This week Bungie was back with more information about the future. They went into some detail related to Episode Revenant, more detail about the future expansions and what frontiers is going to look like, plus in depth info related to armor changes coming. Today I’m going to do a quick recap for all the new information about the future of Destiny 2.
Episode Revenant
Revenant is coming on Tuesday 8th October and we have a number of improvements coming. One of the echoes, a remnant from the death of the Witness inside the Traveller, lands with Fikrul and the Scorn are changing. Fikrul is now the leader of the Scorn and he wants to evolve the Scorn, and to do this he’s going to need bodies, and that doesn’t bode well for the Eliksni. Crow, Mithrax and Eido are going to be major characters in the upcoming Episode.
We have a new mechanic introduced next season called Tonics, where we craft various tonics at a crafting station. This is going to have different effects on gameplay but one of the major effects includes focusing loot, building on the success of Into The Light and focusing Onslaught weapons.
Onslaught is getting some updates including 3 new maps with enemy factions including the Scorn and Shadow Cabal. Widows Court was shown off as one of the new maps. We have new defences including a shrapnel turret and an air strike, plus tripwires have been improved by adding stasis slow effects.
The seasonal exotic is a primary stasis grenade launcher, similar to Fighting Lion, which is also getting an update. The projectiles for this grenade launcher are similar to Mountaintop, as in they fire in a straight line. Reloading after a kill can produce special and heavy ammo, so players can support their fireteam by building into ammo support. At wave 30 you have the chance to get a fully masterworked, double-perked seasonal weapon to drop.
Icebreaker is returning as the dungeon weapon, but it’s perks have been reworked as to not break the game and the ammo economy completely. Assists and final blows with other weapons generate ammo for Icebreaker.
The new artifact was shown, with a heavy theme of Stasis. Overload GL is returning plus anti-barrier scout rifle. Breach and clear also returning with a slight rework. Inverted Spire is returning, the original D2 strike from the beta, albeit reworked.
Act 2 is going to arrive with an activity inspired by Destiny’s past. However, Bungie aren’t talking about that until closer to the time. Festival of the Lost armor was also shown off, which looks very good as always.
Frontiers
The new expansions are going to be twice yearly and roughly the size of Rise of Iron, the 3rd major expansion from Destiny 1. Rather than have one huge moment per year they want to have two, and focus on replayable activities. Each is going to have a campaign and plus a structure to dive into similar to The Dreaming City. The new destination is going to feature non-linear storytelling, similar to a metroidvania, where you have to gather items to unlock new parts of the map.
Bungie are also doing away with the structure of going to see an NPC on the H.E.L.M. and want characters to be out there in the wild, so players have to experience the world to interact with the story and characters. Some new concept art was shown off from a new location, one we haven’t been to before. Bungie want to bring back the mystic to Destiny, discovering secrets, exploring new worlds.
Armor changes
Compared to weapons, armor has been a relatively unexciting reward for a few years now. In the year ahead, we will be introducing new properties to armor, and changing how stats work to make it easier to change armor around.
The Problem
In the years since the last major update, Shadowkeep’s “Armor 2.0”, armor has settled into a relatively static part of the reward story. Once you have the right stat rolls, there is very little else to look forward to, and the intricate balance of stat values has a lock-in effect that makes it hard to want to swap anything out anyway.
For armor to be exciting again, it needs some unique properties, and stats need to be easier to manage without so much need for fine tuning.
The Solution
Reworked Stat Mechanics
Stats on armor will be changing in Codename: Frontiers in order to make them more player friendly.
The first major change is the mechanics of the stats themselves:
Stats effects will no longer be tiered every 10 points. Every point in a stat will provide a benefit. This change is intended to reduce the “lock-in” effect that happens when a fine-tuned combination of stat values makes it feel impossible to switch out any single Armor piece.
Stat effects will be capped at 200, with the range from 101-200 providing an additional powerful effect building on the base effect. This change is intended to support deeper investment in a smaller number of stats, and “spikier” stat distributions on armor with fewer secondary “dump stats.”
In addition to the above changes, the distribution of stats on armor will also be changing:
Legendary armor will have a Stat Archetype, which determines the primary and secondary stat types, with a third stat being a free roll. The values of these stats should overall be “spikier”, leading to fewer points in “dump stats”.
The class slot (Hunter Cloaks, Warlock Bonds, and Titan Marks) will have full stat distributions, on par with other slots.
The result will be a smaller number of unique stats on any piece of armor, with larger contributions to these stats, and every stat point providing a benefit. These changes should ultimately make every piece of armor more interesting and easier to evaluate.
New Stats
Some stats will be changing with three goals in mind:
Improve specific weak stats that offer little value.
Reduce or eliminate mandatory “must have” stats.
Overall improve understandability of stats and their effects.
These changes are still under active development, but here are a few examples from work-in-progress designs, which will eventually include most or all of the current stats found on armor:
Discipline
From 1 to 100, provides increasing grenade cooldown reduction.
From 101 to 200, provides an increasing chance to gain a bonus grenade charge whenever your grenade becomes available.
Stat renamed to Grenade to improve readability.
Strength
From 1 to 100, provides increasing melee cooldown reduction
From 101 to 200, provides an increasing chance to gain a bonus melee charge whenever your powered melee becomes available.
Stat renamed to Melee to improve readability.
Special Ammo
From 1 to 100, increases rate at which Special ammo bricks drop from final blows.
From 101 to 200, provides an increasing chance that a double-sized brick will drop.
Set Bonuses
The second major change to armor is the introduction of Set Bonuses.
Think of them like an origin trait for armor; they’ll represent the theme of the armor and allow you to reflect that fantasy in the way your build plays.
Set Bonuses are perks granted when you equip two and four pieces of armor from the same set. This allows you to either commit to two bonuses from the same set or find combinations that fit your unique needs. We’re keeping both approaches in mind as they take shape and are excited to see what each Guardian chooses to do with these new tools.
Note that there is no bonus at five pieces, because most builds are expected to include a piece of Exotic armor.
As you’ll see, perks will consist of either existing mods or will be newly designed. We’ve included a few examples below that represent the general direction we’d like to go.
Tex Mechanica
Perk 1 (2 pieces): While shooting from the hip, you have increased movement speed and weapon handling. Effect increases when you score hits.
Perk 2 (4 pieces): Tex Mechanica weapons have increased range and accuracy when hipfired.
Nonstop Aggression
Perk 1 (2 pieces):Final blows with freshly reloaded weapons heal you.
Perk 2 (4 pieces): Damaging a target with a Shotgun or Fusion Rifle increases the damage it takes from those weapons for a short time.
Demolitions Expert
Perk 1 (2 pieces):Direct hits with explosive weapons temporarily increases their reload speed.
Perk 2 (4 pieces): Repeated direct hits with explosive weapons temporarily increase grenade ability damage.
Vanguard Operative
Perk 1 (2 pieces): Activating your grenade gives you and nearby allies damage resistance against combatants.
Perk 2 (4 pieces): Defeating Champions with a finisher generates Special ammo for you and your fireteam.
My thoughts
Revenant is shaping up nicely. It’s good to see improvements to Onslaught, as that has been one of the major wins in the game over the last 12 months. It’s also good to see the focus on Stasis through the artifact. I don’t think we’re going to see a major change to the format of running back and forth between vendors this episode, but it sounds like our feedback has been taken on board and that is going to change in Episode Heresey, and definitely in Frontiers. I’m looking forward to the new weapons coming, it’s good to see Bungie allowing up to support our fireteams through generating ammo alongside helping with health regeneration in the traditional support role.
Frontiers is sounding good. I like the idea of the non-linear story and metroidvania structure. I am a massive fan of metroidvanias outside of Destiny 2 and bringing in some of those concepts to the game is going to be very interesting. It’s hard to visualise at the moment given we’re only being shown concept artwork, once we start to see something more concrete we’ll get a sense of the next steps. Everything Bungie is saying sounds positive, however, I want to see the next steps and not just listen to Bungie talking about it.
The armor changes sound positive also. I felt like we took a massive step backwards with armor in Lightfall when everything was simplified. Making armor feel important again is going to open up the buildcrafting, and making that easier to understand and get into through simplified stats and also these set bonuses should be good moves.
Let me know what you think in the comments.