Listen up Guardians - Bungie is preparing to flip the switch on Destiny 's first DLC episode, The Dark Below, and we've got all the details. Set to go live on the 9th of December, Destiny season pass owners will gain access to new Strikes, Raids, community events and multiplayer modes, plus the all important new unique raid gear and Legendary weapons.

The official trailer for The Dark Below, giving us our first look at some of the unique raid gear

The biggest new addition looks to be new character Eris, a new NPX who will appear in the Tower to provide Guardians with quests and missions that promise to explain more of Destiny's sprawling backstory and lore. So far three main missions are known; The Veil Lifted, The Seeding and The Wakening. All will seemingly explain where the Hive originated, and how they came to be at war with the Fallen and the remains of Humanity. One of the vanilla game's main criticisms, it's hoped that the DLC will tie up loose ends and do a better job of explaining the history of the Traveller to players that were left confused at the end of the campaign.

RAIDS

A new six player Raid called Crota's End will give high level characters that have already mastered the Vault of Glass a brand new set of challenges and monsters to overcome. The lead player will need to have a light level of 30, and although lower level players will be able to join parties and attempt the raid, it will be a tough ask if you aren't fully geared up for the challenge.

STRIKES

If you haven't yet reached the maximum Light level, or struggle to get a party of six gamers together to tackle Destiny's toughest challenges in the Raids, the three player cooperative Strikes should provide Guardians with some new adventures. The Will of Crota takes place in Old Russia on Earth, and will be available for all players upgrading to The Dark Below. A community event called the Blades of Crota will randomly occur when exploring Earth in Patrol mode too.

PlayStation gamers will also get exclusive access to co-operative Strike The Undying Mind, which takes place in the Black Garden. It isn't scheduled to appear on Xbox platforms until at least Autumn next year. Sony has also made a deal with Bungie to bring exotic weapon The Fourth Horseman to PS3 and PS4 gamers ahead of Microsoft's consoles. The four barrelled shotgun looks to be able to dish out serious damage, firing all four chambers with a single squeeze of the trigger.

GEAR

Bungie will be raising the Light level cap to 32 and making new weapons, armour and gear available to unlock, including legendary and exotic items. Each of the three character classes will be able to unlock a Legendary item for each of their equipment slots, while Destiny's arsenal is set to expand with a series of Hive-infused weapons. Although details are still sparse, early digging around in the game's code has revealed Light of the Abyss, a legendary fusion rifle able to deal extra damage to enemies in the Crota's End raid, exotic auto rifle Necrochasm (able to cause a Cursed Thrall explosion when scoring critical hits) and Murmur - a fusion rifle with the ability to choose damage types, a first for the game.

An additional five Bounty slots added to each character should also save players the hassle of frequent trips back to the Tower to turn in their quests, speeding up progression. Xur, the travelling salesman that appears in the Tower every weekend with rare and exotic weapons, will now upgrade your gear for a price, or take your unused exotics and re-roll them for better damage or effects.

Finally, Guardians that picked up any of Destiny's numerous special editions, or buys The Dark Below outright will unlock the EV-30 TUMBLER sparrow. This quick personal hoverbike will let you pull stunts when jumping over ridges and cliffs, livening up the journey between missions when exploring Old Russia, the Moon, Venus and Mars. The EV-30 will be delivered as a special package in the Tower, to the first character you log in with once it is made available.

THE CRUCIBLE

Destiny's multiplayer mode will also get a boost, with three new multiplayer arenas; Pantheon, a Vex temple filled with tight corridors set within the Black Garden, Skyshock, a dilapidated interplanetary defence array designed for vehicular combat as well as infrantry fighting, and The Cauldron, a close-quarters arena built on an abandoned Hive ritual site. These additions are sure to add some much needed variety to the Crucible, which was starting to feel a little limited as we replayed the same basic maps for the tenth time in a single session.

A behind the scenes featurette with the team at Bungie revealed the first Dark Below details

PRICE

The Dark Below will be available to buy individually or as part of the Destiny Expansion Pass on the 9th of December. The £35 expansion pass will also include the second, unannounced DLC pack, so will save gamers £5 over buying each £19.99 expansion individually, whether you're playing on old-gen consoles like the PS3 and Xbox 360, or the new-gen Xbox One or PS4.