New restrictions are set to be added to the Crown of Sorrows Raid when it drops with the Season of Opulence release, Destiny 2 game director Luke Smith revealed on Friday. Specifically, teams will not be able to over-level the content and will have their power levels locked at certain thresholds to ensure "a fair but competitive environment" for the Worlds First race.

Smith revealed in the announcement that the changes come due to the major event that Worlds Firsts have become over the years in Destiny. When Raids were first being released, Bungie assumed a few determined Guardians would race to finish it first, but it would mostly be ignored by players who were just interested in tracking through all the new expansion content.

"When we were building Vault of Glass in 2013, the notion that our raids would launch a competition around Worlds First in Destiny was only a dream," Smith explained. "We certainly didn't imagine we'd have the opportunity to make a sweet championship belt, and jackets, for champions and competitors.

"It's been an incredible multi-year run - bosses have fallen off ledges, sword bearers have been clutch, giant foes have created jaw-dropping moments, and the list could go on and on. With Crown of Sorrow, we hope to add more memories to your time in Destiny's Raids."

Bungie is hoping their tweaked changes ahead of the new Raid release, alongside the new competitive gamemode titled "Contest," will create a "watchable and fair World First race."

"The World First race is when our players test their mettle in the Raid for the first time. With Opulence, we wanted to try something different and make the Raid available on day 1 in an effort to make the Raid Race more fair and competitive," he said. "However, our best-laid plans have turned this into a multi-week, cross-seasonal Powerful Reward storage competition.

"While we love seeing players find clever ways of leveraging game mechanics, we wanted to step back and look at what's going to be the best player experience for those competing and those watching. Below is how we’re changing the way the World First Raid window works for Season of Opulence and testing out a new mode called Contest."

Bungie's changes include the Contest mode, which will create an enforced challenge with the Raid. Power levels will provide limited advantages for any given fight. Smith confirmed the first fight in the Raid would not be any easier for any Power level over 700, while the final fight would not have an advantage over 720 Power.

After a 24-hour period, Bungie will then disable the Contest mode, and restore the Power/Raid relationship to its usual functionality. This will see all Guardians able to leverage their Power levels to overcome the Raid's challenge at an easier level.

Smith also revealed the game developers would also be deploying the Season of Opulence update at 8am Pacific time, before downtime at 10am Pacific time would give all players a chance to download and verify the expansion content ahead of the official release time.

"If this experiment goes well, we can imagine future Raids launching with Contest active. But first, we want to see how this one plays out," Smith said. "We'll be watching with you and cheering you on."

Crown of Sorrows goes live at 4pm Pacific Time, on June 4. The content will release on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One simultaneously.