can be customized by gaining a range of Aspects and Fragments through quests, and assigning them to the core abilities.

One year after the Nightmare Hunts on Earth's Moon, Beyond Light focuses on Eramis the Shipstealer, a former Baroness of the House of Devils, now known as the Kell of Darkness, who plans to use the power of the Darkness to save her people and take revenge on the Traveler back on Earth, as she and many Fallen believe that the Traveler had abandoned them before the Golden Age of humanity. At the end of Season of Arrivals, the Traveler reawakened to heal itself of its wounds incurred during The Red War three years ago to defend Earth from the encroaching Darkness—its Black Fleet of Pyramid ships had just consumed Io, Mars, Mercury, and Titan. Beyond Light begins in the immediate aftermath in which the Guardian is sent out across the Solar System to patrol for further evidence of the spreading Darkness. While on Jupiter's icy moon Europa, where the Darkness had invited the Guardian to discover an ancient power, the player's Ghost detects a distress call from Variks the Loyal, who was partly responsible for the Prison of Elders revolt that resulted in Cayde-6's death during Forsaken two years ago.

Despite their wariness to his loyalty, the Guardian rescues Variks from a Fallen patrol. Variks warns them of Eramis, who has been named the new Kell of Kells; she has brought the Houses of the Fallen together as House Salvation to fight against those that are protected by the Traveler by using Stasis, a power of the Darkness that she has learned to wield and passed on to her lieutenants—Phylaks, the Warrior; Praksis, the Technocrat; Kridis, the Dark Priestess; and Atraks, the Wildcard—through Splinters of Darkness obtained from a Pyramid ship silently hovering over Europa's surface.

Unveiled on June 9, 2020, Beyond Light was originally scheduled for release on September 22, 2020; however, due to issues with development related to the COVID-19 pandemic, its launch was delayed to November 10. In addition to beginning Year 4 of Destiny 2's life cycle, Bungie described this release as the start of a new era for the franchise, as Beyond Light began a narrative where players "explore the true nature of Light and Dark"—Beyond Light was followed up by The Witch Queen, which itself was delayed to early 2022, Lightfall in early 2023, and then the final expansion of Destiny's first saga, The Final Shape, in mid-2024; Lightfall was originally to conclude the first saga but Bungie felt they needed one further expansion to wrap up the first saga and originally intended The Final Shape for early 2024 but it too got delayed. The expansion is available as paid downloadable content (DLC) and there was also a physical collector's edition and a digital deluxe edition, both of which, among other things, included the season passes for all four seasons of Year 4. Seasonal content for Year 4 also changed.

During Year 3, seasonal content was only accessible during the season it was active. While season passes were still available à la carte as they were during Year 3, the content of previous seasons in Year 4 could be experienced all year, regardless of when a player began playing, much like the seasons during Year 2 of Forsaken's Annual Pass, though the player had to still purchase each season's seasonal pass to access the content. Some seasonal triumphs, however, could only be completed during their respective season. Bungie also stated that the narrative across each season would be more interconnected instead of being cut into individual seasonal arcs.

Destiny 2: Beyond Light received "mixed to average" to "generally favorable" reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic.

While praising the new Stasis powers as being fun to use, Game Informer felt the content added wasn't enough to make up for the vaulted activities and planets, "Europa is a beautiful new location to uncover... but in a game about ever-expanding horizons, it's strange to suddenly have fewer places to play out missions. Europa is forced to bear too much weight as a gameplay and mission destination, without the relief of more alternate locations". Polygon liked the customizability of stasis, writing that it allowed for more player freedom than previous powers, "when you dive into the power's unique customization menu, its potential becomes clear.