Dread
| The Dread | |
|---|---|
| Information | |
| Classification | Army of Darkness-wielding beings |
| Homeworld | None (created by the Witness) |
| Leadership | The Witness and its Disciples; Yirix |
| Allegiance | The Witness and the Darkness |
| First appearance | Destiny 2: Lightfall (2023); named in The Final Shape (2024) |
The Dread are an army of Darkness-wielding beings created by the Witness to serve as its personal force. They are the Witness's answer to the Guardians the Traveler raised: where Guardians wield the Light, the Dread wield the Darkness, chiefly Stasis and Strand, with the brute Tormentors adding Void.
The first Dread, the Tormentors, appeared during Lightfall in 2023. The full faction was unveiled and named in The Final Shape in 2024, where the Dread became the Witness's main army inside the Pale Heart. They are the first wholly new enemy faction in Destiny 2 since the Scorn arrived with Forsaken in 2018.
Origin and Nature
The Witness builds the Dread by reshaping other beings, using Light stolen from the Traveler together with its own Darkness. Several Dread were once Psions of the Shadow Legion, remade into Stasis and Strand casters. When a Dread unit dies, branching tendrils of Darkness burst from its body, the same death effect seen on the Witness and its Disciples.
The Dread are themed around the two Darkness subclasses that Guardians can also use. Their Stasis units freeze and slow, their Strand units suspend and pull, and their heaviest units fight with Void. This makes them the first enemies to turn Stasis and Strand against the player at scale.
Command
The Dread answer to the Witness and its Disciples. The named Disciples, Rhulk, Nezarec, and Calus, had all been killed before or during The Final Shape. After the Witness fell, a Psion commander named Yirix gathered the surviving Dread and Shadow Legion under her own banner. Fittingly, the Tormentors resemble the Disciple Nezarec, and the Subjugators resemble the Disciple Rhulk.
History
Tormentors first appeared in Lightfall, serving the Disciple Calus and his Shadow Legion during the invasion of Neomuna. They were not yet grouped under a faction name. After Calus's death, the Witness entered the Pale Heart of the Traveler and began creating the rest of the Dread there.
In The Final Shape, the Dread served as the Witness's army throughout the campaign, the raid Salvation's Edge, and the final mission against the Witness. After the Witness was destroyed, the surviving Dread scattered, and many were drawn into later conflicts as they chased the Echoes left behind by the Traveler.
Combatants
The Dread mix light casters, fast skirmishers, and heavy bruisers.
- Attendant: a Stasis caster that sends out a wave to slow its targets.
- Weaver: a Strand caster that sends out a wave to pull Guardians out of cover.
- Grim: a flying unit whose screech suppresses abilities; it is the first enemy in the series to fly with wings.
- Husk: an acrobatic melee bruiser that releases a Geist unless you kill it with a hit to its chest weak spot.
- Geist: a small drone deployed by a Husk that flies at you and explodes.
- Subjugator: a tall, Rhulk-like commander that wields the Subjugator Glaive and buffs nearby Dread. The Omen wields Stasis; the Harbinger wields Strand.
- Tormentor: a hulking brute with a Void scythe that suppresses Guardians, slams the ground, and grabs and drains them with a move called Dark Harvest.
Notable Dread
- The Witness: the creator and master of the Dread.
- Yirix: the Psion commander who leads the Dread and Shadow Legion remnants after the Witness's fall.
- Subjugators and Tormentors: the Dread's elite commanders and brutes, modeled on the Disciples Rhulk and Nezarec.
Fighting the Dread
Tormentors are the headline threat: their shoulders are the only weak points at first, and once both break, a chest weak spot opens up. Never let one grab you below full health, and shoot a teammate free if Dark Harvest catches them. Grim fly and screech, killing your double jump and blurring your view, so keep your distance and shoot them down. Hit a Husk's chest on the final blow to stop it from spawning a Geist. Omen Subjugators slow you with Stasis and Harbingers suspend you with Strand, and tougher ones resist any damage that does not match their element.
Trivia
- The Dread are the first new Destiny 2 enemy faction since the Scorn in 2018.
- The Grim is the first enemy in the franchise to fly using actual wings.
- The Weavers and Harbingers are the first enemies to wield Strand against Guardians.
