Players who tried to sign in to play some Destiny 2 this morning got a rude awakening when they found they couldn’t do so. Bungie is performing online maintenance, and pulled the servers while it works to add new content. The servers are due to return at 12PM (PST).

As noted on GameSpot, downtime was scheduled to begin at 6AM (PST) on September 25, 2017. Players who were online at that time had as much as an hour to tend to their affairs before they also were knocked offline.

The six-hour maintenance period is intended to allow Bungie to add Faction Rallies to the game. Though the maintenance is taking place today, the new content won’t go live until tomorrow, September 26. Once Faction Rallies are live, players can start working on behalf of their chosen faction. Three available options will include Dead Orbit, Future War Cult, and New Monarchy.

“As an incentive, each faction has set aside a powerful weapon to entice players to choose their side,” Bungie explained in a previous blog post. “The faction whose Guardians collect the most faction packages will be declared the winner. The winning faction will offer the weapon to everyone, but all who pledged loyalty will receive it with a huge discount as repayment for their contributions to their faction’s cause.”

Destiny 2 has at various points since launch experienced connection errors and related issues, so it’s nice to see the game go offline for a more positive reason. Once factions go live, you can likely expect a flurry of activity, so make sure you’re ready to jump online promptly once service is restored. Have you given any thought to which faction you will join?