This Week at Bungie - 6/2/2022

This week at Bungie, we dove deep into feedback about all of the exciting things that have been happening in the game. As we continue to conquer the Nightmares that Calus and his army have to throw at us, we've got some next steps to share about Solar 3.0, an updated known issues list for players to track with so many new things being introduced, and a special tribute to our community that we think you'll find welcome.

The last week has been filled with dangers lurking at every corner. Whether it's confronting our fears in the newest Duality dungeon or getting a little spicy with the recent Solar 3.0 update, there is a healthy dose of newness for Guardians to take on. But before we dive into what's next for Solar, let's talk about Iron Banner and Rift's launch.

Iron Banner's Rift is Making Waves

Rift is back but it's not the same Rift that Destiny 1 players will remember. With the launch of the new map, the returning-yet-revamped Rift mode for Iron Banner, and some known issues that we have been investigating, we wanted to take a moment to provide some clarity on what Rift is, while also providing an update on where the team is at in terms of bugs.

What is the objective?

A few TWABs ago (Which, can we just talk about how fast time is going? Is that normal? Is it just me? What is happening?), Bungie's own Principal Designer Alan Blaine sat down to talk a lot about the changes you've now had a chance to see in Iron Banner. He also spoke about different visions for PvP going forward and where the new map fits into the bigger picture. Much of the changes centered around a common feedback item we get in the PvP community, especially with modes like Control: Where is the teamwork? Season 17's launch of Rift bears that question at its core, so the dev team made a few alterations to make it a more objective-friendly experience that aims to feel rewarding and fresh. With that in mind, what is Rift?

Rift is an objective-based Crucible mode, with a huge focus on "objective." Teams will have a goal: take the Spark from the middle of the map into the base of the enemy team and dunk it into the enemy Rift. One dunk equals one point, the first to make it to five points or to have the upper hand by the ten-minute mark wins.

Here's the full breakdown that we previously shared:

• A Spark appears in the center of the map a few seconds after a match starts or a point is scored and can be picked up by interacting with it for a couple seconds. The Spark itself is a buff that allows full weapon and ability usage aside from Super.
• For the first five seconds after picking up the Spark, or for a few seconds after taking damage, both teams receive a waypoint for the Spark holder. After that, the waypoint only remains for the Spark holder's own team—marking the Spark holder for your teammates is important!
• If you die while carrying the Spark, it drops to the ground where you died (or nearby if the spot is not navigable).
• If you hold onto the Spark too long, it detonates.
• Team resurrections are enabled in Rift, so make sure and help your teammates in the middle of a push, or if you are playing defense.
• There are no points for kills, just for Spark dunks, so playing the objective is key.
• When Rift is in Iron Banner, the Hunt is on when your team has the Spark. When the music intensifies, it's time to score!
• There are several ways to extend matches past the time limit:
  • Continuation: At end of regulation time, If the current Spark holder could change the outcome of the match—either the game is tied, or if the current Spark holder is down one point—the match continues until the current Spark holder drops the Spark or scores.
  • Sudden Death Multispark: If there is a tie after time is up, the game enters a 90-second overtime where three sparks spawn in midfield. Who will be the first to score? Chaos reigns.
  • After the sudden-death timer is up, Sparks stop dropping on death, and any Sparks on the ground are removed. As soon as the last Spark is eliminated without a score, the match ends in a tie.

Regarding reputation changes:

• Play matches with each match earning more towards Iron Banner reputation.
• Win matches to earn a small bonus based on your current Iron Banner rank.
• Wear Iron Banner armor (or just as ornaments on your own non-Iron Banner gear) and equip Iron Banner weapons to max out your gear multiplier at 200%.
• Five total pieces must be equipped, though please remember this includes Iron Banner armor and Iron Banner ornaments.
• Complete the Iron Banner challenges to tack on 100% to your challenge multiplier for the rest of the week.
• Use an Iron Banner emblem for an additional 10% emblem multiplier.
  • There is a reported issue with certain emblems, the team is actively investigating.

Daily Challenges:

We've seen some confusion over the daily challenges that can be found when hovering over the Iron Banner node, so we wanted to resurface what was previously shared about this mechanic for anyone that may have missed it. As noted in the previous TWAB, "For the first four days of each Iron Banner week, Guardians will unlock a new daily challenge, one for each day. These challenges unlock each day whether you complete them or not, so if you log in on Friday, you can do them all in succession if you want to. Rewards will also stack reputation bonuses for the remainder of the week alongside a Pinnacle Iron Engram. The weekly bounties that typically award Pinnacles have been deprecated appropriately to balance out this change to Iron Banner." These work similarly to weekly challenges and can be found in the node for Iron Banner Rift.

At the end of the day, we're going to be keeping an eye on feedback. It's an odd spot to be in, where you can see the community in its polarity and its entirety. There are so many opposing viewpoints and wants and sometimes those can contradict each other in a way that can be a confounding puzzle. A fun puzzle, absolutely, but tricky. One small move can make or break an experience, but we will never stop listening and expanding the Destiny 2 experience.

Before diving into what's next for Solar, we just wanted to say thank you to everyone that shared their feedback, their joy, and their desires with us as we constantly evolve this space-faring experience. Right now, the team is hard at work on investigating known issues such as the Spark sometimes disappearing, progress trackers for the new title, and that pesky loop trap that some are encountering when taking on an enemy team. While we continue digging into every facet of these reported instances, we wanted to give a heads up on what's happening behind the scenes and drop the Bungie Help resource for those looking for updates going forward. Stay tuned!

Operation Muy Caliente

The Sandbox Team has been monitoring feedback since the launch of Solar 3.0 closely and with that feedback, comes a few new updates to share with y'all. To help Solar 3.0 live its best life, here are some of the tweaks we have on the horizon from Sandbox Discipline Lead Kevin Yanes:

Kevin Yanes: Hey folks. As you're all aware, we recently launched Solar 3.0, the latest of our Subclass 3.0 updates. As with any launch, we've been watching and reading reactions to the feature, and it has become clear that we needed to circle around the campfire to share a bit about our plans. So, I'd like to get together and talk about our intentions, our next steps, and some expectation-setting for the rest of the Seasons this year.

First, I want to reiterate some of the goals we laid out for the 3.0s, starting with the Void 3.0 update that went live when we announced The Witch Queen: "...we are 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."

A common feedback thread is some frustration around losing elements like Heart of the Pack or nerfs to things like Sunspots or Benevolent Dawn. We know that losing things can feel unsatisfying or painful at first blush, but part of our 3.0-ification of these classes is also a rebalancing of some of these atoms. Those passive or self-looping ability-regen benefits silently power-crept over the years to levels that made them too dominant in many activities. With our focus on buildcrafting, we don't want to have one singular perk complete large parts of your kit by itself. As we continue the process of moving the Light subclasses into the 3.0 system, you'll see us continue to rebalance gameplay atoms in this manner, with the goal that the new combinations and possibility space they open up will offset the loss of any one perk.



Initial reactions to Solar have not met our "new thing that melts your face off" bar and we believe that's due, in part, to a few things:

• Ember of Benevolence shipped in an inconsistent state that left healers feeling underwhelmed with their kit when it didn't behave as expected.
• Warlocks who wanted to specialize in healing had limited ways to interface with that fantasy, with two of their three Aspects focusing on aerial mobility or Scorching, and losing the flexibility of choosing to use their grenade to heal allies or damage enemies on the fly.
• Titans, while bombastic and potent, lacked ways to keep their engine running without needing to run Throwing Hammer or burning multiple cooldowns.

As we've said in the past through TWABs, socials, and other dev updates, we'd much rather ship something a little too spicy than something bland that makes a bad first impression. I think with Solar 3.0, we landed somewhere in the middle, and the team feels very passionately that this is the wrong place to be. To that end, the team has pulled some heroics and shifted resources to make some buffs to Heat Rises, Icarus Dash, Celestial Fire, Burning Maul, Roaring Flames and Consecration, as well as bug fixes for Ember of Benevolence and a few of our damage-over-time linger grenades. These changes will go live next week with Hotfix 4.1.0.2.

Solar Warlock:

• Heat Rises:
  • Added behavior: Consuming your grenade now also releases a burst of Cure x2 around you, healing you and your nearby allies. Consuming a Healing Grenade increases the strength of the burst to Cure x3 and consuming a Touch of Flame Healing Grenade provides Restoration as an additional benefit.
• Icarus Dash:
  • Added behavior: While airborne, rapidly defeating targets with your Super or any weapon Cures you.
• Celestial Fire:
  • Each Celestial Fire projectile now applies 10 Scorch stacks. This is increased to 15 stacks with Ember of Ashes equipped.

Solar Titan:

• Burning Maul:
  • Buffed damage in PvE by 25%
• Roaring Flames:
  • Added behavior: While Roaring Flames is active, your uncharged melee attack now deals Solar damage and applies 30 Scorch stacks to targets per hit. This is increased to 40 stacks with Ember of Ashes equipped.
• Consecration:
  • Fragment slots increased from 1 to 2.
  • Raised the height of the secondary attack's ground wave by 25% to more easily catch players who jump too late.

That's no small list of changes. The team takes feedback seriously—we're players ourselves, so when things don't land, we also feel that internally. To say it out loud, a hotfix of this magnitude comes at the cost of other changes, so to set expectations here, the team is unlikely to take another balance pass until much later this Season. It's important to our team that on top of doing amazing new things, we maintain a healthy work-life balance and this patch necessitates some breathing room.

On that note, what's next for abilities? Well, Arc 3.0 is still cooking up nicely, and we'll have more to talk about there in a future update. But just to reiterate points the team has made in the past about the next subclass update, after Arc 3.0 you should expect the abilities team to go dark for a little while. Since shipping Stasis with Beyond Light, the team has made huge abilities changes Season over Season. Over the last year, we've been back-to-back shipping new aspects for Stasis, adding the Variable Ability Cooldown system, and creating the three Subclass 3.0 experiences—it's been busy. We hope the changes you've read today reinforce our commitment to being responsive to feedback and candid in our communication. We'll be there right alongside you on the Derelict Leviathan snapping, slamming, and flipping our way to victory.

Prime Gaming is Primed and Ready to Go

Sometimes, you just need to freshen up that fashion game. Whether it be an emote or a shiny new Ghost Shell, there's always something to personalize your Guardian within Destiny 2. Slap your favorite shader on it, and it's a new day, new you. For those looking to switch things up a bit, we've got a new month of Prime Rewards to indulge in. For those that may not know, Prime Gaming is a nifty program with Twitch and Amazon Prime that allows players to get free loot for some of their favorite games. It's pretty easy to use too, just sign up for your Prime Gaming account (If you have Amazon Prime, congrats! You also have Prime Gaming.) and link it to your Bungie.net account. Once signed in, you can select the sweet cosmetics linked below to claim them, and then they'll be waiting for you in the Tower with Amanda Holiday the next time you log in.

For this month, we've got a little flare for your Ghost and a few Exotic goodies to enjoy:

• Polaris Lance Scout Rifle
• The Bray Legacy Exotic Weapon Ornament
• Ash Angel Exotic Sparrow
• Nightmare's Chalice Projection

Need a little refresher on Prime Gaming? No worries, we've got you! Feel free to mosey on over to our support article here for more details.

Heroes Welcome, Always

The Destiny 2 community is filled with heroes from all walks of life. From wholesome streamers to guides willing to help new players with the most difficult content; kindness has no expectation and no limits. Our community inspires us daily and because of that inspiration, we want to directly feature unique stories that have shaped some incredible people in this space.

One such content creator is known for his positive impact on the Destiny 2 community at large. He's always there with congratulatory words for other players chasing their dreams, his streams are filled with high energy and open hearts. And his raps? His raps are out of this world. Meet Uhmaayyze, the Guardian that can drop the sickest freestyle raps while taking on enemy players in content like Trials of Osiris. Even more impressive? He makes it look so effortless!

Because of his wonderful heart and positive impact, we're excited to showcase this particular Guardian as our first "Hero" in our Heroes Welcome series. Check out Uhmaayyze in his element showcasing a rap of his own creation below. Just in case it wasn't obvious, it's okay to go all-out and throw yourself in the music. That's what this series is all about: celebrating each other in the microcosm that is the Destiny community.

Roll the clip!

That was amazing! (Or would that be "uhmaayyzing"?) If you enjoyed seeing this Guardian totally in his element, then you're definitely going to want to check out this behind-the-scenes video that dives into the creation of this epic rap video:

Player Support Report: Telesto Status: Calamitous

Season of the Haunted launched last week and the feedback about the story of what it means to turn around and face your Nightmares has been nothing short of incredible. That being said, Telesto has become sentient and has taken over the Tower now that it is in the hands of Banshee. Turns out that this was widely regarded as a "bad move" by the universe, but the team has been hard at work at tackling each issue with a dedicated fervor that is honestly impressive. Between that and some hiccups with the launch of Iron Banner and Rift, there are a few updates from our meticulous Player Support Team that players should be aware of. As always, we thank you for your patience as we work hard to make the Destiny 2 experience an enjoyable one for all. But first, let's talk about some known issues and what's in the immediate future from our heroes in Player Support.

This is their report.

Known Issues List | Help Forums | Bungie Help Twitter

Hot Fix 4.1.0.2

Next Tuesday, June 7, Destiny 2 Hotfix 4.1.0.2 will be released. View our Destiny Server and Update Status page for maintenance times, as well as the timeline below (all times are Pacific):

• 9 AM: Destiny 2 maintenance begins.
• 9:45 AM: Destiny 2 is brought offline.
• 10 AM: Destiny 2 Hotfix 4.1.0.2 will begin rolling out across all platforms and regions.
• 11 AM: Destiny 2 maintenance completes.

Iron Banner Challenges

We have seen some confusion surrounding Iron Banner's daily challenges (which work similarly to weekly challenges). When hovering over the Iron Banner node in the Director, players can see the "Weekly Challenge (1 of 4)." One weekly challenge is unlocked daily from Tuesday to Friday. The challenges will stack, so players can complete one a day, or all four when Friday comes around. Each challenge will grant players Pinnacle gear.

Dungeon Key Ownership Clarification

Similar to Season Passes, Dungeon Keys are applied to the first account that logs in after purchase, and moves between platforms with Cross Save.

Dungeon Keys and Season Pass Premium Track rewards can't be game shared between platform accounts, and must instead be purchased on each account that intends to access them.

Game sharing is a platform feature and is not officially supported by Bungie. For more information, please see our Help article.

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 Cloak of Bakris doesn't flow like normal cloaks and is extremely rigid.
• The top part of the Mark of the Falling Star ornament disappears if a player's helmet display is turned off.
• Killing Fikrul too quickly can sometimes trap players in the gauntlet.
• The Polaris Lance catalyst is no longer progressing with Perfect Fifth burn kills.
• We are investigating reports of players who are unable to unlock their Void and Arc subclasses.
• The Conscripted weapon ornament for the Travelers Chosen Exotic Sidearm can no longer be equipped.
• Some Artifice armor from the Grasp of Avarice dungeon have lost their extra mod slots.
• The Anarchy Exotic Grenade Launcher loses its 2x damage against enemies after a character dies or picks up a relic.
• Tethers from Hunter Supers can cause severe framerate drops in various activities.
• Vortex grenades are doing less damage than intended.
• Some players who die in the final boss encounter of the Duality dungeon get stuck outside the area and can't respawn.
• Some Iron Banner emblems don't count toward the Iron Banner rank boost.
• The Spark during Rift matches can sometimes be lost in certain scenarios.
• Players will sometimes spawn repeatedly between rounds during Iron Banner matches.
• Some players are not getting credit for the Jorum's Howl Triumph in the Iron Banner Seal or for the Forging Iron quest steps. Based on our investigations, we believe this is caused for two reasons:
  • Players have equipped more than five (5) armor pieces in total. This can be caused when wearing Iron Banner armor while having universal ornaments made from Iron Banner armor equipped, which can double the amount of armor being worn.
  • Our system has detected that your character has gone AFK, meaning that our system thinks that your character isn't participating, resulting in progress not being counted for Triumphs and bounties.
• Some players aren't gaining progress for various Crucible/Iron Banner Triumphs or bounties.
  • Our system has detected that your character has gone AFK, meaning that our system thinks that your character isn't participating, resulting in progress not being counted for Triumphs and bounties.
• The tooltip doesn't appear on consecutive items when dismantling them one-by-one.

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 linked above.

A Little Bit of Light at the End of the Rift

Happy TWABSday, Guardians! We have been having so much fun watching you all explore all of the new things; goodness gracious is it a fun time to be a Guardian right now! And to wrap up our week, today's movies are bringing the dancing, light (have you been in the dungeon yet, it's so dark in there!), and a little spark back into your world.

Movie of the Week: Light Forever

Check out this #MOTW the Light Show Crew has been working on with many talented people in the community! https://t.co/EYxwco4gYZ

— BulkerGamer (@BulkerGamer) May 30, 2022

Movie of the Week: RIFT: Hunters vs. Titans

It's been approved to vote for MoTW! ?
Thank you everyone! ?https://t.co/7JqeJqzLpt

— Lego (@legoleflash) June 1, 2022

The Crow Commands, the Captive Must Obey

Week two of Season of the Haunted's story is live now and—not to be dramatic or anything—it has thoroughly and completely destroyed my soul. Proud of our little Crow and his progress, even though healing through trauma is anything but easy and simple. As we continue to face our Nightmares each week, we wanted to share a few lighter pieces of art from you all to bring back some of those feel-good vibes. Plus, Eris looking so proud of him was just too good to pass up.

Ready? Let's get into it.

Art of the Week: "Come on, you're up, Hunter!"

"Come on. You're up, Hunter."@Bungie delivering the feel-goods...@DestinyTheGame @A_dmg04 @DirtyEffinHippy #Destiny2Art #AOTW pic.twitter.com/fei2XE9E0o

— Ruby (@pxlatedtraveler) May 30, 2022

Art of the Week: Polymer Clay Guardians

I sculpted my Guardians from Polymer Clay! #AOTW #Destiny2Art #DestinyArt #polymerclay @A_dmg04 @Cozmo23 @DirtyEffinHippy @MrsQueenBartley pic.twitter.com/C1iZffomvq

— Entimide (@IEntimide) May 30, 2022

B-b-b-BONUS Art of the Week: Subclassed Cursed Thrall (because we don't already have enough Nightmares)

Subclassed Cursed Thrall Concepts. After exploding:

Arc - Chains to nearby allies.
Solar - Leaves pools of fire.
Void - Leaves blinding vortex.#Destiny2Art #AOTW #Destiny2 #Destinythegame @Bungie @DestinyTheGame @DirtyEffinHippy @Cozmo23 @A_dmg04 @MrsQueenBartley pic.twitter.com/62fZ5e1fsr

— Madam Wizard (@Madam_Wizard) May 31, 2022

You all make the coolest art. From tattoos to crotchets, watercolor to digital mediums; there is no shortage of creativity in the Destiny 2 community, and we love to see it! If you want a chance at some spotlight goodness for your own creative takes on the Destiny universe, don't forget to tag official Bungie socials in your work. Oh! And actual tags, those help too, like #AOTW, #Destiny2Art, and #MOTW.

Get in, Guardian, We're Going Shopping

If you're like me and shop way more often than is probably wise on gaming collectibles and the like, then:

1. Get help
2. Did you see the full-scale Celestial Nighthawk helmet that we dropped with Solar 3.0?

It's wearable, it's bird-tastic, and it's totally going to make me run around my house pretending I'm a Guardian because I will be perpetually five years old in my head. Still, it's really cool, and just one of the several new drops that have arrived to celebrate all things Destiny.

The Celestial Nighthawk 1:1 replica is in stock and shipping now from the Bungie Store!https://t.co/4hD2EP2DuL pic.twitter.com/xKfHicIu3n

— Bungie Store (@BungieStore) May 26, 2022

Another new addition rings in Pride month with a new Bungie's Pride Collectible Pin 2.0, a redesigned spin on our previous collectible to be more inclusive while also directly helping the communities that Pride celebrates. Profits go to the It Gets Better Project, as well as a new emblem called The Infinite Prismatic so that Guardians their support in Destiny 2. If you want to donate directly to the initiative that aims to "uplift, empower, and connect lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) youth around the globe," you can do so right here!

For those that decide to snag the Pride 2.0 pin, the emblem that goes along with it will be sent out via email on June 6.

We've got some new gameplays pins to commemorate overcoming challenging endgame content, as well. We've also got the new Häkke Deep Explorer-inspired hoodie, some new pullovers to rep that Crucible and Gambit love. Basically, there's a lot of cool new things to peep at, if you feel so inclined. Interested? I get it! Feel free to mosey on over to the Bungie Store here to check out what's new.

Before we release you all back into the wild to slay those weekly challenges and take on what's left of this week's story mission, we wanted to offer just one more reminder about the upcoming GCX marathon! As mentioned in last week's TWAB, GCX is comin' in hot this year with yet another way for the community to congregate, relax, and enjoy some good game time while also putting a little more good back out into the world through charity. For those that may have missed the initial announcement, the streaming marathon kicks off at 9 AM PT on June 3 and will conclude on June 10 at the same time. The goal? Raising money for St. Jude's Hospital. We are doing it for the children, the children!

There are some sweet prizes on the horizon for this streaming event, including new emblems to show off to the world. It's all going down here soon, make sure to tune into the official GCX stream right here! You can also check out more info on the event here from the previous announcement.

As we head into the weekend and more of you dive into Iron Banner: Rift, wrap up any weekly Seasonal Challenges, and dominate in search of Pinnacles, we just wanted to say thank you again for being part of a community that has grown so much through the years. That growth and this ongoing evolution hasn't always been easy and certainly not without its missteps, but the teams here are so passionate about what they do and your love and support of this evolving tale means everything.

We have more on the way as Season of the Haunting continues its trek into the depths of the human psyche, and we hope you enjoy the rest of the ride because. Well, it's definitely a ride.

There's more to come. In the meantime, this is your usual Hippy reminder to drink your water, take your vitamins, and be kind to yourself and those around you. That's what Guardians do.

"I should go,"
<3 Hippy