Why Did Destiny 2 Remove Mars And Will It Ever Return?

As a devoted Destiny 2 player with over 1000 hours logged since launch, I‘ve defeated gods in every corner of our solar system. So when I loaded up Destiny 2 after the Beyond Light expansion and found the entire planet Mars missing from the Director map, I was both shocked and dismayed! For all fellow Guardians wondering why Mars vanished from Destiny 2 years ago or holding out hope it may return, this is the definitive guide to the red planet‘s mysterious fate.

The Invasion of Darkness Signals a Changing Destiny Universe

To understand why Mars disappeared both in Destiny‘s lore and real-world development, we have to go back to the original collapse of human civilization and the Traveler‘s sacrifice. After granting humanity a Golden Age, the ominous Pyramid ships of the alien force called The Darkness arrived in our solar system, unleashing an apocalyptic attack on humanity.

While we defeated the first wave of Darkness, the ancient threat has continued lurking on the fringes of our system. The secretive Warmind Rasputin has kept watch from Mars and attempted to prepare weapons to defend our system.

So when a red legion armada led by Dominus Ghaul attacked Earth and caged the Traveler early in Destiny 2, it left Mars and humanity‘s other colonies vulnerable. Ancient Marrs facilities and ruins from Clovis Bray experiments made it a tempting target for our enemies.

Sure enough, through Destiny 2‘s Season of Arrivals leading up to Beyond Light, Pyramid ships slowly moved towards Jupiter, Titan, Io and finally Mars. As they arrived at each planet, darkness zones appeared and began corrupting areas with sinister statues and corrupted energy.

Something major was coming that would change Destiny‘s world forever….

The Traveler Reawakens And Mars Disappears

After years of subtle buildup, Destiny 2: Beyond Light showed the true might of the Darkness firsthand. Their Pyramids barricaded our solar system as the Fallen empire chose to abandon humanity‘s enemies and harness dark powers for themselves.

With cone-headed Exos, chilling stasis weapons and mutated Fallen, Beyond Light transformed Destiny with the long-teased arrival of Darkness. But while we battled former allies as newly minted dark warriors, the Traveler had been silently gathering its strength.

At the climax of Destiny 2‘s events from Arrivals to Beyond Light, the inert Traveler finally healed and reawakened with a massive burst of Light energy! This cosmic pulse pushed back the suffocating dark fleets and brought hope to Guardians across the system. But strangely, Mars along with IO, Titan and Mercury had simply disappeared – erased from existence!

For those scratching their heads wondering how an entire planet can vanish, even Destiny‘s lead writers were vague on why Mars and other worlds went missing. But digging into Destiny lore gives some compelling clues:

The most supported theory is that Savathun or the coming threat "The Witness" used the distraction of Beyond Light to hide or take Mars using unknown power or technology. The fact that Mars has strong ties to the Warmind Rasputin and Clovis Bray experiments with the Vex and Clarity Control likely made it a strategic target.

Whatever truly caused Mars to go missing along with 3 other worlds, as Guardians we are left with another civilization-ending threat to solve across the universe. And Bungie took the opportunity of this status quo shift to make some big changes for Destiny 2‘s future…

Bungie Vaults Mars To Upgrade Destiny 2‘s Future

While Mars and other planets have technically "disappeared" in Destiny 2‘s canon lore, there were also some real-world technical reasons that Bungie decided to vault that content:

By 2020, Destiny 2 had accumulated over 115 GB of data across all expansions, updates and content releases. With massive games like Call of Duty nearing 200GB, Destiny 2 risked bloating into an unwieldy size especially with new console generations on the horizon.

Bungie stated their goals were to both streamline Destiny 2‘s size so new or lapsed players weren‘t overwhelmed when trying to return. But just as importantly, removing existing content gave their developers breathing room to upgrade engine tech, fine tune elaborate new features and prepare for Destiny‘s future longevity rather than just yearly content drops.

While story reasons helped explain it, the reality is Mars and other DCV‘d planets were less trafficked by 2020. Metrics showed most players focused on newer destinations and narrative events. So Bungie shifted resources away from locations like Mars and Mercury toward building intricate new social spaces like Europa, Throne Worlds and the coming Neptune location.

Vaulting planets may have upset some fans, but it has allowed Bungie to take risks and dream bigger than ever before. And the studio promises vaulted worlds like Mars can always return one day…

Could Mars Come Back To Destiny 2?

Removing years of playable content is always controversial, no matter if done for technical reasons or canon story. Personally, as someone who took down Gods on Mars and memorized every red sand drift, it stung to see such an iconic Destiny location wiped from my solar system.

However, Bungie wants Guardians to know that nothing in the Destiny Content Vault (DCV) stays gone forever. Just like we could defeat Ghaul and awaken the Traveler, there is hope we could also save Mars someday!

Leaked concept footage has shown Mars returning under Savathun‘s corrupted control. We even got to fight across a shadowy Martian battlefield during Destiny 2: The Witch Queen campaign against her fortress. So there is evidence Bungie may allow us to revisit lost worlds, at least temporarily.

Perhaps years down the road after Lightfall concludes this epochal Light vs Darkness saga, we might drive back the Pyramid fleet or Strategist Savathun for good. I can dream we‘d regain planets we‘ve lost like Mars and Titan as humanity takes back control of our system! (Who wouldn‘t want to surf Saturn again??)

But whatever Destiny holds for us next, rest assured your fellow Guardians will be there to take it all in stride. We‘ve witnessed beautiful alien vistas and unbelievable threats – losing Mars hurt, but our spirit won‘t be broken. The Traveler may have faith humanity as all we‘ve endured, Mars or no Mars. We‘ll be seeing you starside!

For my next guides, comment below on what else you might want explained about Destiny lore and story. And click to subscribe for more theories plus breakdowns of every exotic quest, weapon review or seasonal activity! Let‘s unravel Destiny‘s secrets together…