This week at Bungie, we're sweeping up some blues.
Time's been flying by, hasn't it? Including the article you're reading today, just five TWABs stand between you and The Witch Queen. We don't (yet) have the technology to enter a hyper-sleep that can bridge these gaps, but we do have the power to set some expectations on topics we'll be covering between now and then.
This week, we'll be talking about Power, blue drops, Gunsmith reputation, some shifts in Exotic sources, and more. Over the next few TWABs, we'll be talking Vanguard rep, Gambit reworks, weapon crafting, and Void 3.0... but not necessarily in that order. Don't forget the patch note previews and additional weapon tuning details. It'll be a fun time, and hopefully we'll give you some things to chew on each week. We may even have a trailer or two to share with you before launch. If you haven't been on social media in the last week, you might have missed some bite-sized snippets of story...
— Destiny 2 (@DestinyTheGame) January 17, 2022
So, let's kick things off with Power, and where your Guardian will stand when it's time to embark on The Witch Queen's campaign.
In the realm of Destiny, Power is not only a measurement of your Guardian's general abilities, but a consistent gauge for players on whether or not they'll be able to tackle a given challenge. While The Witch Queen won't feature a big overhaul to the ways in which you gain Power, we do have some general updates coming on launch day to get returning and new players up and ready for a fresh campaign.
First, let's talk some definitions. Some of you may know these by heart, but we're always excited to introduce New Lights and returning players to information like this:
Starting on February 22, the Power floor will be updated to 1350. Any player who signs in will be at appropriate Power levels to start the Witch Queen campaign, even if they've taken a recent break from the game.
Through general gameplay, players can reach the soft cap of 1500 by earning general gear through activity completions, chests, and more. This includes Rare and Legendary drops. Once reaching the soft cap, players will need to earn Powerful drops from vendor challenges and other objectives in the game. Once reaching the Power cap of 1550, the only upgrades that players will find are from endgame activities that offer Pinnacle rewards. Your final stretch to the hard cap of 1560 will be through raids, Trials of Osiris, Iron Banner, and other endgame PvE sources.
There will be some adjustments to Pinnacle and Powerful sources, as these shift yearly to focus on newer Seasonal content and fresh Destiny 2 expansion content offered with The Witch Queen. Keep an eye on tooltips as you start completing activities, as they'll specifically note the different types of rewards that they offer. We have no doubts that our more eager players will create guides within a week of launch, but we hope that the Power climb is fairly easy to understand once you get your boots on the ground on February 22.
Short answer: absolutely not. Nothing in game design is easy, especially when tackling the various currencies and exchanges that Destiny 2 offers. This week, we'll be diving in with Economy Feature Lead Joshua Kulinski, speaking to some exciting changes on behalf of the team.
Joshua: Beginning in The Witch Queen, blue (Rare) rewards will stop dropping from playlist activities (Crucible, Strikes, Gambit, etc.) once players have reached the soft cap. Players above the soft cap (1500 Power in The Witch Queen) will instead see a slightly increased chance at receiving Legendary rewards from these activities, or a small amount of Legendary Shards.
Blue weapons and armors will continue to drop from enemies and chests while playing Destiny 2, but we hope that this will reduce the need for players to manage their inventories and reduce the frequency of visits to the Postmaster when running playlist activities.
We have some work ahead of us when it comes to rarity as a subject in Destiny 2. While blue gear helps players increase their Power earlier in the game, we want to look at their place in the overall game. We aren't expecting any major changes in the next few Seasons, but will be spending some time behind the scenes thinking about the future of Rare drops all up.
Gunsmith Reputation
Banshee-44 is getting a new reputation system that matches the other vendors in the Tower, such as Zavala and Shaxx. This means we are removing some of the items that were previously associated with Gunsmith Reputation, namely Gunsmith Materials and Weapon Telemetries. Players will now earn Reputation Rank progress with Banshee-44 when dismantling Legendary and Exotic weapons and armor or by completing daily Gunsmith bounties.
Players will want to spend their Gunsmith Materials and Weapon Telemetries at Banshee-44 before February 22, 2022. Any materials that are not spent will be removed from inventory automatically.
Mods & Mod Components
We will also be removing Mod Components from the game. Starting in The Witch Queen, weapon and armor mods sold by Banshee-44 and Ada-1 respectively will no longer require Mod Components to purchase and will instead cost 10,000 Glimmer each. Furthermore, as part of this update, we are increasing the number of mods available on each vendor at a single time from two to four.
Before we move on, it should be noted that all Ghost Mods that generated Weapon Telemetries will be removed, as they no longer serve a purpose.
These mods are:
- Arc Analyzer
- Solar Analyzer
- Void Analyzer
- Omni-Telemetry
- Banshee Special
Rahool's Taking Over
As we have mentioned in the past, Master Rahool will be inheriting Spider's material exchange duties in The Witch Queen. Exchange rates should match what you know from Spider (for now), but these services are being shifted to the Tower as the Tangled Shore will soon be off limits to Guardians.
In addition, Rahool will also be picking up some of the wares that Banshee-44 and Ada-1 once offered, specifically the sale of Enhancement Prisms and Ascendant Shards. As noted above, this makes space for more mods to be available for purchase during a given week. Rahool will offer these materials at the same price as Banshee-44 and Ada-1 once sold them.
Enhancement Prism
- 10 Enhancement Cores
- 25 Planetary Materials
- 10,000 Glimmer
Ascendant Shard
- 10 Enhancement Prisms
- 100 Planetary Materials
- 50,000 Glimmer
As a final note before we move on to some Exotic news, Master Rahool will also be able to decrypt Umbral engrams, so players will not have to hop between the H.E.L.M. and the Tower to decrypt all of the engrams in their inventory. Focusing for individual Seasonal weapons and armor will live on Seasonal Vendors in the H.E.L.M. moving forward, so if you want to focus on a specific weapon from a given Season, you'll still need to head to the H.E.L.M. for decryption.
Hawkmoon & Dead Man's Tale
As of February 22, 2022 the Harbinger and Presage Exotic missions will no longer be accessible. The team still wanted to preserve the ability for players to obtain random rolls of these weapons. Therefore, instead of adding these items to the Monument to Lost Lights, as we have done with most of our previous Exotics that no longer have sources, these two weapons will show up as part of Xur's inventory each weekend.
Every week Xur will offer a unique roll for both Hawkmoon and Dead Man's Tale, and will be purchasable to all players that own Beyond Light for the following materials:
- 1 Ascendant Shard
- 1 Exotic Cipher
- 125,000 Glimmer
- 200 Legendary Shards
Wait, before you go... what about those Exotic Catalysts?
Oh, that's something fun! The Hawkmoon, DMT, and Ager's Scepter catalysts will be moved to the playlist activity (Strikes, Crucible, Gambit) completions. In addition to these three, we have also added the ability for three catalysts that have been absent from Destiny 2 to drop from playlist activities as well.
The full list:
- Hawkmoon
- Dead Man's Tale
- Ager's Scepter
- Outbreak Perfected
- Whisper of the Worm
- The Fourth Horseman
Outbreak Perfected and Whisper of the Worm have both had the requirements for completing their catalyst updated so that they can be completed without access to their original activities
The Witch Queen has a new raid. Surprising, no? While we still have a bit of time before the World First race begins, we wanted to get a rally flag planted in the sand for when you should expect to be taking on the challenge.
Destiny 2: The Witch Queen [REDACTED] Raid
March 5, 2022
10:00 AM Pacific (18:00 UTC)
We'll have additional details on Contest Mode, Bungie Rewards, and other need-to-know information closer to the date. Until then, get in those time-off requests! If you're still in school, we do not advise faking sick notes from doctors or lying to your parents to stay home. Go to class. Do your homework. Ace those tests. Be a good student. Conquer the raid boss that is the essay due next week. Raid prep can be an evening activity. We'll be proud of you either way!
Earlier this morning (or afternoon, or evening depending on where you live), we deployed a fresh hotfix to address some crashes found in Gambit and Dares of Eternity. Our Player Support team has a quick rundown in case you missed the patch notes, and some additional known issues that we're tracking.
This is their report.
HOTFIX 3.4.0.3 RESOLVED ISSUES
This week, Hotfix 3.4.0.3 was released to the world. This hotfix resolved several issues including:
- Ornaments can now be equipped on the Wish-Ender Exotic Bow.
- In the Grasp of Avarice dungeon, players will no longer be trapped outside the encounter if they are dead outside the crystal tunnel when the encounter begins.
- In the Grasp of Avarice dungeon, the damage phase with the Ogre boss will now consistently start after depositing enough cursed engrams.
- We have reverted colorblind settings made in Hotfix 3.4.0.2 and will be looking into making updates to colorblind settings in a future update.
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:
- When first spawning into an area or activity, Hand Cannons sometimes don't have ammo.
- The Dares of Eternity's game streak now gives a maximum of 125 points per completion.
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.
In previous TWABs, we have been keeping you updated on the extensive quest to save our editor from his "apartment." Today, this story finally has an ending! While speaking yesterday he told us that while he was out walking his propane tank (he said *grumble grumble Hank Hill*) he found out that he is finally calling someone about, well, everything wrong with his apartment! Hopefully this is ending the saga but tune in next week to dragon - err - "This Week with our Editor."
On to MOTW!
The journey to The Witch Queen has been a beautiful one, hasn't it? This week we are sharing the beautiful and ever evolving journey we have been on, so let's take a Sparrow race around the planets, shall we?
MOTW: Race of the Galaxy
MOTW: Journey to Witch Queen (Fan Made Trailer)
Don't forget to tag us on socials with #MOTW!
Get in, artists, we're going art hunting! Every week, the Destiny 2 community makes us so dang proud with their incredible interpretations of this galaxy. Often, you'll see the more traditional side of art showcased in this section, but this week we wanted to do something a little different. Between my love of collecting gaming memorabilia and the absolute inspiration I feel from the cosplay community, I wanted to dedicate this week's AOTW to the other forms of art we see out there. From an epic cosplay to a toy shot that is anything but small, here are this week's picks for AOTW!
Art of the Week: "Looks like you have the Last Word"
Art of the Week: One tiny Shaxx for toy collectors, one awesome shot for Destiny fans
@DirtyEffinHippy @A_dmg04 @Bungie Am I able to submit my toy photography for artist of the week ?? pic.twitter.com/khp6YdurFN
— William Timmis (@Blunderbuss25) January 18, 2022
Don't forget to show off your incredible creations by tagging #AOTW and #Destiny2Art, we want to see them all! Just ... easy on the feels, please, because what's coming next is a doozy.
Over the weekend, a few Guardians out there were scraping our articles to figure out whether or not Iron Banner bounties will be removed at the end of the Season. It was discovered that we had a slight error published to the website, and I wanted to take a moment to set expectations on what is being removed.
Rule of thumb: If you do not want to lose your rewards, we highly recommend that you turn in your bounties before a new year of Destiny content hits the servers. While some of you are looking to rank up your Artifact a bit faster than others, we expect many of your mod unlocks to come from completing the campaign and jumping into quests/activities afterwards. Take your time. You'll unlock all the goodies, we have no doubts!
Thanks for stopping by for another TWAB. Next week, Hippy will take the reins again for her second TWAB. Until then, we'll see you in the wild.
Cheers,
dmg04
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