Destiny 2 Update 2.7.1 ⁠— Hard Light, Breakneck tweaks, and more

A new update was released to Destiny 2 live servers this recent weekly reset which focuses on some small bug fixes as well as some tweaks to some fan-favorite weapons.

Weapon Updates

Hard Light

“Adjusted scope feedback and camera shake on Hard Light firing.”

Hard Light has been around since the beginning of Destiny 1 and has always had its trademark camera shake when firing the weapon, making it somewhat difficult to aim. This was seen as a balancing feature to make it harder to hit shots at farther ranges since a unique perk of the weapon causes its rounds to hit at their max damage no matter how far away the target is. In Update 2.7.1, Bungie has drastically lowered this nauseating camera shake, something that players have been asking for years now, to make using this weapon a more pleasant experience.

With Range being such a highly sought after stat for Crucible weapons, and with the Hard Light Catalyst granting it maxed out Stability, expect this weapon to gain a decent amount of popularity in various PvP modes. As for PvE, the weapon still does not have any damage enhancing perks so its popularity will remain as it has, as a decent option for low level content. The weapon can still be used to great effect in any activity with the Match Game modifier due to its ability to switch element types.

Breakneck

“Fixed an issue where Onslaught would reduce damage at 2x Rampage stacks despite not increasing Rate of Fire. Breakneck now has higher damage per second at Rampage x1 and x2, from 2170/2120 to 2190/2410.“

Upon its release in Season of the Forge in late December 2018, Breakneck was quickly considered one of the best Auto RIfles in the game. This was due to its perk combination of Rampage increasing its damage after every kill and Onslaught increasing the rate of fire with every stack of Rampage. This created a fast firing, high damage Auto Rifle that would absolutely shred through enemies.

Unfortunately, and to great outcry from the community, Breakneck was severely nerfed at the release of Shadowkeep with its per shot damage values being adjusted to be lower as its rate of fire increased with the Onslaught perk. This drastically reduced its overall DPS and neutered the weapon.

Now, this new extra damage results in only a handful of percentage points of extra DPS, not enough to bring this weapon back into the limelight.

Armor Updates

Wormgod Caress & Winter’s Guile

“Wormgod Caress and Winter's Guile no longer retain the status of their buff if the armor piece is unequipped.”

Both Wormgod Caress and Winter’s Guile Exotic Gauntlets have been disabled within Destiny 2 for some weeks now due to a game-breaking bug that was discovered. Players discovered that once the melee damage buffs on both of these Exotics were built up to max they could switch to another set of gauntlets then switch back to the Exotics to have an unlimited amount of time to expend the extra melee damage.

Normally there is a 5-second countdown timer but now players could take the time to build up other damage sources to stack with this extra melee damage, like One-Two punch from Shotguns, to instantly kill many Raid bosses.

Fortunately, this bug has been fixed with the latest update, both Wormgod Caress and Winter’s Guile have been re-enabled for use within Destiny 2.

Ability Updates

Titan Mortar Blast

“Fixed an issue that would sometimes cause the Sunbreaker Titan's Mortar Blast to deal little to no damage. Increased the Sunbreaker Titan's Mortar Blast damage by 70 percent in PvE.”

The Titan’s melee ability Mortar Blast has been bugged for years now with it sometimes deciding to deal almost no damage when activated. With the newest update, Bungie has reported that this long-standing bug has been fixed. On top of that, Bungie has also decided to buff its damage by 70%.

This would be all well and good if the bug was actually fixed. A user by the name of ‘FranticsMemes’ made a post on the Destiny subreddit with the title “Sunspot melee (mortar blast) still broken after patch” and backs it up with video evidence of Mortal Blast continuing to deal extremely low damage. Hopefully, it won't take Bungie another couple of years to have another stab at squashing this resilient bug.

For the full patch notes, head over to Bungie.net.