Rise of Iron

"It is time to avenge my fallen brothers and sisters. Stand with me, Guardian. Prove yourself worthy, and the Iron Lords will rise again!"

- Saladin Forge

Rise of Iron is the fourth expansion for Destiny, and was released on September 20, 2016. The story follows Saladin Forge as he gathers a new generation of Iron Lords to defeat the Fallen Devil Splicers who have rediscovered a Golden Age "techno-plague" called SIVA, and are using it to transform themselves into "machine-gods".

Story
The expansion takes place on Earth in a walled off area of the Cosmodrome called the Plaguelands a year after The Taken King. Guardians must rise to the challenge to take their place as the next generation of Iron Lords. Along the way they will join forces with a legend from humanity's Early City Age to defeat a plague of unstoppable evil once and for all.

Features

 * A five-mission Campaign, and additional missions and Quests:
 * King of the Mountain
 * The Walls Come Down
 * The Plaguelands
 * Download Complete
 * The Iron Tomb
 * Bad Blood
 * Beauty in Delivery
 * A Khvostov Rising
 * A Symbol of Honor
 * Show of Strength
 * New Patrol location:
 * The Plaguelands
 * New Social Space:
 * Iron Temple
 * New Armor and Gear:
 * Astrocyte Verse
 * Dunemarchers
 * Fr0st-EE5
 * Ophidian Aspect
 * Shinobu's Vow
 * Thagomizers
 * Transversive Steps
 * New Exotic Weapons:
 * Khvostov 7G-0X
 * Nemesis Star
 * Outbreak Prime
 * The Young Wolf's Howl
 * Trespasser
 * Year 3 Thorn
 * Year 3 Gjallarhorn
 * New Raid:
 * Wrath of the Machine
 * New and remade Strikes:
 * The Wretched Eye
 * The Devils' Lair (Sepiks Perfected)
 * The Summoning Pits (The Abomination Heist)
 * 8 Improved Artifacts based on the Iron Lords
 * New Crucible mode:
 * Supremacy
 * New Crucible maps:
 * Floating Gardens
 * Icarus
 * Skyline
 * The Last Exit
 * Archon's Forge, a new cooperative Arena
 * New Enemy Faction:
 * Devil Splicers
 * Improvements to Iron Banner
 * Maximum Light Increase: 385 Light (400 w/ Hard Mode Raid)
 * A new customization option known as Ornaments

Iron Gjallarhorn
The Iron Gjallarhorn is included with all pre-orders of Rise of Iron. The Iron Gjallarhorn itself will not be immediately available, and must be unlocked by completing a quest. Content will be available to all players after January 1, 2017.

Iron Gjallarwing Sparrow
The Iron Gjallarwing Sparrow is included with all pre-orders of Rise of Iron. Content will be available to all players after January 1, 2017.

Development
The trademark for Rise of Iron was registered on May 31, 2016. The existence of Rise of Iron was revealed in a leaked photograph of a promotional poster for the expansion. The poster showed Lord Saladin, the Tower envoy for the Iron Banner, surrounded by wolves and holding a fiery battleaxe before a breach in the Cosmodrome's wall. Prior to this, Activision had stated that Bungie was at work on a "new large expansion" for Destiny that would be delivered by the end of 2016, but provided no further details. Rise of Iron will be the last major content update for Destiny before the 2017 release of its sequel, Destiny 2.

The expansion's art direction was based entirely on Saladin himself. It also used Game of Thrones as an inspiration for its character dynamic. The same dog that provided motion-capture for Ghost was used in the game's development. It was intended that the expansion present the Destiny universe as a living place, hence the return to Old Russia, showing the detritus of earlier battles.

Rise of Iron is the first Destiny expansion to not be released on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3; it is only available on Xbox One and PlayStation 4. Players can transfer their characters to the newer generation of consoles, but will not be able to transfer their characters to the previous generation, as Rise of Iron content will be incompatible. Updates and hotfixes for Destiny on previous-generation consoles have also been discontinued.