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Tucked near Dalaran's Antonidas Memorial is an ethereal vendor called Xur'ios, who deals exclusively in Curious Coins. It's a direct homage to Destiny's Xur, right down to selling items named after that game's gear, like 'Gjallar's Horn' and 'Krota's Shield.'
Shortly after launch in 2014, players discovered a cave in the Skywatch area of the Cosmodrome where low-level enemies respawned almost instantly. Guardians lined up to farm it for easy Engrams and XP, turning it into one of the most infamous grinding spots in gaming history before Bungie patched it out.
After the loot cave was patched, Bungie left behind a pile of charred Hive Thrall corpses at the site. Interacting with the remains triggers a distorted voice line about a million deaths not being enough for Master Rahool, a cheeky nod to how many enemies were farmed there for Cryptarch decoding.
The haunted loot cave voice line bears a striking resemblance to a line from Frank Herbert's novel Dune about deaths not being enough for a character named Yueh. Bungie has never confirmed whether the similarity was an intentional literary nod or coincidence.
Years after Destiny 1 ended, Bungie revisited the Cosmodrome loot cave as the setting for the Grasp of Avarice dungeon in Destiny 2's 30th Anniversary Pack, spinning the community's favourite exploit into an in-universe story about a fireteam corrupted by greed.
During Destiny's public alpha, Ghost's flat delivery of a line about a wizard coming from the Moon was mocked so heavily online that Bungie pulled it from the final game entirely, an early sign the Ghost's dialogue and performance would become a lasting point of community ridicule.
Ghost was originally voiced by Game of Thrones star Peter Dinklage, whose flat, monotone delivery became so widely mocked that fans nicknamed the character 'Dinklebot.' The nickname spread quickly online even during the alpha test, before the full game had released.
For The Taken King expansion, Bungie replaced Dinklage with veteran voice actor Nolan North, best known for Nathan Drake in Uncharted. Remarkably, North didn't just voice new lines, he re-recorded every single piece of Ghost dialogue from the original base game so the whole experience would feel consistent.
'Hope for the Future' was originally part of a larger orchestral suite McCartney composed for Destiny called 'Music of the Spheres.' Bungie shelved the full suite during development, and it wasn't released to the public until 2018, bundled with vinyl preorders of a Destiny soundtrack collection.
The weekend exotic vendor Xur, hooded coat, backpack, and unsettling stare, bears a strong visual resemblance to the mysterious Merchant from Resident Evil 4. His tentacled face has also been noted by fans as a nod to Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos.
