Category: Bungie News

Game Director Christopher Barrett:

Now that Warmind has officially launched, we’re ready to add some additional details to the upcoming roadmap. There are a lot of eagerly awaited updates that are scheduled to arrive in September, and we’ll tell you more about those in the coming months, including our plans for year two of Destiny 2. But this summer won’t just be spent playing the waiting game. We’ll be delivering the Prestige modes you’ve been waiting for, bringing back Bounties, providing quality of life fixes, and more. In addition, we’re launching a new seasonal event called ‘Solstice of Heroes’ where Guardians will celebrate their accomplishments and, of course, earn sweet new rewards.

Design Lead Derek Carroll:

Keep the Bungie Blog in your cross-hairs for more insights on all these developing features.

This week at Bungie, we launched Warmind.

Guardians are breaking new ground on Mars, meeting up with Ana Bray to investigate the mysteries of Rasputin. If you haven’t had a chance to dive in yet, we have a trailer to serve as your mission briefing.

[embedded content]

We’re not done yet. Another activity is going live tomorrow…

Spire of Stars

Your next raiding adventure goes live on May 11 at 10 a.m. PDT. If you think you’re ready, line up at the starting line to make an attempt at becoming World First to complete the new raid lair, “Spire of Stars.” We’ll be watching and cheering you on as you travel back to the Leviathan to face a new challenge.

[embedded content]

We’ll be standing by to congratulate the first fireteam to complete the activity. Good luck out there, Guardians!

Trials 

The raid lair is not the only activity going live tomorrow. Trials of the Nine will return at 10 a.m. PDT with new Season 3 rewards. Here is what you can expect to earn as you battle other players for access to the Spire.

Bungie Versus

Next week, we are firing up the streaming studio again. This won’t be a reveal stream or a Bungie Bounty—we’ve been challenged in the ways of old by a player who claims he can defeat a Bungie Community Manager in the fires of the Crucible. PopeBear, one of the hosts of the popular Destiny Community Podcast, has bravely stepped up to go against Dmg04 in a friendly 1v1 match in Destiny 2. The stream kicks off at 6 p.m. PDT on May 16.

That won’t be the only bout. Immediately following the 1v1, Dmg04 and Pope will each be reinforced by three of their peers for a best-of-three challenge: Bungie Versus Destiny Community Podcast. Here are the lineups: 

1. PopeBear 

2. Ms 5ooo Watts

3. TeftyTeft

4. TheBriarRabbit

Team Bungie

1. Dmg04

2. Cozmo

3. Josh Hamrick

4. ???

All matches will take place in Private Matches. Game types will be chosen on the stream. May the best team win!

In the Know

As new updates go live, Destiny Player Support is actively responding to issues and giving you the information you need. 

This is their report.

Known Issues

Since the release of Warmind, Destiny Player Support has been all hands on deck troubleshooting issues reported to the #Help forum. The following issues have been confirmed, and teams are actively investigating solutions.

Perfectly Balanced

Let’s check in on our weekly visit to the Creations page to see what cool movies the community has put together.

Movie of the Week: Answering the Protocol

[embedded content]

Honorable Mention: Funnies

[embedded content]

This was a short one. We know you have new things to do and items to earn, so we won’t keep you away from the game with a lot of words. We’re monitoring your feedback on anything and everything you’re playing in the update and keeping track of the changes you’re enjoying and what you think could be better in the future.

Have fun in the raid lair tomorrow. We’ll be watching.

<3 Cozmo

Warmind Launch

Player Character

General

Emotes

Sandbox

Exotic Weapons – General

Exotic Kinetic Weapons

Exotic Energy Weapons

Exotic Power Weapons

Weapon Perks

Activities

PvE

Strikes

Raid

Tower

Items and Economy

General

Character Inventory

Eververse

Clans

Progression

Clan Engrams 

Guided Games

Crucible

General

Maps

Game Modes

Audio

Settings

UI

General

This week at Bungie, we’re counting down the minutes till Warmind.

In recent months, a series of updates for Destiny 2 has added some quality-of-life improvements to the game. On May 8, we’ll deliver even more. Tuesday can’t come soon enough.

Cheers to Vicarious Visions for their passion and dedication to the craft of creating amazing experiences for players. They’ve been wonderful partners with us on this journey. With Destiny 2 PC and Warmind under our collective belts, we’re excited about the future of this collaboration. Before you see their contribution to the world of Destiny, Creative Director Brent Gibson has a message from his team:

Brent: The team at Vicarious Visions have been fans of Destiny long before we started working with Bungie on this amazing franchise. While working alongside our counterparts at Bungie, we’ve met the challenge of expanding the Destiny universe and we are beyond thrilled that the day is nearly here! We are honored to have added to this rich world with passionate fans numbering in the millions. This is the kind of thing that game developers dream about. We are fortunate enough to not only add to the gameplay experience, but the franchise as a whole by bringing the legendary Hunter, Ana Bray, to life! She has carried our banner through this entire journey and we can’t wait for you to meet her on this adventure. See you on Mars on May 8!

On Approach

We’ve had a lot of fun hosting “Warmind Week” on the blog. There’s a lot we want you to know before you plot a course for Mars. If you missed a beat, here’s a recap.

We’ve also released two new Developer Insights to give more details on what to expect when Warmind launches. Creative Director Brent Gibson from Vicarious Visions and Design Lead Evan Nikolich from Bungie shed light on the state of Mars, Rasputin, and the enemies you’ll be introduced to. Sandbox Design Lead Josh Hamrick and Senior Crucible Designer Kevin Yanes walk us through the Exotic Masterwork weapon process, with additional information about Crucible Ranks, which will be available to all players when Season 3 begins on May 8.

Season 3: Exotics and Crucible

[embedded content]

Warmind

[embedded content]

Patch Note Preview

In previous articles, we’ve been diving deep into the details of design goals for some of the larger changes coming in Season 3. There’s quite a bit more to Destiny Update 1.2.0, so here’s a quick overview of feature changes and bug fixes that will also be deployed next week:

The full suite of patch notes will be published on May 8 shortly before Warmind becomes available. We’re currently targeting a 10 AM release, but stay tuned to @Bungie for announcements.

Details on Design

The Exotic Sandbox that you’re familiar with is about to change. We’ve had Senior Sandbox Designer Jon Weisnewski on the hot seat to talk us through the upcoming changes on stream and on the blog. You may have seen some demonstrations of new and improved Exotic weaponry this week. Some of the changes have some nuance to them, so here he is again with the exact details on how your arsenal is evolving:

Jon: Due to a lengthy update this week, I’m going to keep my section short. This’ll be the last Exotic tease from me. After this week, you’ll be playing with all of the new changes!

Risk Runner: We gave Arc Conductor increased resistance to incoming Arc damage (50%) and enabled it in the Crucible. Arc Conductor will now activate when the weapon is stowed, but damage resistance will only work when the weapon is in your hands. This was already a strong gun for PvE. We’re hoping these changes give it a place in some interesting Crucible load outs, strategies, and counters.

[embedded content]

Sweet Business: If you run this gun, you probably just want to shoot forever. We gave it a capped ammo inventory of 999. It’s not forever, but it’s a lot.

[embedded content]

D.A.R.C.I.: This Sniper Rifle now grants 4x damage once locked on a target (exact scaling depends on activity, difficulty, light level delta, etc). It shouldn’t take a master strategist to figure out how this will benefit you in PvE. Any Crucible combat snipers will also want to give this gun a try; it’s got a: 7 round magazine, reduced zoom for closer engagements, and an aim assist stat retuned to be more generous when you haven’t locked a target yet for better results while drag sniping.

[embedded content]

Lastly, I want to quickly acknowledge the whole team, which has been working really hard to get Exotic weapons in Update 1.2.0 ready for you over the past few months. I’ve been the one doing the talking, but it has been far from a solo effort. In particular, there’s a group of testers who has come to the table daily to both ensure these changes are bug-free, and also provide us with bone-breaking player feedback. The team has done a tremendous job at helping dial in a sweet spot for many of the guns. A billion thanks to them!

Mixing Things Up a Little

Destiny Updates 1.1.2, 1.1.3, and 1.1.4 have brought quality-of-life changes to Destiny 2. Update 1.2.0 is almost here to bring more community-requested features to the table. Senior Investment Designer Daniel Auchenpaugh has details on the upcoming Heroic strike modifiers and the new Legendary Nightfall Challenge Card.

Dan: In Season 3, we’ve increased the baseline difficulty of Heroic strikes to make combatants more aggressive and make the experience feel more, well, Heroic. Additionally, at any given time the Heroic strike playlist will have three modifiers on it: one Burn (rotates weekly), one Advantage (rotates daily), and one Disadvantage (rotates daily). 

Here’s a quick rundown of what you can expect in those categories:

We’re excited to see players reaching new top scores through a variety of modifiers on the Legendary Nightfall Challenge Card. Here are the top scoring fireteams from last week’s Nightfall, “A Garden World”: 

Prismatic Matrix

At release, the Prismatic Matrix will feature 10 Eververse items from Season 3 each week it is active. Each item within the Prismatic Matrix is on a knockout list, which means every player is guaranteed to receive all featured items for a given week by the tenth activation. Earning items via Bright Engrams, Bright Dust, or previous Matrix activations will also knock rewards off the list. In turn, each activation guarantees players an item that they have never previously acquired.

With your first well-rested level-up each week, you’ll earn a Prismatic Facet, allowing one free use of the Prismatic Matrix. Prismatic Facets stack up to 3, so make sure to have proper inventory space before earning a rank-up on a given week. Players can also purchase more activations for 200 Silver each.

Outside of the Prismatic Matrix, players may continue to earn Bright Engrams each time they level up, and they can still purchase these engrams if they want a chance to get everything from the Season 3 catalog. Additionally, we’re increasing the number of items available from Tess each week with Bright Dust, from 14 to 18 items.

We want to continue experimenting and evolving Eververse to improve player experience, and give more paths to earn Eververse rewards. Please give us your feedback once Season 3 begins, as we’re dedicated to improving these systems moving forward.

Run of Show

  

With each update, Destiny Player Support is on standby to ensure the package has been delivered to your platform without issue. The following information will guide you to your first steps in Hellas Basin:

Destiny 2 Server Maintenance

Services will be brought offline for maintenance on Tuesday, May 8, 2018. During this time, Destiny 2: Warmind, Update 1.2.0, and Hotfix 1.2.0.1 will become available to players. Please see below for the timeline of the maintenance window.

If you encounter any issues when playing Season 3 or Warmind content, please post a report to the #Help forum.

Moving Pictures

The title of “Movie of the Week” is frequently earned by those who showcase skill in the Crucible, or moments of success against overwhelming odds in endgame activities. This week, we’re looking at the word “creation” in a more literal sense…

Movie of the Week: Ana Bray SpeedArt

[embedded content]

Honorable Mention: Herald

[embedded content]

I think we’re at five more sleeps until Warmind? Depends on your caffeine intake.

Tuesday, Warmind goes live at 11  AM. Friday, May 11, the Spire of Stars raid lair goes live at 10 AM. Who among you will take the challenge head on? We’ll be watching and calling a World’s First. Good luck!

As a reminder, Season 2 ends with the launch of Warmind. This is your final weekend to earn Season 2 rewards from activities and Bright Engrams. Make sure to check with the Vanguard, Crucible, Iron Banner, and Trials of the Nine for your last chance to earn Season 2 ornaments before they’re gone.

It’s almost time to head to Mars. See you next week.

Cheers,

Dmg04

Alongside the launch of Warmind, a new season of gameplay updates begins for all players of Destiny 2, including powerful upgrades to Exotic weapons, the introduction of Ranked Crucible play, new Crucible maps, Private Matches, Heroic Strike Modifiers, Multi-Emote, additional Vault Space, and much more.

These Season 3 updates will be available to all players of Destiny 2, regardless of Warmind ownership. Full Patch Notes will be published on May 8.

Exotic Weapon Tuning will enhance some of the most unique items in your personal arsenal. 

Seasonal Crucible Rankings will deliver new ways to earn bragging rights and some coveted weapons in the competitive arena.

New Crucible Maps will give every player new spaces to fight in the Crucible. All matchmade playlists will feature Meltdown and Solitude.  

Private Matches will give you full control over your competitive experience. Set your own match and invite willing combatants to play.

[Note: You’ll need to purchase the Expansion to use the new maps in Private Matches.]

[embedded content]

On May 8, Warmind launches and Season 3 begins.

Golden Age satellites slam into the surface of the Hellas Basin on Mars. Icy glaciers thaw, revealing the core of the Warmind Rasputin – and an ancient Hive army, bent on its destruction. 

Destiny 2 Expansion II: Warmind introduces new activities, new weapons and gear, more endgame content, and an all-new story. 

New Story

[embedded content]

Ana Bray, a Guardian long thought lost, searches for a connection to her past…one that could be hidden forever beneath the polar ice cap of Mars.

(Developer Insights video coming soon)

New Cooperative Endgame Activity

Escalation Protocol is a public, player-triggered event where players fight escalating waves of enemies and slay challenging bosses alongside their Fireteam and other brave Guardians on Mars. Locate and activate Escalation Protocol, and then survive seven waves of increasingly difficult combat waves to earn exclusive new armor and weapons.

(Developer Insights video coming soon)

New Raid Lair

Return to the Leviathan with a Fireteam of six to conquer the Spire of Stars, launching on Friday, May 11 at 10:00AM PT.

Season 3 Begins

Alongside the launch of Warmind, a new season of gameplay updates begins for all players of Destiny 2, including powerful upgrades to Exotic weapons, the introduction of Ranked Crucible play, new Crucible maps, Private Matches, Heroic Strike Modifiers, Multi-Emote, additional Vault Space, and much more.

These Season 3 updates will be available to all players of Destiny 2, regardless of Warmind ownership. Full Patch Notes will be published on May 8.

Exotic Weapon Tuning will enhance some of the most unique items in your personal arsenal. 

Seasonal Crucible Rankings will deliver new ways to earn bragging rights and some coveted weapons in the competitive arena.

New Crucible Maps will give every player new spaces to fight in the Crucible. All matchmade playlists will feature Meltdown and Solitude.  

Private Matches will give you full control over your competitive experience. Set your own match and invite willing combatants to play.

[Note: You’ll need to purchase the Expansion to use the new maps in Private Matches.]

[embedded content]

Destiny 2 – Expansion 2: Warmind launches on May 8 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC via Blizzard’s Battle.net app.

Game Director Christopher Barrett:

As you know, we’ve been engaging with the Destiny community to pivot and improve every part of our Destiny 2 experience. This includes a commitment to the tone, story, and lore of Destiny both in and out of the game.

This week, I wanted to give a shout out to Destiny’s hard-working Narrative group, who has been collaborating with myself and the rest of the dev team on a whole bunch of new lore content that will be coming your way in the near (and in some cases, very near) future. While I can’t tell you everything we’ve been working on together, I’m happy to reveal that another (free) Destiny digital comic – Warmind – is headed your way this week, written by Mark Waid (Dr. Strange) and David Rodriguez (Warmind) and inked by Kris Anka (Runaways). I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did.  

And if the week seems like a long wait, I’ve got more good news; you can join us in celebrating the upcoming launch of Destiny 2: Warmind with a few pieces of new and original Warmind Weblore, now available here.

<3 Chris

[Editor’s note: Revised copy to accurately reflect the release date of the comic.] 

Tyra

“Ghost, open a new file. Research Notes TK-48725.8, Category: Clovis Bray.”

“I don’t like it when you call me that.”

“What, ‘Ghost’? Oh, come now. We’ve been having this discussion for more than three centuries. Ghost is what you are, my friend. If you want a name so badly, choose one for yourself.”

“Maybe I will. Now that everyone’s gone back to the Tower and we’re still out here, I have plenty of time to consider what my name should be.”

“Can you open my file while you ponder the possibilities?”

“If you insist.”

“Thank you. Research Notes TK-48725.8. Data recovered from Freehold—Bray Landing. Kirren found an entire cache of intact data cores there. Brought them back just before the attack on the City.”

“It’s these little miracles that intrigue me so much… Fragments of memories, frozen in silicon and quartz, trapped in a moment that survives the end of a civilization, centuries of decay, and the predations of invading armies, only to be recovered and end up as flotsam of a second war. That this cache even managed to survive the Collapse is a wonder, and then the Red War? The probabilities of such an occurrence are…”

“Tyra?”

“Yes, Ghost?”

“Ahem. You’re rambling. Again. You said I should remind you.”

“Thank you. As I was saying, this data was recovered more than six months ago but is just now being decrypted—2.6 exabytes of documents and schematics have been decoded so far. At first glance, most of this was just the detritus of Bray’s work: review notes, payment records, memos. I did find some very interesting notes on a propulsion system design that I’ve already sent to Amanda, and there are some messages between the sisters that will illuminate Master Melivander’s work on the history of Clovis Bray.”

“But then I found something extraordinary. The records were fragmented—some files had been partially deleted—but there’s enough there to indicate that the Bray facility at Hellas Basin was larger than we previously thought.”

“Hellas Basin? The tourist spot?”

“The same. And while we know there was a BrayTech Futurescape there for promotional purposes— Bray even had an AI-led tour—all indications had been that if any research was done there, it was mostly for show: low-level projects creating improved cold-weather gear and the like.”

“But if these records are correct, the facility operated on a far larger scale. It could have been the site of the initial Warmind development. Perhaps even a core site for Rasputin itself. This could have been where the Warmind was born.” 

“You got all that from some fragmented files? Is this going to be like the time you thought you’d identified a second Warmind? We spent a decade searching for Charlemagne’s vault.”

“I was correct about Charlemagne existing, just not about what it was. If we hadn’t done that research, we wouldn’t know anything about subminds.”

“Rahool still disagrees.”

“Rahool needs to get his head out of his engrams. This is why Guardians look for fragments of the Golden Age! We are the descendants of a lost civilization. Only by understanding what was can we understand what we are now. How the world we know came to be. And each artifact we find helps us interpret what we already know. Adds layers. New identities. We are experimenting in the laboratory of time, testing each observation through a crucible of evidence.”

“Sometimes our conclusions change. And with each shift, we learn more of where we came from. The next shift in our perceptions? It may be on Mars.”

Apocrypha

In the beginning, there were five.

Yul, the Honest Worm. Akka, the Worm of Secrets. Eir, the Keeper of Order. Ur, the Ever-Hunger. Xol, Will of the Thousands. And they were Virtuous.

In time, Yul spoke truth and bargained well. Its children escaped the Fundament and spread throughout the worlds. They followed the words of the Deep and brought low many agents of the Sky. They took, and a portion of all they took was returned to the Virtuous.

They grew strong.

In time, Auryx learned Akka’s secret. That he was stronger than the gods. That they had given their power, and in giving, it was diminished. Auryx rose up and slew Akka. He took, and he grew strong with Akka’s power.

After the five became four, Yul spoke.

Behold my majesty. Behold my crushing might, my staggering size, my scales that shine with an oppressive gleam. 

Behold my wings, which create winds that sweep through the stars.

Together, we have called life to Fundament, and made that life thrive. Protected it from extinction. They are our hosts, and we are their strength.

But we do not give. We take. For this is the struggle to exist. We are not immune. The weakest of us must give way to the stronger.

And Xol felt [fear|cunning], for it knew that Yul would in time turn its teeth to Xol.

But Akka was not the only one with a secret. Xol had a pact with a forgotten child, abandoned by its father.

The cursed one took a fraction of Xol’s power, and in return, Xol took the heart from the child, whose name had been struck from the World’s Grave. The orphan called life out of death, and fed that power to Xol.

Together, they would find a new world to rule.

And the five became three.

I, the child become [herald|death], record these words. They are not of the Sorrow. They are mine.

Cryptarch

From “Collapse and Post-Collapse Incidents on Mars: An Examination of Ecological Changes in the Polar Regions,” by Master Reinhart, Cryptarch 

We have detailed records of the expedition sent to the Moon to battle the alien race known as the Hive, the calamitous results of that assault, and the subsequent Lunar Interdiction that was lifted only after definitive evidence was found that the Interdiction had not restricted the Hive’s movements (Rahool et al., “The Great Disaster: From Burning Lake to the Hellmouth”).

However, there are indications that while that event may have been the Vanguard’s first engagement with the Hive, Earth’s Moon was not the first place the Hive made contact with Human settlements.

Golden Age records detail an extensive network of Clovis Bray structures on Mars. The vast city of Freehold served as the Bray headquarters, but ancient mass-transit lines that lead from the remains of Freehold across the planet reveal multiple other sites, including the Clovis Bray Health Center in Skyline and an extensive Futurescape near Core Terminus, in the Hellas Basin region.

It is the Futurescape facility that is of interest when considering the effects of ecological changes in the Collapse and post-Collapse eras. Although there are records that show that, just after the Traveler’s departure, the region had a mesothermal climate with an average temperature of 20°C, the region’s ecological zones today range from boreal to ice cap near the planetary pole, with harsh winds and a thick layer of ice that has made exploration in the region difficult.

What caused such a drastic change in the climate? If it were related to the cessation of Traveler energy during the Collapse, then we would have seen similar effects on other planets in the solar system, which we have not.

If we cannot look to the Traveler for causation, then we must contemplate other external factors. Recovered satellite data reveals that the climate change in the Hellas Basin region was too rapid to have resulted from long-term ecological damage, as it had on Earth in the pre-Traveler era. In fact, data from Warsat J54987F122S, which crashed and was recovered near Freehold, indicates that the climate change on Mars may have happened over a matter of mere days. However, this Warsat was heavily damaged during reentry, and the data may be suspect. Until we have a secondary source for corroboration, this is mere supposition.

Nonetheless, if we accept the data from J54987F122S, then we are looking at an external endothermic event, caused by artificial means, on a scale so massive that it altered the entire climate of the region.

Why would this have happened? Our only source is J54987F122S, and if it is to be believed, an invasion of unknown biological entities, including one of massive size, was detected in the region immediately before the event. Could this have been a Collapse-era attack with a weapon of unknown origin?

As of yet, Guardians have not reached Hellas Basin, and we have not had the resources for remote exploration. But if we did dig into the ice, what would we find?

Ana,

Told you I remembered an article from the Mars research we were doing at Owl Sector. This could be what you’re looking for—if you can dig it out. 

Reinhart goes on for a few hundred pages from here—I’ll send the whole thing to Jinju if you’re interested— but his conclusions are all wrong. Because he never mentions the ONE THING that could have done this.

There’s something in Hellas Basin. And you’re going to be the one to find it.

—Camrin

Zavala

Ikora has confirmed my fears. The ice on Mars is melting.

She says it’s the Traveler’s Light—that when it awoke, it sent out a wave of Light that altered everything it touched.

I don’t know what to believe. I look at the Traveler now, shining and alive, and I remember all the times I begged it to respond. To help its chosen through our trials.

I remember its silence. Even now, it does not speak… or if it does, there is no one to hear and understand its words.

Ikora says that we cannot understand the Traveler, or its desires. They are too far removed from our own. But can we rely on something that doesn’t understand us to protect us? Or must we protect ourselves?

I think we must. I have been searching the databanks—records that even the Cryptarchs cannot access—and sifting through data that the Speaker thought too dangerous to be disseminated.

I know what is on Mars.

What is buried beneath that ice is too dangerous to allow back into our world. It doesn’t think like we do. It weighs and judges our existence in its ruthless calculations, and we don’t even know what the goal is. Once, long ago, it might have been created as a tool to save Humanity. It is far more than a mere machine now.

And it is broken. 

When Saladin sealed all the records relating to SIVA, he also put a lock on certain data concerning what lies hidden on Mars. We were stumbling around blindly in those days, in the wrong place and at the wrong time, calling out to something that could not respond or understand us. And Saladin let it happen, because our failures were safer than the alternative. 

But the locks are open now. I’ve studied the monsters in our past to prepare for the battles in our future. I know how to reach this particular monster before anyone else does.

Ikora is too intrigued by the knowledge it holds to heed the dangers. Cayde is wasting his time filling the Prison of Elders. It’s up to me to keep this secret buried.

To keep us safe. 

Rasputin

218CBI800JRS101

AI-COM/RSPN: ASSETS//POLARIS//IMPERATIVE

IMMEDIATE EVALUATION DIRECTIVE

This is a POLARIS ASSETS IMPERATIVE (secured/UNDISCLOSED)

This is an INTERNAL ALERT. 

Multiple distributed Polaris axons report increased sterile neutrino patterning correlating to increase in AVGPOLARISTEMP. Reactivated areoseismic analysis detects high quantities of nonnative organic chitin.

Axon 5-Sierra’s event footprint includes evidence of vermiform parasites (UNCONFIRMED/RED).

One hypothesis on event mechanism (FLAG ACAUSAL). Possibility of HARD CIVILIZATION KILL EVENT is NONZERO. 

Check variable AVGPOLARISTEMP

>AVGPOLARISTEMP greater than or equal to MELTINGPOINT

I am assessing available VOLUSPA and CHARLEMAGNE resources.

I am assuming control of atmospheric defenses (Warsat COMPREHENSIVE) and invoking AURORA PALISADE.

Several waves of developers talked about what you’ll find in the game on May 8. Creative Director Brent Gibson from Vicarious Visions joined Design Lead Evan Nikolich from Bungie on our Twitch stream to talk about Destiny 2: Warmind. It was our first conversation about a new story created by two studios working as partners. After a quick tour of Hellas Basin and an introduction to Ana Bray, we dove into a bit of gameplay. Design Lead Jacob Benton and Design Lead Ben Wommack walked us through Escalation Protocol, a new cooperative endgame activity with some intense challenges and exclusive rewards. For the final act, Senior Crucible Designer Kevin Yanes gave us a preview of Seasonal Crucible Rankings and Private Matches, with Cozmo riding “shotgun,” while Senior Sandbox Designer Jon Weisnewski and Sandbox Design Lead Josh Hamrick spiced the live fire exercise with some commentary about how Exotic weapons are evolving for all players in Season 3.

Oh, and DeeJ hosted, but no one cares what he has to say. If you missed the stream, here’s footage in full:

[embedded content]

There’s a lot more we have to tell you today about Season 3. Read on for more!

Exotic Investments

How do you make an Exotic feel more Exotic? It’s a two part question, including how it feels to acquire and upgrade the weapon and how it feels to use the weapon. To answer the first question, Senior Investment Designer Mark Uyeda is here to walk us through the process.

Mark: Our goals in extending Masterwork perks and mechanics to Exotic weapons are primarily to create new in-game goals for hobbyist players and reinforce specific activities with these long tail pursuits.

There were a few “problem spaces” that we wanted to address when creating the Exotic Masterwork pursuit. First up, Exotics in Destiny 2 are very easy to acquire. Many players have most, if not all, of the non-quest Exotics. As we don’t want to make players re-earn every Exotic weapon, Exotic Masterwork acquisition and progression needed to take place after acquisition. Additionally, we needed to figure out a player-friendly way of representing the process of obtaining and applying an Exotic Masterwork. The milestone tray doesn’t provide a good flow for every Exotic Masterwork, and bounties are planned for summer (as noted on our recently updated Development Roadmap).

With these goals and restrictions, we landed on the following player experience:

There will be one Exotic Masterwork per Exotic weapon that exists so far in Destiny 2. In order to begin the Masterwork process, players will have to find an Exotic Masterwork Catalyst. When inspecting the Exotic, there will be a hint at what activities can grant the catalyst for that weapon. Not all Exotic Masterworks have the same drop rates. Some Exotic Masterwork weapons are guaranteed after a certain amount of engagement, while others are earned at random.

Once acquired, the catalyst can be applied to immediately enable orb generation on double kills for the weapon. Exotic weapons with a catalyst applied will also start tracking enemies defeated, like their Legendary Masterwork weapon counterparts.

After applying the catalyst, there will be bounty-like objectives available that need to be completed in order to upgrade to the final Masterwork state, which will apply stat/perk bonuses to the weapon.

A few Masterworks will require you to do a single thing, where others will have multiple steps. These objectives will vary in difficulty and length, but will not be determined by RNG. The goal for these objectives is to push the player to engage with the weapon that they wish to make into a full Masterwork.

When it comes to difficulty, there are a few Exotic Masterworks paired with difficult activities or accomplishments in-game. We’re expecting that there may be one or two Exotic Masterwork weapons that give players the opportunity to set goals in mastering specific activities in order to earn their most desired Masterwork. 

To get ahead of a few questions we’re expecting, here’s a quick roundup of more specific notes:

The Exotic Gunsmiths

Over the last few weeks, Senior Sandbox Designer Jon Weisnewski has been giving previews on how some Exotic weapons are evolving at base level to feel more powerful in Season 3. We’re keeping the streak up. This week, Tractor Cannon, Hard Light, and Borealis are up for conversation!

Jon: Quick thanks and recognition to the video capture team that has been working hard to play, record, and publish this stuff on a tight deadline.

The Tractor Cannon has delivered a high amount of spectacle and has a huge fun factor, but was lacking utility for many players. To address this, in addition to the expected damage and physics impulse, any target hit by Tractor Cannon now has a debuff applied that adds suppression and makes the target vulnerable to Void damage for 10 seconds. Suppression will function as you expect, so in the Crucible, this will shut down active supers and prevent players from using their abilities. In PvE, this will put most enemies in the suppression state where they cower and grovel. The Void vulnerability adds a significant weakness to any source of incoming Void damage. So if you’re a solo player, run it with your favorite Void weapons and/or subclass for optimal effect. If you’re running with a coordinated fireteam… we’re both excited and terrified to see how fast you can melt some of our harder bosses with strategic Void attacks. The Void vulnerability does not stack with itself, but it does stack with other damage debuffs. Get to work!

[embedded content]

Hard Light is inheriting the Borealis damage type reload swap: Holding reload will cycle elemental damage types in combat. The teaser clip shows this off pretty well, but what it doesn’t show very clearly is the other interesting change we made to lean in to this weapon’s gameplay. The bounce projectiles have always been a dazzling laser light show, but actually using them to do real work on your enemies around corners or off of walls has been difficult. It’s more of a suppression tactic than reliable offense. One option we considered was preserving aim assist for the lifetime of the projectile, but we couldn’t commit due to the sheer amount of pressure this would put on our runtime engine. (Imagine 12 players on a console in 6v6 all using this weapon, each player firing a round every three frames, and our aim assist code trying to predict the trajectory of each bullet for up to three bounces and then attempt to correct it to hit a target.) So, rather than make it easier for you to land a bounce shot, we made the payoff better for when it does happen. Bounced bullets now do double damage. We’re looking forward to seeing some montages from the geometry nerds out there.

[embedded content]

So a natural question that may come from this is: doesn’t this change make Hard Light a better choice than Borealis? While Hard Light will definitely have more uptime due to living in your Energy slot, Borealis is also getting an update that will make it a tempting choice. 

For Borealis, the utility of having a weapon that can match any damage shield on the fly is good, but in order to make the weapon great we wanted to double down on the reward for successfully pulling this off. After breaking an enemy shield with a matching damage type, Borealis now deals double damage until the next reload or damage type swap. For PvE activities it gives the weapon a more reliable benefit than Hard Light, in both casual modes and high pressure activities. However, it’s not a perk that was meant just for PvE. This behavior also applies to enemy Guardians in the Crucible while their supers are active. Simply put: If you use a Void round to break shield and/or kill an enemy Sentinel Titan who is actively using their super, you have double damage sniper rounds (yes, that’s a one hit kill to the body) until you die or reload. It’s pretty rare to pull off and requires a fair amount of predictive awareness, but we’ve had it happen organically a few times during internal playtests and I’m highly confident that skilled players will be able to make some amazing plays with this weapon.

[embedded content]

That’s all for this week! I’m sure we’ll be chatting again soon.

Glory, Valor, and Combat

Since their original announcement, Seasonal Crucible Rankings have been a hot topic. The Crucible team has been hard at work to implement the system. Starting with Season 3, Crucible Ranks will be available to all players of Destiny 2. Senior Crucible Designer Kevin Yanes gave a quick overview on stream of what to expect. We’re diving deeper into the weeds to answer some of your burning questions.

Kevin: Hey everyone. During the Warmind reveal stream, we showcased Seasonal Crucible Ranks for the first time. We’ve been seeing a lot of questions from the community, so let’s get into the hot topics you’ve been asking about:

“What are Seasonal Crucible Ranks?”

Seasonal Crucible Ranks are comprised of two key mechanics: a level and rank points. As players earn points in each rank, they will level up and unlock new rewards for Shaxx to dole out in the Tower. Leveling up gives players an assortment of Crucible Tokens, Crucible Engrams, and Masterwork Cores depending on how far up they have leveled. There are six specific Crucible Ranks that players can reach, starting with the rank of “Guardian” and ending with players becoming “Legend.” Here is the full break down of what levels each Crucible Rank will feature:

Worthy Opponents

Playing the role of matchmaker isn’t an easy feat. In Destiny 2 Update 1.2.0, the Crucible team will be addressing player feedback about pre-made Fireteams being matched against solo players. PvP Design Lead Derek Carroll has a quick breakdown of the changes that are going in, and what players can expect starting May 8.

Derek: From reading your feedback and looking at data, it’s clear that solo players are facing an uphill battle in the Crucible when they encounter well-coordinated opponents. Players in Fireteams have a substantial advantage, particularly as average skill increases. In the current Crucible, solo players at virtually all skill levels win fewer than half of their games. 

We’re making some under-the-hood adjustments to try to ensure that even when solo players do end up fighting against Fireteams, they’ll be doing it on a more-even battlefield.

Instead of using your normal skill value when in a Fireteam, we will use a modified value that takes your Fireteam size into account. The larger your Fireteam, the larger the potential modification. We don’t want to try to completely nullify the benefit of team-play, so our initial values are conservative and can (and will) be tuned as we see the system working in the wild.  All of these settings can be configured on our servers without waiting for a new update, so we’ll be able to make additional tweaks based on what we see.

We always encourage you to bring your friends with you into the Crucible, but we think this change will improve your experience during those times you have to fly solo. As always, we’ll be keeping an eye on how well these changes are working once they’re live, and look forward to hearing your thoughts!

#FTMM

(Editors note: For those like me who didn’t understand this hashtag immediately, this means Fireteam Matchmaking.)

Season 2 Finale

 

Lord Saladin returns for the final bout of Iron Banner in Season 2.

Begins: Tuesday, May 1

Ends: Tuesday, May 8

The game is Control!

As some of you may have noticed, we’re diving back into the Iron Banner playlist pretty quickly compared to previous months. Senior Designer Jeremiah Pieschl gave us a quick rundown of initial feedback we’re looking to address since 6v6 went live:

Jerpie: While we continue to evaluate the feedback and data from the last Iron Banner Control with 6v6, we’ve heard two messages very clearly. Having more opportunities to play 6v6 is highly desired and Control remains the most popular mode for 6v6. As such, you can expect Iron Banner to feature 6v6 Control exclusively moving into Season 3.

As a warning, this will be your last chance to earn Season 2 ornaments, so make sure to jump in and complete those objectives.

Safari Stripes

 

Speaking of Iron Banner, Destiny Player Support has been working behind the scenes to investigate reports of error codes encountered last week. If you’ve recently seen a pesky ZEBRA or two, read below for some important information.

ZEBRA

With the launch of 6v6 Iron Banner, we saw a large increase in ZEBRA error codes which were determined to be caused by players timing out while loading into the maps. We took steps to reduce the rate of this error code by increasing the time in which players could attempt to load into a Crucible match. If you continued to frequently encounter ZEBRA error codes during 6v6 Iron Banner, you may be experiencing issues with your connection quality or your PC hardware may be below the minimum specifications. 

To improve performance and reduce the frequency of ZEBRA error codes, you may want to try the following:

Warring Over Stones

 

With the introduction of Exotic Weapon Masterworks and Crucible Ranks, we expect to see many players challenging themselves to master activities that they may not have engaged with before. The videos you find here may be a source of inspiration or even strategy for approaching engagements in a different manner.

Winner: The Power of Math

[embedded content]

Runner Up: Cream of the crop

[embedded content]

Top Tier

Last week, The Arms Dealer was the featured Nightfall for the first time since Nightfall Strike Scoring was introduced. On May 8, we’ll be addressing the Lost Sector strategy used to boost scores to the moon and back – but we’re happy to celebrate those who are reaching for the stars. Shout out to Johny_Hopkins for appearing on two of the top scoring fireteams!

It’s good to be back in the office. We’re less than two weeks out from Warmind and the beginning of Season 3. Restoring the hobby in Destiny 2 has been a major goal throughout the development process, and what you’ve read above are a few steps in that direction. Soon, it’ll be in your hands – and we’ll be at the ready to process your feedback.

See you in the Crucible? I need to get some practice in before Crucible Ranks go live. I’m not sure my team can reach Mythic status if I’m not pulling my weight. Oh, and before we go – if you’re excited for Warmind, Associate Artist Joseph Biwald cooked up a few Twitter banners for you. Enjoy!

Cheers,

Dmg04