The Drifter in Destiny 2: The Story of the Nameless Guardian

Wanderer (orig. The Drifter) Destiny 2 is an unnamed Guardian, a recalcitrant Lightbearer who is the creator of Gambit and is also a supplier of merchandise related to the event. He is a traveler who has explored the entire solar system and beyond, collecting spare parts, gadgets and trinkets along the way.

He is not like them, but similar - incredulous, secretive. He saw things that others would not dream of in a nightmare, and did things that most would not dare to do. But he always keeps aloof, away from the Light.

- Story. Dark. Drifter Gambit. From the Renegade's observation of the Drifter

Biography

Dark Age

“I don’t forgive anything and I don’t forget anything. My life is not easy, sis." — Dark Age Drifter

- Sunset and Dawn book. The man without a name. Unfinished business part 1.

During the Dark Age, the Drifter was resurrected by his ghost, who wanted to lead him to the Last City. Ignoring the ghost, the Drifter headed in the opposite direction. Starving to death, the Drifter crawled across the land, constantly coming back to life as his ghost, and constantly regaining consciousness hungry. The Drifter eventually made it to a small and hungry village in the East called Eaton, where he took on a new life as an ordinary person - hiding his ghost and the Light, but performing minor miracles when no one was around to provide himself with a little food.

At some point, the Iron Lords appeared and offered a deal the city couldn't refuse. The leader of a group of Iron Lords, Lord Dryden, offered the city several months worth of supplies and food in exchange for using the city as bait to draw out a man known as the "Red Man". The city accepted the terms and they were able to survive the winter thanks to the supplies provided. However, when one of the townspeople tried to escape out of fear of the Iron Lords' plan, he was captured by the Red Man and his men. When the Warlords arrived, the Iron Lords ambushed them, and in a furious battle, the city was destroyed, with the Wanderer's ghost watching the chaos from above. When the battle was over, the Drifter honored the people of the city by burying their bones.

After some time, the Drifter acquired the End of the World bar at the foot of Felwinter Peak, and took on the new name Wu Ming (still keeping his Light a secret). The bar was eventually destroyed after Lady Efrideet engaged the Warlords and shot them down.

After the firefight, Drifter climbed Felwinter's Peak to speak with Lord Felwinter. The Drifter brought word to the lord that Lord Dryden had broken the code of the Iron Lords by involving people without the Light in their conflicts. Felwinter was skeptical of his claim, wondering how the Drifter could prove the truth of his words. After that, the ghost of the Drifter appeared and gave the evidence (audio and video) to the ghost of Lord Felwinter. After the Drifter left the lord.

“Well, Sen… Maybe my eyesight is not the same anymore, but my sense of smell,” he tapped his nose with a finger, “is good. And now I smell a rat. A whole bunch of rats." Senrik stood up. It looked like a vein in his forehead was about to burst. The wanderer lowered his legs and drew his rifle with a lightning bolt. "You know what we do with rats, don't you, little brother?"

- History in the machine "Sheelom"

The Drifter was at odds with Lord Rins and asked his comrades (Cenric, Otto, Jaak, Aeryn, and Thalia) to stop doing business with him. Later, he found out that his comrades were meeting with Lord Rins behind his back, after which he decided to eliminate them. He invited them to a bar and ordered them 5 drinks each to lull their vigilance. Cenrik admitted that he never liked the Drifter, as he considered him a snitch, but after five helpings of strong drinks, he was filled with sympathy. Smiling in anticipation of killing the traitors, the Drifter noticed that Cenrik was a calm and talkative person and wondered if he was pouring the same words on Rinsu. The rebels fell silent. The Drifter claimed to have seen them in the valley, meeting with Lord Rins. Cenrik flared up and demanded to be told directly, to which the Drifter declared them to be rats, quickly pulled out a rifle, and declared that this was the only thing left to do with the rats.

World of Darkness

I think I already mentioned that by that time we were completely crazy. Well, we did what any decent psycho would have done. Each of us decided that the others had betrayed him. We pointed guns at each other.

To this day, I don't know how many of them actually prepared to open fire. But I'll tell you what: I alone got out of there.

― Ancient Apocalypse Warlock's Bandage

At the dawn of the Age of the City, the Drifter and part of his team decided to go beyond the solar system in search of something more than the Light, as they believed that the Light could cause monstrous enmity. They traveled for centuries, until they stumbled upon one off-system planet that emits energy that repels Light (the Thorn revolver has similar properties - it suppresses Light). The Drifter and his crew landed on this planet with the intention of studying this energy and finding a way to transport it. Extremely strong cold caused great damage to the bearers of Light. From time to time, someone from the team died, died right in the very place where he sat and stood. Every now and then ghosts resurrected frozen people every time. But they were in high spirits and hoped they could find something useful and worthwhile and were confident in their survival skills.

The Drifter's team discovered some kind of monolith - a structure created by non-humans, and abandoned by the inhabitants of this planet a long time ago. There were creatures inside. They determined that these creatures had the same bioenergetics as the Hive, but these creatures had a property that the Hive did not have. They produced a field that suppressed the Light. The Drifter regretted that there were no scientists among the team, which would have made it easier to study. Later, they discovered that not all beings were imprisoned in monoliths, there were those who freely moved around the planet. How did they know? After one of the comrades died in his sleep. Only this time the ghost could not resurrect the guy. The creature snuck into their hideout and got too close to the dying guy and just put out his Light. This loss angered them greatly, but also strengthened the Drifter's resolve to find a way to get the creature off the planet so that they could turn everything around in the battles of Light against Light. However, tensions were building up. Doubts and distrust crept in. Some of the team felt that everything had worked out too well, that the creature had been nearby and only killed one of them, and that everyone realized the value of these creatures too quickly.

After the first death, the Drifter and his team moved the camp to one of the monoliths to protect themselves from wandering creatures. The Drifter continued to study the technology inside the monoliths, trying to understand how the cryotech worked to contain the creatures. Tensions rose after the death of the second member of the team. Some members of the group began to accuse each other that someone had lured one of these creatures closer to the camp. Though the Drifter thought the creatures did it on purpose, as punishment for the intrusion. When one of the bearers of Light pulled out a cannon, the Wanderer warned that if the next time someone else tried to throw such a trick, he would kill him without a second's hesitation. So it's been a little over a year. The Drifter and three other members of the team survived. The ships broke down due to the cold. The cold had killed them a hundred thousand times already, and their paranoia began to turn into madness. Once, when they settled down for the night in another monolith, they suddenly lost the Light, at the moment when Dominus Ghaul invaded during the Red War, and the Wanderer was locked in a cage. But none of the team knew why the Light disappeared. Each decided that the others had betrayed him and pointed guns at each other. The Drifter kept his promise and killed all three of his remaining companions.

It was necessary to get off this planet, and then the ghost of the Drifter went crazy, offering a plan of action. The Illusive Man offered to modify his Light so that it would create the same energy effect as the Monoliths' cells, and he could become a cell for these creatures, but this required the details of the phantom. The ghosts of the fighters of the former detachment fled as soon as their wards died. So they began to hunt them down.

The Drifter hunted these Ghosts, trying to stay as far away from the creatures as possible. After killing all the ghosts and obtaining the parts, the Drifter began modifying his own ghost, taking care not to freeze to death until the process was complete. Upon completion, the Wanderer's ghost was permanently changed, but now he was wearing new armor, reinforced with parts from the insides of five other ghosts. His eye burned with red fire. He could no longer speak.

Now they could safely explore the planet. They froze every creature they found and brought aboard a new ship called the Outcast. The Ghost of the Wanderer could now draw energy from such spectra of Light, which no one on Earth has yet seen. This became the basis for the creation of the banks of Gambit, Particles of Darkness, "Outcast".

Lone Gun Gambit

After leaving the cold world, the Drifter returned to the solar system on a new ship called the Outcast, with a massive artifact in tow, a gift from the Nine, and acquired a small army of Taken in a pocket dimension that he could control using Dark Motes. His goal was to get to the Last City and organize a competition, which he called "Gambit", where a team of four Guardians is recruited, and Dark Motes are generated during the match. Drifter was also part of a group of Lightbearers who leaned towards the Darkness known as the Shadows of Yor until he fell out with Callum Sol. The Drifter then encountered the Man with the Golden Cannon, Shin Malfur, who in turn studied his connections to the Shadows of Yor, who were being hunted by a lone gunslinger. During their first meeting in a neutral setting, the Drifter shared many stories from his life, but never revealed his name. He introduced himself as the Drifter when Malfour told him to call him "pal". The wanderer boasted of all the places he had been outside the solar system, claiming to have seen the depths of Jupiter, visited the mines of Saturn's core, mentioned ancient myths such as the Luvial Cross, the shifting rifts beneath Alys, the fourth tomb of Nazarek. He talked about the idols of Lower Sul, about the treasures of Exodus Prime, about the solar drives of the dead Star Six. Although Malfur was not sure how true his stories were. Also, the Defiant Lightbearer claimed that the artifact that his ship, the Outcast, was transporting had a mysterious origin, more powerful ... "maybe." Sensing that Malphur wasn't happy with the Drifter's answers, the Drifter changed the subject, getting Callum drunk, knowing that the gunslinger's obsession with killing the Shadows of Yor would divert his attention.

At some point, the Drifter encounters Emperor Calus in his true form. The defiant Lightbearer asked if he and Calus would now fight for the Guardians, and the Cabal Emperor replied that (his) Shadows were his. The Drifter took this as a positive answer to his question and grumbled about "there's not a single sane person in the whole system." He told Calus that "The Emperor of the Cabal is no longer a Cabal at all" and returns to his sparrow.

Return to the city

Creation of Gambit

Nothing kills a Guardian faster than another Guardian.

- Drifter. Revolver Intruder

With the permission of Shin Malfour, the Drifter returned to the Last City and opened a shop in an alley near the bazaar. Shortly after his arrival, he introduced himself to the Young Wolf and talked about Gambit. After some time, news of the death arrived in the Last City. Cayda-6 at the hands of Uldren Sov in the Reef. Before the Guardian left the Tower to look for the Prince, the Drifter said that he and Cade were great partners, which was rare since this Exo preferred to work alone. He advised the Guardian not to let Cade's death affect him. He said that everyone, including the Guardian himself in the universe, has a bullet with his name, which will find him soon. The Drifter also offered to let off steam by participating in Gambit matches.

Thanks to the Spider's favor, the Drifter hires the Guardians to get into the Prison of the Elders. He also provides tactical support during the Tangled Shores raid (Nether Overseer) against the malfunctioning Minion Variks in the prison.

Equalizing the odds

I finally have an answer for the man with the Golden Cannon. And that's something we both had a hand in. Sounds like an intruder, right? I saw more guns. But this thing, real fiery death, pure destruction, is the key to my freedom from HIM. It makes no sense to compete with the shooter in speed. Will not work. But a team armed with THAT? No need to compete with him, just hit and he's finished

― Drifter

After defeating the High Primal Chimera during the Gambit and obtaining his Heart, Young Wolf went to the Drifter, who told the Guardian that the artifact could be used later to obtain the Intruder's revolver. Noting the Young Wolf's reliability and skill, he asked him to track down Callum Saul, claiming that the Shadows had stolen something of value from him. Drifter suspected Callum was dead because he hadn't seen or heard from him in a while. Traces of Callum were found in the Dreaming City. The final audio log gives a slight hint that Shin Malfur killed Callum for joining the Shadows of Yor.

Using the parts stolen by Callum, Drifter and Guardian finished building the Intruder, a weapon powered by both Light and Darkness. 

Season of the Drifter

Gambit Prime

To test the new event, Gambit Prime, the Drifter hired a Titan named Joxer, a regular Gambit player who was good at being an Invader, to try out the new Gambit project. Joxer was surprised that the offer came just for him, as he is not a "Red War hero", hinting that the Drifter favors the Guardian. To which the Drifter asked why all the people think that he is obsessed with this Guardian. Joxer mentioned that the two of them created the weapon, to which the Drifter replied that the creation of the Intruder revolver was not only their merit, and that now almost everyone runs around with this weapon. And only through its own fault, the Titan has not yet received this revolver. Joxer was angered by this statement, but the Drifter reassured him, saying that his particles were welcome here whether he was armed with an Intruder or not, and that only a specialist like Joxer could pull off what the Drifter had in mind. He then highlighted Invader Joxer's skills and asked him to test Gambit Prime. The idea did not inspire Joxer, but he agreed to accept the job.

Testing was successful for the Drifter, although three Guardians died. Joxer was outraged that he didn't stop the Taken when he could. Despite this, the armor supplied by the Drifter worked perfectly. He paid Joxer, including the share of the deceased comrades and added on top to prevent this news from reaching the Vanguard, and offered the Titan more work. Joxer refused to work with him anymore out of disgust, but Drifter allowed him to keep his Invader armor. After Joxer leaves, Drifter reviews the testing data collected by his ghost and is pleased with the results.

Features of Gambit Prime

Y'all helped me get Gambit going. And for that, I'll be forever grateful. But I've expanded my operation. I call this new scam Gambit Prime. Consider it a down payment on a dream. Give it a try, hotshot. You were my inspiration

― Drifter

After several successful trial runs, the Drifter introduces Gambit Prime to the Guardians as a role-based game that is an evolution of Gambit. Unlike the regular Gambit, Gambit Prime uses special and powerful possessed - Primordials who feed on the Light, their strength and will is comparable to the defeated Oryx and his son. However, in the course of these events, the Drifter's actions eventually reached the prying eyes of Warlock Honor Mahal of the Order of Praxis, who watched over the recalcitrant Lightbearer, accusing him of unlawfully manipulating and seducing the Guardians with dark power. After the Vanguard forbade the Warlock from further investigation of the Drifter, she urged the Guardian to keep an eye on the Drifter instead and report their sightings to her.

Court of the Nine

No no no. That's bad. They send you visions too.

― Drifter

When the Young Wolf visited the Drifter again, the Guardian's ghost mentioned a vision of the Nine and the Messenger, who showed them a card game in which the Drifter was given a Gift from the Nine. The Drifter was dismayed that the Nine were also visiting the Guardian. The Tramp did not like the fact that the Young Wolf saw his past, and stated that his deal with the Nine was risky, and warned the Guardian not to trust them. The Drifter asked to ignore the Messenger if she visits him again.

Three weeks later, the Drifter met with the Young Wolf, but the Guardian did not listen to the Drifter and continued to visit the Messenger in the Unknown Dimension. The Drifter asked the Guardian to promise him to stop seeing the Nine if he revealed that the Messenger was a former Reefborn named Orin, who awakened alongside Queen Mara Sov and was later reborn as a Guardian. In the end, after becoming a bearer of Light, she went to look for the Nine in order to gain power, and she got it, but she was transformed. The Tramp revealed that her past no longer mattered and that she was no longer who she was, just like him, and demanded that the Guardian stop seeing the Messenger.

Side selection

The moment will come when the Drifter will give the Guardian a choice: to stand beside him and become part of his team, or to side with the Vanguard and work with the warlock Honor, helping her find any information so that the Drifter can be blamed.

Side of the Drifter

If the Guardian chooses to side with the Drifter, he will be very pleased and excited about your decision, and after that the Guardian will go to talk to the Spider, since he has an item called "Hotpot" that the Drifter needs. Arriving at the Spider, the Guardian will find a large number of illegal items, including "Solyanka", "Small Things", "Midnight Edition", "Cheese Forest", "Bad News", "Good News" and "Lion", however, the Guardian can buy only Solyanka. After the Guardian makes the purchase, Solyanka will start pointing at the Fallen Transmitter on Titan to personally pick up the Drifter's merchandise (where the Guardian runs the Thief of Thieves heroic adventure on Titan). After that, the Drifter will ask the Guardian to talk to him face to face. He will then send the Guardian to his ship, the Outcast, to then find the records he left for him on the EDZ. These entries will tell the Guardian about the Drifter's past and reveal a little more about his personality, including his time in the Dark Age, his distrust of the Wraiths, his time in the Shadows of Yor, his fear of Shin Malfur, the Warlock Honor who haunts him. And even an omen that the Collapse will not be the last catastrophe that humanity has experienced. After all the notes are collected, the Drifter will request a face-to-face meeting one last time, then he will explain why he has many enemies and that he has places for people who can escape the impending apocalypse with him, and that he has a place is reserved for the Guardian, and he hopes that he will be with him when that day comes. He will then reward the Guardian with a Gambit set and the quest will end.

Vanguard side

If the Guardian chooses to side with the Vanguard, then in subsequent encounters with the Drifter, he will call you "spy/spy" when a Gambit or Gambit Prime match starts and ends, and when the Guardian approaches him in the Tower.

Season of Dawn

Prior to meeting the Guardian, Osiris hired the Drifter, to Sagira's dismay, to help him build the Sundial. Although they completed their machine, the Drifter warned Osiris that there was no guarantee that it would work. After that, he left to return to the Tower. The Drifter notes that he can hear the Sundial whispering.

Guardian Games

Wow, Gambit's tech at the festivities hosted by the Vanguard... I don't think Zavala was told that. Well, I'm better!

― Drifter

Considering that the All Might would soon fall on the City, Commander Zavala decided to hold an inter-class competition, the Guardian Games, in order to keep the spirits up during the crisis. As the organizer, Zavala entrusted this to Eva Levante, who in turn convinced the Drifter to repurpose Gambit's technology for games, without the knowledge of the Vanguard.

Season of Arrivals

When things go wrong, everyone runs to the good old Drifter

― Drifter

As the ships of the Pyramid began to arrive in the solar system, Eris Morn turned to the Drifter for help in deciphering the messages that the Pyramid was broadcasting. After exchanging "pleasantries", they agree to work together. The Drifter contributed to the mission by upgrading one of his Gambit bank to store the Pyramid's dark particles. Using charged particles of darkness, he created a shadow engram decoder, with which the Guardians decipher engrams infected with Darkness. As another device, it charges and focuses the power of the Silver Wing Tree's seed so that Eris can receive and decipher messages from the Pyramid.

Personality and character traits

WHY DOES IT DO IT?

- He is afraid of.

- OF DEATH?

- Total.

IT KILLS. He hates cruelty. He hates to such an extent that he is ready to kill anyone who tries to show it.

“Nine and the Messenger. Invitation of the Nine

Whether it's a joke or a threat, the Drifter never loses his smirk, irreverent temperament, or affable manner of speech. He shows particular enthusiasm as the host of Gambit.

The Tramp looks at the Light and the Stranger with disbelief. Having survived the era of warlords, he has personally witnessed the worst that the Light can do, even when wielded by inherently heroic figures such as the Iron Lords.

The Drifter himself resents the Light within him, feeling that his immortality and power have cut him off from some essential humanity. As such, he has never gotten along with his Ghost and views him solely as a tool, even actively rejecting any help he offers. He envies the survival instinct of ordinary people who have only one life, they live much more cheerfully than reborn ones who do nothing but throw an infinite number of their own people into constant war.

Even outside of the Light, the Drifter is a suspicious and secretive figure. The only side he's ever been on is his own. At various times he has associated himself with the Shadows of Yor (whom he disillusioned and disowned), their "nemesis" Shin Malfur (whom he planned to kill), the Spider (a frequent business associate), the Vanguard (who tacitly approves of his experiments with darkness) and Nine. The trauma of losing loved ones during the Dark Age has left him uninterested in forging new, closer relationships, though the Guardian is a notable exception. Under the dual nature and history of violence, the Drifter secretly fears everything, including violence itself, according to the Messenger of the Nine. He will do everything in his power to avoid violence, including murder.

One of the most notable oddities of the Drifter is his constant hunger. He starved to death multiple times during the Dark Age and was always revived by the Illusive Man, but the hunger remained; this seems to have developed into an association with food, which further escalated into full readiness, even the urge to eat the Fallen, the Nine and the Cabal, and the consumption of Vex oil. He especially likes to eat Hive. At one point, he described the Dark Motes as "amazing".

Another eccentricity of the Drifter is his lack of a name. He refused to take the name when he first resurrected, and has since passed by and discarded several others. These include Jermaine, Eli, Dredgen Hope, and Wu Ming (which can be read as "Nameless" or "No Name" in Chinese). "The Drifter" himself is a nickname given to him by other people.

The Tramp is pessimistic about humanity's survival. He foresees the second Collapse in the near future and is ultimately only interested in surviving or avoiding it.

Game process

Destiny 2

The Drifter is a Gambit and Gambit Prime organizer and trader.

Gambit Armor

• Ancient Apocalypse Pack (Titan)
• Ancient Apocalypse Pack (Hunter)
• Ancient Apocalypse Pack (Warlock)

Gambit Weapon

• Fatal Bones (automatic)
• Distant relatives (scout rifles)
• Past Grievances (Pulse Rifle)
• Vera (revolver)
• Ravager (submachine gun)
• Stardust Pouch (Shotgun)
• Dangerous Adventure (sniper rifle)
• Bad Omens (Rocket Launcher)

Seasonal weapons

• Sheelom (automatic). Kinetic weapon in the first slot. Uses main ammo. To receive, you need to complete the Wanderer's order.
• 21% Delirium (machine gun). Electric weapons in the third slot, uses heavy ammo. To receive, you need to complete the Wanderer's order.
• Silence (onion). Fire weapon in the second slot. Uses main ammo. To receive, you need to complete the Wanderer's order.

ritual weapons

• Escape plan (submachine gun). Kinetic weapon in the first slot, uses the main ammo. Obtained from the Drifter's quest during Season of the Undying.
• Python (shotgun). Void weapon in the second slot, uses special ammo. Obtained from the Drifter's quest during Season of Dawn.

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