"Strand was never designed for Witch Queen": Destiny 2 game director puts down ongoing conspiracy theories

Destiny 2 Lightfall came face-to-face with hostility from the player base, as its narrative experience wasn't up to the mark. This led many to form conspiracy theories about what might be happening in Bungie's office behind the scenes. With the implementation of Strand as the driving narrative force behind 80% Lightfall's campaign, theories claim that this title's Darkness subclass was supposed to be launched with its Witch Queen expansion rather than Y6's rushed Lightfall launch.

In a recent interview with PC Gamer, the Destiny 2 game director confirmed these speculations to be inaccurate, saying:

"Strand was never designed for Witch Queen."

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Joe Blackburn confirms Strand's long-time involvement with the story of Destiny 2 Lightfall

Strand's involvement in the main Lightfall story wasn't well-received among Destiny 2 players. Since most of them were looking forward to the Guardian's journey into unveiling new secrets, the entire campaign turned out to be a tutorial for this game's Strand subclass.

Due to this, multiple theories from players came in, who'd assumed the implementation of the subclass in the Lightfall campaign was forced. This was also backed up by the Strand's green color, going hand-in-hand with The Witch Queen's theme of dark green.

However, Joe Blackburn recently debunked these theories in an interview, where he confirmed that Strand was always meant for Lightfall.

Destiny 2 Game Director Joe Blackburn stated the following when asked about Strand and its possible involvement with The Witch Queen:

"You're going to get a big scoop here, Strand was never designed for Witch Queen. For one thing, it just takes us longer than a year cycle to make a whole new damage type…. Even the green correlation is really funny to us because Strand didn't start out from someone writing 'Green Power' on the white board. Strand was all Lightfall, all the time, and I'm sure that some people will never believe me unless they can go and see the flag fluttering on the moon."

Hence, it was always within Bungie's intention to push out Strand as a part of the main Lightfall campaign. However, with this, the company also admits that the decision to put Strand tutorials for five missions in Lightfall was done intentionally, and not under any kind of additional pressure.