In the span of a month, Bungie will be releasing one of its biggest expansions yet, and now the studio has also revealed the Destiny 2 The Witch Queen raid release date for those hardcore raiders out there looking to content for the honor of being World’s First. In addition to this, their latest weekly update detailed the new Power Cap for the next few Seasons, as well as changes to Rare Engrams, Gunsmith materials, and more!
First things first is the Destiny 2 The Witch Queen raid release date. While the official name of the raid is still [REDACTED] at the moment, we now know when players and their fireteams can start preparing their best endgame stuff for the game’s next raid:
The Witch Queen has a new raid. Surprising, no? While we still have a bit of time before the World First race begins, we wanted to get a rally flag planted in the sand for when you should expect to be taking on the challenge.
- Destiny 2: The Witch Queen [REDACTED] Raid
- March 5, 2022
- 10:00 AM Pacific (18:00 UTC)
Additional details on Contest Mode, Bungie Rewards, and other need-to-know information will be revealed closer to the date.
Bungie has also revealed the new Power caps for the next Seasons:
Starting on February 22, the Power floor will be updated to 1350. Any player who signs in will be at appropriate Power levels to start the Witch Queen campaign, even if they’ve taken a recent break from the game.
Through general gameplay, players can reach the soft cap of 1500 by earning general gear through activity completions, chests, and more. This includes Rare and Legendary drops. Once reaching the soft cap, players will need to earn Powerful drops from vendor challenges and other objectives in the game. Once reaching the Power cap of 1550, the only upgrades that players will find are from endgame activities that offer Pinnacle rewards. Your final stretch to the hard cap of 1560 will be through raids, Trials of Osiris, Iron Banner, and other endgame PvE sources.
Changes to the in-game economy were also detailed, in particular the removal of Rare Engrams after hitting the soft Power cap, the removal of Gunsmith Materials and Weapon Telemetries, and more! Check out the details below:
Rare Rewards
Beginning in The Witch Queen, blue (Rare) rewards will stop dropping from playlist activities (Crucible, Strikes, Gambit, etc.) once players have reached the soft cap. Players above the soft cap (1500 Power in The Witch Queen) will instead see a slightly increased chance at receiving Legendary rewards from these activities, or a small amount of Legendary Shards.
Blue weapons and armors will continue to drop from enemies and chests while playing Destiny 2, but we hope that this will reduce the need for players to manage their inventories and reduce the frequency of visits to the Postmaster when running playlist activities.
Gunsmith Reputation
Banshee-44 is getting a new reputation system that matches the other vendors in the Tower, such as Zavala and Shaxx. This means we are removing some of the items that were previously associated with Gunsmith Reputation, namely Gunsmith Materials and Weapon Telemetries. Players will now earn Reputation Rank progress with Banshee-44 when dismantling Legendary and Exotic weapons and armor or by completing daily Gunsmith bounties.
Players will want to spend their Gunsmith Materials and Weapon Telemetries at Banshee-44 before February 22, 2022. Any materials that are not spent will be removed from inventory automatically.
Mods & Mod Components
We will also be removing Mod Components from the game. Starting in The Witch Queen, weapon and armor mods sold by Banshee-44 and Ada-1 respectively will no longer require Mod Components to purchase and will instead cost 10,000 Glimmer each. Furthermore, as part of this update, we are increasing the number of mods available on each vendor at a single time from two to four.
Before we move on, it should be noted that all Ghost Mods that generated Weapon Telemetries will be removed, as they no longer serve a purpose.
These mods are:
- Arc Analyzer
- Solar Analyzer
- Void Analyzer
- Omni-Telemetry
- Banshee Special
With the arrival of The Witch Queen, Bungie will also be removing two Exotic Quests: Presage, which grants the Dead Man’s Tale, and Harbinger, which grants Hawkmoon. However, these two Exotics can still be acquired alongside their respective Catalysts, and the studio has detailed more on how players can acquire new rolls for the weapons:
Hawkmoon & Dead Man’s Tale
As of February 22, 2022 the Harbinger and Presage Exotic missions will no longer be accessible. The team still wanted to preserve the ability for players to obtain random rolls of these weapons. Therefore, instead of adding these items to the Monument to Lost Lights, as we have done with most of our previous Exotics that no longer have sources, these two weapons will show up as part of Xur’s inventory each weekend.
Every week Xur will offer a unique roll for both Hawkmoon and Dead Man’s Tale, and will be purchasable to all players that own Beyond Light for the following materials:
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- 1 Ascendant Shard
- 1 Exotic Cipher
- 125,000 Glimmer
- 200 Legendary Shards
Wait, before you go… what about those Exotic Catalysts?
Oh, that’s something fun! The Hawkmoon, DMT, and Ager’s Scepter catalysts will be moved to the playlist activity (Strikes, Crucible, Gambit) completions. In addition to these three, we have also added the ability for three catalysts that have been absent from Destiny 2 to drop from playlist activities as well.
The full list:
- Hawkmoon
- Dead Man’s Tale
- Ager’s Scepter
- Outbreak Perfected
- Whisper of the Worm
- The Fourth Horseman
Outbreak Perfected and Whisper of the Worm have both had the requirements for completing their catalyst updated so that they can be completed without access to their original activities.
Destiny 2 The Witch Queen is releasing on February 22, 2022 on PlayStation and Xbox consoles and on PC.
Source: Bungie
We’ve rebalanced many island events in 1.9.0 to either reduce their time to complete, reduce chaos, or keep them narratively cohesive. We want all events to be enjoyable experiences that make sense in the world of Dauntless, and we have even more island event balance changes coming in 1.9.1.