Destiny’s latest expansion The Witch Queen is here! It’s basically all I’ve played since it dropped on February 22nd and I think it’s one of the best additions to the game. Savathun’s throne world is immaculate; the Hive guardians are some of the coolest fights I’ve encountered, and the reworked Void subclass has been a lot of fun! Not to mention the newest raid, Vow of the Disciple, is officially live. We’ve got a lot of new territory to explore!

Let me start off by saying, we dipped our toes in the raid when it dropped today and did not make it past the first encounter. We did figure out the mechanics of it eventually, but contest mode definitely makes things more difficult. As cool as it would be to earn that raid emblem for beating it within the first 24 hours, I’m not that committed to the process. What I have been doing is working to uncover the new world secrets. Savathun’s throne world is filled with an assortment of things to seek out. Aside from the hidden chests, there are darkness rifts to close and moth figurines to find.

Moth figurines have been a slow release with two appearing each week. In the cave by Fynch, you’ll find little markers for hidden moths in the world. You may recall finding things like this on the Moon or Europa, but I’d say these are much easier to find. I have found all four moths on my own relatively easy. Each marker in the cave will tell you the area to explore to find the corresponding moth. You may need to kill an enemy or you may just find it sitting up on a pillar. Head to the area indicated, collect the moth, and return it to the cave. So far, the hardest thing I’ve had to do with this is remember how to get to the Temple of Cunning to find this little guy.

Hidden chests are found by using the various deepsight spots around the world. There are different levels that are only accessible after increasing your rank with Fynch. Secret platforms appear, walls disappear, and puzzles are revealed. One of the types of puzzles you’ll see involves shooting braziers or torches to light everything. No method to the madness here, this is just shooting until it works or the timer runs out.

I also found a puzzle that involved collecting a charge to throw at an encased chest. I think this is the only puzzle I’ve done like this so far. To be honest, I don’t even know that this is what I was supposed to do, but it worked. Flawlessly executed.

One of the favorite parts of this latest release is the new exotic Parasite. The quest is … different, but it’s fun and the gun is well worth it. I’ve been running my 7-year-old niece through the story and we just finished the Parasite quest today. My niece insists on being the one to pick up things and move the story along. The Parasite quest is where she drew the line on this. Lugging a big fat Hive baby worm around was not her cup of tea. She yelled at me repeatedly to pick it up for her. In my original run for this gun, I had fun flinging the worm around to troll my fireteam.

Aside from this gun being really fun to play with, it is essential if you want to close the darkness rifts found in the throne world. All you need to do is damage yourself with the gun to get the buff and then shoot the rift with any gun to close it. The rifts look like floating white lightning in the world. Without that wormy buff, you’re not closing the rift. Even if you don’t want to use the gun, this is essential to checking those triumph boxes.

The fights against the Hive guardians is one of my favorite aspects of the expansion. While each can present their own challenges, I think the Hunter Acolytes are the hardest ones. I am curious if we will see them added to other aspects of Destiny or if they will stay contained to the new throne world content. Either way, I’m a fan of any enemy that forces me to second-guess my usual strategy of running in with no regard for what is going on around me. It is truly fun (maybe I’m in the minority on this) seeing a super come flying at you.

I’ve also managed to secure catalysts for Le Monarque, Outbreak Perfected, and Whisper of the Worm! I’ve completed Le Monarque’s, I’m building up Outbreak Perfected’s, and I’m not entirely sure I’ll do Whisper’s yet. I’ve never been good about following through on completing my catalysts. Just ask my boyfriend who spent an inordinate amount of time helping me complete steps to acquire Sleeper Simulant (spoiler alert: I didn’t finish that quest still and ended up buying it), only to watch me get the catalyst and leave it still sitting at a solid 60 out of 300 kills to complete.

As much fun as it is to experience the new content, the best part of all of this has been sharing the adventure with my niece. She was thrilled to learn that she would be at the same light level as us starting out. She was been buckling down and playing content much more difficult than ever before. Seeing her light up when she watches her seasonal rank climb and her power level soar has been so rewarding. She did her very first exotic weapon quest, completed multiple Nightfalls, and has been learning how to read puzzles alongside me. I’m a proud auntie. I can’t wait to tell her about the “mini raid” she can do with me now that World’s First has been completed and a brand new campaign mission has been added. We aren’t quite ready for a real raid yet.

So tell me, are you playing the latest expansion? How do you feel about it? Any secrets you’ve uncovered that you’re dying to share? Tell me about it in the comments below!