This Week At Bungie - 4/15/2021

This week at Bungie, we warm up.

Spring is here and competition is in the air. The second annual Guardian Games are kicking off on April 20. The theme of the event returns, pitting the classes against each other in a friendly competition to showcase their skills in combat. Last year, Titans dominated the field for nearly the entire event. Can Warlocks or Hunters bounce back and dethrone those gargantuan punching machines? Time will tell.

If you are new to Guardian Games or need a quick refresher, this article is a great place to start. In today's TWAB we'll get into some of the changes for this year's event. But before we do, let's check out the hype reel.

Last year, we received a lot of feedback on how the overall scoring worked. You can read through this post for a refresher, but the tl;dr is we had class-specific score weighting to account for the difference in class population. We did this to make sure that Hunters didn't have a huge advantage because of... well, how many Hunters there are. This year, we won't be doing any initial weighting on the scoring. Everyone's points will count the same... at the start. How the scoring will work this year.

Medals have the following values:

• Bronze: 1 Point
• Silver: 2 Points
• Gold: 5 Points
• Platinum: 15 Points

We still have to account for different class population, so this year the class that comes in third place each day gets a permanent 10% bonus on scoring going forward.

We've tested this new scoring system using last year's data and a few other data sets and it seems to provide a more competitive Guardian Games where we see different classes winning throughout the event. Hunters will likely win early on because of their population advantage but as the bonuses kick in, the competition should tighten up quickly.

New Guardian Games Playlist

Another new addition to this year's event is the Guardian Games Strikes Playlist. This is like the standard Vanguard Strikes Playlist but will group players together by class. This feeds into the Laurel collecting mechanic where players have a chance at bonus Laurels when they pick up a Laurel generated by a player of the same class.

Modifiers

This new playlist will have gameplay modifiers added based on the previous day's class standing. Classes will get a beneficial modifier tied to gold, silver, and bronze placement.

• Gold: Health, shields, and recovery are increased. Kinetic weapons deal more damage.
• Silver: Melee abilities recharge faster. Elemental damage increased from Guardian sources. More Heavy ammo available.
• Bronze: Grenade abilities deal more damage and recharge much faster. Elemental damage increased from Guardian sources.

There are also negative modifiers added to the playlist to make things a little more challenging for the leaders. The gold class gets two modifiers, and the silver class gets one. These modifiers are themed around the classes that finished lower on the podium.

	Bronze	Silver
Titan	Combatant melee attacks deal more damage.	Combatant melee attacks deal significantly more damage.
Warlock	Incoming damage increased while airborne.	Incoming damage significantly increased while airborne.
Hunter	Radar is disabled.	Radar is disabled and combatants don't flinch when damaged.

Silver classes only get the modifier from the bronze class below them. Gold classes get a combination of both silver and bronze.

Thematically, we're going for an experience where the Guardian Games Strike Playlist is the venue for players hoping to jockey their classes' podium placement as it will likely be one of the most efficient ways to earn Laurels.

Medal Case

You will receive a medal case from Eva to store your hardware until you are ready to visit the podium in the Tower to bank them for your team. Once you have the maximum medals for a certain type in your case, make sure you go turn them as any more earned for that type will be lost. Turning in medals will give you a chance at receiving an event package depending on the medal type.

Contender Card

This year we are introducing a new way to earn points for your team called Contender Cards. You will be able to pick these up from Eva in exchange for Laurels and can have one active at any given time. Completing objectives in strikes, Crucible, and Gambit will grant a Gold Medal upon completion.

There is also a special Platinum Contender Card that will focus on completing objectives in Nightfalls, Survival, and Trials. This will be the only way to earn Platinum Medals. Completing a Platinum Card will earn you All-Star status and a special reward at the next podium ceremony.

Make sure you complete your Platinum Contender Card before daily reset on Friday if you want to lock in your All-Star status for the weekend.

Podium Ceremony

Every weekend there will be a special ceremony where you will be able show off a glow from your class item depending on your class' standing that week.

• Third place receives a bronze glow.
• Second place receives a silver glow.
• First place receives a gold glow.
• All-Stars receive a platinum glow.

We will be throwing a special final weekend closing ceremony in the Tower that will be live from May 7 to May 11 to celebrate the winning class!

Rewards

As with any event, there will be new loot to grab. At the start of the event, you will get is a new class item from Zavala - these are required to participate in the games. Your old class items won't work for this event, even though they still look cool. Super cool.

There will be a new Exotic Sparrow you can earn during the event because every Guardian can use a new set of wheels... OK maybe not wheels since they hover, but you get the point. It's a cool vehicle that you can drive... fly... drift? Yeah. You can definitely drift them.

Anyway, there will also be new emblems and shaders to collect and Heir Apparent is back for anyone who didn't get it last year. Proud owners of the tanky Exotic Machine Gun now have a new catalyst to earn. If you want to roleplay as Valus Ta'arc, this catalyst will provide even beefier shields for you as you cabal-stomp your way through the battlefield.

There will also be new Eververse collectibles including, but not limited to, a new Universal Ornament armor set. At Beyond Light's release, we said we would be working to make future Universal Ornament sets more accepting of shaders. New tech allows us to achieve this change more easily and the GG sets are a great example. Here is a peek at some of the offerings.

Bungie Rewards

Your chance for glory and rewards begins next week, but Guardians can get a preview of the Bungie Rewards starting now. Players who earn the Guardian Games Exotic Sparrow can unlock their code to purchase an exclusive Guardian Games track jacket with all three class patches.

Participate in the final weekend's closing ceremonies at the Tower to unlock a purchasable gold pin commemorating the winning class. Don't want to wait? Silver class pins are available now at the Bungie Store while you compete with your fellow Guardians to achieve gold.

Bungie Rewards will have a free emblem commemorating the games. Complete a Guardian Games Playlist Strike during the event to unlock your free reward.

Guardians can now complete the final Seasonal Challenge week. As part of Bungie Rewards, you can redeem the free "Thrill of the Chase" emblem as you complete the Master of All Triumph.

Future Ornaments

Last month, we held a vote on which armor ornament set the community would like to see made for Festival of the Lost later this year. That kicked off a fun Dino vs Monsters moment and we want to do something similar for weapon ornaments.

We've identified 12 weapons as candidates for your consideration. You can pick up to three that you would like to see have new ornaments created in the future. We're asking for your suggestions super early in development and plan on completing this early next year.

• Crimson
• Fighting Lion
• Graviton Lance
• Le Monarque
• Merciless
• Riskrunner
• Skyburner's Oath
• Sunshot
• Sweet Business
• Telesto
• Trinity Ghoul
• Vigilance Wing

Click here to take our brief survey and cast your votes!

Which weapons will win out? We know there is a bit of a cult following behind Fighting Lion, but then again, we see Le Monarque ornaments requested regularly. We will announce the results and which weapon ornaments we plan to make in a future TWAB.

Shader Shredding

Let's now throw it over to our Player Support experts with and update on ongoing issues and other important information on the state of the game.

PROVING GROUNDS NIGHTFALL

Earlier this Season, we clarified that Beyond Light and the Season Pass would be required to play the Nightfall version of Proving Grounds. We have since made a changed these requirements, and access to the Proving Grounds Nightfall will now require either Beyond Light or the Season of the Chosen Season Pass. Players no longer need both to access the Nightfall.

We're working with our teams to update the Season of the Chosen calendar and future calendars to reflect this change.

GUARDIAN GAMES KNOWN ISSUES

Before Guardian Games 2021 launches on April 20 we want players to be aware of certain issues and information before logging in the first time:

• Players must wear their Guardian Games class item to generate Laurels and progress any Guardian Game bounties.
• Previous Guardian Games class items (the Cunning Rivalry Cloak, Mighty Rivalry Mark, and Sage Rivalry Bond) will not generate Laurels or progress any Guardian Games bounties.
• Class items acquired from Zavala are awarded at 1250 Power Level instead of 1300, which can be acquired from Eva.
• Laurels do not drop on the ground in Gambit or Crucible and are instead rewarded directly to players.
• Unrecovered Laurels do not go to the Postmaster and must be picked up to count.
• If the Medal Case is full, Medals earned through claiming Triumphs will be lost.
• The Laurel acquisition step of Heir Apparent Exotic Quest only counts Laurels picked up off the ground.
• Players will not be able to deposit Medals if they were acquired in the Tower after players have already deposited Medals of the same rarity. Players can return to orbit and head back to the Tower to deposit those Medals.
• Certain shaders may erroneously remove the glow from the Eververse Warlock Guardian Games Universal Ornament set.

As always, we will be monitoring player reports on our Help Forum at Bungie.net and will be updating our Top Issues article as big issues arise. For more information, please visit our Guardian Games support page.

STEAM DATAGRAM RELAY

Over the past few weeks, we have expanded SDR coverage to Steam, Xbox and PlayStation consoles. As a result, players may encounter an increase in Beaver errors.

If you receive additional errors or connection issues, please post a report to the #Help forum.

DISMANTLE YOUR SHADERS

Beginning in Season 14 (launching May 11), we are overhauling our shader system and how shaders can be applied to armor. Due to the overhaul, shaders will become permanent unlocks, and all shaders in player inventories will be removed. We encourage everyone to dismantle their shaders before Season 14 begins to ensure that you receive Glimmer and Legendary Shards.

More information about our new shader system can be found here under: "Getting Reacquainted with Adelaide."

WEEKLY 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 Pit of Heresy solo flawless emblem, "Crimson Echoes", is not tracking completions.
• Players can fall beneath a grate in the Proving Grounds strike and become trapped.
• The Assassin's Cowl Exotic Hunter helmet clips through the majority of Hunter cloaks.
• 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.

Monster Movies

See any good movies lately? Heard there is a good one featuring large monsters kicking the crap out of each other. No time to get into that right now though, we need to talk about the community movies. Here are our picks for this week.

Movie of the Week: Steamed Gambit

Movie of the Week: The Man With Two Rifles

If you see your movie featured above, congratulations! We will be sending you a special emblem soon, please make sure you have your Bungie.net profile in the description of the video so we know it's you.

Gallery

Now it's time to check out some of the amazing art from our community. Every week we pick a few pieces to put on display here and then we send the artists a special emblem as a small token of our appreciation. Here are this week's art picks!

Art of the Week: Proving Grounds

The Proving Grounds Strike#Destiny2 pic.twitter.com/oawJsClA4R

— Naka_da_Slacka (@NSlacka) April 7, 2021

Art of the Week: Bird Game

bird gang. ? (Osiris and Saint-14 please sign the adoption papers for Crow)#Destiny2 #DestinyArt @DestinyComArt pic.twitter.com/7gLWezT1Hn

— elesir (@ElesirArt) April 6, 2021

Alright Guardians, we want a good, clean competition. Remember, while it's fun to poke fun at the other classes and enjoy partaking in a friendly rivalry, at the end of the day we are all on the same team. Let's keep it cordial and not be poor sports, win or lose. So to my fellow Hunters, let's be very humble when we win the gold this year.

<3 Cozmo