Category: Bungie News

Watch as developers share a deeper look into our plans for Year 4 with Beyond Light, Stasis, and Season of the Hunt.  

Destiny 2: Beyond Light kicks off on November 10 with Guardians traveling to Europa to investigate the threats, mysteries, and power residing there. Season of the Hunt also begins on November 10 — you will be able to start earning ranks and rewards from the Season Pass, claim your Artifact, and begin to customize it as you power it up. This Season’s story mission and new Wrathborn Hunts activity will kick off the following week on Nov 17. 

Starting with Season of the Hunt, most of the Seasonal content and all of the sweet gear will be sticking around for all of year 4. We hope this alleviates some of the FOMO that has been present with past Seasons. Now you can jump back in and experience past Seasons’ story, activities, and loot anytime during year 4.   

Here is a look at the calendar for Beyond Light and Season of the Hunt for a glimpse of what we have in store for you! 

This week at Bungie, we talk story and sandbox. 

Before we kick this TWAB off, I have to ask: Have you watched the new story trailer for Beyond Light yet? No? While we aren’t going to dive deeply into spoiler territory between now and launch, this is the moment where we say it’s time for you to go dark if you’re looking to experience the expansion with no knowledge of what’s coming. 

If you’re hungry, it’s time to dig in. 

Soon, you’ll be exploring Europa, in search of answers. Whether you be a lone wolf or part of a fireteam, we’ll leave that path for you to walk. 

110? Meet 120 

Two weeks ago, we began a conversation about sandbox tuning for Beyond Light. Armor modifications are getting some hefty changes, from reloads to raids. If you missed it, check out the October 8 TWAB. This week, our focus shifts to the weapons in your arsenal. As with our mods preview, we have a collection of patch notes accompanied by developer commentary. Alright, we ready?

Let’s pass the microphone over to the Dev Team for some juicy details. 

Dev team: Hello! Today, we’ll be covering some changes to a few specific weapons and weapon families. For those of you who don’t have much knowledge of our sandbox, each weapon has a specific “frame” that is also tied to its associated rate of fire (RoF). We’ve included both of these for a bit of clarity, as many players default to RoF when talking about various weapons. As an example, “Aggressive” Hand Cannons currently have a RoF of 110 rounds per minute. 

Hand Cannons: We’re making changes to give hand cannon subfamilies more diversity, and more reasons to use each. 

At this time, Lightweight (150 ROF) Hand Cannons represent the majority of Hand Cannon usage in the Crucible. While we experimented with many different ways to even out Lightweights (150 ROF) and Adaptives (140 ROF), Lightweight Hand Cannons consistently retained a faster time to kill (TTK). As such, we opted to equalize their ROF.

We selected 140 ROF as it is fairly balanced in the Crucible sandbox. It gives other weapon archetypes more time to breath between shots, avoids an overabundance of Hand Cannons with faster TTK than other weapons, and pairs nicely with upcoming changes to 600 ROF Auto Rifles (more on that below). 

Sniper Rifles: We want Sniper Rifles to feel powerful, without being so easy to use that they dominate. 

Some of these changes look pretty hefty, and we’re looking forward to seeing your reactions. When first hearing that Aggressive Hand Cannons would be shifted to120 RPM, I wondered if it would be enough to push them into the hands of my Guardian. I can safely say after quite a few playtests, I have a bunch of new favorite Hand Cannons that have been waiting for their time to shine. 

Now, let’s look to some new hotness coming soon to a Lighthouse near you. 

(ADEPT) 

Before we let our friends on the Development Team go, we have a few more details concerning weapons to share with you. A few months back, we announced the return of Adept weapons to the Trials experience. Today, we’ll be spending some time getting you reacquainted with these tools of destruction, and how we’re laying the groundwork for future Adept weaponry. While these weapons are similar in name to the Adepts of Destiny 1, there are some added elements to embrace the weapon systems of Destiny 2. With that, we pass the mic back to the Development Team to give you a full rundown: 

Dev Team: Beginning in Beyond Light, all existing Trials weapons have Adept versions. Our intent is for all new Trials weapons to have an Adept version in the future, with their infusion caps matching the Season they were introduced in. For our first round of Adepts, their infusion caps will be set to that of Season of the Worthy. Additionally, we will be introducing Adept weapon mods into the sandbox in Beyond Light, which can only be applied to Adept weaponry. 

Adept Weapons 

As you can see, for those who reach the Lighthouse, your loot is about to get a little more spicy. While Adept rewards are coming first, we also have a Trials armor refresh planned for a future Season, after the stardust has settled from Beyond Light.  

With that, we come to an end to our sandbox previews leading up to Beyond Light. Some of you may be asking, “Wait a minute, what about abilities?” In three short weeks, the abilities you’ve come to know and master will be challenged by the Darkness. Stasis will make its debut, bringing a new flavor of combat to the sandbox. The team will be watching closely as you embark on your first strikes, Gambit matches, and Crucible exercises to see how your abilities stack up against each other. It’s going to be a wild time, and we’re excited to see the Light clash with the Dark. 

Prime Time Continues 

Rewards: 

Once redeemed, you’ll find these at Amanda Holliday in the Tower’s hangar. Stay tuned for future updates! 

Cipher Search 

Festival of the Lost has reached its halfway mark, and Destiny Player Support is keeping an eye out for scary bugs as we approach the final days of the event. While no major issues have been found, we do have a few reminders on items to complete, and a note on the Interference: Loop Triumph. 

This is their report. 

INTERFERENCE: LOOP TRIUMPH 

Due to the extension of Season of Arrivals, the Nokris encounter for the Interference weekly quest will remain for the remainder of the season. This means players who have missed a previous Interference encounter will be unable to access those encounters and will be unable to claim the “Interference: Loop” triumph. 

TITLES

With the start of Year 4 on November 10, certain Seals and their associated Titles will no longer be available to earn. Players will need to be sure to unlock and equip the following Titles before this date to guarantee that the completions are recorded on their accounts:  

Insert Witty Movie Reference Here 

 

I’ve been combing the internet, looking for spooky movies to watch during a Halloween marathon. While watching my own clips from the Crucible can be scary (how can someone be that bad!?), I’m looking for things that are slow burn. Half the movie spent setting the world up, introducing you to characters, then BAM. Weird stuff happening. Lights going out. Doors being mysteriously locked. People turning on each other while trying to do simple tasks to get the space station running. Mentions of suspicious behavior. Vents. Garbage disposals. That weird thing where you have to tap a button while disks spin. 

Wait, that’s not a movie… ah well. Let’s get back on topic. While these movies aren’t so scary, they are entertaining! Let’s check out who won MOTW. 

MOTW: Kingdom Come 

MOTW: Most of you are too young to understand this reference 

MOTW: Regent 

The days are continuing to grow shorter here in Seattle. Pretty soon, Destiny won’t be the only thing enveloped in Darkness. I for one can’t wait. Only two more TWABs stand between you and Europa. 

Ah, and before we go – we’ve been seeing a lot of questions in the wild on how bounties, currencies, and progression systems will be updated in Beyond Light. We’re currently working to get the info together and making sure everything is factual. This isn’t a “preppers guide to the galaxy,” mind you. Just a heads up on how these systems are changing. Our current plan is to cover those topics next week! The most frequent question we’re seeing right now concerns bounties, and whether they’ll be cleared at the start of next Season. 

Most of your bounties will stay intact, but any bounties tied to specific Seasonal activities or content entering the DCV will be removed on November 10. Examples would include Black Armory, Gambit Prime, or Festival of the Lost bounties. Additionally, any bounties that grant progression towards Infamy/Valor may negatively impact your powerful rewards, as they will be limited to Season of Arrivals Power Levels. Our recommendation is to go ahead and claim your bounties, just to make sure you don’t miss out on any XP or Glimmer.

More to come next week. See you then. 

Cheers, 

-dmg04 

News | Bungie.net”>

News | Bungie.net”>

The stars have aligned, and the next generation of console gameplay begins in the launch window for Beyond Light. As we continue to improve Destiny 2, we’re taking the opportunity to optimize the experience you’ll have on this new hardware. 

The next generation optimized version of Destiny 2 will launch on December 8. While things like faster load times and cross-generation play will be available on November 10, we’re taking some more time on the following enhancements to ensure a smooth experience when playing Destiny 2 on your new devices. 

This week at Bungie, we’ve got a sweet tooth… for loot! 

Wait a second, we’re giving Warlocks what? Gauntlets that spread poison through hordes of enemies?! I want some! The ability to shift using Mask of Bakris looks pretty sweet for Hunters. In just a little over a month you may find your new favorite Exotic in the wild! 

Today, we’ve got a lot to cover including changes coming to armor mods, the kickoff of our Festival of the Lost Art and Fashion shows, and more! Let’s get started where it all began, in the Cosmodrome. 

Burn Bright, New Light 

Over the last year, there’s been a lot of great feedback about the new player experience in Destiny 2. Currently, players are given a single mission to become acquainted with some basic gameplay, and then let loose in the Tower without much direction on where to go or what to do next. This led to some confusion, as many players didn’t exactly know where to start. Who’s that robot that’s meticulously cleaning an Auto Rifle? What do I do with these engrams? And what’s a Zavala? The team has been working to restructure the onramp for Destiny 2, and today we’ll be giving a small glimpse into the New Light experience.  

Starting November 10, players will start in the same way that most all of us have. A Ghost will be on the hunt for their Guardian, they’ll stumble upon you, and they’ll revive you for the first time. What’s different now is that you won’t immediately find a ship. Rather, you’ll stumble into another Guardian in the wild.  

Shaw Han is his name, and he’s on a mission with his fireteam to investigate what the Hive are up to in the Cosmodrome. He’ll show you the ropes, and help you find your way among the gameplay and systems of Destiny 2. 

As a new player, you’ll spend your first few missions getting acquainted with the state of the world in Destiny 2. You’ll have opportunity to take a few weapons out for a spin, find  engrams to try different armor and see our progression systems, and have some time to learn how to navigate the user interface to understand quests, bounties, collections, and more. All of this will happen before you set foot in the Tower, and our hope is that this refreshed New Light experience will give a much warmer welcome to Guardians as they play Destiny 2 for the first time.  

With the Cosmodrome coming out of the Destiny Content Vault (DCV), this gave us the perfect opportunity to overhaul our new player experience. For veteran players out there, this will be a stroll through memory lane. While the Plaguelands are strictly quarantined per Vanguard orders, you’ll still be able to explore much of what you remember from your first days as a Guardian. Running through the Mothyards to collect Spinmetal, heading down the stairs of the Steppes to face off against powerful Hive Knights, and more. There will be occasional moments of discovery, like stumbling upon a Lost Sector that you haven’t seen before. If you’re an existing player and would like to go through the New Light quest, it will also be available to you on November 10.  

We’re excited to see how new players react to our revamped New Light experience, and for many of you to get your boots back on the ground in the Cosmodrome.  

Eyes up, Guardian.  

Mod Modifications 

We’re a little over a month out from Beyond Light. Thirty-three days, to be precise. We have quite a bit to cover between now and then, from sandbox updates to how your various economies are being updated. Sandbox is always a hot topic of discussion, and today we’ll be diving a bit deeper into the ways you customize your gameplay experience through armor mods. 

Armor mods are used to elevate your reload speeds, ability regen, and more to higher levels. In November, some of the mods you commonly use are being tuned. Some mods will be buffed, while others will be removed all together. Here, we’re going to dive into a patch note preview of sorts, with snippets of developer commentary from the development team throughout. 

Developer Commentary: Removing the energy type requirements from weapon-focused mods has been a consistent piece of community feedback since Armor 2.0 launched. However, doing so meant that every mod socket would be displaying three times as many mods at a time, which would become cumbersome. 

Enhanced Mod Rebalancing 

Developer Commentary: We consistently see feedback that players often don’t start feeling the impact of mods until they have an Enhanced mod, or two non-Enhanced mods, socketed. So, to resolve both issues, we decided to raise the floor on the effectiveness of all mods to the point where players were more likely to feel their impact,and to deprecate the two tiers of mods. This should also make having two different mods in the same category (say, Hand Cannon Loader and Shotgun Loader) socketed at the same time more appealing than it was previously, where players often needed to double-stack the same mod to feel like they are getting any benefit.  

In essence, we are making Enhanced mods cheaper and more accessible, and deprecating the lesser mods.  

Raid Mods 

Developer Commentary: The decision to give the raid armors a fifth mod socket, dedicated solely to its raid mods, should not only make the raid armors a more valuable reward, but also should compensate for the restriction on the usage of these raid mods with the ability to use that armor to craft your build both in and out of the raid. 

Regarding the deprecation of the anti-Hive and anti-Fallen mods, and the restriction of the anti-Taken mods to Last Wish, this is something that we’ve had our eye on for a while. We consistently get feedback that  faction-specific mods are highly unbalanced outside of the content they were intended to work in (in this case, the raids, which are being moved into the DCV). Because these are useful with any instance of a combatant race, activity designers and sandbox designers were constantly having to be aware of how these mods would impact the play of those activities. They have proven to be problematic in Gambit (creating a clear divide between the Haves and the Have-Nots) and have significantly reduced the challenge of dungeons.  

With the raids that provided the source for these mods going into the DCV provides, we have the opportunity to gracefully remove these mods and their long-reaching consequences. Last Wish, which was designed and balanced with its anti-Taken mods in mind, will remain a part of the game and continue to reward players with its mods. However, to prevent those far-reaching consequences mentioned above, we are aligning those mods with the other raid mods and making them function only in the raid that they drop from. We’ve had a positive response to the more mechanic-focused mods from Garden of Salvation, and future raids will have mods more like those.  

Combat Mods 

And with that, we’ve come to an end for our armor mod patch note preview. In the coming weeks, we’ll shift focus to your arsenal. We have a handful of weapon archetypes that are being tuned, with some hefty changes that may surprise you! Stay tuned.  

Festival of the Lost – Art and Fashion Shows! 

This community is home to wide ranging talent. We’ve seen full on Cabal cosplays at PAX, works of art created on oil and canvas, and some amazing screenshots taken throughout our solar system. With Festival of the Lost in full swing, we’d like to highlight your skills, and pass out some emblems in the process. 

#FOTLArtShow 

#FOTLFashionShow 

It wouldn’t be Festival of the Lost without a costume contest of sorts, now would it? Eva Levante has been dishing out some fun masks for you to wear in the wild, and we’d love to see how you’re dressing your Guardians for the occasion.  

These will serve as your last chances to get the Aspect of Luminance and Levante’s Prize emblems from Year 3. We may use these emblems as rewards again in the future, but they’ll be on hiatus for a while. 

Without further ado, get to it! Time’s ticking. Extra points to any submissions that visibly creep us out.  

Creepy Crawlies 

 

While it may be the time of year where people actively decorate their homes in spider webs, we’ll never be too keen on bugs. Destiny Player Support is on the case, ensuring you don’t get tangled on your way to this year’s Festival of the Lost. 

This is their report. 

SEASON OF ARRIVALS TITLE 

Due to the Cradle encounter’s weekly rotation, it is possible for players to miss an encounter before the end of Season of Arrivals if they are not already completed; this would also prevent players from earning the Season of Arrivals title. Players who are looking to complete the Season of Arrivals title should ensure they have enough time to complete all associated Triumphs before the end of the season. Players who earn the Season of Arrivals title should claim and equip it to ensure that it isn’t removed at the end of the Season. 

BEYOND LIGHT AND THE END OF SEASON OF ARRIVALS 

To prepare for the release of Beyond Light and Season of [REDACTED] on November 10, 2020, Destiny 2 will need to be taken offline for maintenance. In order to prepare for Update 3.0.0, Destiny 2 will be taken offline for maintenance at 7 PM PST (Pacific Standard Time) on November 9, 2020, and will remain offline until November 10, 2020, at 9 AM PST. During this offline period, the game will not be available, and Season of Arrivals items will be made unavailable. Players are strongly urged to finish any Season of Arrivals content or Triumphs before 7 PM on November 9th. 

CLOSING OUT SEASON OF ARRIVALS 

When Season of Arrivals ends at 7 PM PST on November 9, 2020, there will be a number of items, activities, and Triumphs that will no longer be available to players. Some of these items include: 

Jumpscares 

 

I don’t know about you, but I just can’t handle jump scares. When I sit back to watch a two-hour horror film full of terrifying screams and scary themes, I just want to relax. This week, you won’t find any jump scares in our MOTW picks. Rather, you’ll find some killer community content. 

More Than Just A Dream! 

FotL Trailer – Guitar Cover 

Definitely a Titan Main 

There’s nothing like the buzz before the launch of a new expansion in Destiny 2. If we were in the office, we’d be feeling electricity in the air at Bungie. Things are getting tied up. We’re taking a magnifying glass to the content, finishing up our final test passes to prepare the next year of Destiny 2 for launch. Even in a world where we’re working remotely, the excitement is felt in each meeting as we dot the I’s and cross the t’s. Soon, it will all be in your hands, and we’ll be right there with you as you embark on your first journeys of Europa. 

We hope you enjoyed a peek at upcoming Exotics earlier this week. We have a lot more for you to see, and a lot more for you to experience, all coming soon. We know many of you are trying to plan some time off for the raid race, and we’re looking to have some details on that next week. Stay tuned. 

Cheers, 

-dmg04 

Those words have finality when said aloud. An indirect farewell. Zavala can’t quite see Ikora’s expression in the muted reflection from his office window, but he can hear the disappointment in her voice. Beyond the glass, the City seems agnostic to the tempest of emotions. Ships soar through the night sky, lights glitter against the dark, the Traveler looms silently.

“I know,” is Zavala’s belated reply. He watches as Ikora’s reflection reaches toward him, but he’s still surprised when he feels the weight of her hand against his shoulder. 

“I want to commend them for their bravery,” he says, confiding in her. “But I’d prefer they be here to berate them for their foolishness.”

Ikora wordlessly squeezes Zavala’s shoulder in response before standing beside him at the window. “I remember when you and I felt invincible. When our Ghosts felt invincible. When we could lay the foundation for the future with our bare hands. But now, it’s different. The list of names to memorialize gets longer by the day,” she says, watching debris slowly orbit the Traveler. “We’ve said goodbye to too many friends over the years.”

“And who is left to join us now… Rasputin? To think that I welcomed him in,” Zavala says, turning his back to the window and the Traveler, “only to find out he betrayed the Iron Lords all those years ago.” He looks across the datapads on his desk, jaw clenching. “Are we that desperate that we’re willing to accept mass murderers—” 

He settles into his chair with a heavy sigh, lifting a hand to his forehead, eyes shut. 

“Zavala.” Ikora’s voice is stern but tempered with concern as she follows him to his desk, her fingers curled against her palms. “Stronger together, remember? We aren’t abandoning anyone now.” The slight quaver in her voice belies her confidence. Most people wouldn’t notice, but Zavala has known her for over a century. When their eyes meet, she sees an unvoiced burden on his face that would appear to anyone else as a merely stoic and unflinching expression.

She sits on the corner of his desk, hands folded in her lap. “You know they’d all be lost without you,” she affirms. He doesn’t answer, but she can tell he agrees. “I would be lost without you.” When Zavala starts to counter her argument, she continues over him, unrelenting. “Out there, thousands of people look to us as a sign of hope. We need that. Everyone does.”

“It feels like I’m lying to them. To everyone,” Zavala interrupts. “The Darkness is here. We’re facing the end of all things, and I…” he closes his eyes, “I feel helpless.”

Ikora shakes her head and gives Zavala’s shoulder another squeeze. “Maybe we are.” It seems a poor thing to say at first, but she continues. “Even so, helpless doesn’t mean hopeless. We forget that sometimes, and instead of embracing our faith in moments like this, we often turn against it out of fear and doubt. When I found my faith diminished, I exiled myself to Io. I questioned everything. Including the Traveler.” She levels a knowing look at Zavala, who also recalls how that chapter of their lives ended.

“What has the Traveler ever done for us?” Zavala exclaims, his words strained through gritted teeth as he slaps his palm against his desk. 

Ikora gently lifts her hand from his shoulder and searches her old friend’s face. She understands the pain behind his words and recognizes the wave of anger in his eyes as it recedes. She rises from the corner of his desk, walking back to the window. 

“I’m sorry,” Zavala mumbles after the fact.

“It’s all right,” Ikora replies, gazing up at the Traveler hanging weightlessly over the City illuminated by its light. “If nothing else, the Traveler did one thing right by us.” It takes a moment for Zavala to respond to her candor.

“And what was that?” he asks, rising from his chair.

Ikora watches Zavala’s reflection in the glass, little more than a dim silhouette with glowing eyes. She smiles softly, and he can see a moment of peace and relief in her expression. A moment of faith. A moment of truth.

“It brought us together.”

This week at Bungie, we’re summoning some ghosts. 

Next week, we’re getting spooky up in the Tower again. Festival of the Lost returns on October 6 for more fright-filled fun. This year’s festival is going to rock! 

Eva Levante, or as you all affectionately call her “Space Grandma,” has returned to the Tower to lead Guardians in a celebration of those we’ve lost. We miss you, Cayde.  

The Haunted Forest is back and filled with ghoulish enemies. This year, we’ve added five chests to the end of the activity for five times the loot! 

To open the chests, you are going to need some Cipher Decoders. Talk to Spider to get started and then they will drop from playing any of your favorite activities across the solar system – similar to Umbral Engrams. Braytech Werewolf and Horror Story will both be rewarded from these chests and each have new perk combinations to hunt for. 

You’ve probably been hearing this a lot lately, but it goes double for Festival of the Lost: don’t forget to put on your mask. There are new masks available this year as well as some favorites from the past. Eva has a Masquerader Helmet which you can apply your masks to as ornaments before you head out in the world to start stockpiling candy. The mask mods for the Haunted Forest also return from last year’s event.  

Before we wrap up the event on November 3, you are going to want to complete three of the Triumphs for opening chests in the Haunted Forest. Once you finish off the required Triumphs you will be able to trade in some of your candy for a mummified Exotic Sparrow, ship, and Ghost. 

Finishing the “Wrapped and Ready” Triumph required to get the Exotic Ghost also unlocks the ability to purchase the Restless Shell Ghost pin through Bungie Rewards. 

Speaking of Bungie Rewards, we also have a terrifying new emblem available for free if you finish the initial quest during Festival of the Lost.  

That’s the gist of it, but here are a few quick notes that may answer some questions you have: 

Direct Relief 

It seems like 2020 has been one disaster after another. It’s easy to get discouraged when times get tough, but the Destiny community always comes together to support those in need. 

Here in the United States, more than 500,000 people having been evacuated from their homes across California, Oregon, and Washington, entire towns devoured by flames, and there has been a serious impact on the respiratory health of millions of individuals in and around these areas.  

If you purchase an Empathetic Ghost Shell pin you will also instantly receive a code for the “Benevolent Hue” emblem as a thank you for your support.  

Thank you all for continuing to step up to every challenge that this year has sent our way and for truly being the most generous and caring gaming community there is. 

---

Double Ordeal

Festival of the Lost is not the only reason to log in next week. Double rewards in Nightfall: The Ordeal is back! Grab a few friends or meet some new ones in the matchmade difficulties. It’s a great time to stock up on Enhancement Prisms and Ascendant Shards for your Masterworking needs as well as to grab any missing Exotics or upgrade to a better stat roll. 

The strike will be “A Garden World” so watch out for those killer robots.   

PSR BUT IT’S HAUNTED 

 

Now we turn things over to our Player Support team with the latest on known issues. 

This is their report.  

Festival of the Lost

Festival of the Lost 2020 is set to begin on October 6, and will conclude at the weekly reset on November 3. Players can view our updated Festival of the Lost Guide for information on event specific activities, rewards, and triumphs.  

During the event, players may encounter the following issues: 

• Inspecting a Cipher Decoder will incorrectly display Masterworked versions of the Braytech Werewolf and Horror Story auto rifles as potential Haunted Forest Cache drops. 
• The Wrapped and Ready Festival of the Lost Triumph refers to the Restless Shell as the mummy Ghost, when it should be called the Festival of the Lost Ghost. 
• The lower half of the Warlock Blood Lineage Robes Universal Armor Ornament will experience a visual texture error at the launch of Beyond Light. This issue will be resolved in a patch soon after release.   

Players who observe issues during the event should report to our #Help forum. 

KNOWN ISSUES 

While we continue investigating various known issues, here is a list of the latest issues that were reported to us in our #Help Forum: 

• Players using the feminine character model may see gaps between the neck of Hunter cloaks and certain chest pieces. 
• The Artifact is sometimes enabled in Iron Banner. 
• Bounties/progress is sometimes not counted in Iron Banner.

For a full list of emergent issues in Destiny 2, players can review our Known Issues article. Players who observe other issues should report them to our #Help forum. 

Channel Surfing  

 

Let’s take a quick look at some of the best community-created movies we saw surfing the web this week. Do people still say that? “Surfing the web?” or is that a relic from the early 2000s? Anyways, here’s “Wonderwall.”  

Movie of the Week: The Fast Find a Way 

Honorable Mention: Smashing 

I love this time of year. Any time it’s socially acceptable to put on a costume and eat sweets until you get a stomachache is a good time. It’s extra fun if you have kids/pets to dress up. Can’t wait to also start dressing up my Hunter next week as well. I’m going to make him look so hideous that it gives Dmg a stomachache.  

<3 Cozmo 

This week at Bungie, the weather is changing…

You feel that? The slight chill in the air? It’s time to prepare for a colder climate, Guardians. Europa has no sympathy unprepared guests. You might want to come with a weapon or two, because frigid storms aren’t the only danger to be found here. Don’t be afraid, though. An old friend will be waiting for your arrival.

You now have less than seven weeks to get ready. Don’t get caught out in the cold without a plan. November 10 is coming quick, and we’re eager to see how long you survive.

It’s a Pass… for Games!

Earlier this week, Forsaken and Shadowkeep became available on Xbox Game Pass. With Beyond Light on the way, there’s no better time to gear up and get acquainted with what’s going on in the world of Destiny. 

A few housekeeping notes for Guardians who are being freshly rez’d in the Cosmodrome:

Eyes up, Guardians. Welcome to the community.

Ye Olde Banner of Iron

A few weeks back, we announced the extension of Season of Arrivals, noting that we’d be adding a few fun things between September 22 and the new November 10 launch date of Beyond Light. First, we featured some Double Ordeal loot on Lake of Shadows. This week, Drifter has been upping the ante with Triple Infamy. Next week, Lord Saladin returns with Triple Valor, themed weapons and armor, and his Pinnacle Power bounty rewards.

Don’t go in thinking it will be easy to snag some loot, though. Control is the name of the game, and Power is enabled. If you haven’t risen through the Pinnacle band yet, you may find yourself facing a raid boss or two on the other team.

Iron Banner

Starts: 9/29/2020 10:00 AM PT

Ends: 10/6/2020 10:00 AM PT

There will be a few more weeks with increased rewards for Vanguard, Crucible, and Gambit, so stay tuned for announcements!

Talking Tech – Preparing for Beyond Light

With Beyond Light on fast approach, it’s time to shift our TWAB gears a little. Today, we’ll be talking through some of the back-end changes that will be coming to Destiny 2 on November 10. To guide us through this process, we’re passing the mic to Destiny Engineering Director David Aldridge.

DAldridge:  When Destiny 2 launched three years ago, we had no idea that in 2020 we’d announce a new trilogy of expansions (among other 2020 surprises we didn’t anticipate).  At the time, we thought Destiny 2’s arc would look a lot more like Destiny 1 – a couple of expansions, and then a sequel.   

  

We learned many lessons from the transition to Destiny 2, and from shipping Curse of Osiris, Warmind, Forsaken, the Year-2 Seasons, and Shadowkeep. When we evaluated those lessons, we decided not to pursue a Destiny 3, but instead to reinvest everything in Destiny 2 and make it all that it can be (check out our longer writeup on this choice here). To support that strategy, we’ve made several tech investments to help us sustainably evolve the game for years to come, and some of those investments are arriving in Beyond Light. 

Many of these changes are under the hood and won’t affect your experience (except insofar as they help us deliver you more and better Destiny in the future), but some may result in neat improvements, curious behavior differences, or bugs. This means that, on November 10, some places and things will feel a little like Sliders (only 90s kids will get this), so we’d like to give you a rundown of some of the changes and possible side effects. 

We shifted our mission scripting model to run on the Physics Host instead of the Mission Host (more details on this split here, in the interview with Matt Segur). In the long run this change will give designers options to create more novel mission mechanics by giving the mission scripting environment full access to the game state, instead of the much more limited access the Mission Host had. For example, the Physics Host knows exactly where enemy combatants are and what actions they recently performed – while the Mission Host only knew how many combatants were alive in a squad and what that squad was generally trying to accomplish. In Beyond Light we’re only launching the foundations of this system, and we look forward to evolving and leveraging it in the future.

• What you might notice:  
• The new scripting environment changed many behaviors in complex ways, and you may see interesting behavior changes or bugs in pre-Beyond-Light missions (and public events, and similar) that were originally built and tested on the previous system.  We’ve tested these missions heavily and stamped out many bugs, but some will undoubtedly slip through. We’ll be monitoring and fixing remaining bugs over time. In some cases, these issues were more severe – for example, they caused the Prophecy dungeon to be unavailable temporarily. We’re all excited for its triumphant return, slated for the end of this year!
• One other cool new feature in this area is face-to-face joins in social spaces, so you can now fireteam up with Tower friends without a long Tower reload!

We revamped our content building and patching pipeline for speed and install size. With the tremendous size of Destiny, our complete shippable content builds were frequently taking north of 24 hours. We made investments to bring that down to sub-12 hours, which resulted in a bunch of changes to our content and patching formats. We also took on work to allow us to cull content that we’ve upgraded or replaced – our previous patching system had limited capabilities here (due to trying to minimize patch sizes and other constraints), and the current Destiny 2 install has a significant amount of accreted ‘dead’ content (e.g. assets in the base install that were replaced in later patches).   

• What you might notice: 
• Due to all these changes, Beyond Light will be a full re-download on all platforms – we know this will be painful for those with slower or metered internet connections, and we’re sorry about that. To help mitigate this, we’re planning to enable Beyond Light preloads sometime in the evening of November 9, Pacific Time, which should give everyone at least 10 hours to download before the gates open. 
• Destiny 2’s install size shrinks by 30-40%: Due to a combination of culling unused or replaced content, install size optimizations, and moving some content to the Destiny Content Vault, Destiny 2’s install size will shrink to between 59 and 71GB (depending on platform), a reduction of 30 to 40%. These improvements should also help us control install size better in the coming years.   
• We hope to use these much faster builds to accomplish two things: 
  
• Help us ship mission-critical fixes faster when game-breaking bugs arise. 
• Reduce our overall ship pipeline depth, enabling us to work on Destiny releases closer to their ship dates, so we can react to fresher information about what’s happening in the live game. For example, historically each of our Seasons has had to get deep into production before the preceding season launched, preventing us from reacting to learnings from that preceding season. These tech improvements should give us 1-2 more weeks of flexibility on a Seasonal scale, helping us pivot more quickly in some cases.

We rebuilt our character face system. We know that how your Guardians look is important to you, and we’ve long wanted to add more player customization to Destiny. Our original system for player faces had some combinatoric content authoring problems – for example, every decal had to be authored completely custom for each player face permutation. This prevented us from extending this area of the game with more content and features. We’ve upgraded to a significantly more capable system (with e.g. runtime decal projection), which we hope to leverage for more player customization options in the future. As part of this process we reviewed the existing player models with our Diversity Committee and Employee Resource Groups in the studio to make small tweaks to existing player heads. We’re also building a list of Guardian face shapes we should bring to the game in the future in order to increase Guardian diversity in Destiny, with the long-term goal of enabling everyone to imagine themselves as their Guardian. 

• What you might notice:
• Your Guardian’s face may look a bit different. 

We relit portions of EDZ and Nessus. During the early stages of Beyond Light production the Lighting and Skies teams had a desire to provide a visual refresh to the two remaining D2 Year 1 destinations, EDZ and Nessus, as they enter their fourth year in rotation. To that end, the teams performed relights and global lighting updates to a number of locations on both destinations.  

• What you might notice:
• Different lighting on existing destinations! The changes are intentional and are meant to bring the visual quality of these spaces up to our current lighting standards, while providing a fresh coat of paint for some of our Year 1 locations. We hope you enjoy these updates to some familiar locations when you explore EDZ and Nessus this November.

We’re excited to leverage these improvements to redouble our efforts on Destiny 2, and we aim to make Destiny 2 still feel like your home away from home. 

  

Thanks, 

-David Aldridge

P.S. Congratulations on making it to the end of this long and nerdy love letter. If your passion for all things Destiny Tech is not yet spent, you may enjoy the Reddit AMA that Destiny Engineering Manager Chris Kosanovich and I did a couple months ago!

Did You Say… More Emblems???

Beyond Light isn’t just bringing Europa to the fold. It’s also bringing many, many pieces of loot. This year, we’re refreshing a few Community emblems for you to hunt. Whether it be Fashion, Art, Movie of the Week, or the Bungie Bounty, we have some new swag to hopefully catch your eye. I’m personally giddy that we have seven total Community Emblems to show off. There’s just something about that number that we love so much…

Fashion Show

Featured Artist

Movie of the Week

Bungie Bounty

Shadowkeep variants for each emblem will be available through November 10. There will be a few final chances to earn them before the new hotness becomes available. Stay tuned!

We’d also like to take a moment to celebrate our Community Volunteers. If you’ve ever visited the help forum, you may have noticed some members answering questions and linking players to general help articles and Bungie-authored troubleshooting methods. These are the Mentors, the “white gloves” of our community, dedicated to lending a helping hand to any player trying to get back into the game.

Our Moderators, however, are referred to as Ninjas. They work in the shadows, removing bad actors from our forums whenever the Code of Conduct is broken. You may see one every so often in the forums replying to threads, but their work is behind the scenes.

As of late, we’ve also been receiving some help from community moderators during Bungie livestreams. Whether they be Bungie Bounties, charity initiatives, or whatever reason we decide to broadcast, these individuals are helping to keep chat a bit cleaner. Join us in welcoming Shields to the fold of our community moderation teams.

Each volunteer group will be receiving a new emblem this year. While it might seem like a minor gesture, we hope that you join us in giving them thanks whenever you see these emblems in the wild.

Mentors

Ninjas

Shields

If you’re wondering “How do I become a volunteer?”, our members are all community sourced. If we see you helping out in the forums frequently or just having a good time in chat while upholding our Code, we may reach out to see if you’d like to join up! That said, don’t do it for the emblem. Do it out of the kindness of your heart and for the betterment of our community. The emblem is just a little treat.

Support Specialists

This week was a fun one. A new Hotfix arrived at our door, and Xbox Game Pass kicked off in spectacular fashion. Destiny Player Support is here with vital information on what issues have been found, and what troubleshooting methods are available.

This is their report.

XBOX GAME PASS

Earlier this week, Destiny 2: Forsaken and Destiny 2: Shadowkeep became available for Xbox Game Pass subscribers to download and play through Game Pass. Xbox Game Pass members will continue to be able to access these Destiny 2 expansions if their Game Pass membership is maintained. For more information, please visit our Destiny 2 on Xbox Game Pass guide.

RESOLVED ISSUES

Below is a list of issues that have been resolved with Hotfix 2.9.2.1 on September 22:

• The Refurbished Black Armory shader now drops 100% of the time when dismantling Black Armory Refurbished weapons acquired from completing Forge Ignition activities.
• Fixed a crash that could occur when too many arrows were shot into a Titan’s Barricade.

CURRENT KNOWN ISSUES

For a full list of emergent issues in Destiny 2, players can review our Known Issues article. Players who observe other issues should report them to our #Help forum.

Enough Words, More Movies

Movie of the Week: Hmmmmm….

Honorable Mention: Hunters have the best Fashion

Wait, do you see your video listed here‽ Awesome! Let’s check off a few things before we get you your emblem. Is your Bungie.net profile linked in the description of the video? Good. Did you credit any fellow creators who appeared in your video? Sweet! We’ll get your emblem to you within a few business days.

Did you make it this far? Always fun to have a meaty TWAB. I’ll spare you a long outro, but I do want to say this: Thanks for stopping by. We always appreciate those who tune in for the weekly conversation, whether we have a lot of new info, or just a simple check-in to see how everyone’s doing between content drops.

Festival of the Lost is on the way. It’s almost time to get Spooky. Stay tuned for tricks and treats, because they’ll be coming soon…

Cheers,

-dmg04