This Week at Bungie - 8/9/18

The latest TWAB offers a few more previews of what we can expect to see as we get closer to Forsaken, which drops on 9/4/18. Forsaken - Petra Venj This TWAB offers a lot of details regarding the weapons and sandbox changes that will drop on 8/28/18

Mod System Changes

On August 28th, all current mods will be "deprecated" and we will be able to dismantle any mods in our inventory for materials and parts. On September 4th, Banshee-44's inventory will be solely dedicated to the new Forsaken mods.

Prior to August 28th, you will need to use whatever mods to "lock in" your elemental damage type on Year 1 weapons. After the update, the old mod slot will be no more and we won't be able to use any of the old mods from that point forward. There is a list of weapons that will be moving to the Kinetic slot. These weapons will have their elemental damage removed regardless of what mod was applied:

  • Baligant
  • Shepherd's Watch
  • Hawthorne's Field-Forge Shotgun
  • Alone as a God
  • Perfect Paradox
  • The Frigid Jackal
  • Silicon Neuroma Forsaken UI

Dreaming City

There is a video of the Dreaming City that Bungie released on YouTube. The Dreaming City is described as "...largest endgame experience ever." The video offers some nice visuals of the Dreaming City but, of course, our knowledge of this area is very thin at the moment. We do know that this area will contain end-game content, including a raid. Think of it like Venus, in a way. Venus in Destiny 1 was an area where you could complete bounties, patrols, some quests, but it also contained access to the Vault of Glass raid. This isn't 100% confirmed, but from the descriptions we've received, it sounds like this will be the same type of area.

Light Level and Power

Bungie has been hard at work to make sure that our time investment in the game is meaningful. I won't go as far to say that they will make the game more difficult, but more rewarding. Bungie's Investment Team (yes, it's a real thing) provided some insight on their vision.

Year 1 activities saw an "absolute range" of power. Doing a nightfall, for instance, would have a maximum amount of light level it would provide as rewards, based on your current Light Level. So, if your max Light Level obtainable when entering a Nightfall was, say, 280, you might only receive rewards that would increase a particular slot by 1 or 2. With Forsaken, if you are under leveled and manage to complete an event, you should see a much larger jump in Light Level. This should allow players to quickly bridge the gap between the campaign and end-game, opening many more "doors" and opportunities to enjoy more of the content.

They also mention "multiple new sources of Power" that refresh outside of the weekly reset. To avoid spoilers, there was not much more information given on this topic, but they said the players can discover the best ways to reach endgame in Forsaken.

Also, a small note, whenever you receive an Exotic item, it will always drop at or above your current Light Level. Forsaken Gear Milestones

The Milestone system has been changed in Forsaken. It will only show the important, non-repeatable quests for players of Destiny 2 (specifically, campaign missions and quests are mentioned). World quests will now be in the Pursuits section of our inventory.

Other milestones will be coverted toActivity Challenges, but won't be listed in the Milestone section. The Director will show these challenges on the destinations, as a tool-tip.

Activities The strike playlist will be updated to show difficulty selection and modifiers. We will no longer have Heroic Strikes.

There is a breakdown that shows the different difficulties available, separated by "Forsaken" and "Legacy" players.

Forsaken players will have 3 difficulties to choose from, and once your Light Level is 40 over the demarcation, you will no longer have access to choose that difficulty. The three difficulties are:

  • Power 300
  • Power 400
  • Power 500

The 500 playlist will always be available, and Strikes will now have modifiers.

Legacy players, meanwhile, have a Recommended Power of 200 and Strikes will have modifiers.

There will be no modifiers on Strikes between August 28th and the release of Forsaken on September 4th.

There will no longer be a "Prestige" difficulty on the Nightfall Strike, but the difficulty for Nightfalls overall will increase. We will have access to three Nightfalls per week, making the hunt for strike-specific loot much more manageable.

Meditations will be a thing of the past, instead replaced by the Heroic story playlist. Forsaken campaign missions will be listed at 500 power, and old campaign missions will be set to a Power level that is relative to their release.

Heroic adventures will be added to all destinations, and when that Destination is the weekly Flashpoint, one adventure will be set to Heroic per day. Mercury and Mars destinations are the exception, as they will function as they currently do. They will gain one additional adventure per day when they are the Flashpoint; however.

Activity modifiers will be consistent across all Heroic adventures, Heroic story missions, and strikes. These include one weekly singe (burn), one daily buff, and one daily debuff. Forsaken Story Economy

Destination materials will become the main source of reputation, and those materials will be part of the cost to infuse different weapons and armor.

Destinations will now have bounties, and the Challenges are being retired.

Gunsmith packages will require a total of 100 materials instead of the current 40 that we need to cash in today.

Trials of the Nine

Trials of the Nine will be unavailable in Season 4 to make some adjustments.

Iron Banner

Lord Saladin will join us in the tower for the last time in Season 3, beginning on Tuesday, August 14th and ending on Tuesday, August 21. The game type will be Control.

There is a change to the Power Play rule that will be very interesting. If your team caps all three zones, the zones will lock down for 20 seconds. This will be some precious time to press your advantage! After 20 seconds, all the flags will be reset to neutral and must be recaptured. This should allow your team (if you get the Power Play) to put some critical points on the board, or in the unfortunate event that you are on the wrong side of the Power Play, you will have a chance to regain some footing and even the playing field. This also rewards those who play the objective and turns IB into a more tactical game than just shoot, kill, repeat.

Iron Banner, in Season 4, will go back to Power Level advantages. This means that your Light Level matters, and entering IB as an under-leveled Guardian will be a tough match.

Faction Rallies

Faction Rallies will not be available in Season 4 while the team munches on the feedback provided by players and makes the rally a much better experience for all players.

Eververse

There is a lot of information on Eververse contained in the TWAB, but most notably is that there will now be Eververse bounties. Check out the TWAB for details!

Valor

This weekend marked a Double Valor week, which began on August 10th and runs through the 17th. This is a good chance for you to finish that Solstice bounty and become "Legendary". Beginning on the 17th, and running through the 21st, it will be a Triple Valor Weekend MLG Air Horn plays here! There is one last double Valor weekend from the 24th through the 28th. Seriously, get that Legendary ranking. The Crucible should be...fun...

There is much more information in the TWAB posting than what is listed here, so check it out here.

With so many changes coming to Destiny 2 in a few short weeks, I'm starting to wonder if we will recognize the game! So far I haven't seen anything that I absolutely dread, but have seen a lot of things that I am excited for and others that I'm left to wonder the impact.

What are you looking forward to the most?