A new breakdown of Destiny 1’s scrapped “Staten Cut” has surfaced, revealing campaign structure, characters, factions, and a completely different story Bungie originally planned before the 2013 rewrite.
When Destiny launched back in 2014, many players were confused by its story. While the gunplay and visuals were solid, the narrative felt hollow and disjointed. In 2015, a report by Jason Schreier revealed that what we got wasn’t the story Bungie originally set out to tell for Destiny.
The game’s story was rebooted in mid-2013, just over a year before release, scrapping a more character-driven campaign written by Joseph Staten. And now, thanks to a new deep dive from a community member named Breshii, we have our clearest look yet at what that original story might have looked like.
New Details on Destiny 1’s Staten Cut
The new info comes from a post shared by Breshii on the r/DestinyTheGame subreddit. After digging through the files of a December 2013 Xbox 360 Tech-Alpha build of Destiny, which was leaked in June 2023, Breshii pieced together an enormous amount of data referencing Destiny’s original campaign.
Even though the story had already been rebooted by the time this build was made, it still included traces of the original missions, characters, destinations, and cinematics from the so-called “Staten cut.”
According to the information shared, Destiny 1’s campaign was originally structured like a book series, with Books and Chapters making up the story arc. Each chapter was a full mission, and the campaign spanned multiple destinations that were either changed or cut entirely before release. The story would’ve taken players across five main destinations:
- Earth (Cosmodrome)
- Venus (Ishtar Highlands)
- Mars (Olympus Dunes)
- Moon (Ocean of Storms)
- Dreadnaught (Rings of Saturn)
Yes, the same Dreadnaught that was later released as part of The Taken King expansion. There were also three social spaces: the Tower (Earth), the Reef (Queen’s Ketch), and the Lighthouse (Mercury).
Six main Factions were part of the original content plan – three story-related and three for PvP. The story factions included Osiris, Queen’s Wrath, and the Seven Seraphs. On the PvP side, the factions were the ones we ended up getting in the final game: New Monarchy, Dead Orbit, and Future War Cult.
There was also one more faction referenced in the files – FOTC, short for Forces of the City. They were mentioned in the mission structure as the group that sends you into the Cosmodrome at the very beginning of the game.
One of the most interesting parts of the leak is how different the main cast was in the Staten version. These include:
- Ghost
- Crow
- Osiris
- Hecate
- Rasputin
- The Mask (later became the Speaker)
- The Queen
The player’s journey began with a more comedic and lighthearted Ghost, as they were sent by the Last City to locate a Hunter named Crow, a character that would later evolve into Uldren Sov. Joining you along the way was Osiris, his assistant Hecate (who later became The Stranger), and Rasputin, who was originally an Exo being controlled by a Warmind, rather than just an AI.
The campaign kicked off on Earth, moved to Venus to find “The Archive,” then to Mars to retrieve something called the Seraph Key from the Dust Palace. With that key, the player would open the Seraphim Vault hidden in the Cosmodrome, only to find Rasputin had been kidnapped by the Hive. After rescuing him on the Dreadnaught, Book 1 concluded with a return to the Tower.
Here’s how Book 1’s chapters were structured:
- Chapter 1: Cosmodrome (Earth) – Intro mission with Crow, fighting Fallen.
- Chapter 2: Venus – Reach the Archive and confirm the existence of the “Seraphim.”
- Chapter 3: Mars – Retrieve the Seraph Key and meet the Queen.
- Chapter 4: Moon – Infiltrate the Hellmouth.
- Chapter 5: Venus (again) – Defeat a Vex Gatekeeper to trade for the Seraph Key.
- Chapter 6: Cosmodrome – Enter the Seraphim Vault and find out Rasputin is missing.
- Chapter 7: Dreadnaught – Rescue Rasputin from Hive captivity.
Book 2 centered around accessing the Black Garden, which wasn’t just a random mission; it was the finale of the second arc. The story had you return to Mars and Venus to find a Vex Key, then eventually travel through a portal in the Mars subway system to enter the Black Garden. After a climactic boss battle, the Queen used her ship to fire on the Black Garden, causing it to collapse.
Book 2’s key missions included:
- Chapter 1: Mars – Enter the “Buried City” subway station.
- Chapter 2: Venus – Unknown content, ended with a Reef cinematic.
- Chapter 3: Mars – Infiltrate a Cabal warbase and retrieve a Vex Key.
- Chapter 4: Cosmodrome – Boss fight, little is known about this mission.
- Chapter 5: Mars – Use the Vex Key to enter the Black Garden and stop the Vex.
There were also detailed references to Strikes, including one on the Dreadnaught called The Crux, where players would’ve faced a Hive boss named Asaru, the Navigator. Here’ a list of all the Strikes found:
- Den of Devils (Earth)
- The Nexus (Venus)
- Dust Palace (Mars)
- Cerberus Vae III (Mars)
- The Summoning Pits (Moon)
- The Crux (Dreadnaught) – Featuring a Hive boss named Asaru, the Navigator.
This has been discussed before, but one of the biggest changes in Destiny’s original story was the scrapped Hive “mega raid” that Bungie was working on before shifting focus to what eventually became the Vault of Glass. This cut raid was meant to take place aboard the Hive Dreadnaught, a location players wouldn’t officially visit until The Taken King launched a year later.
The raid was structured across multiple key areas within the ship, including The Basilica, Golgoroth’s Cellar, and the Oversoul Throne, locations that fans of King’s Fall and Crota’s End raids might recognize. Unlike Vault of Glass, which centered around Vex and time-travel themes, this raid was deeply tied to Hive lore, relics, and their rituals.
Datamined strings list a complete bubble path (aka room or encounter order):
- Control (Basilica)
- Chamber1 (Golgoroth’s Cellar)
- Control (Basilica)
- Lens (Oversoul Throne)
A full lineup of Major and Ultra enemies was also included in the files, some of which never appeared in the final game:
Majors:
- Gnath, the Diviner
- Cryth, the Siphon
- Noctu, the Lightslayer
- The Wall
- Voldor, the Willkeeper
- Divined Vision
- Dredge Exploder
- Relic Knight
- Fire Knight
Ultras:
- Storgor, the Shatterer
- The Veil
- The Oversoul
Beyond the campaign and story content, the Tech Alpha build also gave a look at Destiny 1’s early PvP plans. Here’s a list of all the PvP maps found in the files, some of which eventually made it into the final game:
- The Archive – Ishtar Collective, Venus
- The Anomaly – Mare Cognitum, Moon
- Firebase Delphi – Eon Chasma, Mars
- Twilight Gap – City Perimeter, Earth
- Exodus Blue – Cosmodrome, Earth
- Rusted Lands – Eastern Flood Zone, Earth
- Wolves’ Den – Queen’s Ketch, The Reef
- Shores of Time – Maat Mons, Venus
- The Suffering – Ocean of Storms, Moon
- Abomination – Ocean of Storms, Moon
- Bastion – Meridian Bay, Mars
- Wraith Mines – Margaritifer Terra, Mars
- First Light – Mare Cognitum, Moon
- Timekeeper – Meridian Bay, Mars
- Blind Watch – Meridian Bay, Mars
- Sector 87 – South Wall, The City
- Asylum – Ishtar Sink, Venus
- Drowned Kingdom – Ishtar Sink, Venus
- The Burning Shrine – Fields of Glass, Mercury
- The Scar – Old Russia, Earth
- Widow’s Court – European Dead Zone, Earth
And then there’s the European Dead Zone; yes, the EDZ. It was in development for Destiny 1’s “Comet” DLC (which eventually became The Taken King), complete with forests corrupted by a Traveler shard and a Strike set in an abandoned airport. This version of the EDZ used the same Book/Chapter structure and hinted at a larger ongoing story.
- EDZ Description: Amongst the remains of an Old Earth village lies an artifact of our ancient past, a casualty of the Twilight Gap that will bring Guardians face-to-face with the Darkness.
Unfinished destinations like Old Chicago, Cabal Flagships, and even Europa were also present in the files.
Breshii notes that while some small details are unclear due to limited data, the major plot points, mission layouts, and characters are accurate and come straight from datamined strings and in-game structure left behind in the Tech Alpha.
What do you think of this original version of Destiny 1? Would you have preferred this Staten-led version over the one we got? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
