Before we get into it, we wanted to take a moment to reiterate talk about the commitment we made as a company earlier this week in response to the leaked draft decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade. Standing up for reproductive choice and liberty is not a difficult decision to make, and we remain dedicated to upholding these values. You can read our full statement here.
This week at Bungie, the third annual Guardian Games have begun.
Welcome back sports fans! The Guardian Games have commenced, and Hunters Warlocks have taken the lead. But it's still early in this three-week competition and it's anyone's game.
The Tower is looking spiffy with decorations up and the spirit of competition in the air. There are adventures to be had and rewards to be won. Are you pumped yet? Well watch this!
On top of the overall class vs class main event, we have also assembled a friendly out-of-game competition between fireteams of Guardians from across the globe. We have creators from 14 territories representing their favorite class and competing for glory in the Guardian Games Cup. Check out the full details and keep track of the scoring each week here.
Guardian Games Gift Shop
Want to commemorate your epic domination during this year's Guardian Games? Then we have some cool opportunities through Bungie Rewards. Whether you are team Hunter, Titan, or Warlock, you can celebrate your individual accomplishments during the Games with the opportunity to purchase a Guardian Games Tankard if you light two Platinum torches. Anyone who lights four Platinum torches can purchase a Guardian Games Medal.
9000 Words Was Not Enough for Master Rahool
TWAB before last was a mega, ultra-chonker. Even with thousands of words on the weapon changes coming in Season 17, questions still remain. The team has been reading through the responses online and wanted to answer a few questions as well as clear up a few bits of confusion.
Global
Flinch Resistance
How does flinch resistance work?
Flinch resistance directly scales the angle your aim moves by when you take damage, so if you have 60% flinch resistance and you would normally be flinched 10 degrees, you would now be flinched 4 degrees.
The flinch calculations show 1 unflinching Hand Cannon mod and 2 unflinching Pulse Rifle mods both total a 0.7x flinch multiplier. Was this a typo?
Yes, this was a typo. Sorry about that, we fixed it!
What is a scalar?
When we say "scalar" we mean a multiplier, e.g., a 0.65x scalar on flinch will multiply flinch by 0.65.
What are the scalars for some common flinch resistance sources?
No Distractions: 0.65x
Suros Synergy: 0.8x
1x Unflinching Armor Mod: 0.75x
2x Unflinching Armor Mod: 0.7x (i.e., this value is used instead of multiplying two unflinching mod values together)
Rally Barricade: 0.5x
10 Resilience: 0.9x
100 Stability on an Auto Rifle: 0.75x
100 Stability on a Sniper Rifle: 0.9x
Given the importance of stability for flinch resistance, do you plan to adjust the stability stats for any weapons?
We may adjust stability on specific weapons if we see clear outliers in the future.
Airborne Effectiveness
Can an airborne effectiveness penalty take you below 0 in the stat?
No, airborne effectiveness stat cannot go below 0 or above 100 (the same is true of all weapon and character stats).
The tiers in the mega-TWAB were just general examples of performance within ranges. Every point in a weapon stat will count (although a single point won't typically be perceptible).
In most cases there is a linear progression from 0 to 100 stat (an exception being accuracy penalty angle on Primary weapons, which is linear from 0 to 60 but is flat 0 from 60 to 100).
How does airborne effectiveness interact with accuracy perks?
Technically, accuracy perks (like Opening Shot) apply to your airborne accuracy cone as before, but because accuracy while airborne is generally better than it was before, you'll feel the benefits a little less.
Can you clarify precision aim assist?
When grounded and aiming down sights, the full aim assist cone angle is used to determine whether a shot is a crit or a body shot.
When airborne (or hip-firing), by default you only get a crit if you're aimed exactly at the head.
While airborne, the airborne effectiveness stat grants you some forgiveness for this, in the form of the precision aim cone.
We have a graphic to help illustrate all of this:
Key:
1. Grounded, crit: your aim assist cone overlaps the head, but you're not aimed right at it, you get a crit.
2. Airborne, 0 stat, body shot: your aim assist cone overlaps the head, but the center of your reticle is not on the head, you get a body shot.
3. Airborne, 60 stat, body shot: your aim assist cone overlaps the head, your precision aim cone does not overlap the head, you get a body shot.
4. Airborne, 60 stat, crit: your aim assist cone overlaps the head, your precision aim cone overlaps the head, you get a crit.
Aim-Assist Cone (Blue Circle)
Center-Point (White Dot)
Precision-Aim Cone (Red circle)
Can you give more details on how aim assist is affected while airborne?
The term "aim assist" has two parts:
Auto-aim, AKA bullet bending/bullet magnetism angle: if a target falls inside this cone, your projectile will aim at the target (before the effects of the accuracy cone).
This applies equally to mouse and keyboard and controller.
Reticle friction and adhesion: friction slows down your aim when a target is within this cone, and adhesion can pull your aim to stay on the target if they move while you're aiming.
This is only turned on for controller.
In the live game, both angles are halved while airborne.
In Season 17, these cones are still halved as before, and have an additional penalty angle that's subtracted from this, depending on the airborne effectiveness stat. Here are some numbers:
0 stat:
Auto-aim: angle penalty is roughly half of the cone angle.
Friction/adhesion: angle penalty is roughly a quarter of the cone angle. In internal playtests we found that controller players were more affected by this penalty and halved it.
100 stat (both cones): angle penalty is 0. I.e., at 100 the auto-aim and friction cones for most weapons will be the same as they are in the live game.
Scavenger Perk Changes
Are all scavenger mods disabled in PvP or only Special weapon scavenger mods?
All are disabled.
With disabling ammo scavenger mods in PvP are you trying to bring back the double Primary meta?
No, we do want running double Primaries to be more viable, and want there to be fewer one-hit kills in PvP, but don't want to eliminate them entirely.
You still spawn with two rounds of Special ammo (or equivalent), and still pick up ammo bricks, but you shouldn't be able to use a Special weapon like a Primary.
One interesting side effect may be an indirect buff to the strategy of running double Primary to starve your opponents of Special ammo drops.
Are the Special ammo weapon effectiveness and ammo changes enough to reduce their dominance in PvP?
Short-range Primary weapons will have more of a role now—Sidearms and SMGs can better compete with Shotguns, for example.
We've pushed the current PvP ammo system as far as we can with this change, if this doesn't move the needle, we'll look at redesigning PvP ammo economy entirely (which would be a longer-term change).
With scavenger mods disabled in PvP, there's little competition for leg mod slots, what's the plan?
We're keeping this in mind for future updates (but for now we recommend you run holster mods).
Other Changes
Will playlist weapons that have a foundry get both the foundry and playlist origin perks?
Yes, new drops of playlist weapons that are from a foundry will get the playlist and the foundry perks.
What do the changes to Snapshot Sights mean?
Snapshot Sights works by multiplying the aim down sights (ADS) animation duration by 0.5, which you could frame as making it twice as fast. On Special weapons, it will now scale this duration by 0.75, making it 50% faster instead.
Note that we framed this as being completely offset by the Sniper Rifle ADS duration changes, but this was incorrect—while Sniper Rifles will be snappier across the board, a Sniper Rifle with Snapshot Sights will be a little slower to aim down sights than before.
Weapon Archetypes
Does the lightweight Pulse Rifle damage buff apply to the BXR-55 Battler Pulse Rifle?
Yes, the lightweight Pulse Rifle buff applies to BXR-55 Battler, and any Exotic weapons that share that rate of fire.
Is Retraced Path getting the Trace Rifle buff?
Yes
Are slug Shotguns also getting the pellet Shotgun nerfs?
Slug Shotguns receive the damage falloff and aim assist falloff changes.
Slug Shotguns don't have a spread angle but are treated like Special weapons and have an airborne accuracy penalty.
Are there any changes to aggressive (AKA spread) Fusion Rifles?
No, they're not affected by any of the Fusion Rifle tuning.
Do all SMGs benefit from the damage falloff increase?
Yes
Do all SMGs with lower than 14 zoom now have 14?
No, only those listed in the TWAB have been raised to 14.
What happened to the full-auto setting?
We mentioned that this is coming in a Season following The Witch Queen launch. It won't make it into Season 17 or 18 and is currently targeted for Season 19.
Are the numbers in the Fusion Rifle section correct? What does this mean for a charge-time Masterwork?
Yes, to clarify a bit, these are how much the damage falloff near distance is reduced compared to current at 0 and 100 range. I.e., yes, the damage falloff for 0 range was reduced more than that for 100 range.
Reduced damage falloff near distance.
-2m at 0 range (~2.7m when ADS with a 15-zoom stat).
-1.3m at 100 range (~2.275m when ADS with a 15-zoom stat).
This is the damage per burst of a charge-time Masterwork on each subfamily (compared to the base):
High Impact: 325 (330 base)
Precision: 275 (280 base)
Adaptive: 265 (270 base)
Rapid Fire: 240 (245 base)
Why are there no Sidearm changes?
Sidearms are a niche pick, but when used by players who favor them, they're extremely strong. We want to see how the reduction in effective range of Shotguns and Fusion Rifles affects their strength before making any changes and may look at them in a future Season.
That Auto Rifle change is somewhat small, will it do anything?
Combined with the zoom scalar, this change is larger than it sounds, but we plan to look at Primary weapon balance some more in Season 18, Auto Rifles included.
Why did The Summoner only come back for two Seasons?
We were adding 1 new weapon, 1 reissued weapon, and removing 2 old weapons from the Trials loot pool each Season, but we felt like only one brand-new Trials weapon per Season wasn't enough.
Now that we're doing 2 new Trials weapons a Season, we'd rather the pool contain mostly the newer weapons.
Trace Rifles and Machine Guns are both getting buffed—does this suggest future anti-Champion mods?
No comment.
Exotic Weapons
Is Vex Mythoclast a Fusion Rifle when it comes to airborne effectiveness, and what is its stat?
Vex Mythoclast's airborne effectiveness stat is 19, and it's treated as an Auto Rifle for translating the stability stat into flinch resistance and how its airborne effectiveness stat is translated.
So, about Wavesplitter.... hold on a sec, Wavesplitter's functionality changed late in development, and the TWAB description was not entirely accurate.
Wavesplitter's variable damage while firing was not removed. This weapon's damage behaves identically to how it did before this release, i.e., it changes while firing.
Changes to Orb max-charge time are still accurate, and it does suppress while in the Orb-derived high-power state.
Is Riskrunner staying at 13 zoom? What about Osteo Striga?
Yes to Riskrunner. Osteo Striga has a unique setup for damage and aim assist falloff that is less affected by its zoom stat (but no, its zoom isn't changing).
Is Lumina included in the damage buff reduction?
Yes, Lumina Noble Rounds and Boots of the Assembler seekers now also grant 15% damage in PvP (down from 20%) but the original value (35%) in PvE.
This damage buff is also used by Sun Warrior, which is part of why Loreley Splendor Helm is so strong, but wasn't mentioned in the mega-TWAB because that issue is being addressed in another way.
Is Le Monarque affected by Necrotic Grip?
Le Monarque is not a Weapon of Sorrow and is not going to become one. (The only weapons that count as Weapons of Sorrow currently in the game are Thorn, and Osteo Striga.)
Does Lorentz Driver's change also apply to Arbalest?
No, but we'll be looking at both of these again in the future.
Are Devil's Ruin and Fighting Lion being monitored for being unique for their own ammo economy while dancing the Primary/Special line?
We expect both of these to be stronger in the Season 17 weapons sandbox, but not so strong that they'll dominate (we do stand ready to make adjustments if needed though). They're both acquired tastes whose strengths can't be exploited by every player.
How does the Eyes of Tomorrow buff work?
It's a straight-up 1.3x damage scalar on the current damage values against bosses and Champions.
Note that the Adaptive Ordnance perk does not expire, so you can potentially get a bunch of Eyes of Tomorrow kills, pick up more Heavy ammo, and go into a boss fight with that damage buff.
Just to clarify how this works a little more, every Legendary weapon type and every Exotic weapon can have its own custom scalar against each tier of enemy (e.g., Minor, Major, Champion, Miniboss, Boss, Vehicle), which we touch occasionally if needed.
Damage values vs players are the base numbers in almost all cases. We typically scale the damage up or down in PvE as needed.
Pretty Borders
Previously on the TWAB, we spoke about some quality-of-life changes for weapon crafting. We've already increased the element caps from 250 to 1000 and the Neutral Element cap from 8500 to 10000. And in Season 17 we are still planning to remove Ruinous, Adroit, Mutable, Drowned, and Energetic Elements. Only Neutral Elements will remain. One other feedback item we see cropping up a lot is the desire to Masterwork your crafted weapons, if only to get those shiny gold borders that let you know that a weapon is special.
Starting in Season 17, you will have the ability to achieve the Masterworked look for crafted weapons. To get your gold border on Legendary crafted weapons, you will need to have an enhanced intrinsic perk and two enhanced trait perks. Crafted Exotics will require a catalyst to be inserted.
And the Winner Is...
Earlier this week, we put the choice of what map to feature for Trials of Osiris in your hands. We love democracy and let the community choose what battlefield would be featured next. Here are the final results!
Altar of flame wins with 44% of the vote!
Vostok came in second with 36%
Fragment received 20%
Tomorrow, Altar of Flame will be the featured map for this week's Trials of Osiris. Good luck out there!
PLAYER SUPPORT REPORT
The Player Support Team officially endorses Warlocks (don't tell the Community Team)
Now let's turn things over to our analysts on the Player Support Team with important and unbiased updates on the state of the game.
Players who encounter issues when participating in Guardian Games should report to our #Help Forum with a description of the issue, where it occurred, and provide videos or screenshots when available.
For a list of currently tracked issues, players can also view our Known Issues article.
CONTENDERS BOON
Contenders Boons earned by participating in Guardian Games playlists can drop only up to the gold level. Platinum Boons do not exist and cannot be earned even if a platinum score threshold is reached.
SHOOT TO SCORE QUEST CLARIFICATION
Step one of this pursuit will complete automatically when the Guardian Games: Competitive Playlist unlocks. After the completion of step one, the remaining steps of the Shoot to Score quest can only be progressed by reaching certain score thresholds in the Guardian Games Competitive Playlist. This playlist is available each week from the Friday reset to Tuesday reset.
ETHERIC SPIRAL DEPRECATION
With the start of Season 17, Etheric Spirals will be deprecated and no longer available to exchange for other materials or currencies. Players should make sure to exchange their collected Etheric Spirals at the Cryptarch in the Tower prior to the launch of Season 17 at 10 AM Pacific, May 24.
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 Omnioculus Exotic Hunter chest piece clips through the Frumious Cloak.
The Disbelieve Triumph and the Elementary, My Dear Triumph may not successfully gain progress from all timed Deepsight chests.
Kills earned when standing in a teammate's Well of Radiance do not count as Super kills towards the Super Spree Strike Medal.
The Super Spree Medal is not being awarded for kills earned while being buffed by Weapons of Light.
Kills earned by teammates on enemies tethered by a Deadfall Tether do not count towards the Super Spree Medal.
Players on Steam may have The Witch Queen incorrectly added to their platform store carts upon exiting the Guardian Games in-game infographic when selecting the Guardian Games Playbook. Due to this issue, the Guardian Games Playbook has been disabled.
The Competitive Catalyst quest is dropping for players who already earned the Heir Apparent catalyst in a previous Guardian Games. This quest can be safely dismantled.
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.
Montage? No, Clantage
Sam: Movie of the Week submissions are always so fun because not only do we get to see how rad our community is, but we also get to experience it alongside them in a way that's a bit more than an "end-of-activity screenshot." This week we have a really neat "clantage" to showcase some pretty fun PvP action, as well as a stunning Vow of the Disciple trailer with some beautiful cinematic shots, and a solo Caretaker video you just have to see.
Movie of the Week: Way Out
Movie of the Week: Vow of The Disciple Raid Trailer
Movie of the Week: Solo Caretaker
A Cozy Atmosphere, In My Destiny 2?!
Hippy: A cozy atmosphere, in my Destiny 2?! It's more likely than you think. In fact, it's very likely because that's exactly what this week's AOTW picks have in store. I don't know what it is about this first piece of art that is so peaceful, but it just makes me want to burrow into a blanket burrito with a hot tea whilst listening to smooth lo-fi. It's just so cozy!
Our second pick isn't a meme (shocking, I know) or a Titan (don't boo me, I can hear you), but it is a stunning piece of art that acts as a reminder of just how magical space wizards really are. Plus, "smol" Void child is the best Void child. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.
As always, don't forget to hit us with those #Destiny2Art, #AOTW, and #MOTW tags for a shot at being featured in a future TWAB.
It has been a minute since I've been hands on with the TWAB process but I'm stepping in for DMG as he walks the earth. Glad I still remember how to do it. There are so many people who coordinate together to make these happen and I always enjoy getting to watch it all come together.
Well, I'm writing this before Guardian Games have actually started. All of that stuff at the top about Hunters winning the first few days was an assumption. Maybe I will update this before the TWAB goes out to reflect what actually happened, maybe I won't. Past me is fickle and reckless. Future me is responsible and honorable. I wonder who won out in the end.
BUNGIE™, DESTINY™, MARATHON® and the Bungie, Destiny and Marathon logos are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Bungie, Inc., used with permission.
