This week in Destiny, we dropped a ton of info in our State of the Game article and shared details on Solstice armor and the community Trials map winner.
State of the Game
Ritual S22 Updates
- The 3 weekly matches challenges for crucible, gambit, and vanguard will now be combined into 1 (do 9 matches of any combination) challenge
- Ritual weapon drop rates will be increased, and new ritual weapons will be insta focusable
S22 Ritual Weapons
- Unending Tempest Stasis Submachine Gun in the Crucible
- Luna Regolith III Solar Sniper Rifle in Strikes
- Qua Xaphan V Void Machine Gun in Gambit
- Cataphract GL3 Strand Grenade Launcher in Trials of Osiris
- and more...
PVP S22
- New Vex Network themed map called Multiplex, set in an infinite forest simulation of mars
- New PVP mode Checkmate with custom primary weapon tuning, slower TTK, weaker range weapons, increased health, lengthened ability cooldowns, and less special ammo
- Checkmate is available in Crucible labs from Week 5-10, w/ 2 weeks of Checkmate Control, 2 weeks Checkmate Survival, and 1 week of Checkmate Rumble
- New 6v6 mode Relic where getting kills charges your relic meter, allowing you to cash in for famous Relics like Aegis from Vault of Glass, the Synaptic Spear from Season of the Risen, and the Scythe from Season of the Haunted
- Relic will be live weeks 1-4 and weeks 11 to end of season
- Relaxing loose skill based matchmaking for Control and IB
- Adding loose Fireteam matchmaking to rotators and Labs
PVP S23
- New Iron Banner mode
- New comp weapon: Hakke Aggressive Frame Strand Pulse Rifle
- Return of The Citadel map
Vanguard Playlist
- In S22, adding Vanguard Medals (from Guardian Games) into the scoring system for Ops and Nightfalls to reward skill
- Some Vanguard Medals will remain Guardian Game exclusives, and some new ones being added
- Vanguard Medals will rotate over time to reflect the current seasonal Surges
- Additional Battlegrounds coming to the Nightfall rotation in S22 and S23
Gambit
- Porting over Cathedral of Scars map from the dreaming city (Final Shape year)
- Adding Shadow Legion and Lucent Hive into the enemy rotations (Final Shape year)
- Lowering the amount of Gambit specific seasonal challenges (S22)
- Adding Fireteam matchmaking to Gambit and removing the freelance node (S22)
Armor Sets
- Reducing the expectation of Ritual armor sets every expansion, though Final Shape will have them
- New Trials Armor coming in S22
Game Security
- Recently released the largest ban wave in game history
- Continuing to invest in better detection, less false positives, and legal strategies against cheat makers
- Bungie states most appealed bans end up being cases where the account was shared with someone else who cheated on their behalf (protect your account and don't use account recovery services)
Game Stability
- Recently released a number of behind the scenes improvements with the mid season patch
- Adding more "chaos testing" internally in S22 to better test the new tools against more real world worst-case scenarios
- In S23, implementing more future thinking tactics like better recovery systems, more independent services, etc
Seasonal Structure
- Bungie will continue to experiment with seasonal activities, rewards, structures, surprises, etc
Quality of Life Updates S22
- Players can pin up to 100 shaders, ornaments, and emotes to make searching easier
- Unearned stasis Aspects and Fragments can now be purchased from Elsie Bray for glimmer
- Transmats being converted to unlocks (like shaders) instead of consumables
- Wish-Ender quest being converted to a singular quest
- Adding a Resources tab to the Collections page
- Iron Banner challenges split into 2 challenges: complete X matches to get the reputation bonus, and complete X matches with a specific subclass for pinnacles
- Ritual Rank Up notifications now process at end of match (instead of when in Orbit), and have a less intrusive UI banner
Sandbox S22
- Adding three new strand Aspects: Whirling Maelstrom for Hunter, Banner of War for Titans, and Weavewalk for Warlocks
- More Exotic Armor reworks
- New weapon subfamilies (Final Shape)
- Adjustments to engagement ranges for all primary weapons
- Others as mentioned in previous TWIDs
Destiny's Goals for 2023
- Continuing to evolve seasons, w/ particularly new territory being treaded in S22
- Continuing to evolve story, and to put Lightfall critics at ease "The Final Shape and its raid will provide a climactic conclusion to the Light and Darkness Saga before we look ahead to what comes next in Destiny 2"
- Power cap not being raised for S22
- Bungie feels pretty good about the challenge changes overall
- Continuing to enrich content, including S22 to see the release of the Exotic Mission rotator
- Presage will be first (w/ a new craftable DMT), with Vox Obscura and Seraph Shield to follow
- Releasing a new progression system in Final Shape for ritual content to "replace some bounties with a more rewarding and engaging system tentatively called the Pathfinder"
- S22 adding key moment system to help catch up guardians on the story so far
- Fireteam Finder (LFG) being added in game for S23
- New progression system in Final Shape that will reduce the "barriers keeping friends from taking on the same content together"
Solstice Ends Soon
- Last week to play it
- Those who unlock the armor glow transmog will also be able to transmog the normal set
Trials Map Winner
- Anomaly wins w/ 49% of the vote
- Goes live with tomorrow's Trials
Known Issues
- Lord of Wolves is missing its hip-fire reticle.
- The Compass Rose is not visible in Collections.