Nightstalker Way of the Trapper (Top)

Shadowshot: Fires an arrow that damages enemies and debuffs enemies nearby

• Damage sharing for the Nightstalker player specifically reduced from 100% to 50%
  • Now all allied players have 50% damage sharing on tether

Nightstalker Way of the Wraith (Middle)

Flawless Execution: Headshot kills while crouched grant invisibility and truesight

• Truesight now lasts 3 seconds (down from 9)

Shattering Strike: After performing a Flawless Execution, your melee attacks have a longer lunge range and weaken enemies

• Advanced warning: When we made the change to Flawless Execution this also unintentionally nerfed this ability to only last 3 seconds (it was directly tied to the truesight). We have prepared a fix for the 4.6.1 patch to restore the weaken and lunge range increase to last the entire 9 seconds regardless of truesight and invisibility status.

Instant Reloading

Goal: In the beginning, Lunafactions and Rally Barricade did exist, but they were clunky to use. They still had dramatic impact on gameplay even in that state, but eventually we decided to make their effects easier to handle. The problems they introduced always existed in the game, but over time these have become magnified due to new abilities, perks, and weapons introduced into the Destiny 2 sandbox. The impact of something that takes all reloading out of the equation means that other perks or effects like the Hunter’s Marksman Dodge or the Sealed Ahamkara’s Grasps can simply fall to the wayside – Even swords take a hit in comparison, being one of the few weapons that naturally never needs to reload.

Reloading is one of those mechanics that are simple, but have wide ranging consequences. Because the effect on gameplay of removing reloading is inversely proportional to the size of your weapon’s magazine and how slow your general reload animations are, weapons like Rocket Launchers and Shotguns can benefit greatly compared to other weapons. This, alongside the increase in general access to damage bonus effects like Well of Radiance left us with the decision to remove this effect from these two sources, as they were causing things to quickly snowball out of control.

Titan Rally Barricade

• This ability now provides a large increase to reload speed for the duration of the effect
• This ability no longer automatically reloads your weapons from reserves

Warlock Rift/Well of Radiance

• Lunafaction Boots now provides a large increase to reload speed for the duration of Well of Radiance
• This exotic no longer automatically reloads your weapons from reserves

Super Energy Regeneration

Goal: These changes will reduce the speed with which players are able to earn their super which supports difficulty and reduces the current ability to trivialize certain content through excessively chaining supers. Systemically, we want to reduce base sources of supers on a large macro scale without diminishing the feeling that your actions are gaining you a worthwhile energy boost. By reducing the speed at which you gain super we can make mods and perks feel more worthwhile. We still want it to feel like you can make meaningful progress not only through normal play but by augmenting super energy through teamwork, class choices, gear, and skillful play.

New Energy Granted by Super Orbs:

• Super Orb: 7.143% (50% reduction)
• Masterwork Orb: 2.5% (50% reduction)
• Kills: (25% reduction)
  • Minor: 0.6%
  • Elite: 0.96%
  • Mini-boss: 1.8%
  • Boss: 3%
  • Player: 3%
• Assists: (25% reduction)
  • Minor: 0.3%
  • Elite: 0.48%
  • Mini-boss: 0.9%
  • Boss: 1.5%
  • Player: 1.5%

Damage Multipliers

Goal: At Destiny 2 launch, damage buffs were fairly sparse – There was Empowering Rift for a small increase, and you could combine it with a weakening effect such as Hammer Strike, but very little else. As time has gone on, we introduced Well of Radiance, Weapons of Light, Guiding Flame, Frontal Assault, etc, and combining these effects has resulted in player damage output far beyond what was previously available. Even with just a small amount of them, a player can go from 1x damage to 3x and beyond, causing there to be an extremely large gap between standard player output and theoretical output.

By preventing the larger effects from stacking, we are able to keep each of them around without having to do something in response like raise boss health to compensate for these tactics, as well as create more of them. As an example, Lumina would not have been created in world where the damage bonus effect of Noble Rounds stacked with other damage effects, and these changes are simply an extension along those same lines.

While the weakening effects never stacked, we also took a look at them and adjusted their values as many of our more powerful units would simply evaporate when touched by one of them, but we compensated for that in other ways, such as either extending the duration of the effect or in the case of Shadowshot, making it affect power weapons.

Player Damage Buffs

• Player Bonuses
  • Bonus damage effects that apply to all of a player’s weapons simultaneously no longer stack multiplicatively. The highest applicable bonus will be used instead
    • This does not affect single weapon buffs such as Rampage, Kill Clip, or exotic weapons that increase their own damage. These will still stack multiplicatively.
    • Buffs that provide bonus damage will still exist simultaneously on the player, so in the event that the one with the highest multiplier wears off the next highest will be used instead.
    • This change affects the following weapons/abilities (Empowering Rift, Frontal Assault, Guiding Flame, Sun Warrior, Inertia Override, Well of Radiance, Lumina/Noble Rounds, Weapons of Light)
• Notable exceptions: Vengeance (One Eyed Mask)
• Frontal Assault
  • Bonus damage is now +20% (Previously +25%)
• Sun Warrior
  • Bonus damage is now +20% (Previously +25%)
• Well of Radiance
  • Bonus damage is now +25% (Previously +35%)
• Weapons of Light
  • Bonus damage is now +35% (Previously +25%)

Enemy Debuffs (Weakened)

• Shadowshot
  • Incoming PvE damage is now +30% (Previously +35%)
  • Incoming PvP damage is now +50% (Previously +55%)
  • This effect no longer excludes power weapons
• Tractor Cannon (Repulsor Force)
  • Incoming PvE damage is now +30% for all elements (Previously +33%/50% for Non-Void/Void damage respectively)
  • Incoming PvP damage is now +50% for all elements (Previously +33%/50% for Non-Void/Void damage respectively)
• Hammer Strike
  • Incoming PvE damage is now +30% (Previously +50%)
  • Duration increased from 6 to 10 seconds in PvE
• Shattering Strike
  • Incoming PvE damage is now +30% (Previously +50%)
  • Duration increased from 6 to 10 seconds in PvE

Reduced Super Damage Resistance

Goal: Since the launch of Destiny 2 we have slowly introduced buffs to supers, especially roaming supers. While we believe supers should be powerful they should not be mindless. We want supers to be more risky in both PvE and PvP. We want players to think about positioning and timing more. Not so long ago we experimented with Spectral Blades by lowering the damage resistance substantially. These changes were generally well received and improved the experience of the super for both the person running it and the person who was running from it. In PvE players shouldn’t feel like their super makes them invulnerable and casting one should call for situational strategic thinking. In PvP players need to feel like they can challenge a super and that with skillful play there’s a chance they can beat it.

• Super Damage Resistance removed from masterwork armor
• Inherent Super Damage Resistance lowered by category (see below)

Low- 54% → 49%

• Nova Warp
• Thunder Crash
• Blade Barrage
• Nova Bomb
• Well of Radiance

Medium – 56% → 51%

• Hammer of Sol
• Daybreak

High – 60% → 53%

• Fist of Havok
• Burning Maul
• Sentinel Shield
• Arc Staff
• Arc Lightning
• Shadowshot

Other (unchanged)

• Spectral Blades – 52% / 54.4%
• Golden Gun – 0%
• Chaos Reach – 40%

WEAPON CHANGES

• Triumphs can now be broken into steps with each step granting Triumph score
  • • Some Triumphs have been extended with additional steps that grant additional Triumph Score
    • Some Triumphs have had their existing requirements broken into steps and the original Triumph Score has been split between those steps

• Each season there will a new pursuit, the seasonal artifact
  • • For Season of the Undying it is The Gate Lords Eye
• At the end of the season the artifact will go away, and be replaced by a new artifact
• The seasonal artifact has two progressions:
  • • Artifact Power:
      • • Gain an uncapped bonus to your power by earning XP.  Each point of power takes more XP to earn than the last
    • Artifact Mods
      • • Earn up to 12 points by gaining XP
        • Spend points to unlock seasonal mods for Armor 2.0

• Masterworking Armor costs and levels have been updated to include two new materials: Enhancement Prisms and Ascendant Shards
• Both these materials can be obtained via the following sources:
  • • Nightfall: The Ordeal rewards
    • Purchased from the Gunsmith for a rotating variety of currency and resources
    • Other special reward sources such as the Season Pass
• Enhancement Prisms and Ascendant Shards are capped at 50 and 10 respectively to limit hoarding, and to keep players unfamiliar with this system from sinking all their resources into a single item

• Infusion between two items of any rarity now requires only a single material to complete: Upgrade Modules
• Upgrade Modules can be obtained via the following sources:
  • • Each of the Gunsmith Weekly Bounties award one Upgrade Module per week
    • Purchased from the Gunsmith for a rotating variety of currency and resources
    • Season of Undying free track Season Pass rank rewards
• Upgrade Modules are capped at 25 to limit hoarding, and to keep players unfamiliar with this system from sinking all their resources into a single item
• Discarding an Enhancement Core no longer deletes the entire stack

BRIGHT DUST

• Players can now store up to 250,000 Glimmer
• Glimmer rewards from the majority of sources in the game have been rebalanced
  • • Most open world sources (public events, Lost Sectors, chests) have been significantly increased
    • Passive Glimmer gain on kill has been reduced
    • In addition to directly awarding Glimmer on kill, combatants will sometimes drop additional Glimmer chunks
• Weekly bounties award a large amount of Glimmer in addition to their other rewards

SPIDER’S EXCHANGE

XÛR

• All previously purchased Eververse armor pieces will unlock a corresponding Universal Ornament of the same appearance and slot on all Armor 2.0 items
• Past Eververse sets have been converted to Universal Ornaments, and will be available in Silver bundles via the Eververse archive
• Pricing for these bundles will be reduced for each piece in the bundled set already owned on the account
• Seasons 1 and 3 sets will be available when Shadowkeep launches – additional seasonal sets will be added at later dates

• Weekly bounties now award an Upgrade Module instead of an Enhancement Core
• Banshee-44’s mod inventory has been refreshed
• Banshee-44 is now selling Upgrade Modules for infusion, as well as Enhancement Prisms and Ascendant Shards for armor Masterworking
• Players who obtained a Legendary set of Solstice armor in Season of Opulence will find a bundle available on Banshee containing an Armor 2.0 version of the set
  • • You must be logged in on the relevant class to see its bundle on Banshee (if you obtained that class’s Legendary Solstice set)

• All non-powerful rewards now drop 3 to 0 points below your highest equippable Power level, up from 15 to 20 below
• Year 2 powerful reward sources have changed to Legendary rewards
  • These sources no longer have a chance to drop a random Exotic instead of the Legendary gear
• Bonus Exotics that drop from Nightfall: The Ordeal will drop at the character’s highest equippable Power level
• Under- and over-leveling activities no longer adjust how much Power is received from the rewards
• Experience no longer fuels a player’s character level, which has been changed to be level 50 for all characters
  • Experience instead progresses the Season Pass, Seasonal Artifact mod, and Power progressions, as well as the unlocking of destinations for new characters
  • Experience rewards have been rebalanced with the introduction of the Season Pass and Seasonal Artifact progressions
• The Power granted from the Seasonal Artifact is additive with the Power of the player’s equippable gear, but does not increase the Power of gear drops
• All existing gear has had its Power increased to a minimum of 750; new characters will begin Destiny 2 at Power 750 as well
• The Power bands for Season 8 are as follows
  • Floor: 750
  • Soft Cap: 900
    • All drops up to this point will be upgrades to the most powerful item in your inventory or vault
    • Beyond this point, only powerful and pinnacle rewards will increase a player’s Power
  • Powerful Cap: 950
    • All non-powerful/pinnacle rewards are capped at 950
    • Pinnacle rewards are the only way to raise Power above this point
    • Powerful rewards are equivalent to the character’s highest-equippable Power beyond this point
  • Pinnacle Cap: 960
    • This is the highest Power at which gear drops; also known as the “hard cap”
    • The Seasonal Artifact bonus Power allows characters to attain values above this level
• Prime Engrams
  • Prime Engrams now gain charges more quickly, drop more frequently, and have a higher maximum charge cap (nine charges, up from six during Year 2)
  • The Power gains have been rebalanced for the increased frequency, providing +3 Power, down from a range of +4 to +7
  • Players who have completed the “Prime Example” quest prior to Shadowkeep’s release will earn charges, but those charges won’t drop until the character has reached 900 Power
  • This will help players avoid spending charges early for gains that are most beneficial during the Soft Cap to Powerful Cap range

BOUNTIES

• Added rally banners to Leviathan, Eater of Worlds, and Spire of Stars
• “The Shattered Throne” Dungeon is now available at all times instead of on a three-week cycle
• It can also be launched and reset from the Director

GENERAL

• New characters are no longer required to play through Red War, Curse of Osiris or Warmind (a.k.a. Classic) campaigns before accessing various activities and quests
• New characters can acquire the classic campaign pursuits from Amanda Holliday
  • • If the player acquires a campaign pursuit for a mission on a planet they have not yet unlocked by earning XP, that planet will become unlocked
      • • For example, if the player has only unlocked the EDZ and Titan, and then they acquire the Curse of Osiris campaign pursuit, the Mercury destination will become unlocked
• New characters have immediate access to all playlist activities (but they still might not meet the Power requirements for higher tiers of Player Elected Difficulty, or they might need a special item like a Mote Synthesizer to play the Reckoning)
• New character will be granted the New Light main quest. This quest will lead them through most ritual activities, Year 1 seasonal content, and Year 1 destinations
• For new characters, Zavala, Shaxx, and Drifter will initially have simplified inventories. Players must complete a short intro quest for Strikes, Crucible, and Gambit to unlock the full inventory of bounties and pursuits on these vendors

• Quests
  • • The Black Armory area of the Tower Annex is now accessible to all players
    • Simplified the Black Armory intro quest
    • Removed the quests needed to Unlock the Izanami and Gofannon forges
• Exotics
  • • Le Monarque and Jotunn are now first unlocked via pursuits found on Ada-1
    • The quest for Izanagi’s Burden can now also be acquired from Ada-1
• Forges
  • • Introducing the Forge Rotator
      • • Found on the EDZ Director Screen
        • Launch directly into a forge by selecting the node
        • Which Forge is playable rotates daily
    • Forges are no longer launched from EDZ or Nessus
• Rewards
  • • Weapon frames no longer require specific forges in order to be completed

WARMIND

• Escalation Protocol access is no longer gated on any campaign completion requirements