For Destiny 2, the latest ability of the loot shooter “Strand” is by far the most important feature of the Lightfall expansion. Since yesterday, the Guardians officially know what will soon bind them. However, MeinMMO has managed to extract a few more insider information from the developers and learned creepy things about the Strand Warlock.
What interview is this about? In a personal Q&A interview with the two Bungie developers Kevin Yanes and Eric Smith, our Destiny authors wanted to learn more about the backstory of the new subclass “Strand”.
Strand has, like every subclass in Destiny 2, a directly recognizable “fate interpretation”. It is part of Bungie’s design language that runs through everything. Kevin Yanes, Design Lead at Bungie, explained to us in a personal conversation that this “fateful unfolding of power is something that is as unique to [Destiny 2] as Strand itself”.
Warlocks will have their own army: Strand is something that can make you feel like Spiderman while playing in Neomuna. It’s about “weaving” objects yourself instead of spawning or summoning them.
Additionally, the new subclass Strand brings tricks that will definitely change all Guardians’ perspectives on movement and combat tactics. However, especially the Warlock is a master of Strand, who works a lot with his mind and has more to do with the new “Threadlings” than the other classes.
- The Warlock can create sentient creatures from the threads that run through reality.
- As “Threadlings”, these “Threadlings” then move as his little mini-army and infest enemies, causing them to explode.
- Additionally, he can create eggs from which more Threadlings hatch. All usable Threadlings will be transformed into additional eggs.
The flying wizards will thus become the “Minion Master” in Lightfall. They have minions that follow their will. They love their master and return to him to hang out until the next enemy attacks.
The Strand trailer for Lightfall showcases how all three Guardian classes can utilize Strand and its deadly effects. It provides an action-packed overview of what awaits you:
Wait? Sentient creatures? Threads from which I spin creatures? A Warlock laying eggs? That sounds nothing like futuristic science fiction, but rather like a creepy horror movie that you don’t watch, but play in Lightfall.
In fact, this description does contain a few details from the first Warlock concept that was discarded. Originally, the class was supposed to be completely different with Strand, as Bungie revealed to us.
You can find even more detailed information about Destiny 2: Lightfall in our hub:
Creepy Warlock idea was simply too scary
Eric Smith hinted to us that the first idea for the Warlock was pretty crazy. In the dark, you certainly would not want to run into this class.
“The [super] was originally supposed to transform [the Warlock] into a giant spider that spits out spider eggs and lets spider babies run around instead of weaving threads. To transform the Warlock from a biped into an eight-legged creature, we had to build the skeleton and the model and everything. Unfortunately, this exceeded the scope.”
Kevin Yanes then perfectly completes our new creepy phobia about the Warlock as he describes to us the super from the first class idea:
“[…] I think one of my favorites was [the] prototype of the early Warlock super, where you could spawn these Threadlings in the air. They posed, slowly flew towards you, and then shot Threadling eggs at you. So you only had these three [objects] that had thrown Threadling eggs at you. It was hilarious, but also creepy.”
In the current version, however, the Warlock super has not been realized in this way. When players unleash their Warlock’s ultimate in Lightfall, a “Needlestorm” occurs, which deals a deadly combination of salvo and area damage.
A little bit of the creepy giant spider is still present in the Warlock. Bungie seems to have a pretty big fondness for spiders, as can be seen in this Sparrow.
This is why the idea was scrapped: During the Spider Sparrow, arachnophobia, the specific fear of eight-legged spider creatures, was a big theme. This ultimately also had to be considered in the development of the Strand Warlock. The idea of a Warlock spider with eight limbs was thus discarded, and a more traditional form was returned to.
Did you have any other crazy ability ideas for Strand during development that had to be scrapped?
“[Yes], for example, the Titan once had a whip, and that was super cool. But you know, the overlap with the Hunter’s Threadrunner super was of course not something we wanted to pursue,” Kevin Yanes revealed to us.
In total, Guardians will receive many new unique abilities in their arsenal with the new subclass even without the creepy giant spider and whip. The final version of the three Strand classes contains a lot that will present the Guardians with new movement challenges, especially with all the new moves.
What do you think of the Warlock giant spider? Creepy? Would you have found the Warlock cool with that? Or are you glad that no eight limbs will break out of you in Lightfall? Feel free to let us know in the comments how your crazy Strand idea for one of the three classes would have looked.
You can read more from our interview with Bungie about Strand here:
