There’s much we don’t know about Destiny 2. The raid is a (not at all surprising) no-show in previews, the system governing loot drops is a giant question mark, and the loot itself carries some inscrutable elements — such as mod slots — that will only be answered with the final game.

That said, this video clarifies how a huge chunk of the game works: Patrols. Destiny 2 brings back the original game’s open exploration spaces, but levels up the way those spaces work. 

Cooperative “Public Events” have increased in both number and complexity, which promises to make these public co-op spaces feel even more lively. Those events are also joined by new Lost Sectors and Adventures that function sort of like mini-missions — you can stumble into them just by wandering around and poking your gun into every dark corner, and you get loot drops and story development as a reward.

Destiny‘s Strikes, raids, and weekly Nightfall challenges gave us reasons to come back week after week, and Patrols were also always there for killing time and hunting down crafting materials. For Destiny 2, it sounds like these spaces have evolved into their own event-driven platforms, and that’s great news.

Destiny 2 comes to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on Sept. 6, with a PC (Windows) release to follow on Oct. 24.