Destiny 2's new Guardian, Saint-14, will notice if you wear his helmet

(Image credit: Bungie)

Shortly after the long-lost Destiny 2 guardian Saint-14 turned up in the tower, players noticed something very amusing: He'd take notice of anyone who approached him while wearing his helmet, a Titan exotic that was added in the Curse of Osiris expansion. He doesn't seem to mind sharing, though—in fact, he suggests using it to prank Zavala, the stoic, famously humorless command of the Vanguard.

It's a clever line and a cute interaction (although you can't actually go confuse Zavala, which is a shame), but it almost didn't come to be. As Destiny 2 technical dialog desinger Kareem Shuman explained on Twitter (via Polygon), narrative designer Nikko Stevens first came up with the line, after which it was recorded, imported, and processed. But because of required reworks, it was marked to be cut, which is where Shuman got involved.

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"Quietly I decided to try extra hard to make it work, since I thought it was such a cool idea," he explained. "I was having lunch with my friends and I brought it up, asking if anyone could help. @btwoodrow [senior designer Brenton Woodrow] volunteered and knew exactly what I needed in order to make the new dialogue filter that checks 'Does the player currently have the Helm of Saint-14 equipped'. At this point all design work on Season 9 had to be tracked via bugs, so I wrote a bug for him, and he sent it back resolved in under an hour! What a hero!"

That wasn't the end of it, though. Further tuning was required to ensure the line popped when it was supposed to, rather than ending up buried under a pile of other random dialog. 

"It was the last day of audio mix and we were all trying to put the final polish on things. My friend on audio test found me in the afternoon to say he'd approached Saint-14 with the helmet on and IT HAD WORKED," Shuman wrote.

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To hear the line yourself, put on the Helm of Saint-14 and then go pay him a visit. You can find him hanging around in the hangar, behind an ornate rug hinting at the return of Trials.

Andy Chalk

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.