This Week At Bungie - 5/7/2020

This week at Bungie, Guardian Games nears the finish line. But before we dive into our weekly update, here's a word from Luke Smith about a topic on many players' mind these days: Eververse.

Rewards in Destiny 2

Hey everyone,

This week's update is going to look at some of the changes coming to Destiny 2's rewards. As you know, rewards for your character come from a variety of places: Playlists where you find random folks to play with, aspirational activities like Raids, Trials, and Dungeons where you form up a Fireteam, and even Eververse, where you sling some Silver or Bright Dust back at us for items you want. However, in today's Destiny 2, the balance of the game's rewards is not where we want it to be. To be blunt, there isn't enough pursuit out in the world. We're going to fix it.

Let's get to it.

All of this and more is planned for Destiny 2 Year 4

Vanity and Accessory (Ships, Ghosts & Sparrows) Changes

We will be adding a Transmogrification feature to Destiny 2.

• This will allow players to turn their Armor into Universal Ornaments.
• We plan to allow players to do this with in-game effort OR Silver. 
• This feature is in early development and is expected sometime during Year 4.

Each Season we will deliver an aspirational pursuit for armor. We haven't done this consistently in Destiny 2. 

• This armor will come from activities, not the Season Pass nor Eververse.
  • As an example: We removed the Eververse Armor from Season 11 and itemized it into an aspirational activity, because this is the right thing to do for the game. 

We are improving the rewards for Aspirational Activities (Raids, Trials, Dungeons)

• Going forward, Aspirational Activities will reward players with power, items, and vanity.
  • When we build an Aspirational Activity it will have at least one accessory to pursue.
• The team is working on Adept Weapons for Trials of Osiris.
• Trials will get new Armor (aka not reprisal), accessories, and weapons in Season 13.
  • Trials will get new Armor every year.
• Destiny's next Raid will have brand new Armor, Weapons, and Exotic Accessories to pursue (no spoilers).

Beginning in Season 12, we will no longer be selling ships, ghost shells, sparrows, or armor ornaments in Eververse that are visually based on themes from Aspirational Activities.

• We are not planning on changing existing items as that is time we could be spending on itemizing the future.

Core Playlist Rewards changes (Strikes, Gambit, and Crucible)

We are adding a new set of Armor for the core playlists (Strikes, Gambit, and Crucible).

• This armor shares a set of new geometry, with decals and shaders specific to the activity. 
• We will create new sets like this each Year (e.g., Year 4, Year 5, Year 6, etc.) 
• This set will arrive alongside the next Expansion. 

Starting in Season 12, we are adding a new Pursuit Weapon each Season.

• This weapon can be earned by playing your preferred Core playlist.
• This weapon will have activity-specific Legendary Skins that can be unlocked in each playlist.

We will no longer be selling new Legendary Weapon Ornaments in Eververse

Dust and Engrams.

We are making it easier for you to earn Bright Dust. 

• We will be moving away from character-specific ways to earn Bright Dust and more toward Account-specific paths. 
• This change is geared toward giving one-character players significantly more Bright Dust than they earn today. 

We're updating the Bright Engram to be more relevant than it is today.

• The earned Bright Engram in the Season Pass will be updated to include various Year 3 Eververse items previously sold for Silver and Bright Dust. And going forward, that Bright Engram will update each Season to include Eververse items from 3+ seasons prior.

On behalf of all of us at Bungie, we hope you and yours are safe and well. We know you could be doing anything with your free time, and so, so many of you are spending it in our worlds. Thanks, and stay safe.

See you soon,
-Luke Smith

And now back to your regularly scheduled TWAB!

Nearing the finish line

Look, you know it. I know it. Titans have taken a stand, owning the Guardian Games since Day 2 of the event. They've held strong against the book-reading Warlocks. They laugh in the face of fashion-centric Hunters like myself. After years of taking a backseat and avoiding the spotlight, Titans are showing off their Light brighter than they ever have before.

The more I think about this, the less surprised I am. Going into the event, I knew Titans would show up... maybe not to this extent, but Titans always have a way of being there when you need them. Day in and day out, Titans are standing strong in the face of darkness to protect the citizens of the Last City. Even if I was hoping for more Hunter wins, I can't help but acknowledge the unrelenting strength here. Good stuff, Titans. You all deserve a bit more credit than folks give you.

We still have a few days left of this event, all contributing two points to daily standings. Warlocks, Hunters... these are your last chances to make a statement. Will you swap placements before the end of the games, or have you embraced your second and third place standings, respectively? Let's see what you've got.

Now, let's look at the rest of this week's topics. Guardian's Heart is coming to a close, and we have a final list of Bungie Bounty targets for you to hunt in support of charity, as well as a forecast of the final Iron Banner for this season.

Guardian's Heart Update: Final Week

The Guardian's Heart Charity Initiative has entered its final week. If you've been following along, we hit our $700,000 goal last week! Knowing this community, though, we aren't even close to done yet. At the time of writing this article, you've already helped raise another $50k to help those impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. We still have a slew of Bungie Bounties to place on the heads of our community in support of this charity event. Here's who you'll be looking for over the next few days:

May 8 - Phammy at 1:00 AM on PC (Australia)
May 8 - Benj and PolarBear at 10:00 AM on PC (UK)
May 8 - Kinda Funny and What's Good Games at 12:00 PM on PS4
May 9 - Zoe_ at 5:00 AM on PC (UK)
May 11 - Jarv and HOUNDISH at 10:00 AM on Xbox (UK)

The Guardian's Heart Initiative ends at 10:00 AM Pacific on May 12, 2020. If you would like to support this charity initiative and receive the Guardian's Heart emblem, please donate $20 or more to the Tiltify page before this deadline!

Again, thank you to everyone who has donated thus far. I don't think any of us could have imagined a pandemic like this in our lifetimes. To see Guardians coming together once again to support those in need warms our hearts. Thank you.

Iron Finale

Next week, Lord Saladin returns to the Tower, hosting the final Iron Banner of the season. If you dig 6v6 power-enabled combat, this is your time to shine. Saladin will bring his final round of weekly bounties, each of which rewarding pinnacle power gear. Let's say you've been striking out on that final Heavy Weapon - Iron Banner may grant you the Rocket Launcher you need to finish your pinnacle journey for this season.

As this is the final Iron Banner of the season, this serves as last call for a few rewards.

• Iron Remembrance Armor Sets
• Cast Iron Emblem
• Iron Precious Shader

Additionally, this will be your last chance to earn the Point of the Stag Pursuit Bow. This weapon will not be available during Season 11, so get in there and complete your quest! Who knows, maybe you'll fall in love with a new Bowfriend.

Iron Banner and Bonus Valor will be available from 10 AM Pacific on May 12, running through 10 AM Pacific on May 19. 

Bug Bashers

I've said it before, and I'll say it a thousand times more: The only good bug is a dead one. The Player Support team is vigilant, diving into as many #Help threads as they can each day to diagnose issues, distribute help articles, and find new issues in Destiny 2. 

This is their report.

SMALL FIRETEAM XP BUFF
Fireteams who play together, stay together, which is why it's important to reward them for their dedication. Earlier this week Bungie Help tweeted out an issue identified with the Season Pass Small Fireteam XP Buff:

An issue has been identified with a fix in progress where a small amount of the Season Pass Small Fireteam XP Boosts aren't always applied to players appropriately. Regular XP Boosts aren't impacted. Stay tuned to our This Week at Bungie blog post this week for more information.

We concluded that, in the worst case scenario, this issue is unlikely to have impacted players more than a single Season Pass rank. We expect to deploy a fix by patch 2.8.1.2 on May 19.

ERROR CODES
Destiny Player Support is investigating increases in connection-based error codes, including BEAVER, ANTEATER, and RABBIT, with priority set to NEWT and WATERCRESS errors.

As we continue to investigate solutions for players affected by persistent WATERCRESS errors, Destiny Player Support has set up an investigation timeline for players to track the progress of our internal investigations into the issue. This thread will continue to be updated with the latest information as it becomes available and until a solution is found.

KNOWN ISSUES
While we continue investigating various known issues, here is a list of the latest issues that were reported to us in our #Help Forum:

• The Doom Fang Pauldron exotic Titan gauntlets gain Super energy inconsistently on Void melee kills. 
• The Warlord's End perk on Felwinter's Helm exotic Warlock helmet activates inconsistently with melee and Finisher kills.
• Performing a Finisher while wearing the Severance Enclosure exotic Titan chest piece will not count Finisher kills towards bounties. 

For a full list of emergent issues in Destiny 2, players can review our Known Issues article. Players who observe other issues should report them to our #Help forum.

Friendly Competition

We've seen a few suggestions on how Guardian Games could have been scored, aside from Laurels and Medals. This week's MOTW winner took a swing and what the event could look like with specific challenges and score by judges.

Movie of the Week: The Guardian Games

Honorable Mention: The Gunslinger

Do you have good talent and a great editor to make your content shine? Throw your video on the Creations Page. If you're featured, you'll receive a shiny new emblem for your troubles.

The end of a TWAB usually means that we're nearing the end of a Thursday... which leads to another weekend of Trials. While Trials is a predictable Friday offering, we've seen some feedback that things shouldn't be too predictable.

This week's Trials of Osiris map will be [Redacted]!

Wait, what? Didn't I confirm that Trials maps were on a set rotation per season? Yeah... I totally did. But that's the beauty of a live game, things can change. The team has been looking at your feedback daily since Trials launched, and some things are a bit easier to change than others. For the foreseeable future, Trials maps will be on a random rotation. If anything changes with those plans, we'll be sure to let you know.

Have a good weekend, and we'll see you again next week.

Cheers,
-Dmg04