Destiny 2 players will have a new armor set to chase when season 22 hits—and it’s coming straight from the game’s core playlists. Following backlash after this month’s State of the Game address, Bungie will pick up an armor set that was slated for the Eververse Store and deliver it as a reward for ritual activities in season 22, game director Joe Blackburn confirmed in a video today.
The upcoming armor set would have been placed for sale in the Eververse Store, but the company moved it specifically into the ritual playlists as a response to fan concerns from the August 2023 State of the Game blog post—which indicated a ritual armor set may not have been slated for this year.
In the lukewarm State of the Game blog post earlier this month, Bungie said it would slow down the frequency of new armor sets from ritual activities, breaking the pace of having one per expansion—and seemingly leaving Lightfall without a new set. The post also added that the sets “have historically had very low adoption by players as both base armor and cosmetic ornaments,” though ritual sets are generally far less flashy than their counterparts.
The State of the Game only commented on this shift in priority less than a month before the halfway point of Year Six, however, and guardians who expected fresh new armor from ritual activities were disappointed that the next one would likely only come in The Final Shape. To address that miscommunication, Bungie is pulling a new armor set that would have belonged in the Eververse Store and is instead shifting it into a new ritual armor reward for season 22.
“Just because we’re doing that [creating a new ritual armor] in The Final Shape year, that doesn’t mean that we communicated this soon enough,” Blackburn said.
Related: Over a dozen Destiny 2 Exotics are getting major reworks in season 22
Ritual armor generally appeals to the “core guardian fantasy,” according to Blackburn, which looks closer to everyday wear than to pieces you’d obtain by vanquishing Nezarec, the Final God of Pain. These armor sets are generally more plain, and the low differentiation between the three ritual activities doesn’t really help its case. They’re somewhat closer to blue-rarity armor, so they lack the allure and oomph of armor sets reserved for specific occasions.
Since the upcoming ritual armor set is coming from the Eververse, however, players can expect the flash and quality that comes from a premium armor set. And since Vanguard, Crucible, and Gambit are free for all players, this means guardians don’t need to shell out a single Silver or Bright Dust for the new look.
In his video, Blackburn touched on more topics than just the new armor set. He also touched on the shortcomings of the State of the Game address, set more plans for Destiny, gave more information on the future of communications going forward, and even teased a change in philosophy for Crucible modes.
