In Season of the Deep, Drifter became a regular visitor at the HELM, bringing his blue Juice of Seven bottle along. While several characters provide Sloane and Ahsa support, unexpectedly, Drifter stands out. In a group interview with the narrative team at Bungie, we asked about Drifter becoming a prominent character and why some conversations explore his past.
Dialogue in the Week 4 questline intrigued me the most. Over a drink, Drifter opens up to Sloane about a significant moment in his life that has puzzled players since Destiny 2: Forsaken. As in the Ancient Apocalypse armor lore, he says that there were creatures that suppressed Light on a distant planet, making it difficult to survive even with a Ghost. Although the crew died, he managed to escape. After bonding over tough times, Sloane thanks him for the drink.
Destiny 2 senior narrative designer Robert Brookes said, “I actually wrote that conversation, and it was one of those things where Drifter’s motivations came up in question a lot, and in the season, people are like: ‘Why are you doing the altruistic thing?'” Brookes added, “I wanted to explore all the different angles of why Drifter would do that.” However, this is just one of many stories in Season of the Deep that dive into his character.
At the HELM, we hear Drifter talk with Zavala and Lord Saladin about his bar for Iron Lords, his many aliases, the Dredgen days, Orin, and Gambit’s history with the Nine — even giving a glimpse at the fan-favorite relationship between Drifter and Eris Morn, his Moondust. “Not only is Eris helping him come to grips with the person that he is, and actually be, maybe, happy, but he himself has experienced other things,” Brookes explained.
Brookes gave insight into the HELM radio chat between Saladin and Drifter about Felwinter Peak. “Yeah, I was the unscrupulous rat running a bar at the base of your mountain, but I was pointing out all the troublemakers to you,” Brookes said, presenting Drifter’s outlook. He added that their conversation is “recontextualizing [Drifter’s] actions and from his perspective, so that you could see things from his point of view.” Drifter came into Destiny 2 as somewhat of a dubious person — like Eris in Destiny: The Dark Below — but he went deep into his feelings this season.
Additionally, Brookes said, “I think it was really important to not ignore different parts of Drifter’s character, even if they haven’t talked about a lot, like Orin, the emissary of the Nine.” In the Week 5 HELM radio chat with Zavala, Drifter expresses his trust and faith in Orin, though she’s a mystery to everyone else — lore from Season of the Drifter, like the Sunbreak Mark, details their history. He explained, “I wanted to just be comprehensive in delving into Drifter’s character and making him seem as deep as he really is, and then showcasing the capacity he has for being a bigger person than people realize or give him credit for.”
Senior narrative designer Nikko Stevens pointed out how Season of the Deep was like a “Season of the Titans” starring Sloane, Zavala, Saladin, and Saint-14, but Drifter is the outlier. “Drifter, he’s classless in many ways, but also, he doesn’t have a class. He kind of fills this spot where you have a bunch of stern, serious people — Saint-14, I guess not so much — but very focused characters, and Drifter is that little chaos factor,” Stevens said. Stevens noted that Drifter is the type of character that can challenge some of the other Guardians by showing a different point of view.
