Many gamers have been jumping into Bethesda’s latest RPG, but only a select few might have noticed a peculiar reference to another game, Destiny 2, hidden at the end of a Starfield quest. You have to connect a few dots, we won’t deny, but there’s enough here to plausibly theorize that at least one Bethesda writer is a Destiny 2 fan. Come on a deep dive with us as we investigate what we’re pretty sure is a Starfield shoutout to Destiny 2.
During the Crimson Fleet starting mission, Deep Cover, you can take on the objective of gathering evidence for SysDef. This evidence can be found during the Crimson Fleet quest line, in other side missions, and scattered throughout the game’s many star systems. Only after you have found all the evidence will you be rewarded with the unique pistol, Memento Mori.
The pistol has quite a few perks”¦
It’s more likely that you know the meaning of the Game of Throne’s phrase, valar morghulis, than the expression, memento mori. However, they essentially mean the same thing: valar morghulis says “all men must die” in High Valyrian, and memento mori is Latin for “remember you must die”.
The pistol itself isn’t all that amazing, and as a reward for such an involved mission, some might even say underpowered (especially because it uses the uncommon .27 ammunition type). However, there is a hand cannon in Destiny 2 that no guardian would ever call underpowered: the Ace of Spades.
Notice the name of its intrinsic trait
Those guardians out there that are familiar with the Ace of Spades might see where we’re going with this. The main perk on the gun is actually named Memento Mori, and it is the only gun in all of Destiny with this perk.
OK, OK, but does this flimsy connection actually mean that the pistol in Starfield is a reference to the hand cannon in Destiny 2? Memento mori is a fairly well-known Latin expression, so it could just be a coincidence. We would think so too — if there wasn’t more to it.
You see, in Destiny 2 players first got their loot-loving mitts on the Ace of Spades hand cannon during the Forsaken expansion, when Cayde-6, the original owner of Ace of Spades, was killed. While going through the expansion, players could find lore bits that explained more about Cayde-6 and his story. The eighth lore tab of “The Man They Call Cayde” series sees Cayde writing to his long dead (or perhaps imaginary) son, Ace.
I’m not crying, I just got gunpowder in my eye
Get it? Ace, was his son’s name and the gun’s name is Ace of Spades. Now, if there was just an Ace in Starfield surrounding the Memento Mori Pistol, we’d have a bona fide connection. And as a matter of fact, there is!
The person that gives you the legendary pistol in Starfield is SysDef’s second in command, Lieutenant Toft. If you finish the Crimson Fleet mission, Legacy’s End, and side with the pirates, you can persuade Toft and Commander Ikande to surrender. Later on, you can speak to Toft at her cell aboard the UC Vigilance. She tells you about her childhood friend named… Ace.
An Ace in the hole
Two NPCs with people from their past named Ace that both give you a pistol connected to the Latin phrase memento mori. Sure, we might be able to disregard one shared Latin expression, but three coincidences start to seem more like evidence to us.
So there you have it! We’re pretty sure it’s an intentional Easter egg, but what do you think? Do we need to take our tinfoil hats off, or is this just too much of a coincidence? Let us know in the comments!
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Kelson H.
Kelson is a spud head from out west. He is most happy when holding a milky tea with too much honey and playing a sprawling role playing game or reading a fantasy novel. His video game tastes vary but his main genres are looter shooters, RPGs, and real time strategy games.
