The Destiny 2 community has no shortage of keen-eyed detectives, usually searching out the tiniest tidbits of lore to guess at future events or to reconstruct the fractured history. However, one player has taken to identifying the location of The Last City and Traveler once and for all, one of Destiny’s greatest mysteries. Supported by existing lore, theories, and geographical techniques, it’s hard to disprove this exciting theory suggesting The Last City is located in Chile, South America.
With the release of the Destiny 2 Revision Zero Exotic mission, Operation Seraph’s Shield, we’ve had our first comprehensive look at Destiny 2’s Earth from a distance. This mission takes us to Seraph Station, a space station in a geosynchronous orbit high above our home planet. At one point during the mission, players will embark on a spacewalk along the outside of the station, giving us a clear view of Earth, The Last City, and the Traveler. Using the skybox artwork and Google Maps, Reddit user ‘toastdriven’ concludes that The Last City is located in San Filepe or Santiago, Chile.
The Reddit user located a unique land feature on Destiny 2’s Earth and overlaid an image of Earth’s terrain from Google Maps. With a few rotations and scaling changes to match the perspective of the sky box, it’s a near perfect fit. Fans of Destiny will know that one of the powers of the Traveler is the ability to terraform planets, changing the physical environment and climate. Alongside artistic liberties taken by Bungie, this can help explain smaller inconsistencies, such as the fact that it snows in The Last City during the Dawning Christmas event. Therefore, it’s quite possible The Last City and the Traveler call Chile home.
To make matters more interesting, this isn’t the first time this conclusion has been drawn, though it does provide the most solid evidence to date. Over seven years ago, in the original Destiny, Reddit user ‘dwntwn_dine_ent_dist’ suggested the location of The Last City being in Chile by observing the sun. As a sundial enthusiast, this Reddit user theorised the location by examining the environment surrounding The Last City and the sun’s path through the sky box above.
Nevertheless, this latest theory is perhaps the most concrete observation yet, given that we now have access to a view of Earth from space in-game. Furthermore, it’s also supported by existing lore released by Bungie. For instance, the lore tab for the Colony Exotic grenade launcher makes reference to a Terciopelo snake, a species of pit viper found in Mexico, Central America, and South America. Meanwhile, the Panama Ravine Ornament for The Chaperone Exotic shotgun references the Panama Ravine, assumed to be located in the present-day Panama Canal. This is where Amanda Holliday’s mother attempted to cross the ravine to find The Last City, though she died doing so. Nevertheless, it reveals that they had travelled to South America through Central America, supporting the theory that The Last City is located in Chile.
Currently, this is the best guess for the location of The Last City and the Traveler, potentially solving one of Destiny’s greatest mysteries. With the release of several lore pages of the years increasingly hinting at the location, such as Colony and Chaperone, it’s possible that Bungie will give us the official answer in the future.
While we wait for more evidence to arise on the location of The Last City, why not improve your Guardian with the best Destiny 2 Titan build, the best Destiny 2 Warlock build, or the best Destiny 2 Hunter build to give yourself a leg-up against the enemies of the Light.