Destiny 2 Players Were Able to Access Unfinished Rite of the Nine Content

Due to a mistake by developer Bungie, players of Destiny 2 received unscheduled access to an upcoming, in-development in-game event called Rite of the Nine. Destiny 2 is currently in Act 2 of its Heresy episode on console and PC platforms.

Thanks to major changes at Bungie and the developer’s attempts to shrug off a recent decline in Destiny 2 player numbers, a major shift is in the making for the upcoming Destiny 2 Frontiers era. Alongside more changes to the way in-game progression and content drops will work, players can expect changes to the economy, user interface, and rewards. But before Frontiers, Bungie is working to close out the ongoing storyline detailed in Destiny 2‘s Heresy episode, with Heresy Act 3 set to debut in April alongside the potentially game-changing Rite of the Nine activity.

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Destiny 2 is about to get a plethora of content in Heresy Acts 2 and 3, and Rite of the Nine could be a game-changer.

That was the plan, at least, until a mistake on Bungie’s part accidentally released the Rite of the Nine for all players several weeks earlier than scheduled. As reported by fan accounts like @DestinyBulletin and players on Reddit, Twitter, and Bluesky, Rite of the Nine was briefly available to enter following the game’s March 11, 2025 maintenance period. Originally intended to deploy scheduled events like the 2025 Destiny 2 Guardian Games, portions of Rite of the Nine were accidentally accessible by the update. Some players took advantage of the opening to get in and explore spaces that are still works in progress. Bungie quickly disabled the activity from entry “until further notice.”

Destiny 2 Players Accidentally Gained Early Access to Rite of the Nine Activity

According to posts from people who entered the unfinished Rite of the Nine, the event was even dropping weapons and loot, though the in-game weapons received were clearly works in progress, bearing no textures or bespoke modeling. All the same, they did have stats, flavor text, and names, hinting at potential story details and themes for the Rite of the Nine activity. Bungie’s disabling of the event also disabled the weapons from use, though when the activity is deployed on schedule, they may become usable again. Some players joked that the unfinished weapon models, which featured simplistic geometric shapes, were a “finalized” riff on the simple shapes favored by existing, finished Destiny 2 Prophecy dungeon weapons.

Based on an enigmatic group in Destiny 2 called The Nine (who are the patrons of weekly loot vendor Xur), Rite of the Nine is meant as a twist on the game’s earlier Pantheon mode, an inclusive team-play-focused mode designed to give players a configurable way to access the game’s various Dungeons, replaying encounters for new loot and learning their mechanics in a low-pressure environment. Players who accessed the activity early reported seeing unfinished versions of dungeons like Prophecy, though they could not access the planned social space. Some players criticized Bungie, claiming that the latest incident was a sign that recent layoffs at the studio may be impacting its ability to keep the game in working order and deployed on schedule.

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Released

August 28, 2017

ESRB

T For TEEN for Blood, Language, and Violence