's third (and massive) expansion is coming on September 15, and with it Bungie is taking the opportunity to completely change some of the systems the open-world shooter has had in place for the past year. Leveling is going to be different, the weapons will change, the lore is being handled in a new way - there's a lot going on here.

Bungie has dropped a megaton of information on The Taken King expansion. This week's reveal of the cover story and our hands-on time with Destiny at Gamescom 2015 brings to light many of the new features Bungie has been hiding behind the curtain for the last few months. In order to keep you in the know, we've collected all of the information revealed about the third expansion so far. So without further ado, this is the new Destiny.

The Taken King expansion is jam packed with content. The new, high-level activities take place on Mars' moon Phobos, Mercury, and within a massive Hive Dreadnaught full of great halls to explore. The Dreadnaught acts as a new planet, giving Guardians more difficult Patrol challenges, environmental puzzles to solve, and hidden treasure tucked away in the nooks and crannies. There will be four Strikes on PlayStation, (three on Xbox), a massive raid mission, and a story campaign that has a greater emphasis on cinematic storytelling and character development.

You won't be fighting the same Vex, Fallen, Cabal, and Hive enemies. Instead, you'll face the Taken: an army of the old enemy species, only they've been mutated and transformed by the Taken King, who’s given them ethereal qualities and remixed abilities. For example, the Taken version of the Hive Wizard can spawn groups of thrall-like minions to overwhelm your fireteam, forcing you to take it out as quickly as possible. There are also plenty of bosses to encounter, but don't count on them waiting for you at the end of a Strike; some of the game’s tougher enemies will appear in Patrols as well.

Grinding and grinding and grinding for that one piece of gear needed to hit max level is a thing of the past. At least, we hope. Until the Taken King, after you hit the max level of 20, you'd have to get better and better armor pieces by completing the game's more difficult challenges, raids, and strikes in order to increase your light level - which led to lots of grinding and even more frustration for some players. In The Taken King, players will progress from level one to 40 by gaining experience points, much like you would in any MMO or RPG. So, you could be a level 40 Titan wearing all rare class armor if you wanted to, but you'd definitely be much weaker without the superior stats of legendary or exotic equipment.

We have some fond memories of our time with our legendary hand cannon Fatebringer that we farmed out of the Vault of Glass, but the vanilla Dark Below and House of Wolves legendaries can not be ascended in The Taken King. It seems it's time for some new weapons to lead the pack. But, before you start going through your vault and disassembling your guns, Bungie has teased that the old gear will have some sort of purpose in the expansion. If you're worried about your Exotics, there's been no mention of holding those pieces of equipment back, so we're guessing they're likely to have stats boosts available come the expansion.

Part of the reason legendary equipment will not be buffed up to the new level cap is that you'll be hunting down more powerful weapons and armor. Those of us who have been collecting the purple legendaries and yellow exotics over the past year will once again wear the rare blues, uncommon greens, and (dare I say) basic white items. They'll be higher level equipment with stats that will make you shed your old purples. Light values will still have a part to play in your equipment, but Bungie is still keeping those details under wraps.

All of the missions in Destiny will be receiving a "quest" treatment and exotic bounties will be even more elaborate. Part of the change includes a new progress screen that allows you to track your bounties and quests from the Ghost nav. Another interesting bit is that the subclasses (new and old) will require that you complete quests to earn the new powers. There are unique questlines to acquire the Sunbreaker, Stormcaller, and Nightstalker abilities for their respective classes, which will have you hunting for mysterious nomads, joining rogue Titan clans, and engaging in shamanistic rituals.

With all this much content being added in The Taken King, you’d better believe there's going to be a truckload of new weapons to go with it. In the expansion, some guns will be categorized by manufacturer, or what the game calls Weapon Foundries. Guns in the same Weapon Foundry share common traits and visual style. Suros weapons have extra perk customization options, Hakke weapons are all-around weapons for any situation, and Omolon guns lean more on the experimental, energy projection side of weapon creation.

Poor Dinklebot didn't get the warmest reception in vanilla Destiny and it's been a while since we've heard our little Ghost say anything new. But good news, the Ghost is going to be volved in the story than ever...just with an entirely new voice. Bungie is replacing all of the Ghost's old dialogue with the voice talents of Nolan North, the actor behind iconic video game characters like Nathan Drake. North hopes to bring plenty of life to the character and help it evolve over the life of Destiny. And with Destiny's ten-year plan, we have plenty of time to get reacquainted with our little light.

You'll no longer be constrained to only waving, pointing, dancing, and sitting. New emotes can be found and equipped, giving you even more ways to express yourself. And, that's all there really is to say about that. Moving on.

Not only is the Gunsmith getting his own reputation system that allows you to take on challenges with prototype weapons, Bungie is also giving Guardians a reason to visit the gravel-voiced Exo on a weekly basis. Once you level up to a specific Gunsmith faction rank, you unlock Armsday, which gives you the option to spend glimmer on legendary weapons (after completing a set of said challenges) which will arrive on Wednesdays with random perks.

The crowded vault issue is a big problem in Destiny right now. Vaults of players with multiple characters are bursting at the seams with weapons, armor, and items. In The Taken King, it seems Bungie is tweaking some systems to give us a bit more space in our inventories. Emblems and shaders will now be assigned to an interactive console in the Tower, removing those icons that are taking up space in your inventory and vault. It’s a step in the right direction, but we're still crossing our fingers for a much more spacious vault.

For the past year, the to read through the grimoire cards you've collected, which is not ideal. Now it seems your Ghost will fill you in on any additional information about Destiny's worlds and characters with the press of a button, giving you instant access to the grimoire from within the game.

The random number generator-based loot system (which the community has dubbed RNGesus) has been the bane of many a Guardian's sanity. Much of Destiny's higher-evel gear can only be acquired through random drops from the various raids, Strikes, and Crucible modes, and the grinding is sure to continue in The Taken King. But Bungie has made improvements to how we will be awarded our random loot. The system will take into account the items you already own, so there is less of a chance to get repeat drops.

PvP is a huge part of Destiny, and Bungie isn't shying away from adding more competitive modes and features to let you blast your fellow Guardians. The Taken King will be adding eight new Crucible maps and three modes called Mayhem, Rift, and Zone Control. There will be Crucible quests that are meant to help newcomers ease into Destiny's competitive side, and a new system will give players legendary or exotic equipment upon completion of a set of weekly bounties. On the technical side, the Crucible matchmaking will now take skill and connection into account when gathering Guardians, and a "Mercy Rule" system will cut off dramatically mismatched games early to help preserve players' records.