Category: Bungie News

This week at Bungie, there was a bit of Mayhem in our studio.

In a ritual as old as the Crucible, a bounty was placed on the heads of a Bungie Fireteam – this time, in the Mayhem playlist. If the community managed to defeat us, they would earn the Sign of Mutual Combat emblem. Somehow, we didn’t do that bad!

Bungie Wins: 9

Losses: 5

The air was supercharged for the duration of our two-hour stream. I learned how to play a Warlock and Cozmo did his Hunter thing. Twenty of you earned your prize. As for the rest, better luck next time.

Queue and Answer

Josh: We know this is one of the big items the community would like to see. We’re already coming at it from a few different angles. With Update 1.1.4, we wanted Guardians to feel more powerful and to get more chances to showcase that power. These changes included making weapons more lethal. The next big Sandbox update comes with Season 3 as we buff a good chunk of the Exotic weapons. These changes will be a direct response to “Exotics don’t feel Exotic enough.” Some of these weapons are getting damage buffs that can have a direct impact on the average TTK of an encounter.

Josh: While we will continue to adjust the Sandbox, we are not planning an outright nerf to Vigilance Wing at this time. We don’t believe slowing Vigilance Wing’s TTK in a world where our players are asking for a faster TTK is the right call. Instead, we should be adjusting more weapons up to a level where they can compete. I believe you’ll find a few retuned Exotics that can do that in the Season 3 Exotic update.

DeeJ: We will be back on stream later this month to talk about the next content updates for Destiny 2. We’ll show you where you’re going next, who you’ll meet when you get there, how you’ll share new activities with your friends, and what you’ll be able to chase in the Crucible to prove your prowess.

Kevin: With Seasonal Crucible Ranks, we’re looking to serve many goals. Most important to players like me, something to chase or something to set goals for every season. There is a reason to play, and there is a reason to perform in the Crucible. You’ll earn unique rewards for things like time commitment or performance. I’ll be back on a future stream to talk more about the ranking system, Valor, and Glory.

Josh: We know that you want more control over your loadouts. You can expect weapon slot changes in the future of Destiny 2. We are actively working on a new system right now and we will have more to show and tell this summer.

Josh: At any given moment, we are working on numerous Sandbox updates that follow the same pipeline. First, we set goals for what we want to accomplish with any given update. For example, the purpose of 1.1.4 was to directly affect the pace of combat and to allow for more powerful and heroic moments. In Season 3, we’ll be delivering a round of Exotic weapon tuning intended to make them feel more exotic. With our goals defined, we make the changes, playtest, and iterate for as long as we can. Destiny is a huge game with tons of different areas that may be affected in different ways (positive or negative) from any given change we may make. Our test team also plays them with us and helps us hunt for anything that we may have broken. Finally, those changes have to get packaged up into an update and certify those builds with each of our platforms before they finally roll out to you. 

Kevin: It’s all priority. We have many releases, but we have a finite number of people on the team. For us, it’s all about prioritizing what we can get done and when we can get it done. So, in some cases (like weapon slots) – that’s going to take a long time. The bigger the change, the more focus and people are required to get it shipped.

DeeJ: On the community team, we are always looking for new ways to get designers socializing with players. Moments like the Bungie Bounty are a good chance to swap some chatter. You can expect to see them quoted on the blog whenever their work is in a place where they can go on record. Last week, we sat Josh down to talk to us about his motivations for Update 1.1.4. We also help you find them online so you can follow their dialogue about their day to day.

Josh: You’ve been seeing a hearing from me a good bit lately. I hope that my candor helps show that we are serious about our commitment to communicate more clearly and more often with you. If you need EVEN more, look for me on Twitter @Josh_Hamrick or Kevin at @Tocom11.

Kevin: We’ve heard the feedback that the community wants more involvement, or at least more of a conversation. We’re actively looking at ways to do that, with this stream, and even in game. We know there is a big desire for testing builds early, and that’s something we’re thinking more about.

Josh: I’m no Investment Designer but I can tell you that we, as a team, know that you want more reasons to play. We know you want to be excited about the possibility of any given drop again. We know you want to look forward to hopping on night after night for a shot at something you want to get your hands on and that you look forward to the adrenaline rush when it finally happens. We are actively working to get there, together. We’ll talk more about our plans when they are in a playable state that we think is stable.

Josh: Yes, to some of these. From my desk, right now, I can look around and see new hotness on several people’s screens. We’ll be showing off a lot of this stuff in the months to come.

Kevin: The biggest driver of that conversation was trying to improve matchmaking times and connection quality. Additionally, it allows us to better supply certain moods. As you’ve seen with 1.1.4, we’ve reinforced those moods. Quickplay is now delivering the 4v4 low intensity that we intended for that playlist. Competitive is now driving further the 4v4 high intensity. The biggest driver is connection quality and connection times. More people in the pool means more good connections.

In May, Private Matches are coming. At any point when you want to get a game of Control together, you can do that. In terms of players asking to “make Rumble permanent,” we’ve absolutely heard that feedback. To be more specific, we’ve heard that, we understand that, and we’ve been having conversations every day since the launch of 1.1.4 about that. Hopefully we’ll have more to say soon.

Josh: Destiny 1 and Destiny 2 are two unique and helpful data points. Neither game is perfect. Both have plenty of room for improvement. It’s hugely helpful to be able to directly compare and contrast the two and see what worked and what didn’t. Ultimately the goal is just to make Destiny 2 be the best Destiny we’ve ever made.

Josh: Our goal with 1.1.4 was to get back to more of the Destiny 1 style of movement, especially the movement you’re working with mid combat. Sprint speeds weren’t changed for D2 and therefore it wasn’t crazy high priority to hit those. That being said, we called it the “Go Fast” update for a reason and it was absolutely one of the potential changes to test with on our list. As we dug into making changes to it we ran into some technical challenges that kept it from being possible to get up in time to test with. It’s something we will continue to consider in the future though. What I can tell you is we buffed standard movement quite a bit.  

Fun Fact: Any Mobility value over 5, after 1.1.4, is faster than max Mobility base speed values in D1.

We also returned (increased) Air Acceleration back to its D1 values, as well.

We thank all who took the time to send questions in. This won’t be the last Bungie Bounty, not by a long shot. Cozmo and I are putting our heads together to figure out a time, place, and topic for our next bout. We’ll be in touch. Catch us if you can.

1.1.4 Retrospective: Weekly Crucible Playlists

Last week, Update 1.1.4 introduced the Weekly Crucible Playlist. For the first game type, Rumble served up some 8-player free-for-all combat where players had to watch their own backs, because no one else would. Monitoring feedback throughout the week, we noted quite a few players reporting that the mode felt a bit crowded. We tracked down PvP Design Lead Derek Carroll to give us some details on the goals of the Weekly Crucible Playlist, and what we can expect moving forward.

Derek: With a week’s worth of Update 1.1.4 in the wild, the PvP team can take a step back and see how we did.

One thing we like about the new rotating weekly playlist is that it gives us the ability to add things and make changes without shaking up the core of the Crucible. We’ll be using that playlist to try out new modes and events in the future.

Rumble came to Destiny 2 in a big way, and depending on your tastes, you may have found it too big. We tend to agree, so the next time Rumble rolls around, you’ll find a bit more room to breathe. We’re lowering the player-count to 6, and altering the spawning policy behind the scenes in an attempt to keep players more evenly spaced out. These changes are the first steps towards an even better player experience that we expect to drop when Season 3 begins.

Iron Banner’s next appearance is an exciting one for us. In conjunction with the Sandbox tweaks, we made changes to the version of Control you’ve been playing in Destiny 2 to increase intensity and give players more choices during gameplay. Right off the bat, you’ll see that there are no zones held by either team at match-start. With six players on each team, you’ll have more flexibility to decide your opening moves. Once you’re capturing, you’ll notice that the more players you have (up to 3) in a zone, the faster it switches sides. There’s risk/reward here, as Supers are more prevalent in version 1.1.4, and you don’t want to be caught with all your eggs in one basket. If you participate in a capture, you’ll get more Super energy yourself, so grabbing zones is a great way to power up for your next big play.

Until the Banner is lit next week, please enjoy the utter chaos of Mayhem, now with 25% more Super-powered insanity.

Feedback collection doesn’t stop here. As you play your way through Mayhem, continue to give us your thoughts! Cozmo and I are on the front lines, translating your feedback to the development team as it comes in. We’ll be at the ready to collect more of your thoughts and feedback next week, when Iron Banner 6v6 goes live.

Speaking Of…

With Update 1.1.4, Iron Banner now features 6v6 action. All Season 2 Iron Banner weapons will be available from Lord Saladin through either Reward Packages, or direct purchase using Iron Banner Tokens.

Begins: Tuesday, April 10

Ends: Tuesday, April 17

The game is Control!

With 6 enemies to choose from, you may find more opportunities to earn progress towards your Season 2 ornaments. Good luck out there.

Rare Air

If you follow the conversation that ricochets between the leaders of the Destiny community (and why wouldn’t you?) you may have heard that we invited some of them to visit our studio. Later on this month, we’re hosting a Community Summit, right here at Bungie. Now that our guests have had a chance to break the story, we want to let you know what this moment means to us.

DeeJ: Our goals for this gathering are to get people from the community more involved in the way we make games, and to do that sooner in the creative process. We’ll be previewing some of the things we’re working on to gather feedback before they’re locked. Our guests will also play some things that you’ll get your hands on in the coming weeks. We’ve hosted community ambassadors before to see and capture new content, but this ain’t DRE (the Destiny Reveal Event). This gathering is more intimate and more tactical.

It must be said that it would be absolutely impossible to invite every single person in our community who is insightful or influential. The guest list is not a measure of who is important or who is relevant. For this gathering, we tried to select a good cross-section to represent all kinds of Guardians. Some of them are familiar faces. Others are new voices that we want to know better. Some of them are leaders with large constituencies. Others are solo players we have come to know with strong opinions. We’ve targeted the hardcore elite who have mastered every challenge and the average players with a deep love for the game. We’ve invited cooperative raiders, competitive warriors, lore lovers, and a high-school principal to make sure they all get along.

This is a new step we’re taking to be more collaborative, more transparent, and a little less worried about keeping secrets. This is not the first time we’ve welcomed players to see where we work and meet the people who make our games. It won’t be the last.

We’ll Do it Live

With Update 1.1.4 safely landed, Destiny Player Support has been on watch to identify trending issues reported by the community. Here’s a roundup of what’s surfaced in the last week and a half:

1.1.4 Known Issues

• At the release of Destiny Update 1.1.4, we encountered reports from players stating that Mercury Challenges were not appearing properly when players were loading into the destination. We are continuing to investigate these reports, but some players have noted that Challenges began to appear after the daily reset.
• Similar to Destiny Update 1.1.3, we also encountered reports that modifiers were not appearing correctly for Heroic Mercury adventures. This seems to have been resolved after the daily reset as well, but we are still investigating the root cause of this issue.
• We are monitoring player reports of an issue impacting some players where the Emissary does not grant a reward package upon winning games in Trials of the Nine. Please post in #Help if you experience this issue, as we are attempting to identify more accounts that have entered this state for investigation purposes.

Hotfix 1.1.4.1: Maintenance and Downtime

On Tuesday, April 10, Destiny 2 Hotfix 1.1.4.1 will be deployed to address Tower and Raid blackscreen issues. Additionally, Rumble player count will be reduced to 6 total players.

• 9 AM PDT (1600 UTC)
• • Destiny 2 server maintenance is scheduled to begin
  • Players may no longer sign in to Destiny 2 services
• 10 AM PDT (1700 UTC)
• • Players still in Destiny 2 activities will be returned to the title screen
• 11 AM PDT (1800 UTC)
• • Destiny 2 server maintenance is scheduled to conclude
  • Destiny 2 Hotfix 1.1.4.1 will be available to download and install
  • Iron Banner will begin as soon as maintenance concludes

If you encounter any issues once the maintenance period has completed, please post a report to the #Help forum detailing your experience.

The Perfect Shot(s)

This week, we’re putting the spotlight on someone who’s taken it upon themselves to not only apply a massive handicap during a Prestige Nightfall, but also opted to take the whole thing on by themselves. If you’ve been wondering “how does the Arcstrider feel after Update 1.1.4?” – tune in to find out:

Winner: Solo Brakion

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Honorable Mention: Boop

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Honorable Mention: Hellfire

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Next week, we’ll be updating the Developer Roadmap to address some of the topics discussed during the bounty stream. Our forecast will be extended into the summer (and beyond) to give an idea of what is to be expected as we continue to evolve the Destiny 2 experience.

Before we go, a quick shout out to the top-scoring players from last week’s Nightfall. We’re watching the scores climb higher and higher while players hit Lost Sectors during their activity – but this strategy will only last until 1.2.0. Ge those points while they’re hot!

As always, thanks for playing, and we’ll see you next week.

Cheers,

-Dmg04

This week at Bungie, we deployed Update 1.1.4.

If you haven’t heard, Destiny 2 just got a pretty substantial update. There are changes to your abilities, your weapons, gameplay in the Crucible, rewards in the Nightfall, and more. To give us a taste of the human element behind game development, Design Lead Josh Hamrick sat down in front of a camera to represent the team that worked on this new update.

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Want to see these changes in action? We also put out a video showing off the hero moments you can expect in the new state of Destiny 2.

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Drang-o Unchained

With 1.1.4 out the door, we now turn our attention to 1.2.0.

Jon: Hello everyone. I’m dropping by for another tease of the Exotic Weapon tuning work being done for 1.2.0. Today we’re going to talk about Sturm & Drang.
For those who don’t know the core loop of Sturm and Drang, kills with one weapon reload the other while it’s stowed. Consecutive kills with Drang will overload rounds into Sturm, capping out at a 20 round mag for a Hand Cannon. Currently, the gameplay is focused on fast swapping, and while fun, this lacks that exotic flare we’re hoping to add. Sturm is also a bit unwieldy to use, so we’re addressing that, too.

As standalone weapons, both Sturm and Drang have had their base stats improved for ease of gameplay. Drang now has Rampage and a maxed out magazine to help rack up sidearm kills quickly. The true payoff comes in the overloaded Sturm magazine: overflow rounds in Sturm now have a damage boost of 1.8x. This allows for a significant damage increase in PVE and crispy precision 2-taps in PVP (just don’t miss).

Now that we’ve told you how these guns are changing let’s show you how they’re behaving with the current changes applied.

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We’ll talk more about the changes to Exotic weapons in the weeks to come. All of these upgrades to weapon performance will land in the inventory of players when Season 3 begins. We’ll have a lot more to talk about before then.

Companion Update

As the game changes, so does its Companion. The Bungie.net team is working on some upgrades to both the website and mobile apps. These changes will deploy next week. 

Bungie.net Team: The companion has a new update coming on 4/4, and we’re excited to share some of the details with you.  The team is working on bringing back one of our more frequently requested features from the original Destiny companion — viewing your full 3D guardian in all their glory and sharing their awesomeness with your friends. Here is what you can expect when this releases:

We expect that this version will replace the existing Find Fireteam feature in the near future, but both will be available when the beta releases.  We’re anxious to have you all try the revised version, then head over to the feedback forums and let us know what you think!  While the beta is missing a few important things (an Android version, chat, and locale support), we will be adding to this beta over time, and your feedback is key to making sure is the best it can be.

And last, but certainly not least, the team has made some quality of life improvements to the website and mobile applications:

Long Live the King

New Monarchy cannot be stopped. They claimed their fourth Faction Rallies victory in a row this week. We’re starting to wonder if anyone can challenge the dominance of their growing dynasty. Here are the results of the final Faction Rallies of Season 2:

Most Dangerous Game

With a new state of combat live in the Crucible, you’re invited to hunt us down and beat us at our own game. Next week, we are putting a target on our back. We’ve decided to fire up the stream machine and conduct a Bungie Bounty on PC. Here are the full details:

4/4/18 10 AM – 12 PM Pacific

Platform: PC

Playlist: Mayhem

That’s right, we are going to let the Supers fly and chaos reign as Mayhem will be the gametype. Here is the fireteam of brave Bungie volunteers you will be hunting for.

TTLCozmo

Dmg04

Teribble

Liqvid

If you are able to match against us and win the game, you will be rewarded with this special emblem. 

Alpha Dogs

Even with the current methods available to run up the scores, most of the community is putting up scores within our expected thresholds, well below the outliers at the top. Only the top 1% are breaking 100K each week. We will continue to track these scores and evaluate if we should change up the thresholds for earning the emblems.  

This is Bat Country

The members of Destiny Player Support are the watchful protectors always working diligently behind the scenes. They are making sure you have the info you need to have the best Destiny 2 experience.

This is their report.

BAT Errors

At the release of Destiny Update 1.1.4, we began to receive reports that players were encountering BAT errors after completing matches. When encountering these errors, players would be returned to orbit and have to manually enter Strike or Crucible matchmaking to continue playing.

We have identified that this was caused by the Strike and Crucible Repeat Repetition feature introduced with 1.1.4, and have since disabled the feature. While players should no longer expect to encounter BAT errors, they will now encounter repeat Strike activities or Crucible maps when playing these activities.

We are currently investigating the issue to see if we can address the root cause of these errors, and potentially re-enable the repeat reduction features. 

Issue Progress: Tower Black Screen

Since launch, we have been investigating an issue where players could encounter an indefinite black screen when attempting to load into the tower. This week, we have discovered the root cause, and are aiming to address the issue in Destiny Update 1.2.0. Until resolved, players may have to enter alternate activities from the Director and attempt to re-launch the tower if they encounter a black screen error.

Cream of the Crop

Movie of the Week: 2 Man Calus 1 Phase

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Honorable Mention: Street Fighting Man

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Strikes

Other

Sandbox

Weapons

Abilities

Mods

Crucible

Crucible Power Ammo Crates

This week at Bungie, we’re watching the final Faction Rallies for Season 2 unfold.

Future War Cult has mobilized their faction in full force, in an effort to earn their first win since Destiny 2 introduced this ritual to the Tower. Their fingers are crossed, but the followers of New Monarchy could still pull off their fourth victory in a row.

Remember, this will be the last chance for players to earn Season 2 emblems and armor ornaments from their favorite faction leaders. You have through Tuesday, March 27, to add these to your inventory.

Distinctive

Update 1.1.3 introduced Nightfall Scoring and Challenge Cards to change the player experience. Update 1.1.4 brings unique rewards to sweeten each Nightfall Strike. Let’s take a look back to a quote published in February, covering the overall goal for Nightfall activities:

Barrett: Nightfall should be a challenging test that only the bravest Guardians dare face. Fireteams of any size should be able to participate, from organized clan groups to skilled solo players. Players should be able to determine their own challenge level, by going slow and steady or fast and wild, with elective modifiers to test the most hardcore veterans. Your final score will separate the best from the rest, and with high risk comes high reward. Each terrible villain that players face should have a very rare and powerful unique item, themed to them, that tumbles to the ground as they collapse into a pile of bones. Conquering Nightfall should be a badge of honor, with the best players able to show off their achievements with new dynamic emblems and exclusive auras.

One question in particular has been trending throughout the community since the “Nightfall Unique Rewards” bullet was featured on the roadmap: How do I earn these rewards?

These rewards have a chance to drop when you complete a Nightfall activity at any difficulty. You can increase your chances using Challenge Card modifiers to set higher personal best scores. Earning these items may take many attempts to receive a drop, as they are meant to be rare rewards.

Last week, we gathered feedback on how the community would like to discover these rewards – either through a quick tease here on the blog, or from those among you who wish to be the first to show off their newly found loot. We’ll be watching legends unfold as these rewards are earned by players, and hope many among you enjoy discovering these items via gameplay without being spoiled.

Competitive Housekeeping

Crucible isn’t just getting updates to game modes to speed up gameplay. Starting in Destiny Update 1.1.4, the Competitive Playlists will also feature a quitter penalty. Per the dev team:

Because the Competitive playlist disables Join-In-Progress, leaving matches early (for any reason) can ruin people’s games. Starting in 1.1.4, we are adding a system that can issue temporary restrictions, 30 minutes in length, for habitual quitters.  

On our side, we’re also increasing security measures to improve the Crucible environment as a whole.

Our security team informed us that they also have some changes going into Update 1.1.4. Because security is a pretty hush-hush subject, we can’t go into the details of what is changing. If cheaters know how our detection works, they can use that info to avoid it.

Our work isn’t done, we also have plans for more updates to security in the upcoming 1.2.0 update as well.

One (dot) One (dot) Four

Patch notes have been collected, but we’re still applying some elbow grease to get everything in order. Here’s a quick sample of upcoming changes and fixes that you’ll see next Tuesday:

Stay tuned to Bungie.net on March 27 for a full list of patch notes associated with Update 1.1.4.

Air Traffic Controllers

Update 1.1.4 is on approach. Please return your seat backs to their full upright position. Cabin lights are about to go dark, but Destiny Player Support will keep you up to speed until we’ve landed.

Maintenance and Downtime: Tuesday, March 27, 2018

Destiny 2 services will be brought offline for maintenance. Update 1.1.4 will also become available upon maintenance completion. Please see below for the timeline of the maintenance window.

Lights, Camera… Carnage?

 

Sometimes, it takes weeks to get the perfect shot. Waiting for the stars to align can feel like an eternity, but some have found they come together a bit more often than expected. 

Winner: Leave None Standing

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Runner up: Getting Lost

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Runner up: Brought a knife to a Boss fight

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Speaking with the Sandbox team, Update 1.1.4 had a few potential names thrown around in development. One team member in particular campaigned for it to be called the “Supercharged” update. To keep communications clear and set expectations about how all of the changes would feel together, it was ultimately decided that 1.1.4 would forever be referred to as the “Go Fast” update. From my time in playtests, I can really feel the name. The most important piece of this puzzle is how you, the player, will feel once it’s in your hands.

We’re excited to see what new loadouts will be used in PvE – potentially to rack up even higher scores in the Nightfall. Speaking of which, here are the top three fireteams from last week’s Nightfall, “A Garden World”:

Have to admit, it’s always exiting to watch players crunch damage numbers when the sandbox evolves. Exotic weapons are up next in May, with some interesting changes for us to dive in to. More to come, once 1.1.4 has landed. See you next week.

Cheers,

-Dmg04

Game Director Christopher Barrett:

In less than two weeks, Update 1.1.4 will be available to install, bringing many quality of life changes to Destiny 2. Late in development, our team discovered a major issue impacting Heroic Strike Modifiers. Changing the design to fix the issue meant pushing Heroic Modifiers out to 1.2.0, but we will be able to use the extra time to add more variety than was in the original plan.

Starting March 27, the Weekly Crucible Playlist will become available to all. This playlist will contain Rumble, Mayhem, and 6v6 Iron Banner to start. Here’s a calendar for when you can expect these game modes to appear through the week of May 1:

<3 Chris

This week at Bungie, we are welcoming back faction leaders to rally your support.

The factions are coming back next week to duke it out again. New Monarchy has lived up to its name, dominating the last three events in a row. Dead Orbit looks to return to glory, and Future War Cult is desperate to get its first win on the board. Next week, all three factions will have their shot. Faction Rallies kicks off at 10 AM PDT on Tuesday, March 20.

Pride isn’t the only thing on the line. New weaponry is now available. Here is what’s been added to the packages reward pool:

Those are not the only new weapons up for grabs. Whichever faction has the most redeemed packages at the end of the event will make their prized weapon available for purchase. Anyone who pledged to the winning faction will pick it up for 1,000 Glimmer. Those who were not loyal can still get it, but it’s going to run them a steep 50,000 Glimmer. Here are the offerings the factions have to entice you to join their cause:

Future War Cult Sniper Rifle

New Monarchy Grenade Launcher

Dead Orbit Sniper Rifle

Their fates are in your hands. Choose wisely. 

Faction Vacation

This will be your last chance at earning the ornaments for Season 2, so if you are missing anything, you’ll want to make sure you grab it before victory week ends on April 3rd. If you are missing any emblems, you will need to pledge to the faction you are missing before March 27. After that, Faction Rallies will be taking some time off while we work to make the event even better. We spoke with the Seasons team about their goals for the upcoming Faction Rallies improvements, planned for Season 3. 

Seasons Team: We have been reviewing player feedback on Faction Rallies and are planning to make some fundamental changes to the event. Here are a few of the overall goals we are trying to achieve: 

• Pledging to a faction should be a meaningful choice.
• Rewards should not be time-gated.
• Faction Rallies should provide a unique gameplay experience and not simply be a reward layer on top of the existing game.
• The event should grant additional insight into faction lore and goals.
• It should build upon player interest in Lost Sectors and armor ornament objectives.

I know, you want the juicy details on how we are going to accomplish these goals. As we get further along in development, we will share more with you on how this event will evolve in the future.

What Does “High Score” Mean?

Every week, we plan on showing you the three highest-scoring fireteams from the previous Nightfall. Last week, there were some monster scores on “The Pyramidion.” If you are wondering how these Guardians were posting such astronomical numbers, some of the hardcore players in the community discovered a creative method of juicing their scores in Lost Sectors. We’re looking at a fix in 1.2.0, but until then, we’ll see who can be the most efficient at running up the score with these methods. Game on!

Helpful Companions

There is a team that serves as the watchful Guardians of the #Help forum. You know them as Destiny Player Support. 

This is their report.

Destiny 2 Companion App

Since the Destiny 2 Companion App update became available last week, players have been reporting difficulties in applying shaders, spawn effects, modifications, perks, or Masterworks to gear.

Through investigation, we have found that players who disable notifications on the Companion App are unable to confirm the application of their desired changes. If you are encountering this issue, enable notifications to resolve this issue.

Nightfall Emblem Variants

As of Destiny 2 Update 1.1.3, each strike offers a unique emblem that can be earned when the strike is featured as a Nightfall activity. Additionally, each emblem has multiple emblem variants that may be unlocked when players reach specific Nightfall strike par scores.

We’ve been witnessing some confusion in the #Help forum from players asking why they did not receive an emblem variant on their first Nightfall completion, even when they were meeting a par score. There’s a chance for emblem variants to be awarded to players upon Nightfall activity completion when they meet par score requirements, and it may take multiple Nightfall completions to earn. Additionally, emblem variants can be earned on either Normal or Prestige difficulty, but some par scores may be achievable only on Prestige difficulty.

The Shape of Destiny

Let’s get to the movies.

Movie of the Week: DRUMS!

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Honorable Mention: “Borealis? At this time of year?”

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Honorable Mention: Saved!

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Speaking of 1.1.4, we’ll be back next week with some more info on the update you will be playing in less than two weeks! We’ll also show off the new Nightfall Unique Rewards.

<3 Cozmo

This week at Bungie, Lord Saladin returned to host the final 4v4 Iron Banner. New weapons are directly available from Saladin’s stock, or can be earned through Iron Engrams. This isn’t your last chance to earn those Season 2 ornaments, as Iron Banner will return after Destiny Update 1.1.4 is released, featuring 6v6 gameplay.

Speaking of Update 1.1.4…

Gotta Go Fast

Last week, Cozmo asked you fine readers to set an agenda on what we’d talk about in this week’s article. The overwhelming response: Sandbox!

While we’re still in the process of finishing development on 1.1.4, Senior Crucible Designer Kevin Yanes and Design Lead Josh Hamrick are here to get a bit more granular with what’s coming on March 27.

Kevin: Hey everyone, Kevin here from the Crucible team. I’m dropping by to share the details on the rest of our changes heading into Update 1.1.4. As Derek mentioned in last week’s TWAB, Iron Banner, Rumble, and Mayhem are making their triumphant returns to Destiny 2 with a few twists. Iron Banner has become 6v6, Mayhem features 90% fewer nova bombs (fixed this issue found during the Dawning), and Rumble has welcomed two additional players into the fray. There is a lot to get excited about in Update 1.1.4 but something the team really wanted to do was go back and refine the core experience. 

Looking at the feedback, it was clear that the community felt there were two key areas for improvement with the Crucible: “Time to Kill” and “Team Shotting”. So we set our sights on re-working systems, mechanics, and values to tackle those two areas.

“Does this mean you’re changing the Time to Kill?” 

When we looked at the core feedback on “Time to Kill” in the Crucible, we saw that it mostly stemmed from a lack of excitement or spikes of intensity you all came to expect from a Destiny experience. This came in the form of feedback that stated the game was too slow, or the core loop was too stale. We agree, and have worked with Sandbox to increase the pace of the Crucible as a whole. Josh is going to speak to all of the Sandbox changes here in a bit, and I won’t steal his thunder. So alongside all of the great changes the Sandbox team has made, we’re setting our sights on making the Crucible a faster, more dynamic, and more action-packed experience on the activity side.

Let’s get down to brass tacks on how we’re planning to change the Crucible and the delivery of the goal stated above. Here is an overview of the changes we’re bringing in 1.1.4: 

• Respawn and Revive were tuned in all game modes
• • Player respawn timers for all Quickplay modes have been reduced to 2s.
  • Player respawn timers for Survival have been reduced to 7s
  • Revive lockout time in Countdown has been reduced to 7s
  • Players no longer lose Revive Tokens on death
• Power Ammo respawn timers were adjusted across the board
• • Power Ammo respawn timers in Iron Banner have been reduced ~50%
  • Power Ammo respawn timers for all Quickplay modes have been reduced ~30%.
  • Power Ammo respawn timers in Survival have been reduced ~40%.
  • Power Ammo respawn timers in Countdown have been reduced ~25%
• Ammo counts have been adjusted in relation to these timers, and in relation to weapon type.
• • In almost all cases weapons either retained the same ammo count or received a buff. Swords and rockets were brought down to stay in line with the rest of the weapon offering.
• Enemy players now drop their Power Ammo on death.
• • This brick is now networked to all players regardless of faction. Secure the power ammo to keep it from your foes or steal off your enemy’s ghost, but be quick because these bricks don’t stay in the world forever.

All these changes coalesce to create an experience that relies less on clumping with your team and focuses more on rewarding quick reflexes, thinking, and movement. 

“But what about Competitive?”

During development of 1.1.4, we realized that while we’d reduced the “Team Shotting” in Quickplay and Iron Banner effectively, we hadn’t quite done the same to Competitive. Knowing this, we looked for a change that reinforced the following goals: reduce team clumping, reward individual plays, and incentivize flanks. With those goals in mind we looked to take a big step in shifting the gameplay in Competitive and Trials: starting in 1.1.4 we’ve opted to remove the Tracker from all Competitive and Trials game modes. 

This means more communication is required to secure victories in Competitive and Trials matches. It also means that a crispy flank with Power Ammo is all the more powerful. Subverting expectations and reading opponents is more potent in matches with no Tracker. In playtests we’ve already seen some clutch underdog comebacks and we can’t wait to see what you all do in Competitive and Trials starting with 1.1.4. That said, we’re always listening and reacting to feedback so please tell us what you think about this change and all of our 1.1.4 changes once they go live. 

Thank you so much for your time in reading and playing. We’re proud and excited of the work we’ve done on 1.1.4 and look forward to meeting you on the battlefield. Next up Hamslamrick with some Sandbox goodies. 

Hamrick: Hello friends! As I mentioned last time, our goal for this update is to provide individual players with more hero moments by increasing overall speed and mobility, increasing the number of supers you charge to demolish your enemies, and increasing the frequency and impact of our most montage worthy power weapons, especially in the Crucible. With Update 1.1.4 drawing ever closer, it feels like a good time to swing back by and provide some updates and additional clarity to what this patch will bring. 

The first thing you should know: we are VERY excited for this update to go live. After weeks of solid play-testing, some with external participants, we feel like this is really shaping up to be an update you will be happy with. Huge shout out to everyone involved that helped the list of possible changes grow instead of shrink. Also, to those who play-tested and gave us quality actionable feedback.

Now, here’s an updated version of the list of changes first detailed in the February 1 TWAB. New and/or updated entries are highlighted in bold:

• All three glides plus Catapult and Strafe Lift have been retuned and buffed to make them faster and more unique.
• The mobility stat range has been expanded and completely retuned as well. In short, everyone gets faster and the high end is higher.
• The players’ ground speed cap has been increased, allowing for faster total movement speed, regardless of how you may get there.
• Arcstrider, Sentinel, and Striker all move faster, and at the same speed as one another, while in their Supers.
• Arcstrider, as a whole, is performing well in PvP but mostly due to its neutral game perks. We’ve made the following changes in an effort to get the Super to be a more competitive option:
• • Faster Attack Animations.
  • Faster Dodge Animations.
  • Increased range of all attacks.
• The previous Shoulder Charge changes are being reverted, allowing Shoulder Charge to be used as a movement mode once again.
• Dawnblade has been improved:
  
• • Reduced cost for throwing swords, allowing for one additional throw
  • Increased super duration extension gained from “Everlasting Fire”
  • Removed all in-air accuracy penalties while “Swift Strike” is active
  • Reduced the Icarus Dash cooldown
  • Increased the Grenade and Melee energy “Heat Rises” gives you per kill
• Invisibility on Dodge / Smoke Updates:
  
• • Invisibility on Dodge no longer breaks Aim Assist or Projectile Tracking in PvP (unchanged in PvE)
  • Dodging still breaks both Aim Assist and Projectile Tracking, but only for the duration of the actual dodge
  • Increased the duration of Invisibility on Dodge by 1 second
  • Increased the duration of Smoke Bomb Invisibility by 1 second
• Supers recharge faster for everyone!
  
• • Supers now recharge 1:40 faster, a cooldown reduction of 25%.
    
• Mods that reduce Grenade, Melee and Class Ability cooldowns have been buffed to allow for up to 2x faster cooldowns.
• • This is NOT replacing Mods 2.0, which was recently delayed. More information is available below.

We’ve buffed several weapon archetypes (including, but not limited to, Hand Cannons, Pulse Rifles, Sniper Rifles, and Shotguns) and a few specific perks, as well. A key goal here is to make Shotguns, Snipers, and Fusion rifles more prevalent in the game.

• Pulse Rifles
  
• • Increased PvE damage for all pulses
    
  • Increased rate of fire for adaptive and high-impact pulses
    
  • Increased base damage for adaptive, high-impact, and rapid-fire Pulses
    
  • Increased precision multiplier for lightweight pulses
    
  • Decreased precision multiplier for adaptive pulses
    
  • This keeps precision damage close to where it is now, putting most of the buff into body shots, though it is still an increase in precision damage overall.
• Scout Rifles
  
• • Increased PvE damage for all scouts
  • Increased base damage for High-Impact Scouts
• Hand Cannon
  
• • Increased PvE damage for all Hand Cannons
  • Increased precision multiplier for precision hand cannons
    
  • Increased hip fire accuracy on consoles
    
  • Increased ADS accuracy on consoles
• Sidearms
  
• • Increased PvE damage for all sidearms
    
  • Increased hip fire accuracy
    
  • Increased ADS accuracy
    
  • Increased inventory size (allowing more reserve ammo to be stored)
    
  • Increased minimum range
    
  • Added an ADS movement bonus
• SMG
  
• • Increased PvE damage for all SMG’s
    
  • Set Optics to 1.3x
    
  • Increased inventory size (allowing more reserve ammo to be stored)
• Linear Fusion Rifle
  
• • Increased PvE damage for all linear fusions
    
  • Increased precision multiplier
    
  • Increased aim assist
    
  • Reduced flinch multiplier
• Shotgun
  
• • Increased PvE damage for all shotguns
    
  • Increased inventory size (allowing more reserve ammo to be stored)
    
  • Increased aim assist for Suros precision shotguns
• Sniper Rifle
  
• • Increased PvE damage for all snipers
    
  • Increased precision multiplier
    
  • Increased aim assist
    
  • Increased inventory size (allowing more reserve ammo to be stored)
• Grenade Launcher
  
• • Increased blast radius
• Assault Rifles
  
• • Decreased range and aim assist stats for precision autos (Uriel’s Gift). Base damage is not changed.

A few weapon perks are also getting some updates:

• High Impact Reserves
  
• • Increased PvE damage
• Kill Clip
  
• • Increased PvE damage
• Rampage
  
• • Increased PvE damage
  • Increased duration
• Dragonfly
• • Increased damage
  • Increased radius
  • Stronger visual effects
• Grave Robber 
  
• • Reloads .5 magazine instead of .3
• Timed Payload
  
• • Splits damage 55 Explosive / 45 Direct instead of previous split which was more direct damage
• Explosive Rounds
• • Decreased PvE Explosive Rounds damage
  • This decrease has been compensated for with an increase in PvE damage for the base weapons – your weapons with explosive rounds will not do less damage after 1.1.4

Just like last time, we have a few additional notes to wrap things up.

Mods Rework

First, let’s talk about the changes to the potency of Ability Cooldown Mods. In our last update, we mentioned that we were going to wait and buff ability cooldowns at the same time we dropped the mods rework. Over the last few weeks it has become obvious that the mod rework was going to need more time to come together due to the scope of the changes. That decision, which has already been accounted for in the last Roadmap that you saw, is ultimately going to be a win for all of us. It gives us more time to deliver something we believe will add value to the game. However, we understood we should not delay the much-needed improvements to ability cooldowns. So, while there are many, many improvements to mods planned for the future, we are going to greatly increase the output for Ability Cooldown Mods in Update 1.1.4.

Invisibility

Nightstalkers, the day of reckoning is soon upon us. Our invisible exploits may have barely been seen, but they have most certainly been felt. In 1.1.4 our ability to ninja-smoke out to avoid any and all incoming fire (and/or lightning) is going to be reduced down to pure skill alone… not that we’d ever admit to it being anything but. As one of only two items deemed nerf-worthy on the entire list of incoming Sandbox changes, we as Hunters shall deal with this as we deal with everything: we’ll take it as a compliment and solid proof of our endless supply of talent, and we’ll never, ever let the ‘Locks and Titans hear the end of it.

• Currently:
• • Initiate Dodge or Throw Smoke
  • • Dodging temporarily kills Aim Assist and Projectile Tracking (allowing you to actually Dodge things)
    • Smoke just immediately jumps to…
  • Initiate Invisibility
  • • For the duration of Invisibility Aim Assist and Projectile Tracking remain disabled.
  • Dodge Finishes
  • Invisibility Expires
  • • Aim Assist and Tracking are re-enabled

• Coming Soon in 1.1.4 (PvP Only!):
• • Initiate Dodge or Throw Smoke
  • • Dodging temporarily kills Aim Assist and Projectile Tracking (allowing you to actually Dodge things)
    • Smoke just immediately jumps to…
  • Initiate Invisibility
  • Dodge Finishes
  • • Aim Assist and Tracking are re-enabled
  • Invisibility Expires

Note: Nothing changes for PvE except that they also get the one-second duration increase to Invisibility.

Snipers

In the last update I mentioned how a nasty bug has crept into our scopes and made it near-impossible for us to correctly tune Sniper Flinch. We have good news! That fix has been implemented and those changes will go live in the 1.2.0 update, planned for May. Sweet, sweet sniper action is on the way. 

This is not the end…

While we are very excited to get this update into your hands, and we believe you’re really going to enjoy the changes, we all know these aren’t the only changes we’ll need to make to address feedback. It’s just the first leg of a long journey. 

We hope this makes the game more fun for you all, that it begins to bring back hero moments, and makes you feel a bit more like tiny gods, but we also hope you know there is more to come and that this gets you excited to come along for the ride.

On that note, below you will find a video pulled from a 1.2.0 playtests that has all the 1.1.4 Sniper changes AND the new Sniper Flinch fixes in and working.

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See you all again soon,

<3 Hamrick

Companions to us all

As Destiny 2 continues to evolve, the Bungie.net team is also hard at work processing feedback and bringing updates to the Companion experience. Today, Associate UX Designer Joey Carpenter is here to walk us through some changes that were deployed to the Companion App earlier this week.

Joey: On Wednesday, we released a utility update to the Destiny Companion App. Now you can modify the shaders, effects, mods, perks, and Masterworks of the items in your inventory on the go. All you need to do is fire up your  companion app and open up the detail view of the item you want to modify.

Find the slot for the mod, perk, shader, effect, or Masterwork on your item and tap what you want to replace it with. If a change you want to perform will cost you something, the cost of the action and how much you currently have to spend will be listed for you. 

This update in particular is exciting as the foundation for this work can eventually be leveraged for other advanced actions on your character and gear. Ever wanted to clear out the cruft that’s built up in your inventory a bit faster? Us, too. Vendor purchasing on the go? Or perhaps it’s time for clearing all of the rare items from your inventory that have accumulated throughout your play session? These are all possible scenarios that we’re considering for future, to make the most of the same system we built. This work also gives us the opportunity to enable third-party developers to take advantage of this functionality, while providing a secure environment where these actions require your explicit approval. We have a bit of work to do before that’s possible, but we’ll keep you informed as we solidify future updates for the API, Bungie.net, and companion app.

As a heads up, this update is currently available on Android. iOS is in the process of being released, but we’ll let you know as soon as it’s available.

Now is prime time to head over to our mobile feedback forums to sound off on what cool new write actions you’d like to see in the future.

In the Know

Recently, we added two new members to Destiny Player Support. You may have encountered them in the #Help forum, troubleshooting issues or sharing Help articles. If you’re having difficulties when attempting to play Destiny 2, they’re at the ready to lend a hand. 

This is their report.

EDZ Destination Emblem

Last week, we noted that players may accrue 38 Ghost scannables on the EDZ Destination Emblem. Through investigation, we have identified that Ghost scannables found at the Farm do not contribute to these emblem statistics. The issue has been escalated to the appropriate team for further investigation.

WiFi: Convenience vs. Stability

While Destiny can be played with a strong and stable WiFi connection, many players have found that using WiFi can increase the likelihood that they will lose their connection to Destiny Services.

Sources of interference for WiFi connections

WiFi is susceptible to a variety of different sources of interference.

• The process of sending data wirelessly takes time and increases latency. This may increase the total latency of a player’s network to the point where they encounter latency, packet loss, or error code disconnects from Destiny.
• WiFi connections use one of several frequencies called channels to transmit data. If more than one WiFi network is trying to use the same channel it can create congestion that slows down network traffic. It can even cause data to be lost or the connection to be interrupted.
• If multiple devices are connected to the same wireless network and attempting to reach the internet at the same time they can interfere with each other.
• The distance and layout of a player’s console from their WiFi source can also negatively impact signal strength and stability.
• Some home appliances and consumer electronics, such as microwave ovens, can directly interfere with a network’s WiFi signal.

If you only have WiFi available for online gameplay, visit this page of the Network Troubleshooting Guide for tips on how to strengthen your connection: Network Setup

Shiny and Chrome

Whether you run solo or with a fireteam, the Creations page is open to all who wish to submit moments of greatness. We’re constantly on the lookout for footage that inspires, and this week, we’ve witnessed some stellar gameplay in both PvE and PvP. Give ‘em a watch, maybe you’ll be inspired to take on a Raid boss solo.

Movie of the Week: Solo Argos (Phase 1)

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Honorable Mention: Afterlife

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Cheers to this week’s winners. If you’d like a chance to receive the Lens of Fate Emblem, make sure to tag your submission with #MOTW.

Since Tuesday, we’ve had quite a few players asking about the top Nightfall scores recorded for the Tree of Probabilities Strike. We’ll be highlighting top fireteams each week. As a note: we’re aware of an issue where Lost Sectors are currently contributing points to the Nightfall scorecard, which we are aiming to resolve by Update 1.2.0. Until resolved, you may find the top scores to be… huge!

While the Lost Sector strategy will live until May, we are actively collecting data on scores from percentiles of the player base. Score pars for emblem variants are still at 20, 40, 60, and 80k points, but expect these to be adjusted in the future. High scores achieved through creative use of Lost Sectors will not be factored in when setting these new score pars. We’ll keep you informed through @Bungie on Twitter for what to expect!

Thanks for stopping by, and we’ll see you online.

Cheers,

-dmg04

This week at Bungie, we witnessed New Monarchy continue their dynasty. 

New Monarchy is celebrating in the Tower this week. They won their third Faction Rallies event in a row—the three-peat is real. Future War Cult remains winless, but they did narrowly edge out Dead Orbit for the second place slot.

Future War Cult will get another shot at getting their first win when the factions return to the Tower to compete again. Will Dead Orbit return to glory? Or will New Monarchy continue their dominance with a fourth straight win? 

You will decide. 

Fe Banner

After the faction leaders pack up to leave the Tower, Saladin will be passing them in the Hanger as he makes his return. It’s time to relight the burning shield and prepare to battle your fellow Guardians.

Begins: Tuesday, March 6

Ends: Tuesday, March 13

The game is Clash!

Lord Saladin will have three featured weapons available for you to obtain directly from him. Here are his offerings: 

If you weren’t able to finish off the challenges required to unlock all of your ornaments during the last event, your progress will carry over. So start punching everyone you see to earn that chest ornament! 

Changes are coming to Iron Banner and the Crucible. We’ll give you more specifics very soon…

The Aforementioned Future Crucible Plans

…Very soon, as in this section. The Crucible team has been working hard on a few updates to Guardian vs. Guardian action that the team plans to deliver in Update 1.1.4. We invited PvP Design Lead Derek Carroll to drop some knowledge on what they have in store for us. 

Derek: The PvP team has been on fire these past few weeks, filling Update 1.1.4 with as much awesomeness as we can. Our beloved Test team is right there with us in the labs as we put the new content through its paces.

Some highlights:

Iron Banner will channel that old-school Crucible in the style of the Iron Lords. We’ve made a number of tweaks to the gameplay besides increasing team sizes to 6v6:

• Match time limit is 12 minutes 
• Score limit is 125 points
• Respawn time is 7 seconds
• All control zones start off neutral
• Control zones take slightly longer to capture by default
• Additional Guardians (max of 3) in a zone increases capture speed
• Guardians participating in a capture get more Super energy

Rumble will make its triumphant return, with no excuses, no complications, and absolutely no points for “assists”. You get a single point when you get a kill, just like in the golden age of video games. Oh, and this time, we increased the player count to eight.

Mayhem is still Mayhem.

These three modes will share a central location on the Crucible Director page, and rotate weekly to keep things fresh.  This Weekly Featured playlist will be home to gametypes that don’t necessarily fit into the existing Quickplay or Competitive playlists.

The Mode Formerly Known as “Doubles” is in its chrysalis, making a slow transition from what you played during Crimson Days to become a beautiful butterfly.  We love the way it played in Crimson Days, but felt like we could take it further and give it more polish and flexibility.  Once we lock that down, we’ll release it into the Weekly Featured rotating playlist with the other fun stuff. For now, we are unsure of a release date, but we’ll add it the Road Map when we are more certain of when it will land.

There are, of course, other cool features coming in 1.1.4 that will make everyone’s lives better (unless they’re habitual quitters), and we’ll be sure to talk more about them as launch day approaches. 

Dev Team: Nightfall emblem variants have a chance to drop from Nightfall completions. It’s not related to challenges, and it’s not a guaranteed drop. For each variant, the chance increases from 0% to as high as 50% at specific score thresholds per variant. Currently, those thresholds are as follows:

Tier 1: 20k

Tier 2: 40k

Tier 3: 60k

Tier 4: 80k

Dev Team: We’re planning to adjust the score thresholds as we come to better understand what the community considers an impressive high score, and we don’t currently have a great way to display dynamic settings like that. Every week that a Nightfall returns, we may increase the Aura threshold based on community high scores from the previous week that Nightfall was active. We’ll do that based on some percentile of the community, potentially the top 10%. The current 60k threshold is based on internal playtests—we expect the community to be better than us, so it should be expected that threshold will increase the next time “Tree of Probabilities” comes around.

Dev Team: The removal of the base modifiers from Nightfall is because we want to emphasize core combat in this initial release and let the community define the meta for a high-scoring Nightfall run. We can certainly revisit the modifiers in the future—they’re not dead and buried. Open to player feedback.

Note: We are currently investigating an issue where Heroic Mercury Adventure modifiers are not appearing for some players. This was not intentional, and we’ll update you on the status of the issue when we have more information.

John: Hello, I’m the Raids Test Lead for Destiny 2. I understand how frustrating it can be when players frequently encounter an issue in our raids. Nobody takes it more to heart than the Test team. Creating complex encounters that function as expected is the pinnacle of what the Raid team strives for in every release. 

Our Raid team is made up of team members from all disciplines, and when an issue can be identified and fixed by scripting (what we call a content fix), we can make that fix without pulling too many resources from what we want to share with players next. When an issue needs to be fixed by an engineer (what we call a code fix), a solution becomes much more difficult to find, as it touches all systems within Destiny 2—not just a specific activity.

The issue where players do not respawn in the “Leviathan” raid is a memory issue due to the size and complexity of the activity, and it will require a code fix. It is caused when a fireteam splits up across large distances while others remain back and swap out their gear. This has seemed to be occurring more often in recent weeks because we have updated our loot tables in order to make the “Leviathan” raid a more rewarding experience, with more incentives to return to. We are still investigating a code fix for the problem. 

In the meantime, you can avoid this issue by sticking together as a team while trying out your sweet new loot. We realize that this is not an acceptable fix, but we wanted to give you info on how you can try to mitigate the issue while we work on it. If you do happen to hit this issue even following those steps, then reequipping the armor set you had when you spawned into the activity may return your Guardian to action.

Known Knowns

New updates sometimes introduce new issues. Destiny Player Support is currently tracking a few that popped up after this week’s update.

This is their report.

Update 1.1.3 Known Issues

The following issues have been identified since the release of Destiny Update 1.1.3:

• Mercury Heroic Adventures
• • Modifiers are currently not available for some players on Mercury Heroic adventures. We are currently investigating this issue and targeting resolution in Destiny Update 1.1.4.
• Destination Emblem Statistics
• • The EDZ destination emblem currently only displays 38 of the 41 total Ghost scannables after they have been found.
  • Ghost Scannables Found statistics do not update until a player returns to orbit, or until a player unequips and reequips the emblem.
• Prestige Challenge Card Score Multipliers
• • We have identified an issue where score multipliers present on Challenge Cards do not update properly when players are selecting Singe modifiers. As we investigate this issue, players may work around this issue by toggling the Power Handicap up or down.

If you encounter any issues when playing Destiny 2, please post a report to the #Help forum detailing your experience.

Movie Magic

Do you like it better when dmg04 oversees Movie of the Week? Do I look like I care? Get back in there!

Moving on. If you aren’t familiar with how MOTW works, here is the gist of it. Every week, you can submit videos to the Creations page. We pick a few of our favorites, and the winners get an emblem. If you want to be one of said winners, submit your video. Make sure you list everyone who works on it in the description of the video, so we know who to send emblems to.

Now, without further ado, here are this week’s winners:

Movie of the Week: The Farm Piano Cover

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Honorable mention: Fat Stacks

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I don’t know about you, but I still have some challenges to complete in Iron Banner. I’ve been looking forward to Saladin’s return to unlock some of those sweet, sweet ornaments.

Time flies. It’s already March, and 1.1.4 will be deployed before the end of the month. We’ll be talking more about it soon. We’ll also keep you up to date on the roadmap and other upcoming changes further down the line. 

Apparently, I’ve been summoned to court next week. No, I’m not in any trouble. I have to do my civic duty as a juror. Point is, dmg04 will be writing your TWAB next week. Feel free to fill up his mentions with what you think he should write about.

See you in the Iron Banner. 

<3 Cozmo

Destiny Update 1.1.3 – The one about Nightfall Strike Scoring.

Nightfall Strike Scoring

Nightfall Challenge Cards

Emblem Variants

General

Course Correction

Teams are hard at work ensuring these upcoming features not only meet a proper quality bar, but also don’t endanger other aspects of the game with potential bugs or issues. We’ll keep you updated every step of the way to make sure you know when to expect items to be released.

Say My Name

Tyson: Emblems in Destiny have been positioned as a vanity collectible, with a few exceptional (and popular) emblems that reflect noteworthy achievements. In D2, we started to pivot emblems more towards the latter example by adding stat displays to some of them. Now, we want to go further in the direction of emblems as a means of exposing achievement.

First, we’re exposing more stats on emblems and making those emblems more available to players who want to display those stats. For example, the Crucible emblems that advertise wins or KDA can now be obtained directly from Shaxx after 10 Crucible rep packages (if you don’t get one earlier). We’re also deploying a new emblem that advertises your Crucible kills, which are broken down by class so you can see who find themselves in your crosshairs most often. 

Second, we’re collapsing auras into emblems and removing them as standalone items. This means that existing Raid, Trials, and new Nightfall Emblems will provide the existing aura effects to players, and future emblems can also roll out new effects. These auras are conditional—for example, you still have to go Flawless or do a Prestige Clear to activate them. Some of these auras will also come with fireteam bonuses, so when they see that aura over you, they know who is giving them that benefit.

Lastly, we’re introducing variants to some emblems. If an Emblem indicates high achievement and lots of players use it, we didn’t want that to mean that everyone looks the same. But we still want achievement emblems to be recognizable as such. Variants are being introduced to allow visible achievement without losing the recognizable identity of the emblem. Some variants are unlocked via conditions—the new Crucible Kills Emblem unlocks some fun “class foe” variations after you down a thousand Guardians of that class. Others are drops from sources like destination chests or Nightfalls, and some of these might be quite rare.

An example that ties this all together are the new Nightfall Emblems. Obtained by completing specific Nightfall Strikes, these emblems display your highest personal score in that Nightfall. In the future, we hope to display your clan’s highest score too. These emblems have several variants each, which drop from that specific Nightfall, but in some cases only above certain score thresholds (and we expect some to be quite rare.) And finally, these emblems enable the purple Nightfall Aura as well as a fireteam bonus to Vanguard Token drops, but only if your personal high score is above a par-score. That will start off at a value selected from internal playtests but we plan to adjust it based on your (the community’s) posted scores each time a Nightfall comes around.

This is the first round of this new direction; we hope to do more, and to learn from your response to it. Future releases may revisit or add new emblems for underserved achievements, or more variants for popular emblems.

Bug Stompers

This is their report.

Destiny Update 1.1.3 Maintenance and Downtime

Next week, Destiny 2 services will undergo maintenance in preparation for Destiny Update 1.1.3. Please see below for the timeline of maintenance windows.

Monday, February 26, 2018

Destiny services will undergo backend maintenance. No downtime is expected. Maintenance will begin at 10 AM PST (1800 UTC) and is expected to conclude at 12 PM PST (2000 UTC).

Tuesday, February 27, 2018

Destiny services will be brought offline for maintenance. Destiny Update 1.1.3 will also become available upon maintenance completion. Please see below for the timeline of the maintenance window.

Interlinked

Movie of the Week: First we dance, then we fight

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Honorable Mention: Crimson Days – Grenades and Fists Only

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Honorable Mention: Run from Acrius

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Cheers,

-dmg04