--- title: Destiny 2 Ghost Skill Launches for Amazon Echo description: A new skill for Amazon's Alexa allows Destiny 2 players to ask their Ghost to manage their inventory, find online friends, and more. canonical: https://time.com/5041901/destiny-2-ghost-alexa-skill/ author: Lisa Eadicicco article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-11-30T01:45:33.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:51:32.996Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: 'Destiny 2' Is Adding An Interesting Perk for Amazon Echo Users og:description: It's an early attempt to sync up video games with the Echo smart speaker og:url: https://time.com/5041901/destiny-2-ghost-alexa-skill/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0b0ccb6589e1ee54/6988cde20a4a2234999ce37b/destiny-2-traveler.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: destiny-2-traveler og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 'Destiny 2' Is Adding An Interesting Perk for Amazon Echo Users twitter:description: It's an early attempt to sync up video games with the Echo smart speaker twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0b0ccb6589e1ee54/6988cde20a4a2234999ce37b/destiny-2-traveler.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 'Destiny 2' Is Adding An Interesting Perk for Amazon Echo Users > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account.  by [Lisa Eadicicco](https://time.com/author/lisa-eadicicco/)  ## Lisa Eadicicco Nov 30, 2017 1:45 AM UTC  Bungie  by [Lisa Eadicicco](https://time.com/author/lisa-eadicicco/)  ## Lisa Eadicicco Nov 30, 2017 1:45 AM UTC Voice assistants like Amazon’s Alexa have always [invited comparisons](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/dec/23/alexa-lights-how-i-turned-my-home-into-a-sci-fi-dream) to robotic companions and artificially intelligent helpers from science fiction. Perhaps then it comes as no surprise that video game makers are seeing an opportunity in Alexa — specifically when it comes to _Destiny 2_. Bungie and Activision are releasing a new Alexa skill Wednesday that makes it possible for players to speak with their Ghost companion verbally through an Echo device. In _Destiny_, the Ghost is an AI companion that assists a player’s character in part by providing useful information and helping them find items. As such, the Ghost Skill is designed to help players with specific tasks, like figuring out what to do next in the game, managing inventory, learning more about the world, and connecting with friends. Players could, for example, say something like, “Alexa, ask Ghost to call for backup,” or “Alexa, ask Ghost to equip my most powerful weapon.” The Ghost Skill is voiced by Nolan North, the same actor behind the character in the game, and contains more than 1,000 lines of speech with millions of variations. The skill updates in real time so that it matches a player’s status as he or she progresses through the game. Using Alexa to communicate with Ghost doesn’t necessarily give players any sort of competitive advantage. And the concept of using a companion app or service to help manage items or connect with other players isn’t new — Bungie has long offered [a Destiny smartphone app](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/destiny-2-companion/id441444902?mt=8). But Activision’s Ian Trombetta says communicating via voice could be particularly helpful for saving time since it cuts out the need to scroll through weapon and armor choices. “We know a lot of our players use other platforms to manage their inventory,” says Trombetta, the company’s vice president of consumer marketing. “So this keeps the focus on the gameplay itself.” Players can also say, “Alexa, tell Ghost to equip my raid loadout” to switch to an entire set of gear rather than equipping each piece manually. Other than using the Ghost Skill to change weapons and armor, players can use it to find out which friends are online, learn more about other characters, and tell a player about how his or her clan has been performing and what they can do to earn more rewards. A limited edition Ghost speaker was also announced on Wednesday, which was made specifically for using the Alexa skill and will be available on Amazon starting Dec. 19\. The $89.99 Wi-Fi speaker was made to look like the Ghost from the game and must be connected to an Alexa-enabled device in order to work. Both Amazon and _Destiny 2_‘s creators have reason to hope that the Ghost Skill catches on with fans. If successful, it will undoubtedly be seen as another prime example of how the Echo and other similar smart speakers can be used to provide experiences you can’t get elsewhere. That’s particularly important considering many skills have struggled with retaining users thus far. There’s only about a six percent chance that a user will return to a skill a week after enabling it, according to analytics firm [VoiceLabs](http://voicelabs.co/2017/09/19/not-all-voice-users-are-created-equal/). That’s an improvement from the three percent second-week retention rate VoiceLabs reported in January, but is still a relatively small figure. Meanwhile, _Destiny 2_ critics have [recently complained](https://www.kotaku.com.au/2017/10/destiny-2s-struggle-to-please-both-casual-and-hardcore-players/) that there isn’t enough to do in the endgame, which is the portion that takes place after players have essentially completed the storyline and start repeating gameplay to find rare loot and weapons. The Ghost skill is likely an attempt to convince players they haven’t seen everything yet. “\[There are\] some fun Easter eggs around things that our players know quite a bit about some of the characters,” says Trombetta. “It allows you to dive deeper into the world of _Destiny_.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5041901/destiny-2-ghost-alexa-skill/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5041901/destiny-2-ghost-alexa-skill/"},"headline":"'Destiny 2' Is Adding An Interesting Perk for Amazon Echo Users","datePublished":"2017-11-30T01:45:33.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:51:32.996Z","description":"It's an early attempt to sync up video games with the Echo smart speaker","url":"https://time.com/5041901/destiny-2-ghost-alexa-skill/","keywords":["Video Games","Tech","Amazon","amazon echo","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0b0ccb6589e1ee54/6988cde20a4a2234999ce37b/destiny-2-traveler.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lisa Eadicicco","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/lisa-eadicicco/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0b0ccb6589e1ee54/6988cde20a4a2234999ce37b/destiny-2-traveler.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"destiny-2-traveler","caption":"","creditText":"Bungie","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/video-games/","name":"Video Games"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5041901/destiny-2-ghost-alexa-skill/","name":"'Destiny 2' Is Adding An Interesting Perk for Amazon Echo Users"}}]}] ```