Destiny 2 Outlines Future with New Developer Update

Bungie finally addresses the state of Destiny 2, while outlining upcoming changes that will be taking place in the future. Changes to Crucible, Heroic Strikes, and Raid rewards are outlined. Changes to Eververse and XP gain are also on the horizon.

The past few months have been rough going for Bungie and Destiny 2 with players learning that they aren’t earning the correct amount of experience, the state of Eververse, and original content being locked out for players who didn’t purchase DLC. After fixing some of these issues, the Destiny Dev Team finally laid out its plans for the spring and explained how a few things work. Let’s look at what is coming below.

Destiny Content Categories

There are three different set of content categories that we have been introduced to: Expansions, Season, and our favorite, Eververse.

Expansions

Expansions are purchasable updates that typically add new story, destinations, and gear, as well as new Crucible maps, Strikes, and Raid Lair content.

Seasons

Seasons introduce content that is made available to all players of Destiny 2, at no additional cost. Iron Banner, Faction Rallies, and their rewards will be available to everyone as part of Season 2. Additionally, going forward changes will be made, so that new season rewards from Crucible, Strikes, and Trials of the Nine will be available to all players. Faction Rallies return on January 16th and Iron Banner will be back on January 30th.

Eververse

Bungie realized that Tess had her hands in the cookie jar, wasn’t sharing, and was only giving out what was left when she was finished. Three changes for Eververse will be made for the upcoming season:

• Shifting the balance of new content in favor of activity rewards over Bright Engrams. Rewards include adding Ghosts, Sparrows, and ships to the achievement reward pool.
• A gameplay path will be provided to earn Bright Engrams and all contained rewards, including Event Engrams.
• More direct purchase options and adjustments to Bright Engrams will be made to allow players to get the items they want more often.

While we won’t see these changes right away, we can expect to see them during the Crimson Days event beginning February 13th, with more changes on the way in Season 3.

Crimson Days

• Completing Nightfall, Raid, and Crimson Days milestones during Crimson Days will reward you an exclusive Legendary Emote, weapon skin, and exotic Sparrow, respectively.
• Players will earn double engrams at level up: one Crimson Engram and one Illuminated Engram for the duration of the event.
• Crimson Engrams can also drop from completing the Crimson Days match and from completing the Crimson Day Milestones on each character.
• Each Crimson Engram is very strongly weighted to new rewards when decrypted until all new event items have been obtained.

XP Rates

One of the most plaguing issues was the rate you earned experience for doing activities and the Destiny Dev Team is still trying to work something out, so you earn a consistent amount of XP regardless of the activity you choose to grind.

Feature Roadmap

These changes that will happen in Destiny 2 will be accessible by all players, regardless of owning any DLC.

January 30 Update Master Work Armor and Raid Reward Rework

• Expanding Masterwork system to include armor.
• Masterwork Armor provides increased damage reduction while using your Super.
• You can reroll armor stat type on Masterwork Armor , similar to Masterwork Weapons, you can upgrade a piece of armor to Masterwork by using Masterwork Cores and Legendary Shards.
• Raid rewards will be updated to feature mods with Raid specific perks, and adjusting to ensure Raid item drops from each major encounter. The Raid vendor will directly sell Leviathan and Eater of Worlds armor and weapons for purchase with raid tokens and Legendary Shards.

February Update

• Strike Scoring will be replacing the current time limit mechanic in Nightfalls and will be similar to the Destiny 1 system. Nightfall High Scores will be exposed by obtaining new emblems and will unlock rewards. Also look for a plan to bring in Clan and Community High Scores to Destiny 2.
• Full rework of armor and weapon mods will focus on reducing redundant mods, bring more unique themes, and greatly increase their impact on power.
• Adjusting game mode rules to increase pace of game play and power ammo acquisition in Quickplay.
• Text chat will be added to the Tower for PC version.
• Exotic repetition reduction will prevent players from receiving the same Exotic twice in a row.
• Fireteam members will finally be to see each other on the destination map. Editor’s Note: It’s about damn time!

Spring 2018

Season 3 of Destiny 2 will bring a number of exiting and long awaited features to Crucible. These will include Seasonal Crucible Ranks with two different ranks for players to pursue.

• Valor – A progression rank that goes up as you complete matches. Winning helps you move up faster, but there are no loss penalties.
• Glory – A progression rank that goes up when you win and down when you lose. Performance is how you move up.
• Private Matches are making a return to Destiny 2 and will be accessible to all players. Invite friends to play on the map and mode of your choosing.
• 6v6 Playlist will be brought to Destiny 2 alongside the current 4v4 games modes.
• Mayhem will return as a limited time event during Season 3 and after.
• Changes will be made to make quitting less common and security improvements to improve the overall Crucible experience.

Additional Changes

• Exotic weapons and armor will receive a comprehensive redesign to ensure they stand out, and offer new, exiting, powerful ways to play.
• Specific vendors will display a Seasonal ranking. Earning reputation will unlock Season rewards and will reset each Season.
• Iron Banner and Faction Rallies will return this month and changes to make them a unique and exciting are underway.
• Playlist Repetition Reduction will solve the problem of experiencing the same playlist entry multiples times in consecutive or frequent succession in Crucible and Strikes.
• Imbalance between Achievement and Bright Engram rewards will be adjusted to shift more reward specific to endgame pursuits instead of generic XP grinding and Bright Engrams. More details to come later.
• Multi emotes will allow you to choose which emote you have equipped to each of your four emote slots.
• An additional 50 slots will be added to the vault, including an Exotic accessory tab to make separate room for Exotic Ships, Sparrows, and Ghosts.
• In addition to PC Tower chat, clan chat will be added to the PC version as well.
• Modifiers will be introduced to Heroic Strikes to bring more game play variety.

More to Come

If you thought the Devs were done with bringing more improvements to Destiny 2, we have a few things to look forward to coming this Fall.

• Item collections and rewards
• Weapon slot and archetype Improvements
• Additional Crucible playlists
• Better Clan rewards
• Masterwork Exotics
• Pinnacle weapon and gear improvements
• Trials of the Nine improvements
• Shaders and dismantling
• The future of Guided Games
• Address solo vs fireteam matching

Now that we’ve gotten the rather huge list of changes being made to Destiny 2, the question remains if this will be enough to bring some people back. While some of these changes should’ve been introduced in the very beginning, like Fireteam member location on the destination map, it seems they are bringing back some of the better changes we saw in Destiny 1. I, for one, can’t wait for these changes and am looking for to what awaits us in the future.