This Week at Bungie - 8/23/18

As the months turn to weeks, turn to days, the sense of dread looming across the entire player base becomes more noticeable than my awkwardness asking my high school crush to the Senior Prom.

Bungie released a video titled "Last Stand of the Gunslinger", and it has to be about the best cutscene in the Destiny universe to date. It is only rivaled by the too-well-known fate of Cayde-6. You can watch it here. There is so much going on in this video. Our excitement at analyzing each and every frame for details regarding Forsaken, and our sadness to realize that this is Cayde-6's last stand. enter image description here That's not a tear...it's dust. What?! I swear, it's dust!!!

Enough of that, let's get on to the notes:

Gambit Free Trial

Bungie is offering a free trial of the new PvE/PvP hybrid game mode, Gambit, to ALL Destiny 2 players beginning at 10am PDT on September 1st, and ending at 10am PDT on September 2nd. This is a solid 24-hours for all players to try out the new mode prior to the launch of Forsaken on September 4th. Destin 2: Forsaken new Gambit Vendor

Save the Date

We have also found out when to expect Destiny 2: Forsaken to be playable. On September 4th, the servers will be brought down at 7am PDT, with the patch becoming available to players on all platforms by 7:30am PDT. During this time, Bungie will be performing maintenance. They stated that this maintenance and downtime should end at 10am PDT and is when we should be able to play Forsaken.

The "Last Wish" is the new Destiny 2: Forsaken raid, which will launch on September 14th

The "Last Wish" is the new Destiny 2: Forsaken raid, which will launch on September 14th

Following that, Bungie told us that the new raid, "Last Wish", will go live on September 14th at 10am PDT. This is the longest period between a launch of DLC and the new raid it includes. When asked, Bungie stated that there is a lot of content and a much larger Power Level increase in Forsaken, therefore they wanted to give players a chance to grind out all the gear, levels, and Power Level they can before the raid drops.

Mods

We also now know what to expect with the new mod system in Forsaken. Mods have been completely reworked to provide "...more meaningful customizations to your gear..." Destiny 2: Forsaken Mod System Changes

The Mod system in Destiny 2: Forsaken will provide a large overhaul

Pre-Forsaken? I would suggest you hold on to your mods, if possible, as once the DLC drops, they will have a chance to drop Mod Components and allow you to purchase the new Year 2 mods.

More details provided:

  • All Exotic armor drops, regardless of year, have a chance to come equipped with a mod.
  • Non-raid Year 2 Legendary weapons and armor drops have a small chance to come equipped with a mod.
    • You are free to keep the weapon, should that particular weapon-and-mod combo suit your needs, or you may choose to dismantle the weapon to break out the mod for use elsewhere.
      • You may pull mods out of gear for use in other gear by dismantling the original item they dropped in.
      • Alternatively, should you want the item but not the mod, you can choose to slot in a new mod over the old one.
        • Weapons and armor purchased from vendors do not come with mods.

  • If you have the mod components and Glimmer necessary to feed your habit, you may choose to go straight to Banshee-44, the Gunsmith, who will have two mod packages available for purchase:

    • Direct-buy Year 2 armor mod (updated daily)
    • Direct-buy Year 2 weapon mod (updated daily)
    • You may acquire mod components for trading with Banshee-44 by dismantling other loose mods:
      • Armor:
        • Year 2 armor mods always drop one mod component when dismantled.
        • Year 1 Legendary armor mods always drop one mod component when dismantled.
        • Year 1 Rare armor mods have a small chance of dropping one mod component when dismantled.
      • Weapons:
        • Year 2 weapon mods always drop one mod component and Legendary shards when dismantled.
        • Year 1 Legendary weapon mods always drop one mod component and Gunsmith materials when dismantled.
        • Year 1 Rare weapon mods have a small chance to drop one mod component and Gunsmith materials when dismantled.

  • Year 1 armor mods in your inventory will cease to work but can be dismantled or traded for materials.

  • Year 1 armor mods currently slotted into your Year 1 armor will cease to work but remain slotted into the armor

  • Year 2 armor mods will be able to be slotted into both Year 1 and Year 2 armor mod slots.

Patch Notes

There will be some class and armor changes coming in the patch on the 4th. Here's what to expect:

  • Marksman's Dodge will now be considered a reload, able to interact with mechanics that involve reloading
  • Celestial Nighthawk will grant 1/3 of your Super energy back if a target is killed by a Golden Gun shot
  • Wormhusk Crown will cease health and shield regeneration, instead providing a larger health and shield boost at the beginning of the dodge instead of at the end
  • Increased Healing Rift effectiveness
  • Empowering Rift will now increase precision damage, specifically in Crucible where bonus damage was capped by the weapon's precision damage
  • Skull of Dire Ahamkara will grant increased Super energy from Nova Bomb kills, and killing tougher enemies will grant more Super energy
  • Transversive Steps will provide enhanced mobility and reload your equipped weapon after sprinting for a short time.
  • You will no longer have to take cover to reload your weapon with the Rally Barricade as it will provide ammo to your magazine over time
  • Helm of Saint-14 will now grant allies an overshield when they pass through Ward of Dawn
  • Mask of the Quiet One will increase energy gain from incoming damage, and provide health from kills while critically wounded

Grenades - Axion Bolt
- Increased base damage - Increased the amount of time it takes for tracking strength to lessen - Flashbang
- Increased base damage - Incendiary Grenade - Increased base damage - Storm Grenade
- Increased base damage - Scatter Grenade
- Re-tuned range and falloff ranges for the detonations for more reliable damage - Magnetic, Fusion, and Flux Grenade
- Increased base damage - Damage is now the same whether a target has been stuck or simply walked over grenade when detonating - Magnetic Grenade now detonates a second time only if it's attached to a target - The second detonation no longer only occurs on the grenade itself and will now be applied to each individual target hit by the initial detonation - Skip Grenade
- Increased impact damage of each Skip Drone impact for a higher total potential damage - Void Wall
- Increased the damage of initial Void Wall wave

Swords will also begin to accept shaders, and timers will be added to the status effect for Healing Rift, Empowering Rift, and Rally Barricade (now able to see time remaining before they poof)

Escapees from the Prison of Elders will begin roaming the destinations, but will not drop rewards until September 4th.

Lost Sectors, specifically those found in the EDZ will have their Power Level increased to 240.

Xur will no longer show an icon on destination maps and will no longer be directly tied to Flashpoint destinations. Fated Engrams will only grant Year 1 exotics.

August 28th Patch

We will see some pre-launch preparations provided on the 28th. Here is what to expect as far as downtime:

On Tuesday, August 28:

  • 9:30 AM PDT: Players will no longer be able to log into Destiny 2
  • 9:45 AM PDT: Destiny 2 will be taken offline for maintenance, and all players will be returned to the title screen
  • At this time, Solstice of Heroes will end, and Moments of Triumph will no longer be available
  • 10 AM PDT: Destiny 2 Update 2.0.0 will begin rolling out across all platforms and regions
  • 10 AM–2 PM PDT: Destiny 2 will remain offline for maintenance
  • 2 PM PDT: Destiny 2 maintenance is expected to conclude

Beginning at 9:45am PDT, Solstice of Heroes and Moments of Triumphs will no longer be available. If you have any more objectives to complete, get them done before this time so you don't miss out. Caveat to that is you will still be able to earn Masterworks towards your Solstice of Heroes Legendary (purple) gear post-patch.

Weapon Slot Changes

  • Year 2 Weapon Slots will be live for all players
    • During this transition, weapons that overflow players’ inventories will be sent to the Postmaster
    • Year 1 slots equipped with weapons that are moved during this update will remain empty until players equip another weapon
    • The following Year 1 Power weapons will become Kinetic in Year 2
      • Alone as a God
      • Baligant
      • The Frigid Jackal
      • Hawthorne's Field-Forged Shotgun
      • Perfect Paradox
      • Shepherd’s Watch
      • Silicon Neuroma
    • The following Year 1 Power weapons will have their elemental attribute changed and locked to Solar for Year 2
      • IKELOSSGV1.0.1
      • IKELOSSRv1.0.1
    • The following Year 1 Exotic Power weapons will remain in the Power slot, as exceptions to Year 2 weapon slot changes
      • D.A.R.C.I.
      • Legend of Acrius
      • Tractor Cannon
      • Whisper of the Worm
    • All other Year 1 Energy and Power weapons will have their elemental attribute locked for Year 2
    • New ammo economy will be live to support Year 2 weapon slots
      • Exotic weapons, armor, and emblem collections will become unavailable until 9/4
    • Players should grab their desired items before 8/28
    • Updated collections will return on 9/4
  • Some tooltips may not reflect actual item behavior during the 8/28–9/4 transition, examples include:
    • The perk description for Thin the Herd on Fighting Lion will incorrectly list old behavior of dropping Energy ammo
    • The perk description for Bring the Heat on Ashen Wake will erroneously list non-existent perk functionality mentioning recharging grenade energy
    • The perk description for Triple Tap will incorrectly describe old behavior of pulling ammo from reserves
  • Exotic weapons will lose their +5 Power mods in preparation for 9/4
    • All remaining Legendary and Exotic gear will lose their +5 Power starting on 9/4
    • Year 1 armor mods will be deprecated entirely starting on 9/4
  • Nightfalls will not feature strike scoring until 9/4

There were some more minor details regarding Trials of the Nine (last weekend to play is August 24th). Solstice armor, as detailed above, will no longer be obtainable but you can still complete the Masterworks on the Legendary pieces after the launch.

Only one more TWAB before Forsaken drops...a little over a week left of Cayde-6.

sigh

Our journey continues...