This Week At Bungie - 9/26/2019

This week at Bungie, we're on final countdown for launch.

It's been a long summer of reveals, travels, interviews, and updates. Now we find ourselves in that old familiar clearing at the end of the path. This is the final weekly update that we'll have before we blast off on another adventure.

Our new launch trailer is making the rounds. Here it is if you haven't had a chance to watch yet.

Today, you'll find us ticking all the boxes on the pre-flight checklist. There are some final items we want to cover before you set out to investigate the mysteries of the Moon. Here's what you'll find during a lengthy final scroll:

• Combat Changes
• Progression and Economy Changes
• Patch Note Preview
• Ritual Weapons and Perk Changes
• Set It Straight
• Wear It With Pride
• Bungie Rewards

Let's start the clock.

Combat Changes

As discussed previously, damage numbers in Destiny 2 have been a bit out of control. We're making some adjustments so the numbers shown are smaller and easier to comprehend without affecting the percentage of damage you're dealing. We're also adjusting how your Power works when you go up against enemies tougher than you. Here are some more details on what to expect.

PvE Damage Numbers Display

Goal: To provide players with useful and legible feedback for damage dealt to enemy combatants across many years of Power progression.

• Displayed damage numbers for damage dealt to non-Guardian enemy combatants are crunched
  • Damage dealt is displayed using fewer digits to enhance readability of damage output
  • Occurrences of displayed damage getting capped at 999,999 should be significantly reduced or eliminated
  • The exponential curve used to calculate damage numbers for display is replaced with a new linear curve that is built to last for many years
  • As players grow in Power, displayed damage numbers increase at a much more measured pace than previously
  • This is a UI update only; player damage output, whether measured as hits to kill, time to kill, or DPS, remains unchanged by this update

PvE Difficulty Tuning

Goals: Widen the sweet spot where fighting higher-level combatants provides a fun, challenging, and rewarding combat experience for a more enjoyable Power climb. Also, allow players looking for even greater challenges to confront much higher-level enemies.

• Combatants that are 10-40 levels higher take less time to kill and deal less damage
• Higher-level combatants continue to increase in difficulty up to 100 Power levels above the player
• When enemies are 100 Power levels or higher above the player, they are immune to damage
• Nameplate icons on higher-level combatants have been updated to reflect these changes
• These changes affect only higher-level combatants; the at-level or over-level experience remains unchanged

Progression and Economy Changes

Every Season brings with it some tweaks to the Power climb. Shadowkeep is going to deliver significant changes to how you grow in strength. We also want to make you aware of changes to various currencies and the Eververse Trading Company before you set out to power up your gear.

Rewards Power and Progression

• All non-powerful rewards now drop 3 to 0 points below your highest equippable Power level, up from 15 to 20 below
• Year 2 powerful reward sources have changed to Legendary rewards
  • These sources no longer have a chance to drop a random Exotic instead of the Legendary gear
• Bonus Exotics that drop from Nightfall: The Ordeal will drop at the character's highest equippable Power level
• Under- and over-leveling activities no longer adjust how much Power is received from the rewards
• Experience no longer fuels a player's character level, which has been changed to be level 50 for all characters
  • Experience instead progresses the Season Pass, Seasonal Artifact mod, and Power progressions, as well as the unlocking of destinations for new characters
  • Experience rewards have been rebalanced with the introduction of the Season Pass and Seasonal Artifact progressions
• The Power granted from the Seasonal Artifact is additive with the Power of the player's equippable gear, but does not increase the Power of gear drops
• All existing gear has had its Power increased to a minimum of 750; new characters will begin Destiny 2 at Power 750 as well
• The Power bands for Season 8 are as follows
  • Floor: 750
  • Soft Cap: 900
    • All drops up to this point will be upgrades to the most powerful item in your inventory or vault
    • Beyond this point, only powerful and pinnacle rewards will increase a player's Power
  • Powerful Cap: 950
    • All non-powerful/pinnacle rewards are capped at 950
    • Pinnacle rewards are the only way to raise Power above this point
    • Powerful rewards are equivalent to the character's highest-equippable Power beyond this point
  • Pinnacle Cap: 960
    • This is the highest Power at which gear drops; also known as the "hard cap"
    • The Seasonal Artifact bonus Power allows characters to attain values above this level
• Prime Engrams
  • Prime Engrams now gain charges more quickly, drop more frequently, and have a higher maximum charge cap (nine charges, up from six during Year 2)
  • The Power gains have been rebalanced for the increased frequency, providing +3 Power, down from a range of +4 to +7
  • Players who have completed the "Prime Example" quest prior to Shadowkeep's release will earn charges, but those charges won't drop until the character has reached 900 Power
  • This will help players avoid spending charges early for gains that are most beneficial during the Soft Cap to Powerful Cap range

Bright Dust

• Bright Dust is now earned by completing Crucible, Gambit, and Vanguard weekly and repeatable bounties
  • We chose to grant all of Bright Dust from ritual weekly bounties rather than spreading it out across the weekly and daily bounties so players could more easily earn Bright Dust without having to make sure they complete every single daily
  • Players will be able to do the repeatable bounties as many times as they like
  • Any Crucible, Gambit, or Vanguard completed bounties need to be turned in before maintenance begins on 9/30 as these changes will reset them; other bounties—Gunsmith, clan, Eververse, etc.—can still be claimed after Oct 1
• Eververse items no longer dismantle into Bright Dust, and instead grant legendary shards and glimmer
• New Eververse items for Season of the Undying will become available for Bright Dust two weeks into the Season
• Eververse items no longer require Bright Dust to reacquire them(or re-roll perks) from Collections; instead, they cost the same materials that reward items of the same type/rarity use
• Fireteam Medallions have been removed from the store, deprecated into Fizzled Fireteam Medallions, and can now be dismantled into Bright Dust to recover their purchase price (50 Bright Dust)
• Gleaming Boon of the Vanguard price has been lowered to 150 Bright Dust
• Gleaming Boon of the Crucible price has been lowered to 500 Bright Dust

Eververse

• The Season 7 Best of Year One Engram has been retired, and in its place, players can now obtain the new Season 8 Nostalgic Engram
• The Seasonal Milestone no longer grants a bounty; instead, it directly grants a Bright Engram
• The Season 8 Nostalgic Engram is no longer earned at level up
  • Instead, the Bright Engram is now included in the free rewards of the Season Pass that are visible before level 100; it's also awarded every 5 levels after level 100
• The Eververse storefront is now available via the Director
• Eververse bounties (standard and IGR versions) have been deprecated; any remaining bounty notes can be broken down into Bright Dust
  • You can still complete and turn in any outstanding Eververse bounties until they expire 

Glimmer

• Players can now store up to 250,000 Glimmer
• Glimmer rewards from the majority of sources in the game have been rebalanced
  • Most open world sources (public events, Lost Sectors, chests) have been significantly increased
  • Passive Glimmer gain on kill has been reduced
  • In addition to directly awarding Glimmer on kill, combatants will sometimes drop additional Glimmer chunks
• Weekly bounties award a large amount of Glimmer in addition to their other rewards

Spider's Exchange

• The Spider welcomes new opportunities with four arms open and now deals in materials from all planets
• However, the Spider has noted changes in market value, and has adjusted his exchange rates accordingly:
  • Glimmer exchange now costs 10 Legendary Shards or 20 materials, and yields 10,000 Glimmer
  • Tangled Shore daily bounties no longer award Glimmer, providing instead Etheric Spirals (in keeping with his competition)
  • Weekly wanted bounties no longer award gear, but now provide between 3,000 and 15,000 Glimmer in addition to the Enhancement Cores currently offered

Xûr

• Xûr's inventory pool and Fated Engram now include world-drop Exotics from Year 2

Patch Note Preview

We'll have a bunch of bullet points for you to peruse next week. Here's something to tide you over until then.

• Added rally banners to Leviathan, Eater of Worlds, and Spire of Stars 
  
  
• "The Shattered Throne" Dungeon is now available at all times instead of on a three-week cycle
  
  
• It can also be launched and reset from the Director
  
  
• Black Armory forges are now accessible through a Director-launched playlist on EDZ
  
  
• Weapon mods are now treated as reusable unlocks instead of consumables; any mods you have in your inventory will be converted to unlocks
  • If the only copy of a mod you have is already in a gun, you will need to reacquire one to unlock it
    
    
• Discarding an Enhancement Core no longer deletes the entire stack
  
  
• Borealis and Hardlight now match the Prism modifier when changing elements on reload, rotating through Void, Arc, and Solar
  
  
• Fixed an issue where the Hunter's Tempest Strike melee ability couldn't be performed if the sprint button/key was set to Hold
  
  
• The Phoenix Protocol Hearth perk will no longer award bonus Super energy on kills and assists to Warlocks inside a Well of Radiance if they do not also have the Well of Radiance (Attunement of Grace) subclass equipped
  
  
• Fixed an issue where allied Golden Gun projectiles weren't going through Banner Shields
  
  
• Fixed an issue where the Queen's Wrath perk for the Exotic Wish-Ender Bow wasn't correctly highlighting players if their shield was depleted
  
  
• Players who've obtained the Salute emote in the past can now correctly select it in their collection and assign it to their emote wheel
  
  
• Multiplayer (buddy) emotes will now have a visible indication of where a player can stand to interact and initiate the emote
  
  
• Failing the first encounter for any Black Armory forge will no longer award planetary destination materials. ಠ_ಠ

Ritual Weapons and Perk Changes

In Season of the Undying, pinnacle weapons will become ritual weapons. They will no longer have special perks and will instead be curated rolls. A previous article incorrectly showed two new pinnacle weapons. The good news is you will be getting three ritual weapons for each of the ritual activities: Crucible, Vanguard, and Gambit. Here's the Destiny Dev Team on why we made this difficult decision and some information on upcoming perk changes. 

Destiny Dev Team: The decision to stop creating extremely powerful pinnacle weapons was made for a variety of reasons. The first was that the band in which "pinnacle" perk can exist is actually quite small, and most of them far exceeded the efficacy they should have been at. Another issue is that they cause problems in the player ecosystem, particularly in the case of the Crucible pinnacle weapons. Due to the nature of PvP and PvE, anything that works well in PvP is likely going be extremely effective in PvE as well. This forces players into the Crucible if they want the "best" loadouts. Even the title of "pinnacle" set a variety of unrealistic expectations. Rather than being the absolute height of Legendary power, they were supposed to be interesting novelties to chase.

These problems became more pronounced the more of them we produced. In the end, we decided to move away from pinnacle weapons. If you managed to collect them all, we hope you enjoy them!

While we're on the subject of weapons, here are a few important notes on changes to how perks will work.

Reduced the effectiveness of the following perks in PvE:

• Rampage, Kill Clip, Swashbuckler, Multikill Clip, Desperado, Surrounded, Master of Arms, Onslaught
  • In general, these perks use the same damage multipliers for PvE that they did in PvP
  • The change to Rampage does not affect the Huckleberry
  • Onslaught and Desperado now change bullet impact values while active in PvE
  • Surrounded no longer multiplies precision damage on top of base damage, as it was benefiting some weapon types more than others as a result

Legendary weapons have become too powerful overall. In many cases, they even outclass Exotic Primary weapons, so we're walking them all back a bit. All the way back in original Destiny, we had a perk named Crowd Control, which was Rampage's predecessor. Crowd Control capped out at a bonus of +15% extra damage. At this point in Destiny 2, Rampage caps out at about +67%. That's a 447% increase from the original iteration. Legendary damage perks have become so powerful, they simply invalidate non-damage related perks. 

Here's a quick preview of the three ritual weapons you can earn in Season of the Undying. Because these weapons are no longer pinnacle weapons, the quest required to earn them is not as in depth as previous seasons.

Vanguard—Edgewise

Crucible—Randy's Throwing Knife

Gambit—Exit Strategy

Set It Straight

During the run up to launch, we've been dropping videos, articles, interviews, and information all over the internets. Along the way, the fact-checkers called us out a few times. Today, we're issuing some corrections to previous transmissions.

1. There was a shot of Trials of the Nine armor in the launch trailer by mistake. We wanted to clear up any confusion and let players know that the Trials of the Nine set will not obtainable in Season of the Undying.

2. We also had to revise our gameplay calendar for Season of the Undying. The menu of action is the same, but we are adjusting the timing of the Nightmare Hunts. The new schedule looks like this:

3. Back when we were first talking about finishers and some of the mods that go with them, we talked about how one of the mods enabled you to spawn Heavy ammo for your fireteam when you executed a finisher. That was still in flux at the time, and for balance reasons we ended up making a mod that will spawn Heavy ammo for yourself and a mod that will spawn Special ammo for your fireteam.

Wear It With Pride

At Bungie, our mission is to build worlds the inspire friendship. Our games become places where people—all kinds of people—can gather to share meaningful experiences. One of the most important aspects of friendship is acceptance. Earlier this year, we took to the streets as part of the Seattle Pride Parade. We also offered up a Pride Pin via the Bungie Store that was rumored to have an emblem that would come with it. The rumors are true, and we've chosen International Coming Out Day as the advent to deploy the in-game expression of acceptance. 

For the details, along with a personal story to capture the spirit of that day, here is one of our own...

Hi Y'all,

My name's Nigel. You may know me from things like the Shattered Throne Ride Along, or this wonderful fan video made during our St. Jude's charity stream. This is my first TWAB post and I'm a little nervous, so I'm going to use one of my favorite TV shows, Golden Girls, as a crutch.

Picture it. Tempe, Arizona 2009.  A sophomore in college. At this point in my life, I'd never really had a girlfriend or really found myself attracted to a woman. I refused to believe I was gay. Having seen so many coming-out stories go poorly, with family and friends abandoning people they loved, I didn't want that for myself. So I ignored it by playing video games.

Dragon Age: Origins had just released, and my twin brother had been bugging me for a good week to buy it and play it. Quickly I found myself wrapped in magic and steel for an untold, but probably perfectly healthy, amount of time. During this time, I found myself conversing with one of the male party members, simply trying to raise his approval.

That's when it appeared. The option to flirt with this character. I was as the kids say, "shooketh." I sat for what must have been twenty minutes before deciding to click on it. He flirted back. My heart skipped. I was a ball of nerves and anxiety as the conversation continued with another chance to confess romantic feelings to the character. I thought I was going to vomit all over a simple choice in a video game. I debated with myself, what did it mean that I wanted to flirt with this character? Why did I suddenly feel like my entire existence would be changed with this one conversation? I clicked it.

And that's when I learned about rejection. From a digital character. He wasn't gay, and my heart sunk. But his next words were something I didn't know I needed. "There's nothing wrong with who you love. You are my friend no matter what." I spent the next two hours on the floor crying, finally feeling that it was okay to be gay. I felt more comfortable than I'd ever felt in my life. I vowed, if I ever got the opportunity to pay it forward, I would.

Well I'm helping to pay it forward. I've spent a lot of my time at Bungie helping to make sure Destiny is a welcoming place. I have marched in the Seattle Pride Parade. I have helped set up the Trevor Foundation and other LGBTIQA+ charities. Most recently, I helped create those wonderful Bungie Pride Pins you keep seeing on our streams. I'm happy to announce that, on October 11, International Coming Out Day, we'll be releasing a Pride emblem for your Guardian if you've purchased this pin. If you missed the chance to buy the pin back in June, mark your calendars, because we'll be restocking our supply on the Bungie Store.

Destiny and Bungie are places where we can foster community and work together, no matter your background. We at Bungie want to make sure no matter who you love, or who you are, that everyone belongs in the Tower. Or the Farm, if you're into that.

Nigel speaks true. Thanks for being excellent to each other. Any players who previously purchased the Pride Pin will be receiving codes for the emblems through email. 

Bungie Rewards

Last week, we showed off a preview of the World's First belt and some of the emblems you can earn in our upcoming pinnacle PvE activity. We weren't quite ready to show off the awesome jacket Bungie Rewards will be offering, but the design is ready for the runway.

Any player who beats the "Garden of Salvation" raid and claims their code before the weekly reset on 10/15 will be eligible to purchase the raid jacket through Bungie Rewards. We are giving you some extra time to Power up this time. We know many of you don't enjoy rushing through content, so even if you aren't ready to take on the raid before 10/15, any player who completes "Garden of Salvation" during Season of the Undying will be eligible to purchase a special raid T-shirt through Bungie Rewards.

So... the shirt has some spoilers on it, but we'll share out what it looks like after the raid is completed.

That's not all! Players can also claim a free Eris Morn papercraft mask by completing the main Shadowkeep quest by the end of Season 8. If you're already receiving Bungie newsletter emails, you'll get a direct link the next day, or you can visit www.bungie.net/rewards to redeem it. Stay tuned for more Bungie Rewards throughout the season.

Full Steam Ahead

Player Support is waiting in the wings to support our next launch. 

This is their report.

Upcoming 24-Hour Maintenance

This upcoming Monday, September 30, Destiny 1 and Destiny 2 will be taken offline for extended maintenance on all platforms.

This maintenance will last for approximately 24 hours, starting at 10 AM PDT (1700 UTC), ending with the launch of Destiny 2: Shadowkeep on October 1. During this downtime, players will be unable to log in to Bungie.net or access Destiny API features.

For the latest information on this maintenance as it occurs, including download availability and emergent issues, players should follow @BungieHelp on Twitter or monitor our support feed on help.bungie.net.

Pre-loading Destiny 2: Shadowkeep and Update 2.6.0

Right now, all PC players can pre-load Destiny 2 on Steam, which includes pre-loading for New Light and Shadowkeep. Since New Light makes Destiny 2 accessible to everyone for free, no purchase is necessary to pre-load.

Existing console players will be able to pre-load Update 2.6.0 during the maintenance leading up to launch. The moment we confirm that downloads are available, we'll sound off from the support links provided above.

FOLLOW UP: Delay in Forsaken License Transfers for Migrating PC Players

Last week, we discussed the likely delay of Forsaken license transfers for migrated PC players on Steam. With the announcement of our upcoming 24-hour maintenance, we hope to mitigate any possible delay in Forsaken license transfers following the launch of Shadowkeep on October 1. If any such delays occur, we'll be sure to sound off from the support links provided above.

PC Migration and New Characters on Steam

Following the launch of Shadowkeep and Destiny 2 Update 2.6.0 on October 1, players who link their Steam account to their Bungie.net profile will be able to manually trigger PC Migration.

Players should be aware, however, that any new characters created on Steam before performing PC migration will be overwritten when players migrate from Battle.net. This will result in the potential loss of new characters and gear, as well as Silver, Eververse items, and Season Passes—if purchased on these new characters before performing PC migration.

To make things as simple as possible, here's the recommended order of operations for players who perform PC migration to Steam after Shadowkeep launches on October 1:

1. Link your Steam account to your existing Bungie.net profile and initiate PC Migration. Please ensure you are linking to the same Bungie.net profile associated with your Battle.net account. Once manually triggered, PC Migration cannot be undone.
2. If desired, enable Cross Save so your preferred characters are available when you log in to Destiny 2 on Steam. PC Migration will still transfer your Battle.net characters to Steam, even if another set of characters is selected for Cross Save. This also determines which characters receive any Silver or Season Passes purchased on Steam before logging in.
3. On Steam, download and install Destiny 2. If you have not yet downloaded Steam, click here.
4. Log in to Destiny 2.
5. Your Battle.net characters, licenses, and Silver will already be migrated to your Steam account, however your Cross Saved characters will appear if Cross Save is enabled.

IMPORTANT: Since purchased Silver and Season Passes are applied to the first character set that players log in with after purchase, we strongly recommend that players enable Cross Save before logging in to Destiny 2 on Steam. This will ensure that your desired characters are receiving your Silver and Season Passes on the Steam platform. Cross Save-enabled characters will be able to bring their Season Passes with them to any platform after they have been applied.

REMINDER: Destiny 2 and Silver Purchases on Battle.net

This week, we'd like to remind PC players that Destiny 2 game content and Destiny 2 Silver can no longer be purchased from the Battle.net Shop.

Existing PC players can continue to play on Battle.net until Destiny 2 undergoes maintenance for Steam launch. Players should also be aware that in order for recent Silver purchases to successfully transfer to Steam, players MUST log in to Destiny 2 on Battle.net before 10 AM PDT (1700 UTC) on September 30, 2019 to claim their purchased Silver.

REMINDER: Battle.net Code Redemption for Destiny 2

As another reminder, players should be aware that any Battle.net code they possess for Destiny 2 content MUST be redeemed on their Battle.net account before they perform PC Migration. Players who have already prepared for PC Migration have until the start of Destiny 2 maintenance on September 30 to redeem any unused Battle.net codes—to have that license transfer to their Steam account.

Players who migrate to Steam after our October 1 maintenance must also ensure that their Battle.net code is redeemed before they link their Steam account. Once a Steam account is linked, their Guardians, Silver, and game licenses will be migrated from Battle.net to Steam. This is a one-time process that cannot be repeated for new licenses. For information on Battle.net code redemption, players should visit Blizzard's How to Claim a Code knowledgebase article. 

It's worth noting that all content previously included in the base Destiny 2 game, Curse of Osiris, or Warmind, will be available to all players for free through the launch of Destiny 2: New Light on October 1.

Steam Limited User Accounts

Next week, Destiny 2 officially launches on Steam. Before it does, we'd like to make players aware of Steam's Limited User Accounts.

In short, any player whose account has spent less than $5.00 USD on the Steam Store will have limited access to community and social features that are commonly used for spamming, phishing, and other abuse.

This will also apply to any Destiny 2 player new to the Steam platform who migrates from Battle.net. For more information, please see Valve's Limited User Accounts support article.

Premonition Legendary Pulse Rifle

Following the launch of Shadowkeep next week, players will be able to view new items added to Destiny 2 using the in-game Collections. Before then, we'd like to make players aware of a known issue with one particular weapon listing.

Following the launch of Shadowkeep, the Collection listing for the Premonition Legendary Pulse Rifle will state that it is "found by exploring the Moon." This weapon's specific source is actually the new dungeon, which will become available sometime after Shadowkeep's launch.

Players who encounter other issues following the launch of New Light, Shadowkeep, and Steam PC should report them to the #Help forum.

MOTW

All right, let's see what we got. More movies on the field. Here are our favorites this week. 

Movie of the Week: Embrace your fears

Honorable Mention: The Duke

This is it. The last TWAB before launch. Are you ready?

The entire team has been working hard on this release. We got Cross Save in your hands early and are excited to see you experience all the content in Shadowkeep. New players and veterans alike will have new characters wake up on the Cosmodrome for the first time in Destiny 2. Please welcome new Guardians who may be just joining this incredible community. Thanks for sticking with us. We'll see you star side. 

<3 Cozmo