This Week At Bungie - 1/21/2021

This week at Bungie, Hawkmoon is back on the menu.

The new Harbinger activity went live this week to accompany the Hawkmoon Exotic quest... like a proverbial peanut butter and jelly. You can now finish this new activity to earn your catalyst to add some extra spice to Hawkmoon. The new activity also lets you earn random rolls so you can start hunting for the perfect one to fit your style. Play the tape!

Completing the Hawkmoon catalyst from the Harbinger activity will not only bring your winged weapon to its full potential but also unlock the Bungie Rewards long-sleeve shirt for purchase. This Hawkmoon inspired shirt is the latest Seasonal offering available on your Bungie Rewards page.

Sticking Around

As we have mentioned in the past, we are moving to make Seasonal content stick around longer to reduce the amount of FOMO, otherwise known as "fear of missing out," in Destiny 2. Our goal is to help players experience narrative beats and activities even if they start playing later after the Season has ended.

Here's a look at what's sticking around from Season of the Hunt until the end of Year 4.

• Story missions will be able to be launched from a node in the Director.
• Wrathborn Hunts
• Adored quest will continue to be available.
• Crow's vender screen on Tangled Shore.
• Hawkmoon Exotic quest and Master activity.
• Seasonal Seal and Warden Title.
  • Seasonal Seal must still be earned by the deadline on the Bungie Rewards page. Due to an issue blocking the Triumph we will be adjusting this deadline.
    

Here are a few things that will no longer be available at the end of the Season:

• Crow's Bounties
• Messages from the Field
• Seasonal Artifact
• Season Pass

Shifting to keep more of this content around after the Season ended has created some weirdness for Season of the Hunt, which was initially designed assuming the old model. This is why Crow was still hanging around in Spider's lair right after being unceremoniously kicked out earlier in the Season. You may see other anomalies involving Crow in Season 13 as he'll be moving to a new destination while also remaining on the Tangled Shore to enable Season of the Hunt content tied to his inventory.

Season 13 should avoid these rough edges as its content has been designed from the outset to remain throughout Year 4.

Umbral Engrams Are Back! (They're pretty insane)

Back in 2020, Season of Arrivals introduced a new feature called Umbral Engrams which allowed Guardians to Focus rewards to the type of weapons and armor rolls they most desired. The system was well-received by the community so we decided to do a little tuning and bring them back for Season 13 as well as future seasons in Year 4.

While the new Seasonal activity will always provide the fastest path to earning new rewards. We want to ensure that regardless of how you spend your time in Destiny, Umbral Engrams allow you to chase new rewards.

Similar to Season of Arrivals, Umbral Engrams will drop from completing a variety of content. We have pared back the number of activities they will drop from so you can focus on the following activities if you are looking to farm some Umbral Engrams:

• Patrols
• Strikes
• Crucible
• Gambit
• The Ordeal
• Public Events
• Blind Well
• Nightmare Hunts
• Exo Challenges
• Empire Hunts
• New Seasonal Activity

Note: Umbral Engrams also have a chance to drop from defeating enemies anywhere in the game, so even if you're not grinding this list of activities and playlists, you'll still be earning some Umbral Engrams.

You may notice fewer umbral engrams sitting in your inventory than before. While it was fun to watch umbral engrams rain down on players in season 11, the drop rates were higher than expected and so we are rebalancing the drop rate.

There will be a short quest to show players how to use the new Prismatic Recaster (read more about this below) to Focus Umbral Engrams. This quest is account-wide so you only have to do it once.

Prismatic Recaster

The Prismatic Recaster returns as a kiosk with the capability to change Umbral Engrams into Focused Umbral Engrams, which contain a smaller loot-table. Because Umbral Engrams are here to stay, the new Recaster will have different pages for each Season, and you will be able to Focus engrams to the Season of your choice.

Once you have used the Prismatic Recaster to Focus your Engram, you will still need to take it to the Umbral Decoder to claim your new reward!

Note: Season of the Hunt's Wrathborn rewards will not be featured on the Prismatic Recaster in Season 13, because players can still use the Wrathborn Lure to chase specific weapons and rolls.

Prismatic Lens

We have a new way to unlock different Focusing options for your Umbral Engrams through a new reward called Prismatic Lenses.

A Prismatic Lens will unlock a new Focusing option so you can:

• Target a narrower collection of gear.
• Target specific armor stats.

You will be able to earn Prismatic Lenses by doing various activities in the game and you can track your progress towards unlocking lenses at the Prismatic Recaster. We don't want to spoil everything though - so we'll let you discover how to start earning these in Season 13.

Titles - A Gilded Age

One of the most satisfying feelings in Destiny is watching your list of completed Triumphs fill up to unlock new Seals and Titles. We have some plans to further improve this feature and give you yet another way to flex on other Guardians in the Tower. Here is the Triumphs Design Team with the details.

Triumphs Design Team: Hey everyone, welcome to a new year!

We wanted to share a change coming to Seals and Titles in Season 13. As I'm sure you've noticed, we've been shipping a Flawless and Conqueror Title each of the last three Seasons. We liked the idea of reengaging with Titles Season over Season, but we don't like the challenge and time commitment of doing the entire thing every Season. So, it's time to make a change!

As always, we start with the goals:

• Allow players to show off their engagement with the core rituals season over Season.
• Preserve the value of earning the base Title.
• Decrease the amount of grind required Season over Season for players that want to earn them all.

Starting with season 13, if a player has completed the Seal for one of our core ritual Titles (Unbroken, Dredgen, Flawless, Conqueror), players will have a series of additional Seasonal objectives to gild that Title.

But wait, what does gilded mean?

• A series of Seasonal objectives to gild a core ritual Title.
• A new border around the Seal in the Triumphs UI.
• A pip tracking how many times in your career that you've gilded a given Title.
• A new color and symbol for the Title over your head. So that you can show off, of course.

What do I have to do to gild a Title?

Once you finish the base Seal and claim your hard-earned Title, a list of optional Seasonal objectives will be revealed. By completing these Seasonal objectives you'll earn your gild for the Season.



What happens when the Season is over?

Each Season, the optional gilding objectives will reset and may even change to fit the unique experiences of any given Season. All of the base objectives of the Title will be preserved, and your Title will revert to its typical purple coloring.

Which Titles will be affected?

The four core rituals of Trials, The Ordeal, Crucible, and Gambit.

• Flawless
• Conqueror
• Unbroken
• Dredgen

Feedback please!

These changes are a result of the constructive feedback we get from all flavors of players in the Destiny community. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Keep that feedback coming and happy Triumph hunting.

Guardian Giveaways

This week, the Bungie Store is celebrating Guardians everywhere with the third annual Guardian Giveaways contest featuring curated collections of Destiny gear, including prizes like the sold-out Beyond Light Collector's Editions signed by the Bungie team. For a limited time, a variety of discounted merchandise bundles and a free gift with purchase are available on bungiestore.com and eu.bungiestore.com.

To enter, follow @BungieStore on Twitter, retweet the current giveaway post and add #GuardianGiveaways. The contest ends January 30, 2021 at 8:59 AM PST. Entries from EU, UK, USA, & CN only (see rules for excluded provinces and states). 18+ to enter. Please see the Official Rules for more information.

Knowing is Half the Battle

Now we throw it over to our esteemed Player Support team with updates on known issues and important topics.

This is their report.

LEAVING SOON

We are currently investigating issues surrounding the completion of certain Triumphs related to the Warden Title, and will adjust the code claim and Seal pin purchase deadlines accordingly.

We are currently investigating issues surrounding the completion of certain Triumphs related to of the Warden Title, and will adjust the code claim and Seal pin purchase deadlines accordingly. Stay tuned for more info.

DUST AND ECHOES

Almost nine years ago, stats and files from our previous franchise, Halo, stopped getting updated on Bungie.net. Since then, all stats, files, and other data from Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST, and Halo: Reach have lived on in remembrance at halo.bungie.net.

On February 9, the halo.bungie.net website will be taken offline permanently. Everyone is welcome to save their stats and files, however they can, if they'd like to save anything. Please keep in mind that our News articles, Forums, and Groups were imported into the current version of Bungie.net back in 2013.

Additionally, personal custom Halo avatars that are currently used on Bungie.net will be removed on February 9 due to its functionality living on halo.bungie.net. We are exploring options to bring those back in some capacity, but we recommend saving them to your computer in the meantime.

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:

• We're investigating an issue with Sony where Playstation users can't send invites through the Companion App or Bungie.net.
• The Lightseeker Triumph isn't unlocking after claiming all five feathers from the Harbinger mission.
• The Birds of a Feather Triumph is not unlocking when players complete the Harbinger activity when all players have Hawkmoon equipped.
• VO lines are not playing during the Harbinger activity.
• The black Blight orbs left behind by the High Celebrant won't open portals if shot by Sidearms.
• The High Celebrant will always show "Immune" damage, even with the Wrathborn buff active. The High Celebrant will still take the proper damage if the buff is active. This will be resolved in a future update.
• The Augment lockout timer occasionally resets during the final encounter against Taniks.
• Sometimes the wrong tether box gets tethered during the final encounter of the Garden of Salvation raid.
• The plates in the puzzle room during the Shuro Chi encounter in the Last Wish raid sometimes won't work if a Titan Ward of Dawn or Warlock Well of Radiance touch them.

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.

Shhhh

It's still early into 2021 but we are already seeing some great new Movie of the Week entries. Here are a couple of our favorites for your viewing pleasure.

Movie of the Week: Salvation Suite

Movie of the Week: Thunder

The creators of these fine films will be rewarded with a spiffy new MOTW emblem we added this Season. If you are one of the winners, congratulations! Please make sure you post a link to your Bungie.net profile in the description of the video. Want your shot to win? Submit your video to the Creations page or share it on YouTube or Twitter - honestly, anywhere we might find it works for us.

Creatives

I am a very poor artist and have never been able to draw very well. This makes the beautiful community-created art that fills up my timelines even more impressive to me. It's truly amazing seeing what you all come up with using the world we built. Here are a few amazing pieces from this week.

Art of the Week: The Wrath of Banshee

The Wrath of the Banshee - Destiny 2 Fanart

"...his Sword wailing like a Banshee, carrying the weight of thousands of lost souls."

- Support me for more! - https://t.co/yScowcsWVj
- Prints! - https://t.co/6eDetK9awh#Destiny2 #Bungie #artwork #DestinyArt pic.twitter.com/TZWoGO8thQ

— Gabriel Flauzino (@attacus_x) January 19, 2021

Art of the Week: Letter 8

"Papa started crying then. I got back into bed and piled all my penguins on my head to block it out. It didn't really work because then I started crying, too."https://t.co/fYxTxmBOlG#destiny2 #beyondlight #destinyart pic.twitter.com/lFau0kMyPe

— ???????? (@LaurinofEarth) January 19, 2021

If you won, make sure you post a link to your Bungie.net profile as a comment under your winning art post so we know that you are you.

We know there are a lot of community conversations happening around the current state of the game. I don't want to lean too far into the "We're listening" meme but it's 100% true that we take community feedback to heart and are absolutely considering community concerns and suggestions as we continue to evolve our plans for 2021 and beyond. Earlier this week, Assistant Game Director Joe Blackburn put out a Tweet mentioning this and that we will give an update to the community with a deeper dive into the state of Destiny.

Last year, I said Destiny's Best Days are ahead. Seeing what's coming, I believe this more than ever. But we have work to do to get there. 2021 is going to be a little different for Destiny. Taking some time to validate our plans, but expect a state of Destiny 2021 next season.

— Joe Blackburn (@joegoroth) January 19, 2021

We love Destiny 2 and love having the privilege to work on it. We're excited about some of the changes we have next Season and will have some more to lay out over the next few weeks as well. Thanks for playing.

<3 Cozmo