In a little over a month, Destiny 2 players are finally going to jump into Year 4 with the launch of Beyond Light. The new Destiny 2 expansion is set to introduce plenty of new content into Bungie's looter shooter, as well as some changes to existing systems, but perhaps the biggest addition is Europa.
This week, Destiny 2 fans were able to get their first glimpse of the full Europa map from Beyond Light, albeit in menu form. Bungie still hasn't fully shown off the landscape or its various nooks and crannies, but they have given fans an overview of what the map will look like.
However, while this is the first official look at the Europa map, it's actually not the first time that Destiny 2 players have seen it. In fact, eagle-eyed Destiny fans are now realizing that Bungie showed off Europa nearly 5 years ago.
Now that the official Destiny 2 Beyond Light Europa map has been revealed, players have started to pore over it looking for clues. And at least one player noticed that the landscape looks almost exactly the same as a map included with The Taken King Collector's Edition. The map is included in the “Treasure Island” book that is part of Cayde's Intel Cache and one of the pages features a map of Europa.
It's obviously not a 1:1 replication of the map that is going to launch with Beyond Light but it is fairly close. One could assume that Europa has changed some since Cayde put the map into his cache, which accounts for some of the inconsistencies in topography. Obviously, Guardians can't ask Cayde about his fascination with Europa because the Hunter Vanguard met his demise in Forsaken, but nonetheless, this detail has set the community off looking for more clues.
While it might surprise some Destiny 2 players to see a map for an upcoming expansion in a piece of lore from 2015, these types of details are par for the course for Bungie. The devs are constantly revisiting ideas that didn't pan out in the first game. For example, The Stranger is set to make her return for the Beyond Light campaign, even though director Luke Smith said that her storyline was done.
Funnily enough, Europa was one of the early planetary destinations concepted for Destiny 1. Press previews of the game highlighted Jupiter's moon as a place of importance, but nothing became of it. Now, Beyond Light will finally offer Destiny players a chance to see what lurks both on and under the surface of Europa.
Destiny 2: Beyond Light releases November 10, 2020 for PC, PS4, Stadia, Xbox Series X, and Xbox One.