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Destiny Rising: Complete Character Guide to Every Guardian

Last Updated: October 31, 2025

Destiny Rising Guardians Kaelen, Lyra, and Vexia standing ready.

The universe of Destiny Rising has expanded dramatically since its launch, with developer Starlight Assembly consistently introducing new threats and the heroes needed to combat them. Each new Guardian has irrevocably shifted the landscape of the Last City, creating new team compositions and challenging the established meta.

This guide serves as your authoritative resource on every Guardian added to the game since launch, from the foundational heroes of the "Season of Echoes" to the deadly assassins that followed. We'll break down their confirmed abilities, their impact on the game, and look at datamined evidence of who might be joining the fight next.

The Season of Echoes Roster: The Guardians Who Defined Year One

The "Season of Echoes" was the first major content drop for Destiny Rising, and it established a new benchmark for character design with two Guardians who became instant staples in fireteams across the system.

Kaelen, the Sunforged Paladin

A long-requested Solar-elemental tank, Kaelen arrived as a towering bulwark against the encroaching darkness. Clad in ornate, sun-gilded armor, Kaelen’s kit revolves around protecting his allies and turning enemy aggression into overwhelming Solar power.

  • Core Abilities: His primary gameplay loop involves absorbing damage with his massive shield, which can then be unleashed as a devastating wave of Solar fire. His abilities are designed to draw enemy aggro, provide powerful defensive buffs to his fireteam, and create zones of Solar light that heal allies over time.
  • Ultimate: Solar Bastion: As anticipated before his release, Solar Bastion proved to be a meta-defining ultimate. Granting temporary invulnerability to the entire fireteam, it has become the single most crucial ability for surviving the burst-damage phases of high-level raid and dungeon bosses.
  • Meta Impact: Kaelen single-handedly enabled the "Solar Anchor" team composition, pairing his survivability with high-damage Solar Guardians to create a formidable and resilient fireteam archetype.

Lyra, the Void Weaver

The second Guardian from the Season of Echoes, Lyra is a Void-based support specialist who manipulates gravity and spacetime to control the battlefield. With an ethereal design centered around cosmic nebulae, Lyra’s abilities are as beautiful as they are deadly.

  • Core Abilities: Lyra excels at crowd control and debuffing enemies. Her ability to tether large groups of combatants together, causing them to share all incoming damage, is essential for clearing rooms in Grandmaster-tier content. She can also create miniature black holes that pull enemies into a single, vulnerable point.
  • Ultimate: Event Horizon: This unique ultimate traps a single high-value target (excluding major bosses) in a dimensional rift, removing them from the fight for a crucial few seconds. This has become an indispensable tool for managing powerful minibosses or champions that could otherwise wipe a team.
  • Meta Impact: Lyra immediately became a must-pick for endgame PvE content. Her unparalleled ability to control hordes of enemies and neutralize priority targets made previously overwhelming encounters manageable.

The Datastream: From Rumor to Reality

The datamining community has been instrumental in uncovering Starlight Assembly's future plans. While some leaks remain tantalizing mysteries, others have been fully realized in-game.

CONFIRMED: Vexia, the Arc Phantom (Codename: "Wraith")

Months of speculation based on files codenamed "Wraith" culminated in the release of Vexia during the "Season of Shadows." This Arc-based assassin delivered on the promise of a high-risk, high-reward playstyle.

  • Confirmed Kit: The leaks were spot-on. Vexia’s kit includes a short-range teleport ("Phase Step"), a temporary invisibility cloak ("Shadow Veil"), and a passive that stacks critical damage bonuses for attacking enemies from behind. Her signature weapons are twin Arc daggers that allow for rapid, close-quarters strikes.
  • Meta Impact: Vexia completely upended the Crucible meta. Her hyper-mobility and assassination potential forced a shift away from static, long-range engagements. In PvE, she excels at quickly eliminating high-value targets like snipers and enemy commanders, making her a valuable specialist for strike teams.

LEAKED: Gideon, the Iron Archon

Partial assets for a heavy-set character named Gideon continue to be a topic of intense discussion. Files still reference "Stasis Grenade Launchers" and "Cryo-Artillery," suggesting a Stasis-elemental damage dealer specializing in area-of-effect suppression and battlefield control. Lore fragments link him to off-world mining colonies, and his industrial armor design is a stark contrast to the more refined gear of other Guardians. To date, Starlight Assembly has not confirmed his existence, and many speculate the concept may have been shelved or evolved into a future character.

How New Guardians Are Shaping the Meta

The strategic landscape of Destiny Rising is in constant motion, driven by these new additions.

  • The Rise of Specialization: The introductions of Kaelen and Lyra moved the meta away from generalist loadouts and toward highly specialized roles. Successful endgame fireteams now almost always feature a dedicated tank for survivability and a crowd-control specialist to manage enemy density.
  • PvP's New Pace: Vexia's arrival forced a reckoning in the Crucible. Her ability to bypass defensive lines and flank opponents has made player awareness and positioning more critical than ever, leading to faster, more dynamic matches.
  • A Look to the Future: With the Stasis element still only represented by enemy factions, the potential release of a Guardian like Gideon could introduce entirely new "shatter" and "freeze" build combinations, redefining area denial. The constant discovery of new codenames and asset fragments in the game files proves one thing: Starlight Assembly is far from finished, and the next meta-shaking Guardian is always just one season away.