This Week At Bungie - 10/25/2018

This week at Bungie, Festival of the Lost continues to serve up frights.

While we remember some of our favorite Destiny characters who have fallen, and their beautiful horns, Festival of the Lost is a chance to celebrate our continued fight in their honor. This year, we're hosting the Festival of the Lost Costume Contest.

From now through 6 PM PDT on October 31, use masks, armor, and shaders to create an in-game costume. Pick the perfect setting and take a pic. Then, using the #FestivalofCostumes hashtag, share your screenshot to the Community Creations page, Twitter, or Instagram to enter. Ten winners will be celebrated via @Bungie on Halloween day and treated with the unique emblem we reserve for all our best artists.

Group shots are welcome. Humor encouraged. Put on a mask, and go show the bad guys they can't keep us down.

Live Your Best QOL

A few weeks ago, we gave you a short preview of what to expect in Destiny 2 Update 2.0.5. This patch carries a range of updates and fixes, most with the goal of providing small quality-of-life improvements to Destiny 2: Forsaken. Below is a preview of some changes, from Trace Rifles to Exotics, and more.

General

• Banshee-44 will accept up to 25 Gunsmith Materials at a time
  
• Removing the hold time for the Spider's material exchange interactions
  
• Increasing stack size of Ghost Fragments from 10 to 20
  
• Reduced shader dismantle time from 1 sec. to 0.25 secs.
  

Exotic Duplicate Weighting

• When you're receiving an Exotic, we will take into account all Exotics you've found, and weight them against Exotics you have yet to acquire; this lowers the chances of receiving Exotics you already own
  
• Exotics that you do not yet own will be individually weighted much higher than duplicate Exotics
  
• When receiving duplicate Exotics, you will be more likely to earn armor pieces, as they have randomly rolled perks
  
• Exotic quest weapons are being removed from the Exotic engram loot pool
  

Enhancement Cores

• Masterwork Cores will be renamed Enhancement Cores
  
• More sources will award Enhancement Cores; they will be added to Scrapper Bounties and six of the Spider's weekly bounties
  
• Enhancement Cores will be more visible in the loot feed
  

Exotic Tuning

• Wish-Ender
  • Increasing base damage
  • Fixing an issue where the Broadhead perk would not properly activate under certain circumstances, which would result in a loss of damage
• Malfeasance
  • Increasing Explosive Shadow detonation damage
  • Increasing damage against Taken and invaders

Trace Rifles

• Will spawn with 50 ammo in the Crucible
  
• Will benefit from the following armor perks:
  • Auto Rifle Loader
  • Unflinching Auto Rifle Aim
  • Auto Rifle Targeting
  • Precision Weapon Targeting
  • Auto Rifle Dexterity

We have more in store. Stay tuned to @BungieHelp for updates. We plan to have patch notes for Update 2.0.5 available around 9 AM PDT on Tuesday, October 30.

Double Down

Next week, players will have their first chance to earn Infamy at accelerated rates! Whether you're striving for the Dredgen title or just looking to complete your first Infamy reset since launch, there's no better time to jump in and bank some Motes. Infamy gained from bounties, wins, and losses will all be increased.

Double Infamy
Begins: 10 AM PDT October 30
Ends: 10 AM PDT November 2

Triple Infamy
Begins: 10 AM PDT November 2
Ends: 10 AM PDT November 6

Keep an eye out. Once Update 2.0.5 is live, Ascendant Primeval Servitor spawn rates will increase. Even though it's not a full-curse week, you may find yourself eye to eye with that evil meatball during this event. Good luck in your hunt for Malfeasance.

Refer-a-Friend

Update 2.0.5 brings more than just quality-of-life updates to the game. Starting October 30, the Destiny 2: Forsaken Refer-a-Friend program becomes available! Veteran players may begin to refer new players to Forsaken, via a link on Bungie.net, and embark on the Refer-a-Friend quest.

Veterans, it's on you to show your referral the ropes. The quest gives you ample time to get your friend up to speed on everything Destiny 2, from perk sets to raid loadouts. New players, this is your time to learn what it is to be a Guardian. As you complete steps throughout the quest, both of you—veteran and referral—will earn some sleek rewards to commemorate your camaraderie.

If you happen to have multiple friends to refer, there's more loot to earn. Veteran players who refer multiple new players to Destiny 2: Forsaken will receive additional rewards.

If you're currently wondering if you qualify as a veteran or new player, here are the specifics:

Veteran Player Requirements
A veteran player is any player who owns Destiny 2: Forsaken. Veteran players may invite new players for the Refer-a-Friend promotion.

New Player Requirements
A new player is any player who does not own Destiny 2: Forsaken, or has owned it for less than 7 days. Once a player has owned Destiny 2: Forsaken for longer than 7 days, they are no longer eligible to be referred for the Refer-a-Friend promotion. Once referred, the quest may completed at any time.

NOTE: As we have recently updated Destiny 2: Forsaken to also include Curse of Osiris and Warmind, we are extending new player qualifications. Players who purchased Forsaken between October 16th-30th will qualify as a new player and be eligible for referral up to November 7, 2018.

All information regarding the Destiny 2: Forsaken Refer-a-Friend program will become available at 10 AM PDT on October 30, 2018. Stay tuned to help.bungie.net.

Helpful Information

Week in and week out, the members of Destiny Player Support are on the hunt for new issues. With the aid of our test and development teams, they have the information you need to prepare for the next update. This is their report.

Destiny 2 Update 2.0.5 Maintenance and Downtime
In preparation for Destiny 2 Update 2.0.5, we conducted backend maintenance to the live game earlier today.

Below is our deployment schedule for Destiny 2 Update 2.0.5, going live on Tuesday, October 30, 2018. 

• 8:00 AM PDT (1500 UTC)
  • Destiny 2 maintenance is scheduled to begin
  • No downtime is expected
  • Some Destiny Companion features will be unavailable on Bungie.net, mobile, and third-party apps
  • Update 2.0.5 will begin rolling out across all platforms and regions

• 9:45 AM PDT (1645 UTC)
  • Any Destiny 2 players remaining in activities who have not yet installed Update 2.0.5 will be removed from activities and returned to the title screen to take this update

• 10:00 AM PDT (1700 UTC)
  • Destiny 2 maintenance is scheduled to conclude
  • Destiny Companion features will be reenabled
  • Players who encounter issues should report them on the #Help Forum

You can also view this information on our Server and Update Status page.

For the latest information during maintenance windows, players should follow @BungieHelp on Twitter or monitor our support feed on help.bungie.net. For patch notes when they are available, players should keep an eye on our Updates page.

Destiny 2: Forsaken Known Issues on the Field
Destiny Player Support is always tracking new issues reported by players in the #Help Forum. Here are a few we're aware of, posted in our Forsaken Vital Information and Known Issues thread:

• Masterwork Weapons Sent to the Postmaster: We are investigating reports where Warden's Law and other weapons can drop Masterworked, but if the weapon gets sent to the Postmaster, it becomes a regular weapon.
• Petra's Weekly Challenge: We are investigating reports where players are unable to complete Petra's Weekly Bounty after meeting the objectives.
• Shattered Throne Emblem: We are investigating an issue with the Shattered Throne emblem not counting completions.
• Valor Resets Not Counting: We are investigating an issue with Valor resets not counting toward certain quests and Triumphs. Players may want to clear their console cache before resetting, or delete their CVARS.xml file on PC.
• Efrideet's Gift Triumph: We are investigating an issue where the Efrideet's Gift Triumph does not correctly update unless the player is switching characters or exiting and reentering the game.
• Ammo Finder Perks: We are actively tracking reports about ammo finder perks for all weapons not working as intended.

If you experience issues while playing Destiny 2: Forsaken, let us know about it in the #Help Forum.

Weekly Broadcast

This week, we've gotten a few Guardians who've decided to break from the norm. Their loadout of choice isn't common among the player base, but the goals they've set—and achieved—are something to behold.

Movie of the Week: Kill. Disappear. Repeat.

Honorable Mention: Luna's Howl vs. Calus

If you'd like a shot at the Lens of Fate emblem, make sure to submit your video to the Creations page on Bungie.net and include #MOTW in your title.

This weekend, Cozmo and I will be heading to San Jose, California, for TwitchCon. If you're attending as a content creator, cosplayer, or Guardian, we're excited to spend some time with you and share war stories. Who knows, maybe this could lead to a Bungie Bounty being placed on your head.

Destiny 2 TwitchCon Meetup: 2 PM on October 27
Location: TBD

If you bump into us on the show floor, feel free to say hello! We'll be around all weekend. Stay tuned to @A_dmg04 or @Cozmo23 for impromptu meetups throughout the weekend.

Cheers,
Dmg04