After 5 years, Destiny 2: Season of the Wish teases answers for its '15th Wish' mystery

Destiny 2
(Image credit: Bungie)

What you need to know

  • Destiny 2's newly announced Season of the Wish will likely bring answers for one of the game's biggest mysteries.
  • That mystery is the 15th Wish of the Last Wish raid, which many players believed didn't exist before today. A new cutscene has definitively revealed that it does, and that we'l be investigating it during Season of the Wish.
  • Other new revelations include the Guardians' acquisition of an Ahamkara dragon egg, as well as the news that Ikora Rey is having the Vanguard study Ahamkara wish magic.
  • Potentially, the Vanguard will have the Ahamkara in the egg grant the 15th Wish and allow us to pursue Destiny's antagonist, the Witness, through the portal it made to enter the Traveler during Lightfall.

When Destiny 2's Forsaken expansion released in 2018, its Last Wish raid introduced Riven — the last of a species of dragon called Ahamkara that have the remarkable ability to grant monkey's paw-style wishes. By "wishing" to fight and slay Riven to save the Dreaming City zone the raid takes place in, Guardians of the Vanguard instead ended up locking it into a looping three-week long curse in which it's continually assaulted by hostile Taken forces, forcing them to "save" it over and over again. 

Soon after Last Wish's release, though, it was quickly realized that this wasn't the only wish Riven could grant. Players combing through it would discover a special Wall of Wishes in a hidden area before its first encounter, and it didn't take long for fans to find patterns of symbols hidden around the game to punch into it afterwards. There were 14 of these wishes found in total, with effects ranging from skipping to specific encounters to spawning a loot chest for extra raid gear...but upon examining the Destiny 2 API, fans realized that there are actually 15 wishes.

Even after five years of searching, Destiny's community still hasn't been able to piece together the wish, and many came to believe its supposed existence was just a joke from developer Bungie. However, thanks to the contents of a new cutscene (watch it above) that plays after completing the final puzzle of Season of the Witch's Imbaru Engine activity, we now know the 15th Wish is real — and in Destiny 2's next season, it looks like we're going to figure out what it is.

In the new scene, our Guardian and Eris Morn realize that patterns on the wings of the Hive god Savathûn holds the key to deciphering the elusive 15th Wish. This, together with this week's revelations that Savathûn kept one of Riven's eggs in the Imbaru Engine and that Vanguard leader Ikora Rey is having the Ahamkara studied to understand the use of their magic, strongly suggests that when that egg hatches, we'll be working with the newly born Ahamkara and using the 15th Wish to follow the Witness (Destiny's current main antagonist) into the Traveler (the paracausal entity that gives Guardians their powers).

Since the Witness entered the Traveler during the events of Destiny 2: Lightfall, the Vanguard's Guardians have been attempting to find a safe way to pursue it. All attempts up until now have been met with failure and death, but with an Ahamkara, the Vanguard may be able to bypass the Witness' defenses. 

The player's Guardian piecing together the 15th Wish. (Image credit: Bungie)

A few hours after these discoveries were made by players, Bungie posted an announcement for Season of the Wish, Destiny 2's twenty-third season, on X (formerly Twitter). Scheduled to go live on November 28, it's clear that it'll focus heavily on the Vanguard's efforts to understand and use the 15th Wish. The newly acquired Ahamkara egg will likely hatch at some point, and we may even see the return of Riven in some way.

“Congratulations to those who have solved the final puzzle of the Imbaru Engine," the Tweet reads. "Season of the Wish arrives on November 28. Until then, O Guardian Mine.”

Ultimately, only time will tell what's in store — but it's exciting to think that we're finally going to get some answers for one of Destiny 2's longest-running mysteries. Notably, though, this news comes just a week after Bungie laid off 8% of its workforce and reportedly delayed games like The Final Shape DLC and Marathon.

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Brendan Lowry

Brendan Lowry is a Windows Central writer and Oakland University graduate with a burning passion for video games, of which he's been an avid fan since childhood. He's been writing for Team WC since the summer of 2017, and you'll find him doing news, editorials, reviews, and general coverage on everything gaming, Xbox, and Windows PC. His favorite game of all time is probably NieR: Automata, though Elden Ring, Fallout: New Vegas, and Team Fortress 2 are in the running, too. When he's not writing or gaming, there's a good chance he's either watching an interesting new movie or TV show or actually going outside for once. Follow him on X (Twitter).