This Week At Bungie - 8/26/2021

This week at Bungie... Where do we even begin?

Tuesday was a big day. Really big. So big, in fact, that a little bit of the news ended up slipping into Wednesday. Many of you were tuned in to watch every detail as it was revealed, but there was a lot to cover. Let's do a quick recap for the New Lights out there. Yes, you're about to read an onslaught of links, but we couldn't possibly cover everything without this turning into something that looks like patch notes:

• The Witch Queen was announced, showing that even our enemies can bend Light to their will.
  • There's too much info to sum up in a few bullets. Hit our product page for more!
• Season of the Lost is live, and a tale of two queens has begun.
• Cross Play is live, bringing Guardians together no matter which platform they play on.
• We've also announced our 30th Anniversary, including the return of Gjallarhorn, a new six-player activity, and more!

As for quality-of-life improvements for our PvP players out there, we have some fun news on the Security front, and for Trials as well!

• We've announced our partnership with BattlEye Anti-Cheat, and begun our soft launch of new security improvements to Destiny 2.
  • As we collect data and strengthen our detections, we appreciate all players who continue to report potential cheaters to our contact form here.
  • We've also announced updates to our Security Policies, touching on things like win-trading and account recoveries in competitive environments.
• We've announced upcoming improvements to Trials of Osiris, starting with rewards, matchmaking, and Labs.
  • Trials will be on a short hiatus until September 10, so read up if you haven't gotten the chance.

We've given you all plenty to read and there's still quite a bit to discuss over the next few months.

Let's start with some expectation setting, shall we? During the Destiny 2 Showcase, we spoke of reworks coming to all Light-based subclasses in Destiny 2. While we showed you a small glimpse of gameplay, we thought it would be nice to talk through what that rework really means.

But first, here's a quick update on our Bungie Foundation initiatives.

Bungie Foundation Update: Team Rubicon and Direct Relief

Last week, we announced multiple charity initiatives with goals of helping those in need around the world. This community has proven time and time again that gaming does good, and that we're all Guardians of the world.

Bungie Foundation: Today, Team Rubicon and Direct Relief have teams on the ground across the world and are actively providing life-saving medical care, critical medical and PPE supplies, food, water, and shelter to hundreds of thousands of people in need following the recent natural disasters - including the Haiti earthquake, West Coast and Mediterranean wildfires, and Tennessee and Germany floods. They have not let up on their mission to vaccinate vulnerable populations against COVID-19.

Thank you to each of you who have preordered a Guardians for Hope T-Shirt, made a direct donation, or purchased from the Bungie Foundation Collection on the Bungie Store. We know that this has been an incredibly challenging and overwhelming year for everyone, and your continued generosity is truly humbling. Over the past week, you have helped us raise nearly $125,000 in direct donations and have preordered a lot of T-shirts!

Let's keep this support train rolling! Between now and next Wednesday, September 1, at 11:59 pm PT, you can help us reach our goal of $500,000 to help Team Rubicon and Direct Relief bring the life-saving care that millions around the world need today.

As a reminder, here are the sweet wares you can receive through your support:

Donate $25 and receive the Anchor Point emblem, distributed via email on Thursday, September 9.


Pre-order the Guardians of Hope T-Shirt and receive the Vital Elixir emblem, distributed via email on Thursday, September 9.



Make a purchase from the Bungie Foundation Collection on the Bungie Store and receive the Planet of Peace emblem, delivered instantly via email after purchase is completed.


Reminders: To be eligible for the in-game items listed above, donations and/or purchases must be made between August 19 and September 1 at 11:59 pm PT. Unique redemption code(s) will be emailed to you on Thursday, September 9 following the completion of the fundraiser. Only one redemption code per item per email for qualifying donations or purchases.

Thank you for being real-life Guardians to so many who need you. Your support truly does save lives.

Into the Void

Starting in The Witch Queen, we'll be aiming to give Light classes the Stasis treatment Season over Season, bringing more customization to Guardians and new ways to engage with their abilities. While the team is still deep in development, Sandbox Discipline Lead Kevin Yanes and Gameplay Designer Samuel Dunn are joining us to walk through their goals for abilities, and what the upcoming reworks will bring to the table.

Kevin: Hey everyone, Kevin from the Abilities team here to share some sweet details about what's coming next. By the time this gets posted, I assume you all have had the opportunity to see what's cooking here in the Bungie digital kitchens. The world, characters, and story are all moving forward, and things are changing big time. Destiny 2 is evolving, and that means the sandbox needs to evolve with it. Previously, I laid out a roadmap of changes that got us to Season 15 with some vague hints about the future. Now that we're here, I wanted to plant more flags in the ground about where we're going next.

STRAIGHT TO BUSINESS

Throughout Tuesday's reveal, we watched as you all reacted to The Witch Queen, Season of the Lost, and 30th Anniversary. Part of those reactions where on subjects like subclasses and Stasis aspects and fragments. I feel that before we move forward, we should rip a few bandages off:

• There will be no new darkness subclass with The Witch Queen or through year 5.
  • We made the call to refocus ourselves on Light subclasses this year. As you'll see below this doesn't just mean a port but also new and exciting stuff too.
• There are no new Stasis aspects and Fragments arriving along Season of the Lost.
  • Similar to above we wanted to focus on different initiatives instead of adding more to Stasis.
  • We feel like the subclass build variety is in a good spot and was likely to benefit from tuning changes more than new stuff.
  • To that end we prioritized the Season of the Lost balance patch and another patch you'll hear about below debuting with 30th anniversary.

COMBAT REFORGED

Today you're going to read a quick tease on a feature we're calling Void 3.0 - a new interpretation of the Void subclasses and fantasies. In the coming weeks, you'll hear about changes we're making to how players regenerate ability energy and how those changes are going to affect PvE and PvP with our 30th Anniversary release. A few examples of changes in the pipe: A reduction to how many one shot kill abilities are available in the crucible and shifting super energy regeneration so players are rewarded for participating in combat vs waiting for a timer. Later in Year 5, we hope to share more info on an initiative the team is discussing internally right now: making ammo generation a more deterministic and consistently paced experience across all activities. I hope what I'm describing here paints a clear picture: The game is evolving for the better.

Destiny 2 is a living game, and as we head into our fifth year, we're looking at how we can evolve the sandbox you know and love to not only create exciting new experiences, but to better polish ones that haven't had much love since our launch in 2017. We've learned a lot over the years with each iteration of the sandbox, and we're hoping to apply those learnings through Year 5 and beyond. I hope you are all as excited about the future as I am!

BRAVE NEW WORLD

As you saw in our reveal event, we're going to be doing serious revamps to the existing Light subclasses in Destiny 2. Our Void, Solar, and Arc subclasses and damage types have been with Destiny from the very beginning - in fact, some of the player fantasies and mechanics in Destiny 2 today are the same that debuted with Destiny 1 back in 2014. And while we've had refreshes in 2017 and 2018 with Destiny 2 and Forsaken, these subclasses have in some cases been left behind by the new power bar and build-crafting goals of the game. To help solve that problem, we're going to take these subclasses back into the shop to retrofit, remix, and reinterpret the gameplay fantasies and mechanics by integrating them into the modern subclass experience.



In Destiny 2: Beyond Light we introduced a new subclass system we dubbed internally as Subclass 3.0. The goals of Subclass 3.0 were to create an experience that gave players more customization akin to Destiny 1, while also meaningfully evolving that experience. To us, Destiny is best when build-crafting, best-in-class action, and power fantasy all meet to create gameplay experiences you can't get anywhere else.

STARING OUT INTO THE VOID

With Void 3.0, we're taking the subclasses you know and love and remixing them. That means adding new abilities and mechanics, ditching some old ones where it makes sense to do so, and spreading out existing ones to create enticing new combinations. Our hope is to retain playstyles you know and love today and to create some exciting new ones you didn't even know you wanted. We can't wait to see what you all think about these changes and as always, we're going to be looking for and responding to feedback. <3

With that all said and done, I am going bow out and let the team do the talking.



Sam: Howdy, everyone. I'm Sam Dunn, abilities designer on the Sandbox team. I'm here to dive into a little more detail about what you can expect from Void 3.0.

A NEW SHAPE

As Kevin detailed above, we're in the process of updating Void, Solar, and Arc into the new Subclass 3.0 system used by Stasis, where you can pick and choose from a selection of Supers, grenades, melees, and Aspects and Fragments to craft cool and unique builds tailored around your playstyle. In The Witch Queen, you'll experience the first phase of this metamorphosis as you wield the powers of the Void in your fight against Savathûn and her Lucent Brood.

It's important to reiterate that this update will change things. Destiny 2 has evolved significantly in the three years since Forsaken, and we believe that the Light subclasses need a shakeup to keep pace. Much of the Void gameplay that you know and love will continue to exist, albeit in a different form. A few things won't be returning. And there are some exciting new additions we think you'll have a blast with.

To paint the picture of how we're approaching the Void 3.0 rework, here are our main goals:

Preserve the strong existing power fantasies of Void. We want to focus on what makes the damage type fun to use and give it a cohesive identity that can be felt throughout your subclass, while also adding sweet new toys that feel like a natural extension of your Void powers.

Provide new and exciting build-crafting possibilities through the combination of Aspects and Fragments. We want you to not only be able to craft similar playstyles to the old subclass diamonds using the new system, but also to explore a bunch of new ways that your Void abilities can work together with your armor and weapons.

Set up a framework for the systemic integration of the damage type into the rest of the game. We believe that Stasis was very successful in providing a set of shared combat behaviors or "verbs" that can interact with each other and with other elements in the game. With Void, we want to double down on this effort and reorganize the subclasses in a similar way - and we're planning to continue this with Solar and Arc going forward.

SAY THE (KEY) WORD

With the Void 3.0 update, we're defining a set of core keywords that will be used by the various perks and abilities within each Void subclass, akin to the Slow, Freeze, and Shatter verbs used by Stasis. Each class will specialize in a few of these verbs, but it will be possible to dabble in the rest by coordinating with your fireteam or with certain combinations of Abilities and Fragments.

Additionally, these verbs will appear in other places outside of the subclass screen - weapon perks, Exotic armor, and mods from your Seasonal Artifact - and we intend to continue expanding that list as we move forward. We believe that these systemic interactions between your abilities and your gear are the core of the Destiny buildcrafting game.



Within Void, there are three negative status effects that you'll be applying to enemies:

• Suppression - The target is knocked out of any active abilities and can't activate any abilities/movement modes as long as Suppression persists. Afflicted enemy AI combatants can't shoot their weapons.
• Weaken - The target takes increased damage and has their movement slowed. Enemy AI combatants fire their weapons with decreased accuracy.
• Volatile - The target is afflicted with unstable Void energy and will explode upon taking additional damage or on death.

And three positive effects that you'll be applying to yourself and allies:

• Void Overshield - A protective barrier of Void Light which reduces damage taken from combatants.
• Invisibility - You vanish from sight and do not appear on enemy radar.
• Devour - You feast on the energy of your foes. Kills restore you to full health, grant grenade energy, and extend Devour.

These verbs should all be familiar to veteran players, but now exist in a new, broader systemic framework that will allow us to consistently spread their behaviors across the game, where previously they mostly existed in their own siloed-off subclasses.

OLD DOGS, NEW TRICKS

To close this section out, here's a preview of some of the new and updated abilities that you'll be able to play with once Void 3.0 drops.



Nightstalker Hunter

• Shadowshot - Moebius Quiver - Super
  • Fire two volleys of three Void Arrows in a cone which seek out enemies and spawn Void Anchors on impact. Shadowshot makes tethered enemies Volatile and deals increased damage to tethered targets.
  • One of the main usability pain points of the current iteration of Moebius Quiver is having to press the Super input a whole bunch of times to fire each arrow individually, which is cumbersome and takes a lot of time (and often results in the player drifting somewhere they didn't intend to be - off the side of a cliff, as a totally hypothetical example). By firing multiple arrows at once, it should be a lot easier to blanket an area with traps in preparation for a fight or put burst damage on a boss.

• Stylish Executioner - Aspect
  • Defeating a Weakened, Suppressed, or Volatile target grants Invisibility and Truesight. After performing a Stylish Execution, your next melee attack while Invisible Weakens enemies.
  • A twist on middle-tree Nightstalker's current Flawless Execution perk, this Aspect lets the Hunter specialize in defeating debuffed enemies to keep looping their Invisibility.

Sentinel Titan

• Overwatch - Aspect
  • Cast a Void-empowered Barricade to grant a Void Overshield to yourself and nearby allies. The empowered Barricade slowly regenerates the Void Overshield of allies bunkering behind it.
  • We want players to be able to lean into the Sentinel fantasy of being the front-line protector for your team, so Overwatch is a powerful tool for setting up prior to an encounter and providing a safe haven to fall back to when things get spicy.
• Shield Toss - Projectile Melee
  • Hurl your shield towards an enemy. The shield can ricochet off enemies and surfaces, granting you a small chunk of Void Overshield for each enemy hit.
  • We want to give Titans more options when it comes to projectile melees. Shield Toss is a great choice for aggressively pushing forward into groups of enemies, softening them up and giving you extra staying power.

Voidwalker Warlock

• Pocket Singularity - Projectile Melee
  • Launch a tracking, unstable ball of Void energy that detonates when it nears an enemy, pushing targets away from the blast and making them Volatile.
  • Designed as an anti-dive tool and a way to push enemies out of cover. With careful placement, it's possible (and incredibly satisfying) to bop enemies up in the air and then pop their Volatile with a well-placed headshot before they hit the ground.
• Child of the Old Gods - Aspect
  • Cast your Rift to summon a sentient black hole which hovers at your side, waiting for a target. It will launch itself at enemies, then begin siphoning their energy and weakening them, refunding their life force back to you as either grenade and melee energy (if you are using Healing Rift) or health (if you are using Empowering Rift). Defeating enemies who are being siphoned by the Child will refund some Rift energy.
  • Child of the Old Gods is a strong debuff tool that gives Voidwalkers an additional way to lock down an area while sustaining themselves.

We hope that this preview sparks your curiosity and gets you thinking about cool new Void builds. Have you ever wanted to run Spectral Blades and Vanishing Step? Ward of Dawn and Controlled Demolition? Handheld Supernova and Devour? There are a lot of new possibilities... And as we get closer to The Witch Queen, we'll be back in future TWABs to talk more about the Supers, Fragments, and grenades you'll be mixing and matching.

We're really excited about what we're cooking up, and we can't wait for you to get your hands on it. In the meantime, check out the ability balance update that we released with Season of the Lost in Destiny 2 Update 3.3.0. Thanks for your time and see you soon.

More Prime, More Rewards

This week has been full of wonderful surprises. Even outside of our Destiny 2 Showcase and the release of Season of the Lost, we also had a fun moment to refresh for our Prime Rewards. It feels like we just did this two weeks ago, right? Well, this train stops for no one and more rewards are always awesome. Let's see what we've got for this round. We blew some minds earlier in the week, so let's keep it rolling and give players a chance to blow some stuff up in-game with the Wardcliff Coil Rocket Launcher.

• Wardcliff Coil Exotic Rocket Launcher
• Dieselpunk Exotic Ornament
• Eon Drive Exotic Sparrow
• Lost Legendary Ghost Projection

If you'd like to snag these rewards, make sure to head here, link up your Bungie.net profile, then follow directions to redeem them! If you have any questions about the Prime Gaming program, our Prime Gaming Support Article is a good first stop on the train to loot town.

Season of the Lost My Mind

Year after year, Destiny Player Support has been improving its preparations for fresh Seasons. The lists of known issues and need-to-know workarounds go live the moment our patch hits your devices. This Season, we've found a few bugs that are preventing quest progress, but the team is already jamming on fixes.

This is their report.

COCOONS AND URCHINS

When Season of the Lost was released, Destiny Player Support saw an increase in players receiving the error code URCHIN after completing the Season of the Lost mission, Mission: Cocoon. This occurs when players try to obtain a new quest step with a full quest inventory. Players who are receiving the URCHIN error should make room in their quests inventory so that an additional quest can be added to the inventory upon completion.

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.

• Some players on PC are unable to launch the game due to missing an unknown file.
• In Mission: Cocoon, players on PC may experience game crashes.
• Opening the Armor Synthesis screen with a piece of faction armor (Dead Orbit, Future War Cult, or New Monarchy armor and armor ornaments) equipped will cause the game to crash.
• Trials of Osiris gear may not show up correctly when previewing the gear on the Details screen.
• In the Shattered Realm activity, players may not be teleported even when the screen is fully white. Players should continue walking forward until they are teleported.
• Players who have already acquired most or all the existing Prophecy rewards are unable to acquire the newly reprised Trials of the Nine weapons from the activity.
• We are investigating issues relating to multiple steps of the Wayfinder's Voyage quest not completing as intended. Players stuck on a step, particularly Step 4, should abandon and reacquire the quest to continue progressing the quest.
• The barriers surrounding the Scorch Cannons in the Fallen Walker public event repel anything near them, preventing Heroic completions of the event.
• In the Astral Alignment activity, there can be an extensive delay between opening the final chest and receiving the activity rewards.
• In the Astral Alignment activity, joining an encounter in progress will block players from completing the encounter.
• The Sweet Spot Triumph is not progressing when killing Vex Wyverns with precision damage.
• Progression toward the Tracing the Stars quest doesn't count if players pick up Atlas Skews before they pick up the quest, or if they pick up Skews on another character.
• The Ascendant Ballast I Season Challenge isn't properly tracking when players pick up Wayfinding Runes in the Shattered Realm. Players are encouraged to pick up the Waterwheel Rune first so they can complete the weekly challenge this week. Players affected by this issue will have to wait until Week-2 this Season to complete this challenge.
• The Lucidity pre-order emblem from the Witch Queen DLC is not showing up in Collections.
• Some players are blocked from entering the door in the Vault of Glass opening encounter. Players who leave their fireteam, return to Orbit, and re-join their fireteam can receive their rewards and progress through the rest of the raid.
• Knights in the Prophecy Dungeon are incorrectly dropping Light and Dark motes based on the player's location.
• The Withering Heat artifact mod has no description text. When this mod is equipped, causing damage with a Solar ability weakens Champions for a short duration.
• The Fire and Ice artifact mod only spawns one Solar and Stasis Well.
• The No Backup Plans Exotic Titan gauntlets cannot take shaders.
• The Lucky Pants Exotic Hunter leg armor's elemental affinity cannot be changed.
• The Solstice 2021 Illuminus Grasps Hunter arms ornament is unavailable to equip.
• A player's Bungie Friends list doesn't update automatically when accepting Bungie riend requests.
• When attempting to import friends from other platforms for Bungie Friends, some platforms display an error and can't import friends.

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.

Mixing up the Sandbox

Seasons are always a fun time when it comes to MOTW. Reaction videos are plentiful, but so are the videos capturing moments of discovery when weapons or armor rise to the top of the charts thanks to a tuning pass. This week, we honor some older pieces while also noticing how loud of a last word Hunters can get right now...

Movie of the Week: You've Yee'd Your Last Haw, Templar

Movie of the Week: Pre-Buff Bombardiers (You should check these out since the recent patch...)

Movie of the Week: A Tribute to Anarchy

Cheers to the selections this week! We're excited to see what crazy things people find over the next week that are MOTW worthy.

Bow to the Queen

With Savathûn revealed, an onslaught of amazing community art was dominating our feeds for the majority of this week. We can't help but take a moment to highlight some of the awesome pieces out there.

Art of the Week: Tea Time

Shoot! And I'm out of clean shirts!#Destiny2 #Destiny2Art #WitchQueen@DestinyTheGame pic.twitter.com/57rJ6vSPJh

— Kitusiova (@Kathi_Langley) August 23, 2021

Art of the Week: Born in Light

Quick Sketch.

Osmium Princess ; Witch-Queen

"I am Sathona, middle daughter of the dead king.
I will take back my home and eat the mother jelly.
I will raise my spawn on the corpse of the Helium King.

On my right eye
I promise this."#Destiny2 #destiny2art#DestinytheGame pic.twitter.com/TtXdtnB8i8

— StellarStateLogic {comm: closed} (@PedanticAuspice) August 24, 2021

Art of the Week: I Made This For You

came out of the showcase with just one thought #Destiny2 pic.twitter.com/QDYPWVttD2

— robyn! ?✨ (@haykebyr) August 24, 2021

Along with all of the amazing Savathûn fan art we have also seen a lot of excitement and questions around who is voicing The Witch Queen. We are happy to share that it's none other than the talented Debra Wilson. We asked her about her experience voicing the iconic Destiny villain's debut.

Debra: Voicing Savathûn is like a dream come true! So many deep layers to this character, and exploring them all is why playing her will draw you into the story, the plot, and this fantastic universe of a game! Make it your Destiny to play!

Thank you for making all of this possible. Truly, without a passionate community fueling the fires of inspiration and motivation, who knows where we'd be?

What a wild ride it's been. Next month will mark seven full years of Destiny. Seven years of space magic, Crucible, patch notes, community, and more. We still have so far to go with you all. Let's start by taking our next steps into Season of the Lost, shall we?

Cheers,
dmg04