Destiny 2 has experienced its fair share of bugs during Season of the Witch, ranging from funny to game-breaking. But one of these bugs, which allowed players to use Sparrows in PvP, is coming back with a vengeance as a permanent feature in season 23.
The news came via Nov. 9’s This Week in Destiny blog, which focused heavily on updates slated for the Crucible when Season of the Wish launches on Nov. 28. This includes a rework to the available nodes in the Crucible menu—one that shifts Control into a rotational six-vs-six playlist that occasionally features a new variant of the mode called Sparrow Control.
“The 6v6 Unranked node will rotate through different variations of Control, in addition to the original Control. The core mode rules remain the same, while the sandbox is slightly altered,” reads the blog, which was notably signed off by the Destiny 2 team instead of a member of the community team in the wake of Bungie’s Oct. 30 layoffs. “By rotating modified Control modes, we’re segueing into a future where we mix and match modes and modifiers and enable players to do the same.”
Sparrow Control is emblematic of this new approach, with the modifier weighted toward the larger maps in Destiny 2’s PvP catalog to allow for the inclusion of Sparrows to feel meaningful as a way of shifting how these maps flow. It was also mentioned that Sparrow Control would feature a new, unique medal that players can earn—one that is undoubtedly based around the vehicular manslaughter some were able to pull off while the bug existed.
This isn’t the only Control variant that will rotate into this node, though. Checkmate Control is set to be the primary Control mode available for the first weeks after the season launches. “Checkmate has revealed and highlighted a community desire for a refined sandbox in the Crucible,” Bungie said. “We’re not ready to slap Checkmate onto everything just yet, but we are ready to expose the modifier to a larger audience and gather more feedback and data.”
Checkmate is a highly successful variant of the Crucible that was tested over season 22, which puts a greater focus on gunplay and removes some of the power and cooldown speed granted toward abilities. With how strong abilities have become in PvP thanks to the power creep introduced with Light 3.0, it’s a welcome change that should re-emphasize weapon skill as a deciding factor in matchups.
“Our goal is to steer the Crucible experience in a direction that satisfies our most dedicated PvP players. Our updates won’t all be perfect, but we will be iterating,” the Crucible Strike team said. “We are actively taking feedback and data from forums, social media, survey results, and analytics to drive our decision-making process. Some changes will be more immediate (e.g., Checkmate tuning), while others will take time to process (e.g., spawning data).”
Crucible will have a very different look when season 23 launches on Nov. 28. But as the Crucible Strike team noted, there are far more updates on the horizon in The Final Shape and beyond, including larger changes to Trials of Osiris coming with the expansion.
