Destiny 2s Alexa app gives you a real-life ghost to talk to and finally official loadouts

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In Destiny 2 (opens in new tab), your Ghost does all the talking for you. But if you have an Amazon Alexa-enabled device, now you can start talking back. Activision and Amazon have jointly released a special new “Destiny 2 Ghost Skill” for Alexa, letting the in-home assistant answer questions and complete in-game tasks for you (complete with voice acting by Nolan North).

Amazon’s even selling an optional limited-edition Ghost speaker (opens in new tab) to complete the experience. Note that this isn’t an Alexa device on its own, nor is it required, it just syncs up with the one you already have. But hey, the LEDs light up when it talks! If you already have an Echo (opens in new tab), Echo Dot (opens in new tab), or anything like that, you can enable the skill for free (opens in new tab) right now on Amazon. And you could always 3D print your own Ghost shell (opens in new tab).

Bring your Ghost to life with the Destiny 2 Ghost Skill. Use voice commands to interact with your Ghost via Amazon Alexa devices. Enable the free Ghost Skill at https://t.co/BXa9bOuGkB Learn more at https://t.co/n333ReZGlc pic.twitter.com/QTD8TBpNLtNovember 30, 2017

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With the skill set up, Activision says you can ask Ghost to do all kinds of things. There are fun little responses for questions about characters like Cayde-6, of course, but you can also ask for personally integrated stuff like what to do next based on your current progress, or even to “equip [your] Raid loadout”. Hold on, there are official loadouts now?! We finally don’t have have to swap items one-by-one or load up Destiny Inventory Manager on our phones every time we go from Crucible to PvE? That’s great! Er, if you have an Alexa to ask, anyway.

I understand why it was easier for Bungie to manage loadouts with Alexa than by putting them directly into the game; this way it doesn’t have to create new in-game interface elements and rejigger existing ones. Stuff like that can be surprisingly difficult to implement well. But it’s still not great to keep such a handy, long-awaited feature locked behind an extra piece of hardware. I know Bungie already has its hands full with adding Masterwork Weapons and a bunch of other new stuff to Destiny 2 (opens in new tab) in response to player feedback, but hopefully in-game support for creating and swapping loadouts is on the docket as well.

Also: if you ask Alexa to equip your most powerful weapon and you’re suddenly holding a sniper rifle, you should send your Alexa back because it is clearly defective. I don’t care how high the Power Level is, snipers are shit.