Destiny: The Taken King Legendary Edition vs. Digital Collector's Edition

With the release of Destiny: The Taken King on September 15, 2015, Activision and Bungie offered several bundles designed to bring new players into the game’s universe. These packages combined the original game with its first two expansions, The Dark Below and House of Wolves, along with the new flagship expansion, The Taken King. For most prospective players, the choice came down to two main options: the Legendary Edition and the premium Digital Collector’s Edition. A third option, the Physical Collector’s Edition, was a GameStop exclusive in North America and was sold out prior to launch.

Each bundle provided a comprehensive entry point into Destiny’s first year of content, leading directly into its transformative second year. The decision between the two available editions depended on a player’s interest in exclusive cosmetic items and a small experience boost, weighed against a higher price point.

Destiny’s First Year in Review

The original Destiny launched to a mixed reception. While its core gunplay and shooting mechanics were widely praised as being best-in-class, the game drew criticism for its repetitive mission structure and a story that many found to be sparse. Despite these critiques, the game’s cooperative and competitive multiplayer loops proved highly addictive, especially when played with friends. Destiny became the best-selling new video game intellectual property of its generation, with a reported 20 million players engaging with the game in its first year.

To expand the experience, Bungie released two downloadable content packs. Expansion I: The Dark Below and Expansion II: House of Wolves added new story missions, cooperative Strikes, competitive Crucible maps, and a wealth of new weapons and armor to collect. However, at their launch prices, some fans felt the amount of content offered in these expansions was too little for the cost. The bundles for The Taken King addressed this by packaging all previous content together, offering a much stronger value proposition for newcomers.

The Taken King Expansion

The Taken King was presented as the largest and most significant expansion for Destiny to date. It introduced a substantial new campaign centered on Oryx, The Taken King, who arrives in the solar system to avenge the death of his son, Crota (the final boss of The Dark Below). This expansion brought with it a new patrol zone, the Dreadnaught, along with new enemy types known as the Taken. It also added a new Raid, multiple new Strikes, and additional Crucible maps for multiplayer.

A major addition in The Taken King was the introduction of a new subclass for each of the game’s three Guardian classes. This fundamentally changed how players could approach combat.

• Hunter: Gained the Nightstalker subclass, a support-oriented Void class with a bow super ability that could tether and weaken groups of enemies.
• Titan: Gained the Sunbreaker subclass, an offensive Solar class that could throw flaming hammers, devastating enemies from a distance.
• Warlock: Gained the Stormcaller subclass, an Arc-based class allowing the player to float and fire chain lightning from their hands.

Both the Legendary Edition and Digital Collector’s Edition included the full The Taken King expansion alongside the base game and previous DLCs.

Destiny: The Taken King Legendary Edition

The Legendary Edition was the standard bundle available both physically and digitally. It was the more affordable of the two main options and contained all the necessary game content for a new player to get started.

In addition to the game and its three expansions, preorders of the Legendary Edition came with bonus content. This included an early access weapons pack featuring a Vanguard-themed auto rifle, pulse rifle, and sidearm. It also granted the SUROS Arsenal Pack, which contained a SUROS-themed armor shader, emblem, and three SUROS-branded weapons: an auto rifle, pulse rifle, and scout rifle.

Activision also offered VIP rewards for longtime players who purchased The Taken King. To be eligible, players had to meet two conditions: first, they had to buy and play The Taken King by February 1, 2016. Second, they had to have either reached Light Level 30 on at least one character or purchased both The Dark Below and House of Wolves by August 31, 2015. Qualifying veterans received a commemorative Founder’s Fortune Year 1 emblem, an exclusive Sparrow vehicle, and a special armor shader.

Destiny: The Taken King Digital Collector’s Edition

The Digital Collector’s Edition was a premium, digital-only version that included all content from the Legendary Edition plus a collection of exclusive in-game items. These extras were:

• Three Class-Specific Emotes: New animations for the Hunter, Titan, and Warlock classes.
• Three Armor Shaders: Unique color schemes to customize a Guardian’s appearance.
• Three Exotic Guardian Class Items with XP Bonuses: Special class-specific gear (Hunter cloak, Titan mark, Warlock bond) that provided a boost to experience points gained, allowing for slightly faster character progression.

This edition carried a higher price tag, intended for players who wanted every available cosmetic item from the start. However, the functional advantage offered by the XP-boosting class items was minimal.

Which Edition Was the Better Value?

For most players, the Destiny: The Taken King Legendary Edition was the recommended purchase. It provided the entire game experience at a lower cost, and the preorder bonuses offered tangible in-game gear to start with.

The most important factor in this recommendation was that the exclusive digital items from the Collector’s Edition were also available for purchase separately as a standalone upgrade. This meant a player could buy the Legendary Edition first and, if they decided they wanted the emotes, shaders, and exotic class items later, they could buy the upgrade pack. The combined cost of the Legendary Edition plus the upgrade was the same as buying the Digital Collector’s Edition outright. This approach eliminated any risk of spending extra money on cosmetic items before knowing if the core game was enjoyable.