Destiny 2 Lightfall patch notes: Neomuna, Strand, buildcrafting, loadouts, weapon balancing, and more

The Witness is here, and so are a bunch of changes to the game.

Image via Bungie

The end of the Light and Darkness saga is upon us.

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Destiny 2 Lightfall is here. And so is The Witness, here to bring about the end of humanity in a second collapse—but not if the Guardians and the Last City have anything to say about it.

Each year, Destiny 2 has a large-scale expansion that adds a slew of new content but also flips the game on its head with changes to the mechanics, weapon balancing, game modes, and so much more. It’s always a good time to be a Destiny fan, but Lightfall looks like it could be the biggest year yet.

Strap yourself in, Guardian. This is the big one. Here’s everything coming in Destiny 2 Lightfall’s patch.

Destiny 2 Lightfall patch notes

Image via Bungie

Activities

Crucible

  • Added an Exotic Armor Swap penalty applied to Trials of Osiris and Competitive Division. Equipping a different piece of Exotic armor drains all ability energy in these modes.
  • Competitive Division
    • Fixed a bug that caused the Competitive intro quest to auto-claim the completion reward. Rewards are now claimed upon interacting with Shaxx.
    • Competitive Rift & Showdown have reduced revive delay time to 1.5s from 2s; reduced respawn time to 5.5s from 7s.

Vanguard Ops

  • Fixed an issue in Heist Battleground: Europa where a Heavy ammo crate could respawn for players who get quarantined into the boss fight arena.
  • When you play Vanguard Ops or Nightfall, your final score determines a reputation multiplier for that activity’s completion. Multipliers run from 1.0 (under 30,000 points) to 7.0 (above 250,000). We also tuned the amount of Vanguard rank you receive for completions, Nightfall quality, and streaks.
  • Full pass on all Vanguard map and mode multipliers, with an eye toward balancing score-per-hour, rather than score-per-attempt.
  • Vanguard and Nightfall strikes: Added on-screen health bar for bosses previously missing them.
  • Fixed an issue where player could be given the same objective twice in quick succession in The Devil’s Lair strike.
  • The Vanguard Ops playlist has increased in difficulty – players can no longer level beyond the enemy combatants.
  • Additional rotating modifiers have been added to the Vanguard Ops playlist.

Difficulty options

  • Hero, Legend, and Master difficulties have been reworked for greater challenge and to accommodate new modifiers. Adept difficulty has been removed.
    • Hero activity level is now soft cap + 20. Legend is Power cap + 30, and Master is Power cap + 40. Each has a scaling combat delta that keeps you under level in the activity and provides a smoother pathway to Grandmaster.
  • Most Hero/Legend/Master/Grandmaster activities now feature the ability to use “overcharged” weapons for increased damage. Which weapons are overcharged are determined by your Seasonal Artifact unlocks and activity modifiers.
  • Elemental singes and burns have been replaced and broken out into incoming and outgoing components: “threats” and “surges”. Damage bonuses for surges and overcharges do not stack.

Raids and dungeons

  • Armor pieces from Master difficulty Grasp of Avarice, Duality, and Spire of the Watcher drop with higher stats.

UI/UX

Image via Bungie
  • Lightfall title screen
    • The title screen has received a visual and audio update for Lightfall.
  • Guardian Ranks
    • UI throughout Destiny 2 has been updated to display player’s Guardian Rank.
  • Orbit Screen
    • Added a button to directly access the Journey tab.
  • Triumphs tab → Journey tab
    • When building the Guardian Ranks feature, the team leaned into the opportunity to refresh and relabel the Triumphs tab to better encapsulate the player’s journey through Destiny 2.
    • Many of the changes will be immediately visible but some are more subtle including:
      • An access point to view details about the Commendations you have sent and received.
      • An additional access point for Seasonal Challenges.
    • Seals are no longer broken into two categories – Seals and Titles – they are just Titles.
    • Additionally, to focus the information shown at the top level, both Triumphs and Titles have been migrated to bespoke sub-screens.
      • Added the ability to equip/unequip Titles from the sub-screen rather than going into the details screen.
  • Commendations
    • Commendations may be sent and received near the end of most activities.
    • Accessibility
      • In all locations where Commendations may be viewed or given, the player’s Colorblind preferences are respected.
        • This includes VFX in the post-game carnage report.
  • Post Game Carnage Report (PGCR)
    • Updated the PGCR to complement the new Commendations feature and updated some features.
    • The PGCR now consists of two tabs, the Commendations screen and the scoreboard.
    • The reputation wheel has been simplified and is displayed on the top right of the scoreboard page.
    • The player can now access the PGCR during the mission end countdown by pressing a button to open Nav mode. Holding it down will still take you to the Director.
      • A tradeoff for this functionally is that when the mission end countdown is active the Nav mode cannot be opened. Pressing a button to open Nav mode will open the PGCR instead.
  • Ritual Rank Tooltips
    • Updated rank tooltips so all rank tooltips now include a streak tracker and added a section that shows a player’s total reputation rank points.
  • Tracking
    • More items can be tracked at a time:
      • Up to three Guardian Ranks objectives can be tracked.
      • Up to six non-Guardian Ranks objectives can be tracked.
    • Nav mode updates:
      • A tab has been added specifically to display tracked Guardian Ranks objectives.
      • Tracked objectives that are not specific to Guardian Ranks are grouped together.
      • Tracking now split into multiple sections on the Journey tab.
      • Guardian Ranks section specifically shows tracked Guardian Ranks objectives.
      • All currently trackable, non-quest objectives are shown below the Seasonal Challenges access point.
    • Guardian Ranks auto-tracking is enabled by default.
      • The goal is to immediately point players towards objectives they can work on to increase their Guardian Rank.
      • This may be toggled on the Journey screen if manual tracking is more your speed.
    • Tracked Seasonal Challenges properly display their challenge type in its tooltip on the tracking screen.
  • Collections
    • Some access points have migrated from the Triumphs tab to the Collections tab:
      • Lore
      • Weapon patterns & catalysts
      • Medals
      • Stat trackers
    • Increased the number of visible ‘recently discovered’ items.
  • Waypoints
    • Rectangles are out. Circles are in.
    • Guardian Ranks replaces Season Pass level for Guardians.
  • Records
    • In order to help call out which Guardian Rank records are Seasonal, a blue gradient has been added to the bottom of all Seasonal records including those on the Seasonal Challenges screen.
  • Vendors
    • Ritual vendors in the Tower (Zavala, Shaxx, Drifter, Banshee-44, Saladin, Saint-14) now have help tooltips describing the core ritual and reputation, as well as explaining some of the less visible features.

QOL updates and fixes

  • Character screen
    • Removed the currency display on the Character screen.
  • Clans
    • Fixed an issue where Hawthorne’s icon on the Tower map wouldn’t consistently pulse when a clan engram was available to claim.
  • Roster
    • Improved contrast between player names and background colors on the Roster.
    • Fixed an issue causing the Director screen to refresh the footer UI when players in the Roster changed states.
  • Settings
    • Fixed an issue causing the Settings menu to close when leaving a submenu.

Gameplay and investment

Armor

  • Armor energy type has been deprecated. Armor now has untyped armor energy, and all mods use that untyped energy when socketed.
  • Armor mods that were previously based on weapon archetype are now based on weapon damage type.
  • Most armor mods that are based on weapon damage type also have a harmonic version, which is discounted when the weapon’s damage type matches your subclass damage type.
  • Armor mod costs have been generally reduced across the board.
  • The Combat Style mod socket has been deprecated and replaced on all armor pieces with an extra socket for mods associated with that armor slot (helmet, gauntlets, etc.).
  • The Charged With Light and Elemental Wells armor mods have been merged into a single system: Armor Charge.
    • Players using the Armor Charge system can gain up to three stacks of Armor Charge at a time (expanded up to six stacks by equipping Charged Up mods).
    • Picking up an Orb of Power grants one stack of Armor Charge.
    • Many mods that previously created Elemental Wells or granted stacks of Charged With Light directly have been modified to instead spawn Orbs of Power.
    • Mods that provide an ongoing benefit (such as Font of Wisdom) now grant that benefit as long as you have stacks of Armor Charge; these mods cause Armor Charge stacks to decay every 10 seconds.
    • Some redundant mods have been deprecated when their effect would overlap with an existing mod’s effects.
    • Some armor mods (such as the Kickstart mods and most mods triggered by using a finisher) now make use of the Armor Charge system.
    • Some of the functionality of Elemental Wells and their associated mods have been moved into subclass fragments and the new Firesprite and Void Breech.
  • Warmind Cells have been deprecated.
  • Seasonal Artifact
    • Unlocking a perk in the Seasonal Artifact now grants that perk directly to the character when it is relevant; you no longer need to socket an armor mod to gain an Artifact perk’s effect.
    • Column 2 of the Artifact now unlocks multiple discounted mods per node.
    • The maximum number of unlocked perks has been reduced to 12.
    • Resetting your selections in the Seasonal Artifact is now free.
    • Removed the one-second button hold to unlock an Artifact perk; a single button press now unlocks the perk.
  • Artifice armor has had its bonus socket converted into a socket that allows you to increase any one stat on that armor piece by +3.
  • Adjusted the amount of damage reduction provided by the Resilience stat in PvE. At tier 10 damage reduction now caps at 30% (down from 40% in Season 19), and the progression of the damage reduction across tiers has been smoothed to give more relative value to lower tiers of Resilience.
  • The armor mods granting Resilience have had their armor energy costs increased to 4 (+10 Resilience) and 2 (+5 Resilience).
  • The Iron Lord’s Pride perk has been added to all Iron Banner armor sets from Season 8 to the present.
  • Exotic Armor changes
    • Khepri’s Sting: Truesight is now granted when damaging an enemy with a smoke bomb. Additionally, when you have an undetonated smoke bomb on the battlefield and have not been made invisible by a smoke bomb, you gain significantly increased melee energy generation.
    • Heart of Inmost Light: Reduced duration of the empowered ability buffs in PvE to five seconds (down from 10 seconds). Reduced bonus class ability regeneration while empowered to +25% per stack in both PvE and PvP (down from +150% and +38%, respectively).
      • This change is intended to decrease how easy it is to get and maintain a 2x empowerment bonus in PvE, as well as reduce the total amount of bonus ability energy provided. The goal is for Heart of Inmost light to remain strong in ability-focused builds, while giving room for other Exotics to shine as well.
    • The Bombardiers now cause targets damaged by its explosive to become severed when used by a Strand Hunter.
    • Chromatic Fire has been updated to work with Strand.
    • Mantle of Battle Harmony updated to work with Strand.
    • Verity’s Brow updated to work with Strand.
    • Felwinter’s Helm triggers weaken burst off Strand melees.
    • Claws of Ahamkara will not provide an additional melee charge when equipped to a Strand subclass.
  • Armor that supports coloration and appearance change based on your currently selected subclass has been updated to support Strand. This includes the following:
    • 2020, 2021, and 2022 Solstice Armor sets.
    • Antaeus Wards and ornaments.
    • No Backup Plans and ornaments.

Weapons

Image via Bungie
  • Crafting changes
    • Resonant elements have been removed.
    • Crafting component costs have been replaced with standard currencies such as Glimmer and Enhancement Cores.
    • Deepsight will now only manifest on weapons that have a pattern available to unlock.
    • Deepsight has been removed on existing weapons that do not have a pattern available to unlock.
    • The Deepsight attunement objective has been removed. You can immediately extract or dismantle the weapon to obtain pattern progress.
  • Crafting bug fixes
    • Fixed an issue where a crafted perk cost was doubled for the King’s Fall weapons Defiance of Yasmin and Smite of Merain.
  • Updated several different weapon VFX to address miscellaneous bugs and performance issues.
  • Restored the correct audio to Field-Forged shotguns.
  • Red reticle is now enabled on PC.
  • Linear Fusion Rifles
    • Reduced damage vs. Champions, minibosses, bosses, and vehicles by 15%.
      • Sleeper Simulant and The Queenbreaker are unaffected.
  • Machine Guns
    • Increased damage by 10%.
    • Increased reserve ammo by 50% at 0 inventory stat and 20% at 100 inventory stat.
  • Heavy Grenade Launchers
    • Increased damage vs. Champions, minibosses, bosses, and vehicles by 20%, minors by 40%.
    • Improved projectile collision, making it slightly easier to land hits.
    • Increased blast radius by 1m.
    • Parasite is unaffected.
  • Shotguns
    • Shotgun reticles now change in size proportional to spread angle.
    • Related note: The Legend of Acrius hip-fire reticle is now a bit more representative of its (very large) spread angle.
  • Kinetic Weapons
    • Kinetic Primary weapon damage multiplier against unshielded combatants increased from 1.05 to 1.1.
    • Kinetic Special weapon damage multiplier against unshielded combatants increased from 1.05 to 1.15.
    • Kinetic slot Stasis weapons no longer have the 5% damage bonus versus unshielded targets in PvE.
  • Exotics
    • The Queenbreaker
      • Now uses Arc 3.0 blind.
      • Shot now chains to multiple nearby enemies.
    • Ruinous Effigy
      • Transmutation sphere slam attack now suppresses.
    • Leviathan’s Breath
      • Now applies volatile on perfect draw impact.
      • Increased damage from 396 to 442. This allows it to once again one-hit kill all Supers in PvP.
      • Increased damage vs. Champions by 30%.
    • One Thousand Voices
      • Each explosion now applies 10 + 5 (with Ember of Ashes) scorch stacks.
    • Sunshot
      • Explosion on kill now applies 10 + 5 scorch stacks.
    • Polaris Lance
      • Perfect Fifth shots now apply 40 + 20 scorch stacks instead of a custom burn.
    • Two-Tailed Fox
      • Solar rocket now applies 60 + 30 scorch stacks instead of burn.
    • Prometheus Lens
      • Added the Incandescent perk to the catalyst.
    • Grand Overture
      • Switched the catalyst to use Arc blind.
    • The Manticore
      • Added a hip-fire reticle element to showing current stacks of Antigrav Repulsor.
    • Tractor Cannon
      • Fixed a crash when Tractor Cannon was fired at large groups of Stasis crystals.
    • The Fourth Horseman
      • Fixed an issue where this weapon had received an unintended 20% damage nerf.
    • Thunderlord
      • Fixed an issue where this weapon’s lightning strikes could disrupt you or your teammates.
  • Perks
    • These perks have been updated to work with Strand:
      • Osmosis
      • Golden Tricorn
      • Elemental Capacitor
        • Grants +20 airborne effectiveness (+25 for the enhanced perk).
    • Rewind rounds
      • Rebuilt to work on non-Vault of Glass weapons.
    • Eager Edge
      • No longer deactivates when moving faster than 35m/s.
      • Deactivates correctly after a single melee swing.
      • Reduced the base lunge distance buff from 2 to 1.8.
      • Reduced airborne lunge distance penalty from 25% to 20%.
      • The enhanced perk now increases lunge distance slightly, back up to 2.
    • Blinding grenades
      • Renamed to “Disorienting Grenades”.
    • Veist Stinger
      • This was typically a full reload when the perk activated, it now reloads 25% of the magazine.
    • Zen Moment
      • Now also reduces incoming flinch.
      • The perk has been branched so that shots from different archetypes ramp up the effect more quickly.
        • 1x for Submachine Guns, Auto Rifles, and Machine Guns.
        • 1.5x for Pulse Rifles and Sidearms.
        • 2x for Hand Cannons and Scout Rifles.
    • Danger Zone
      • Updated the description to include that, while active, the perk also reduces self-damage from the weapon.
    • Wellspring
      • Fixed an issue where this perk was not rewarding the correct amount of energy.
      • Now works with abilities that have multiple charges.
      • For abilities with multiple charges, once the ability has one full charge it is considered “charged” and will divert excess energy into the other abilities while giving the “charged” ability the least amount.
      • The fix for the enhanced version of this trait is coming in a future patch.
    • Cascade Point
      • No longer triggers off of non-precision damage against weakened targets.

Abilities

Image via Bungie
  • Rescaled the efficacy of Discipline, Strength, and each class ability stat on grenade, melee, and class ability regeneration rates:
    • In general, Tier 10 stat is roughly equivalent to Tier 8 in the previous system.
    • Each increase in Tier now provides a more consistent benefit to the ability’s cooldown reduction, rather than spiking heavily at low tiers.
  • Hunter
    • Supers
      • Arc Staff
        • Increased the maximum number of Orbs that can be created via defeating targets from 5 to 7.
      • Golden Gun: Marksman
        • Increased the maximum number of Orbs that can be created via defeating targets from 5 to 7.
      • Golden Gun: Deadshot
        • Increased the maximum number of Orbs that can be created via defeating targets from 5 to 7.
      • Spectral Blades
        • Increased the maximum number of Orbs that can be created via defeating targets from 5 to 7.
        • Reduced base cooldown time from 10m25s to 9m16s.
      • Gathering Storm
        • Decreased the maximum number of Orbs that can be created via defeating targets from 7 to 5.
      • Silence and Squall
        • Decreased the maximum number of Orbs that can be created via defeating targets from 7 to 5.
      • Blade Barrage
        • Decreased the maximum number of Orbs that can be created via defeating targets from 7 to 5.
    • Class Abilities
      • Marksman’s Dodge
        • Reduced base cooldown time from 34s to 29s.
      • Gambler’s Dodge
        • Reduced base cooldown time from 46s to 38s.
    • Melees
      • Weighted Throwing Knife
        • Increased base cooldown time from 109s to 137s.
      • Lightweight Knife
        • Increased base cooldown time from 90s to 100s.
      • Proximity Explosive Knife
        • Increased base cooldown time from 100s to 111s.
      • Withering Blade
        • Reduced base cooldown time from 113s to 100s.
  • Titan
    • Supers
      • Fists of Havoc
        • Increased the maximum number of Orbs that can be created via defeating targets from 5 to 7.
        • Increased PVE damage by 20%.
      • Glacial Quake
        • Increased the maximum number of Orbs that can be created via defeating targets from 5 to 7.
      • Hammer of Sol
        • Increased the maximum number of Orbs that can be created via defeating targets from 5 to 7.
        • Reduced base cooldown time from 10m25s to 9m16s.
      • Burning Maul
        • Increased the maximum number of Orbs that can be created via defeating targets from 5 to 7.
      • Sentinel Shield
        • Increased the maximum number of Orbs that can be created via defeating targets from 5 to 7.
      • Thundercrash
        • Decreased the maximum number of Orbs that can be created via defeating targets from 7 to 5.
        • Reduced maximum flight time from 5 seconds to 4.5 seconds.
        • Reduced size of the damaging volume around the player and pushed it further forward in front of the player to make drive-by disintegrations more intentional.
        • Reduced detonation size vs. players by ~20%; unchanged vs. PVE combatants.
        • Downward vertical influence now begins earlier in flight.
      • Ward of Dawn
        • Ward maximum health reduced from 13500 to 8000.
        • Rescaled PVE combatant damage vs. the Ward to compensate; in general, Ward of Dawn’s effective HP against PvE combatants should not meaningfully change.
        • Standardized the damage dealt by each type of Kinetic and Energy weapon against the Ward. Previously, Energy weapons did 2.5x damage to Ward of Dawn and Kinetic weapons did 1x damage. Now regardless of damage type, weapons do 1.5x damage to the Ward.
        • Armor of Light has been updated to reduce its potency in PVP:
          • Maximum health reduced from 425 to 300.
          • Now inherits Void Overshield’s 50% PvE damage resistance to compensate.
          • No longer negates precision damage.
    • Melees
      • Ballistic Slam
        • Now suppresses the attacking player’s base melee for 0.9s after landing, so a follow-up melee cannot be performed until the player returns to first person.
        • Increased base cooldown time from 90s to 114s.
      • Shield Bash
        • Increased base cooldown time from 90s to 114s.
      • Seismic Strike
        • Increased base cooldown time from 90s to 101s.
      • Hammer Strike
        • Increased base cooldown time from 90s to 101s.
      • Shield Toss
        • Reduced base cooldown time from 100s to 91s.
    • Aspects
      • Knockout
        • Reduced basic melee damage bonus vs. players from 60% to 50%.
        • Reduced full body melee damage bonus vs. players from 25% to 20%.
  • Warlock
    • Supers
      • Stormtrance
        • Increased the maximum number of Orbs that can be created via defeating targets from 5 to 7.
      • Nova Warp
        • Increased the maximum number of Orbs that can be created via defeating targets from 5 to 7.
      • Winter’s Wrath
        • Increased the maximum number of Orbs that can be created via defeating targets from 5 to 7.
      • Daybreak
        • Increased the maximum number of Orbs that can be created via defeating targets from 5 to 7.
        • Throw cost reduced from 10% to 6.5% per swing.
        • Increased damage vs. PvE combatants by 25%.
        • Reduced base cooldown time from 10m25s to 9m16s.
      • Chaos Reach
        • Decreased the maximum number of Orbs that can be created via defeating targets from 7 to 5.
      • Nova Bomb
        • Decreased the maximum number of Orbs that can be created via defeating targets from 7 to 5.
    • Class Abilities
      • Phoenix Dive
        • Reduced base cooldown time from 82s to 55s.
        • While Daybreak is active Phoenix Dive’s cooldown is significantly reduced, allowing for rapid reactivations.
        • While Daybreak is active, Phoenix Dive’s detonation damage increased from 40/80 min/max to 100/220.
        • Restoration duration when activated while Heat Rises is active increased from 1s to 3s.
    • Melees
      • Celestial Fire
        • Increased base cooldown time from 100s to 112s.
      • Incinerator Snap
        • Reduced base cooldown time from 90s to 83s.
      • Penumbral Blast
        • Reduced base cooldown time from 114s to 101s.
    • Aspects
      • Heat Rises
        • Split the airborne effectiveness bonus previously granted by consuming your grenade between a passive and active benefit:
          • Previously, granted 70 airborne effectiveness when Heat Rises was active after consuming a grenade.
          • Now grants 20 airborne effectiveness passively while Heat Rises is equipped, and an additional 50 airborne effectiveness while Heat Rises is active, for the same total of 70 airborne effectiveness.
    • Grenades
      • Arc
        • Lightning grenade
          • Increased base cooldown time from 121s to 152s.
          • Increased PvE damage by 20%.
        • Storm grenade
          • Increased base cooldown time from 105s to 121s.
        • Flux grenade
          • Reduced base cooldown time from 182s to 152s.
        • Pulse grenade
          • Increased PvE damage by 20%.
      • Solar
        • Healing grenade
          • Increased base cooldown time from 82s to 91s.
        • Tripmine grenade
          • Increased base cooldown time from 91s to 121s.
        • Solar grenade
          • Increased base cooldown time from 121s to 152s.
          • Increased PvE damage by 20%.
        • Thermite grenade
          • Increased base cooldown time from 105s to 121s.
          • Increased PvE damage by 20%.
        • Incendiary grenade
          • Reduced base cooldown time from 121s to 105s.
      • Void
        • Void Spike grenade:
          • Increased base cooldown time from 91s to 121s.
          • Increased PvE damage by 20%.
        • Voidwall grenade
          • Increased base cooldown time from 105s to 152s.
          • Increased PVE damage by 20%.
        • Vortex Grenade
          • Increased base cooldown time from 121s to 152s.
          • Increased PvE damage by 20%.
        • Magnetic grenade
          • Reduced base cooldown time from 121s to 105s.
        • Scatter grenade
          • Reduced base cooldown time from 121s to 105s.
      • Stasis
        • Duskfield grenade
          • Increased base cooldown time from 64s to 91s.
    • Added new elemental pickups to the Void and Solar subclasses:
      • Void Breach
        • Void Breaches are created by a selection of new and existing Void fragments, and grant class ability energy on pickup.
      • Firesprite
        • Firesprites are created by a suite of new and existing Solar fragments, and grant grenade energy on pickup.
    • Fragments
      • Arc
        • Spark of Resistance
          • Increased nearby enemy count requirement for activation from 2 to 3.
          • Reduced linger time after you’re no longer surrounded from 4 seconds to 2 seconds.
        • Spark of Instinct (New!)
          • When critically wounded, taking damage from nearby enemies emits a burst of damaging Arc energy that jolts targets.
        • Spark of Haste (New!)
          • You have greatly increased Resilience, Recovery, and Mobility while sprinting.
      • Solar
        • Ember of Tempering
          • Now creates a Firesprite on Solar weapon kills while active, in addition to its original effects.
        • Ember of Combustion
          • Now creates a Firesprite on Solar Super defeats, in addition to its original effects.
        • Ember of Searing
          • Now creates a Firesprite when defeating scorched targets, in addition to its original effects.
        • Ember of Mercy (New!)
          • When you revive an ally, you and other nearby allies gain Restoration. Picking up a Solar Flare grants Restoration.
        • Ember of Resolve (New!)
          • Solar grenade final blows heal you.
      • Void
        • Echo of Domineering
          • Now creates a Void breach when defeating suppressed targets, in addition to its original effects.
        • Echo of Harvest
          • Now creates a Void breach when defeating weakened targets with precision damage, in addition to its original effects.
        • Echo of Starvation
          • Now grants devour on picking up a Void Breach, in addition to its original effects.
          • Now allows Orb of Power pickup with full Super energy.
        • Echo of Cessation (New!)
          • Finisher final blows create a burst of Void damage that causes nearby enemies to become volatile. Defeating volatile targets creates a Void breach.
        • Echo of Vigilance (New!)
          • Defeating a target when your shields are depleted, grants you a temporary Void overshield.
    • Subclass Keywords
      • Arc
        • Jolt
          • Jolt lightning damage now stuns Overload Champions.
        • Blind
          • Blinding Unstoppable Champions now stuns them.
      • Solar
        • Radiant
          • While radiant, your weapons now also pierce Barrier Champion shields and stuns them.
          • Note: Weapons that already have an existing anti-Champion behavior (i.e. an Artifact mod, an intrinsic anti-Champion capability, or the ability to apply another subclass keyword that stuns a Champion type) will not be granted the anti-barrier behavior from being radiant.
        • Ignition
          • Ignition damage now stuns Unstoppable Champions.
      • Void
        • Volatile Rounds
          • While you have volatile rounds, your Void weapons now also pierce Barrier Champion shields and stuns them.
          • Note: Weapons that already have an existing anti-Champion behavior (i.e. an Artifact mod, an intrinsic anti-Champion capability, or the ability to apply another subclass keyword that stuns a Champion type) will not be granted the anti-barrier behavior from volatile rounds.
        • Suppression
          • Suppressing Overload Champions now stuns them.
      • Stasis
        • Slow
          • Slowing Overload Champions now stuns them.
        • Shatter
          • Shatter damage now stuns Unstoppable Champions.

Combatants

  • Champions now correctly stun even when they’re playing another animation, such as a spawn-in.
    • This was a tricky one, so thank you for your patience!
  • Champion stun time is now consistent across all Champions.
    • This used to be dependent on the animation length, leading to slightly different times between combatants.
  • Champions can now be stunned with various elemental verbs:
    • Barrier Champions are weak to:
      • Shots from a player with the Solar radiant buff
      • Void volatile rounds
      • Strand unraveling rounds
    • Overload Champions are weak to:
      • Arc jolt
      • Void suppression
      • Stasis slow
    • Unstoppable Champions are weak to:
      • Arc blind
      • Solar ignition
      • Stasis shatter
      • Strand suspend

Finishers

  • All subclass-agnostic finishers now support Strand coloration when using a Strand subclass.
  • Updated the VFX for Stasis finishers to fix a coloration issue.

Emotes

  • The “Ghost Fist Bump” Exotic emote now supports Strand coloration when using a Strand subclass.

Power and Progression

  • Weekly powerful rewards have been removed from Throne World and added to Neomuna.

Seasonal updates: Engrams, energy, focusing, chests, and keys

  • Umbral engrams are no longer used to focus seasonal weapons and armor and will no longer drop from the game.
    • As a result, there will no longer be Seasonal umbral energy.
  • Seasonal engrams are a new type of engram.
    • You can visit the seasonal vendor to open them.
    • Or you can spend multiple seasonal engrams to focus into specific weapons or armor.
    • Seasonal focusing is now a separate screen and can be accessed at the vendor by pressing the button next to upgrades.
      • If you focused Crucible engrams in Season 19 at Shaxx, you’ll be familiar with this system.
    • Seasonal engrams are stored at the vendor and do not require inventory space.
    • There is a wallet item you can acquire by visiting the seasonal vendor. Hovering over this item in your inventory will show you how many engrams you have for each vendor. If you delete this item, you can reacquire it from the vendor.
  • Owners of a season will now periodically be rewarded with a seasonal engram and/or a seasonal key upon completing activities throughout the game.
    • These are known as defiant engrams and defiant keys for Season of Defiance.
  • Playlist versions of the seasonal battlegrounds have one chest at the end of the activity.
    • If you DO NOT have a seasonal key when you open that chest, you will receive a seasonal weapon or armor.
    • If you DO have a seasonal key, it will be consumed and you will receive the following:
      • EITHER a seasonal weapon with Deepsight resonance that you have not completed the crafting pattern for OR a high stat piece of seasonal armor.
      • AND a seasonal engram.
    • Make sure you open the chest at the end of the activity!
    • World pool weapons and armor no longer drop at the end of the playlist version of seasonal activities.
  • Direct launch versions of the seasonal battlegrounds will not have chests and instead award world pool weapons and armor.

Platforms and Systems

Image via Bungie

PC platforms

  • Added support and in-game setting to toggle NVIDIA Reflex (on supported PC hardware).
  • Fixed various minor QoL issues regarding the Controller settings menus on PC.

General

  • Collision damage is no longer lethal against Guardians.
  • Ghost projections that changed color based on your subclass now support Strand coloration when using a Strand Subclass.

Localization

  • Players now have access to full Mandarin audio localization across all new Lightfall content, the accompanying Season, and core game modes covering Crucible, Gambit, and strikes.
  • Ikora for German has been re-cast.
Author
Image of Scott Duwe
Scott Duwe
Senior Staff Writer & Call of Duty lead. Professional writer for over 10 years. Lover of all things Marvel, Destiny 2, Metal Gear, Final Fantasy, Resident Evil, and more. Previous bylines include PC Gamer, Red Bull Esports, Fanbyte, and Esports Nation. DogDad to corgis Yogi and Mickey, sports fan (NY Yankees, NY Jets, NY Rangers, NY Knicks), Paramore fanatic, cardio enthusiast.