Bungie was back this week giving us their weekly dose of news, and today I’m going to round that up including the new power climb coming in Witch Queen, Gunsmith changes, Hawkmoon, and DMT moving to Xur (!) and also news about the new raid.
THE POWER IS YOURS
In the realm of Destiny, Power is not only a measurement of your Guardian’s general abilities but a consistent gauge for players on whether or not they’ll be able to tackle a given challenge. While The Witch Queen won’t feature a big overhaul to the ways in which you gain Power, we do have some general updates coming on launch day to get returning and new players up and ready for a fresh campaign.
First, let’s talk about some definitions. Some of you may know these by heart, but we’re always excited to introduce New Lights and returning players to information like this:
Floor – The lowest possible Power for a piece of gear; the starting point for new characters.
Soft cap – The point at which general drops stop being automatic upgrades; Powerful gear drops are now the best way to gain Power.
Power cap – The point at which Powerful drops stop being upgraded; Pinnacle gear drops are now the only way to gain Power.
Hard cap – Max possible Power from Pinnacle drops (ignoring Artifact Power).
Starting on February 22, the Power floor will be updated to 1350. Any player who signs in will be at appropriate Power levels to start the Witch Queen campaign, even if they’ve taken a recent break from the game.
Through general gameplay, players can reach the soft cap of 1500 by earning general gear through activity completions, chests, and more. This includes Rare and Legendary drops. Once reaching the soft cap, players will need to earn Powerful drops from vendor challenges and other objectives in the game. Once reaching the Power cap of 1550, the only upgrades that players will find are from endgame activities that offer Pinnacle rewards. Your final stretch to the hard cap of 1560 will be through raids, Trials of Osiris, Iron Banner, and other endgame PvE sources.
There will be some adjustments to Pinnacle and Powerful sources, as this shift yearly to focus on newer Seasonal content and fresh Destiny 2 expansion content offered with The Witch Queen. Keep an eye on tooltips as you start completing activities, as they’ll specifically note the different types of rewards that they offer. We have no doubts that our more eager players will create guides within a week of launch, but we hope that the Power climb is fairly easy to understand once you get your boots on the ground on February 22.
DESIGNING AN ECONOMY IS “EASY,” RIGHT?
Short answer: absolutely not. Nothing in game design is easy, especially when tackling the various currencies and exchanges that Destiny 2 offers. This week, we’ll be diving in with Economy Feature Lead Joshua Kulinski, speaking to some exciting changes on behalf of the team.
Joshua: Beginning in The Witch Queen, blue (Rare) rewards will stop dropping from playlist activities (Crucible, Strikes, Gambit, etc.) once players have reached the soft cap. Players above the soft cap (1500 Power in The Witch Queen) will instead see a slightly increased chance at receiving Legendary rewards from these activities, or a small amount of Legendary Shards.
Blue weapons and armors will continue to drop from enemies and chests while playing Destiny 2, but we hope that this will reduce the need for players to manage their inventories and reduce the frequency of visits to the Postmaster when running playlist activities.
We have some work ahead of us when it comes to rarity as a subject in Destiny 2. While blue gear helps players increase their Power earlier in the game, we want to look at their place in the overall game. We aren’t expecting any major changes in the next few Seasons, but will be spending some time behind the scenes thinking about the future of Rare drops all up.
Gunsmith Reputation
Banshee-44 is getting a new reputation system that matches the other vendors in the Tower, such as Zavala and Shaxx. This means we are removing some of the items that were previously associated with Gunsmith Reputation, namely Gunsmith Materials and Weapon Telemetries. Players will now earn Reputation Rank progress with Banshee-44 when dismantling Legendary and Exotic weapons and armor or by completing daily Gunsmith bounties.
Players will want to spend their Gunsmith Materials and Weapon Telemetries at Banshee-44 before February 22, 2022. Any materials that are not spent will be removed from inventory automatically.
Mods & Mod Components
We will also be removing Mod Components from the game. Starting in The Witch Queen, weapon and armor mods sold by Banshee-44 and Ada-1 respectively will no longer require Mod Components to purchase and will instead cost 10,000 Glimmer each. Furthermore, as part of this update, we are increasing the number of mods available on each vendor at a single time from two to four.
Before we move on, it should be noted that all Ghost Mods that generated Weapon Telemetries will be removed, as they no longer serve a purpose.
These mods are:
Arc Analyzer
Solar Analyzer
Void Analyzer
Omni-Telemetry
Banshee Special
Rahool’s Taking Over
As we have mentioned in the past, Master Rahool will be inheriting Spider’s material exchange duties in The Witch Queen. Exchange rates should match what you know from Spider (for now), but these services are being shifted to the Tower as the Tangled Shore will soon be off limits to Guardians.
In addition, Rahool will also be picking up some of the wares that Banshee-44 and Ada-1 once offered, specifically the sale of Enhancement Prisms and Ascendant Shards. As noted above, this makes space for more mods to be available for purchase during a given week. Rahool will offer these materials at the same price as Banshee-44 and Ada-1 once sold them.
Enhancement Prism
10 Enhancement Cores
25 Planetary Materials
10,000 Glimmer
Ascendant Shard
10 Enhancement Prisms
100 Planetary Materials
50,000 Glimmer
As a final note before we move on to some Exotic news, Master Rahool will also be able to decrypt Umbral engrams, so players will not have to hop between the H.E.L.M. and the Tower to decrypt all of the engrams in their inventory. Focusing for individual Seasonal weapons and armor will live on Seasonal Vendors in the H.E.L.M. moving forward, so if you want to focus on a specific weapon from a given Season, you’ll still need to head to the H.E.L.M. for decryption.
Hawkmoon & Dead Man’s Tale
As of February 22, 2022 the Harbinger and Presage Exotic missions will no longer be accessible. The team still wanted to preserve the ability for players to obtain random rolls of these weapons. Therefore, instead of adding these items to the Monument to Lost Lights, as we have done with most of our previous Exotics that no longer have sources, these two weapons will show up as part of Xur’s inventory each weekend.
Every week Xur will offer a unique roll for both Hawkmoon and Dead Man’s Tale, and will be purchasable to all players that own Beyond Light for the following materials:
1 Ascendant Shard
1 Exotic Cipher
125,000 Glimmer
200 Legendary Shards
Wait, before you go… what about those Exotic Catalysts?
Oh, that’s something fun! The Hawkmoon, DMT, and Ager’s Scepter catalysts will be moved to the playlist activity (Strikes, Crucible, Gambit) completions. In addition to these three, we have also added the ability for three catalysts that have been absent from Destiny 2 to drop from playlist activities as well.
The full list:
Hawkmoon
Dead Man’s Tale
Ager’s Scepter
Outbreak Perfected
Whisper of the Worm
The Fourth Horseman
Outbreak Perfected and Whisper of the Worm have both had the requirements for completing their catalyst updated so that they can be completed without access to their original activities.
SAVE THE (RAID) DATE
The Witch Queen has a new raid. Surprising, no? While we still have a bit of time before the World First race begins, we wanted to get a rally flag planted in the sand for when you should expect to be taking on the challenge.
Destiny 2: The Witch Queen [REDACTED] Raid
March 5, 2022
10:00 AM Pacific (18:00 UTC)
We’ll have additional details on Contest Mode, Bungie Rewards, and other need-to-know information closer to the date. Until then, get in those time-off requests! If you’re still in school, we do not advise faking sick notes from doctors or lying to your parents to stay home. Go to class. Do your homework. Ace those tests. Be a good student. Conquer the raid boss that is the essay due next week. Raid prep can be an evening activity. We’ll be proud of you either way!
Credit Bungie