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Destiny 2 update 2.6.0.1 patch notes usher in Shadowkeep

Update 2.6.0.1 adds the Finisher mechanic, nerfs auto-reloading, and changes a whole lot of systems in Destiny 2.

Sam Chandler

October 1, 2019 10:35 AM

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Destiny 2: Shadowkeep is here and with it is the Destiny 2 Update 2.6.0.1 patch notes. There’s a lot to unravel here, with a lot of changes to core systems, new mechanics introduced, and a whole lot of balance changes.

For those playing on PlayStation 4, your Destiny 2 Version 1.41 system update will likely be referring to the very same update. So whether you’re playing Destiny 2 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, or the now-released Steam version, your patch notes await below.

Destiny 2 update 2.6.0.1

The Destiny 2 patch notes come directly from Bungie. There are a whole lot of changes to go through, though the most eye-catching changes come with the addition of finishers, the nerfing of various subclasses, and the rebalancing of auto-reloading buffs.

SYSTEMS

COMBAT SYSTEMS

Finishers

• Finisher System added. Press the finisher button to finish critically wounded combatants.

PvE Damage Numbers Display

Goal: To provide players with useful and legible feedback for damage dealt to enemy combatants across many years of Power progression.

• Displayed damage numbers for damage dealt to non-Guardian enemy combatants are crunched
• Damage dealt is displayed using fewer digits to enhance readability of damage output
• Occurrences of displayed damage getting capped at 999,999 should be significantly reduced or eliminated
• The exponential curve used to calculate damage numbers for display is replaced with a new linear curve that is built to last for many years
• As players grow in Power, displayed damage numbers increase at a much more measured pace than previously
• This is a UI update only; player damage output, whether measured as hits to kill, time to kill, or DPS, remains unchanged by this update

PvE Difficulty Tuning

Goals: Widen the sweet spot where fighting higher-level combatants provides a fun, challenging, and rewarding combat experience for a more enjoyable Power climb. Also, allow players looking for even greater challenges to confront much higher-level enemies.

• Combatants that are 10–40 levels higher take less time to kill and deal less damage
• Higher-level combatants continue to increase in difficulty up to 100 Power levels above the player
• When enemies are 100 Power levels or higher above the player, they are immune to damage
• Nameplate icons on higher-level combatants have been updated to reflect these changes
• These changes affect only higher-level combatants; the at-level or over-level experience remains unchanged

SANDBOX

ABILITIES

Buffs
Nightstalker Way of the Pathfinder (Bottom)

Goal: We want to lean into the fantasy of a speedy disruptor. Pathfinders need more tools to scout the battlefield and a skill based way to engage with that gameplay more often. We should reward this scouting and battlefield control gameplay, executed well, with more opportunities to do the same. At the same time shadow shot needed some quality of life improvements for long standing frustrations.

Vanish: Smoke bomb grants invisibility to allies

• Gives 1 stack of Heart of the Pack (newly revamped) to all allies hit
• Grants +34 to armor, recovery, and agility
• Gives weapon reload speed and handling
• Max 3 stacks
• Increased invisibility duration from 7 > 8 seconds

Provision: Killing tethered enemies creates super orbs and increases agility, armor, and recovery for allies

• New Perk (old perk benefits moved to be part of Mobius Quiver)
• Damaging enemies with your grenades reduces the cooldown of your smoke bomb (6% per damage tick)
• Making allies invis gives you grenade energy (17.5% per ally)

Moebius Quiver: Fire super multiple times and deals massive damage to tethered targets

• Added the old Provision perk to naturally be part of Mobius Quiver
• Killing tethered enemies creates super orbs and grants stacks of Heart of the Pack for allies
• Expanded the range of Heart of the Pack from 20 > 30 meters.

Shadowshot Super (Top and Bottom path)

• Damage increased from 150 > 250
• One shot kill in PvP
• Improved tether accuracy near obstacles
• Suppress on hit is more consistent

Sentinel Code of the Protector (Top)

Goal: This path is the main support role for Titans and focuses heavily on melee kills while staying near allies. We want to focus more heavily on buffing allies so that players care about the timing of their buff usage. With a loop which allows players to get their melee energy back more quickly this will be a more engaging path to play. Additionally, Ward of Dawn is currently not up to snuff, and needs a buff that ties in to the fantasy of buffing allies.

Defensive Strike: Melee ability that creates an overshield for nearby allies

• All kills while the overshield is active grant melee energy for the player with the shield (works for all allies you grant a shield to)
• This is based upon enemy threat level from 5% (minors) to 25% (players and bosses)

Rallying Force: Melee kills heal nearby allies

• Heal buffed from 10 health and 10 shields to 10 health and 20 shields (50% increase)

Ward of Dawn: Alternate super that creates a shield bubble

• Increase ward health versus supers 
• Most supers will require the whole thing to be dumped on the ward to destroy it but will (usually) not kill the players inside
• Ward grants weapons of light buff when passing through it (35% weapon damage for 15 seconds)
• Grants an additional super orb (3)
• Auto-generated orbs now grant the same amount of super energy as regular super orbs (previously the orbs gave less super energy on par with masterwork orbs)

Sentinel Code of the Aggressor (Bottom)

Shield Bash: Shoulder charge that disorients nearby enemies

• Now suppresses the target hit and any enemy within 2 meters (have to be basically right next to them)

Voidwalker Attunement of Hunger (Bottom)

Vortex: Nova Bomb leaves behind a damaging AoE pool

• Initial explosion damage increased 15%
• Lingering damage increased 15%

Dawnblade Attunement of Grace

Well of Radiance: Alternate super that creates a healing/buffing field for allies

• Grants an additional super orb (3)
• Auto-generated orbs now grant the same amount of super energy as regular super orbs (previously the orbs gave less super energy on par with masterwork orbs)

Nerfs

Nightstalker Way of the Trapper (Top)

Shadowshot: Fires an arrow that damages enemies and debuffs enemies nearby

• Damage sharing for the Nightstalker player specifically reduced from 100% to 50%
• Now all allied players have 50% damage sharing on tether

Nightstalker Way of the Wraith (Middle)

Flawless Execution: Headshot kills while crouched grant invisibility and truesight

• Truesight now lasts 3 seconds (down from 9)

Shattering Strike: After performing a Flawless Execution, your melee attacks have a longer lunge range and weaken enemies

• Advanced warning: When we made the change to Flawless Execution this also unintentionally nerfed this ability to only last 3 seconds (it was directly tied to the truesight). We have prepared a fix for the 4.6.1 patch to restore the weaken and lunge range increase to last the entire 9 seconds regardless of truesight and invisibility status.

Instant Reloading

Goal: In the beginning, Lunafactions and Rally Barricade did exist, but they were clunky to use. They still had dramatic impact on gameplay even in that state, but eventually we decided to make their effects easier to handle. The problems they introduced always existed in the game, but over time these have become magnified due to new abilities, perks, and weapons introduced into the Destiny 2 sandbox. The impact of something that takes all reloading out of the equation means that other perks or effects like the Hunter’s Marksman Dodge or the Sealed Ahamkara’s Grasps can simply fall to the wayside – Even swords take a hit in comparison, being one of the few weapons that naturally never needs to reload.

Reloading is one of those mechanics that are simple, but have wide ranging consequences. Because the effect on gameplay of removing reloading is inversely proportional to the size of your weapon’s magazine and how slow your general reload animations are, weapons like Rocket Launchers and Shotguns can benefit greatly compared to other weapons. This, alongside the increase in general access to damage bonus effects like Well of Radiance left us with the decision to remove this effect from these two sources, as they were causing things to quickly snowball out of control.                               

Titan Rally Barricade

• This ability now provides a large increase to reload speed for the duration of the effect
• This ability no longer automatically reloads your weapons from reserves

Warlock Rift/Well of Radiance

• Lunafaction Boots now provides a large increase to reload speed for the duration of Well of Radiance
• This exotic no longer automatically reloads your weapons from reserves

Super Energy Regeneration

Goal: These changes will reduce the speed with which players are able to earn their super which supports difficulty and reduces the current ability to trivialize certain content through excessively chaining supers. Systemically, we want to reduce base sources of supers on a large macro scale without diminishing the feeling that your actions are gaining you a worthwhile energy boost. By reducing the speed at which you gain super we can make mods and perks feel more worthwhile. We still want it to feel like you can make meaningful progress not only through normal play but by augmenting super energy through teamwork, class choices, gear, and skillful play.

New Energy Granted by Super Orbs:

• Super Orb: 7.143% (50% reduction)
• Masterwork Orb: 2.5% (50% reduction)
• Kills: (25% reduction)
• Minor: 0.6%
• Elite: 0.96%
• Mini-boss: 1.8%
• Boss: 3%
• Player: 3%
• Assists: (25% reduction)
• Minor: 0.3%
• Elite: 0.48%
• Mini-boss: 0.9%
• Boss: 1.5%
• Player: 1.5%

Damage Multipliers

Goal: At Destiny 2 launch, damage buffs were fairly sparse – There was Empowering Rift for a small increase, and you could combine it with a weakening effect such as Hammer Strike, but very little else. As time has gone on, we introduced Well of Radiance, Weapons of Light, Guiding Flame, Frontal Assault, etc, and combining these effects has resulted in player damage output far beyond what was previously available. Even with just a small amount of them, a player can go from 1x damage to 3x and beyond, causing there to be an extremely large gap between standard player output and theoretical output.

By preventing the larger effects from stacking, we are able to keep each of them around without having to do something in response like raise boss health to compensate for these tactics, as well as create more of them. As an example, Lumina would not have been created in world where the damage bonus effect of Noble Rounds stacked with other damage effects, and these changes are simply an extension along those same lines.

While the weakening effects never stacked, we also took a look at them and adjusted their values as many of our more powerful units would simply evaporate when touched by one of them, but we compensated for that in other ways, such as either extending the duration of the effect or in the case of Shadowshot, making it affect power weapons.

Player Damage Buffs

• Player Bonuses
• Bonus damage effects that apply to all of a player's weapons simultaneously no longer stack multiplicatively. The highest applicable bonus will be used instead
• This does not affect single weapon buffs such as Rampage, Kill Clip, or exotic weapons that increase their own damage. These will still stack multiplicatively.
• Buffs that provide bonus damage will still exist simultaneously on the player, so in the event that the one with the highest multiplier wears off the next highest will be used instead.
• This change affects the following weapons/abilities (Empowering Rift, Frontal Assault, Guiding Flame, Sun Warrior, Inertia Override, Well of Radiance, Lumina/Noble Rounds, Weapons of Light)
• Notable exceptions: Vengeance (One Eyed Mask)
• Frontal Assault
• Bonus damage is now +20% (Previously +25%)
• Sun Warrior
• Bonus damage is now +20% (Previously +25%)
• Well of Radiance
• Bonus damage is now +25% (Previously +35%)
• Weapons of Light
• Bonus damage is now +35% (Previously +25%)

Enemy Debuffs (Weakened)

• Shadowshot
• Incoming PvE damage is now +30% (Previously +35%)
• Incoming PvP damage is now +50% (Previously +55%)
• This effect no longer excludes power weapons
• Tractor Cannon (Repulsor Force)
• Incoming PvE damage is now +30% for all elements (Previously +33%/50% for Non-Void/Void damage respectively)
• Incoming PvP damage is now +50% for all elements (Previously +33%/50% for Non-Void/Void damage respectively)
• Hammer Strike
• Incoming PvE damage is now +30% (Previously +50%)
• Duration increased from 6 to 10 seconds in PvE
• Shattering Strike
• Incoming PvE damage is now +30% (Previously +50%)
• Duration increased from 6 to 10 seconds in PvE

Reduced Super Damage Resistance

Goal: Since the launch of Destiny 2 we have slowly introduced buffs to supers, especially roaming supers. While we believe supers should be powerful they should not be mindless. We want supers to be more risky in both PvE and PvP. We want players to think about positioning and timing more. Not so long ago we experimented with Spectral Blades by lowering the damage resistance substantially. These changes were generally well received and improved the experience of the super for both the person running it and the person who was running from it. In PvE players shouldn’t feel like their super makes them invulnerable and casting one should call for situational strategic thinking. In PvP players need to feel like they can challenge a super and that with skillful play there’s a chance they can beat it. 

• Super Damage Resistance removed from masterwork armor
• Inherent Super Damage Resistance lowered by category (see below)

Low- 54% → 49%

• Nova Warp
• Thunder Crash
• Blade Barrage
• Nova Bomb
• Well of Radiance

Medium - 56% → 51%

• Hammer of Sol
• Daybreak

High - 60% → 53%

• Fist of Havok
• Burning Maul
• Sentinel Shield
• Arc Staff
• Arc Lightning
• Shadowshot

Other (unchanged)

• Spectral Blades - 52% / 54.4%
• Golden Gun - 0%
• Chaos Reach - 40%

ABILITY AND ARMOR GENERAL FIXES

• Fixed an issue where abilities that dealt lingering damage were dealing higher damage than intended at higher framerates
• This includes abilities such as Nova Bomb, Vortex Grenades, Solar Grenades, Smoke Bombs, Fan of Knives, and Sun Spots
• Fixed an issue where the Hunter's Tempest Strike melee ability couldn't be performed if the Sprint button/key was set to Hold
• Fixed an issue where the increased sustain damage perk of the Stormtrance super would break if a player swapped their sub-class to Chaos Reach and then back to Stormtrance within an activity
• Fixed an issue where the Liar's Handshake perk Cross Counter was intermittently failing to activate and trigger healing
• Sealed Ahamkara Grasps perk Nightmare Fuel will now correctly reload weapons when used in tandem with Knife Trick and the Tractor Cannon
• A Titan's Burning Maul line attack will no longer be blocked and detonate early if they have Telesto projectiles attached to them
• Borealis and Hardlight now match the Prism modifier when changing elements on reload, rotating through Void > Arc > Solar
• The Hunter's Combination Blow ability buff will now correctly be removed when switching sub-classes while the buff is active
• The Phoenix Protocol Hearth perk will no longer award bonus super energy on kills and assists to Warlocks inside a Well of Radiance who do not also have the Well of Radiance (Attunement of Grace) sub-class equipped
• The Enhanced Momentum Transfer perk now displays the correct icon
• The Mad Warden will no longer get frozen in time when destroyed by a Hunter's Golden Gun
• Fixed an issue where Warlocks couldn't perform their Well of Radiance super during the reload animation for breach loaded Grenade Launchers
• If interrupted, the reload animation will complete after the super is cast
• Fixed an issue where allied Golden Gun projectiles weren't going through Banner Shields
• Fixed an issue where the Queen's Wrath perk for the exotic Wish-Ender bow wasn't correctly highlighting players if their shield was depleted
• The Warlock's Arc subclass ability 'Pulsewave' buff will no longer clear the Quickdraw perk bonus granted from a weapon upon its expiration
• The Warlock's 'Alchemical Etchings' perk buffs from Lunafaction Boots will now correctly be removed if/when their Well of Radiance is destroyed
• Khepri's Sting will no longer consume the owner's melee ability energy charge when hit by a friendly Hunter's smoke bomb

WEAPON CHANGES

• Weapon mods are now treated as reusable unlocks instead of consumables. Any mods you have in your inventory will be converted to unlocks
• This gives players the opportunity to play with different mods more frequently
• If the only copy of a mod you have is already in a gun, you will need to reacquire one to unlock it
• Minor enemies (Rank-and-File) no longer take more precision damage than other enemies
• These enemies previously took twice as much damage to their precision hit locations than enemies of higher ranks
• You will still deal precision damage, but this is now entirely dependent on the weapon, as it is for higher ranked enemies
• The amount of time allowed between kills to generate a masterwork orb has been reworked per archetype:
• 2.5 seconds for shotguns, hand cannons, scout rifles, machine guns, and pulse rifles
• 3 seconds for auto rifles and trace rifles
• 4 seconds for bows, fusion rifles, rocket launchers, and grenade launchers
• 5 seconds for sniper rifles, linear fusion rifles, sidearms, submachine guns, and swords
• Auto Rifles
• PvE damage increased between +30% and +25% depending on combatant rank
• Bows
• PvE damage increased by +31% against minor enemies, and +26% against major enemies
• Fixed an issue where bow draw times were displayed incorrectly in the inspection screen
• Hand Cannons
• PvE damage against minor enemies increased by 30%
• Lightweight and Adaptive hand cannons use a new firing animation while aiming down sights
• This change was made to increase weapon accuracy when firing these weapons as fast as possible
• Ex: Currently, players can shoot faster than the recoil animation of 140/150 archetypes – so while the Hand Cannon looks to have fully reset from recoil, the following projectile will be shot as if the weapon was still in a recoiled state
• Reduced the effect the range stat has on damage range falloff (effective range) for this weapon archetype
• Machine Guns
• PvE damage against minor enemies increased by 25%
• Increased the effects of damage range falloff on this weapon archetype
• Pulse Rifles
• PvE damage against minor enemies increased by 28%
• Increased the effects of damage range falloff on this weapon archetype
• Archetype specific damage changes (impacts both PvE and PvP gameplay)
• Rapid-Fire Pulse Rifles now deal 14/23.8 base/precision damage (Previously 13/21.4)
• High Impact Pulse Rifles now deal 21/33.6 base/precision damage (Previously 20/32)
• Scout Rifles
• PvE damage increased between +36% and +18% depending on combatant rank
• Sidearms
• PvE damage increased to minor and major combatants by 16%
• Sniper Rifles
• PvE damage increased by +47% against minor enemies, +20% for others
• Exotic sniper rifle perk damage bonuses have been modified to compensate for this change and they will not receive the full benefits as a result
• Submachineguns
• PvE damage increased by 22.5% against minor/major combatants
• Aggressive Frame
• Removed the intrinsic effect of "Deals bonus damage at close range."
• This bonus was 10%, but was unintentionally always active
• The bonus damage has been moved to the base damage for 750 RPM Submachineguns, resulting in no damage change
• As a result, Tarrabah and The Huckleberry gain 10% damage in both PvE and PvP

Exotics

• Sweet Business
• Increased magazine size from 100 to 150.
• Increased PvE damage by 15%.
• High Caliber rounds have been replaced with Armor Piercing rounds.
• Damage changed to 15/21.2 base/precision (Previously 13.21/21.14)
• This weapon no longer requires you to be firing when you pick up ammo to have it automatically reload.
• Graviton Lance
• PvE damage increased by 30%
• Sunshot
• Increased magazine size to 12
• Vigilance Wing
• PvE damage increased by 25%
• Crimson
• Damage changed to 19/30.5 base/precision (Previously 13.76/24.75)
• Fixed an issue that was causing this weapon to deal higher flinch than intended
• Merciless
• Fixed the missing aim assist stat for this weapon
• Ace of Spades
• Memento Mori's damage bonus is now affected by range falloff
• Lumina
• Noble Rounds should apply their buff to allies more reliably now
• The Colony
• "Serve the Colony" now functions as Auto Loading Holster does

Perks

• Subsistence
• Reduced the impact of this perk on total reserves
• Ricochet Rounds
• Removed the hidden bonus to damage falloff
• Swashbuckler
• Perk now activates when getting a kill with Ball Lightning
• Grave Robber
• Perk now activates when getting a kill with ranged melee abilities (ie: Ball Lightning, Explosive Knife)
• One-Two Punch
• Reduced the effectiveness of stacking One-Two Punch and Cross Counter (Liar's Handshake)
• Ex: Players won’t be able to defeat Riven in less than three seconds after Shadowkeep launches using the combo of One-Two Punch and Liar's Handshake, but we know many of you will try other builds… and potentially even succeed.

Weapon General Fixes

• Fixed an issue where AI combatants in Gambit based activities were using PvP values instead of PvE values
• Fixed an issue on Jade Rabbit where parts of the ornament were appearing on the original weapon art
• Fixed an issue where masterworked weapons would sometimes spawn a large amount of orbs off a single kill
• Fixed an issue where killing Vex Harpies with precision damage from Outbreak Perfected wasn't spawning Nanites as expected
• Added missing Thunderlord Killfeed and Obituary icons
• Infusing Thunderlord now correctly requires a destination material (EDZ Dusklight Shards)

PLAYER IDENTITY SYSTEMS

TRIUMPH STEPS

• Triumphs can now be broken into steps with each step granting Triumph score
• Some Triumphs have been extended with additional steps that grant additional Triumph Score
• Some Triumphs have had their existing requirements broken into steps and the original Triumph Score has been split between those steps

SEASONAL ARTIFACT

• Each season there will a new pursuit, the seasonal artifact
• For Season of the Undying it is The Gate Lords Eye
• At the end of the season the artifact will go away, and be replaced by a new artifact
• The seasonal artifact has two progressions:
• Artifact Power:
• Gain an uncapped bonus to your power by earning XP.  Each point of power takes more XP to earn than the last
• Artifact Mods
• Earn up to 12 points by gaining XP
• Spend points to unlock seasonal mods for Armor 2.0

ARMOR CHANGES

Character Stats

• Discipline, Intellect, and Strength stats return from the original Destiny game
• Your Discipline determines your grenade recharge rate
• Your Intellect determines you super recharge rate
• Your Strength determines your melee ability recharge rate
• All stats now go from 0 to 100
• For Discipline, Intellect, and Strength, a stat of 30 is the equivalent recharge rate to the pre-Shadowkeep recharge rate with no mods affecting that recharge rate applied
• A stat of 100 is the equivalent of having 5 of the appropriate recharge rate-affecting mod applied
• Each piece of armor now provides you with contributions to each of your six stats
• Armor that drops in the world, from engrams, and activity rewards have randomized stats

Armor 2.0

• All exotic and legendary armor will drop to use the new armor system
• Armor 2.0 versions of exotic armor pieces can be pulled from your Collection provided you have collected that exotic
• All Armor 2.0 armor pieces have an energy type (Arc, Solar, Void) and an energy capacity
• Energy capacity can be upgraded by spending currencies and materials, to a maximum of 10
• Armor with 10 energy is considered to be masterworked and provides a +2 bonus to all six character stats
• All armor mods have an energy cost and an energy type (Arc, Solar, Void, or Any)
• Arc, Solar, and Void mods can only be socketed into armor of the matching energy type; mods with an Any energy cost can be socketed into any armor
• Each piece of armor comes with multiple armor mod sockets, into which your mods can be applied
• A socketed armor mod occupies an amount of the armor's energy capacity equal to the mod's energy cost; you must have enough armor energy available to be able to socket a mod
• Armor mods are no longer consumable, and are instead unlocked and resuable across all applicable armor pieces once acquired
• Armor mods can be acquired from gunsmith packages, direct purchase from the gunsmith, world engrams, and pinnacle activity engrams
• Armor 2.0 mods and pre-Armor 2.0 armor perks do not stack

Masterworks

• Fully masterworked armor no longer provide bonus damage reduction when using your super

Exotics

• Ttian
• Actium War Rig
• Now works with heavy machine guns
• Warlock
• Lunafaction Boots
• Removed the effect of automatically reloading allies' weapons while they occupy your rift
• This exotic armor piece now grants a reload speed bonus for allies occupying your rifts

ECONOMY

ARMOR MASTERWORKING COSTS

• Masterworking Armor costs and levels have been updated to include two new materials: Enhancement Prisms and Ascendant Shards
• Both these materials can be obtained via the following sources:
• Nightfall: The Ordeal rewards
• Purchased from the Gunsmith for a rotating variety of currency and resources
• Other special reward sources such as the Season Pass
• Enhancement Prisms and Ascendant Shards are capped at 50 and 10 respectively to limit hoarding, and to keep players unfamiliar with this system from sinking all their resources into a single item

INFUSION MATERIAL COSTS

• Infusion between two items of any rarity now requires only a single material to complete: Upgrade Modules
• Upgrade Modules can be obtained via the following sources:
• Each of the Gunsmith Weekly Bounties award one Upgrade Module per week
• Purchased from the Gunsmith for a rotating variety of currency and resources 
• Season of Undying free track Season Pass rank rewards
• Upgrade Modules are capped at 25 to limit hoarding, and to keep players unfamiliar with this system from sinking all their resources into a single item
• Discarding an Enhancement Core no longer deletes the entire stack

BRIGHT DUST

• Bright Dust is now earned by completing Crucible, Gambit, and Vanguard weekly and repeatable bounties
• We chose to grant all of Bright Dust from ritual weekly bounties rather than spreading it out across the weekly and daily bounties so players could more easily earn Bright Dust without having to make sure they complete every single daily
• Players will be able to do the repeatable bounties as many times as they like
• Any Crucible, Gambit, or Vanguard completed bounties need to be turned in before maintenance begins on 9/30 as these changes will reset them; other bounties—Gunsmith, clan, Eververse, etc.—can still be claimed after Oct 1
• Eververse items no longer dismantle into Bright Dust, and instead grant legendary shards and glimmer
• New Eververse items for Season of the Undying will become available for Bright Dust two weeks into the Season
• Eververse items no longer require Bright Dust to reacquire them(or re-roll perks) from Collections; instead, they cost the same materials that reward items of the same type/rarity use
• Fireteam Medallions have been removed from the store, deprecated into Fizzled Fireteam Medallions, and can now be dismantled into Bright Dust to recover their purchase price (50 Bright Dust)
• Gleaming Boon of the Vanguard price has been lowered to 150 Bright Dust
• Gleaming Boon of the Crucible price has been lowered to 500 Bright Dust

EVERVERSE

• The Season 7 Best of Year One Engram has been retired, and in its place, players can now obtain the new Season 8 Nostalgic Engram
• The Seasonal Milestone no longer grants a bounty; instead, it directly grants a Bright Engram
• The Season 8 Nostalgic Engram is no longer earned at level up
• Instead, the Bright Engram is now included in the free rewards of the Season Pass that are visible before level 100; it’s also awarded every 5 levels after level 100
• The Eververse storefront is now available via the Director
• Eververse bounties (standard and IGR versions) have been deprecated; any remaining bounty notes can be broken down into Bright Dust
• You can still complete and turn in any outstanding Eververse bounties until they expire 

GLIMMER

• Players can now store up to 250,000 Glimmer
• Glimmer rewards from the majority of sources in the game have been rebalanced
• Most open world sources (public events, Lost Sectors, chests) have been significantly increased
• Passive Glimmer gain on kill has been reduced
• In addition to directly awarding Glimmer on kill, combatants will sometimes drop additional Glimmer chunks
• Weekly bounties award a large amount of Glimmer in addition to their other rewards

SPIDER’S EXCHANGE

• The Spider welcomes new opportunities with four arms open and now deals in materials from all planets
• However, the Spider has noted changes in market value, and has adjusted his exchange rates accordingly:
• Glimmer exchange now costs 10 Legendary Shards or 20 materials, and yields 10,000 Glimmer
• Tangled Shore daily bounties no longer award Glimmer, providing instead Etheric Spirals (in keeping with his competition)
• Weekly wanted bounties no longer award gear, but now provide between 3,000 and 15,000 Glimmer in addition to the Enhancement Cores currently offered

XÛR

• Xûr’s inventory pool and Fated Engram now include world-drop Exotics from Year 2

UNIVERSAL ORNAMENTS

Select armor sets now function as Universal Ornaments. Once unlocked, these ornaments can be used to change the appearance of any Legendary Armor 2.0 item. Note armor items that correspond to converted Universal Ornaments have not been removed from player inventories; already owned armor items still exist in their current state.

• All previously purchased Eververse armor pieces will unlock a corresponding Universal Ornament of the same appearance and slot on all Armor 2.0 items
• Past Eververse sets have been converted to Universal Ornaments, and will be available in Silver bundles via the Eververse archive 
• Pricing for these bundles will be reduced for each piece in the bundled set already owned on the account
• Seasons 1 and 3 sets will be available when Shadowkeep launches - additional seasonal sets will be added at later dates

GUNSMITH

• Weekly bounties now award an Upgrade Module instead of an Enhancement Core
• Banshee-44's mod inventory has been refreshed
• Banshee-44 is now selling Upgrade Modules for infusion, as well as Enhancement Prisms and Ascendant Shards for armor Masterworking
• Players who obtained a Legendary set of Solstice armor in Season of Opulence will find a bundle available on Banshee containing an Armor 2.0 version of the set
• You must be logged in on the relevant class to see its bundle on Banshee (if you obtained that class's Legendary Solstice set)

REWARDS POWER AND PROGRESSION

• All non-powerful rewards now drop 3 to 0 points below your highest equippable Power level, up from 15 to 20 below
• Year 2 powerful reward sources have changed to Legendary rewards
• These sources no longer have a chance to drop a random Exotic instead of the Legendary gear
• Bonus Exotics that drop from Nightfall: The Ordeal will drop at the character’s highest equippable Power level
• Under- and over-leveling activities no longer adjust how much Power is received from the rewards
• Experience no longer fuels a player’s character level, which has been changed to be level 50 for all characters
• Experience instead progresses the Season Pass, Seasonal Artifact mod, and Power progressions, as well as the unlocking of destinations for new characters
• Experience rewards have been rebalanced with the introduction of the Season Pass and Seasonal Artifact progressions
• The Power granted from the Seasonal Artifact is additive with the Power of the player’s equippable gear, but does not increase the Power of gear drops
• All existing gear has had its Power increased to a minimum of 750; new characters will begin Destiny 2 at Power 750 as well
• The Power bands for Season 8 are as follows
• Floor: 750
• Soft Cap: 900
• All drops up to this point will be upgrades to the most powerful item in your inventory or vault
• Beyond this point, only powerful and pinnacle rewards will increase a player’s Power
• Powerful Cap: 950
• All non-powerful/pinnacle rewards are capped at 950
• Pinnacle rewards are the only way to raise Power above this point
• Powerful rewards are equivalent to the character’s highest-equippable Power beyond this point
• Pinnacle Cap: 960
• This is the highest Power at which gear drops; also known as the “hard cap”
• The Seasonal Artifact bonus Power allows characters to attain values above this level
• Prime Engrams
• Prime Engrams now gain charges more quickly, drop more frequently, and have a higher maximum charge cap (nine charges, up from six during Year 2)
• The Power gains have been rebalanced for the increased frequency, providing +3 Power, down from a range of +4 to +7
• Players who have completed the “Prime Example” quest prior to Shadowkeep’s release will earn charges, but those charges won’t drop until the character has reached 900 Power
• This will help players avoid spending charges early for gains that are most beneficial during the Soft Cap to Powerful Cap range

BOUNTIES

• Reworked Tower bounty pools, and added a new 'Repeatable Daily Bounty' which can be purchased by players for a significant amount of glimmer as many times as they like

ACTIVITIES

VANGUARD

• Added new activity on the Vanguard screen  - Nightfall: The Ordeal
• Renamed Nightfall to Weekly Nightfall and adjusted base power level to 820
• Added Rally Banner consumables to Hawthorne's inventory
• Updated Nightfall scheduling to reduce long streaks without certain Strikes or duplicate Strikes.

CRUCIBLE:

Director

• Playlists Removed:
• Quickplay
• Competitive
• Playlists Added:
• Control 6v6
• 6v6 Rotator
• 4v4 Rotator
• Survival 3v3
• Survival 3v3 Freelancer (solo queue)
• Crucible Labs: Elimination 3v3
• Classic Mix 6v6 (connection-based matchmaking)

Maps

• Removed:
• Dead Cliffs
• Retribution
• Solitude
• Legion's Gulch
• Added
• Widow’s Court
• Twilight Gap
• Fragment

Ranks

• Players cannot lose Glory ranks below Fabled I
• Losing a match reduces Glory streak by 2 instead of resetting
• Losing a match reduces Valor or Infamy streak by 1 instead of resetting
• Glory adjusts more quickly to match player skill

Matchmaking:

• Skill-matching algorithm adjusted to allow for greater variance of matches

General

• Power Ammo crates are now shared in all 6v6 modes
• Added physics to the Pacifica Crucible map to prevent players from being able to navigate into an unfairly advantageous position in the environment

CHALLENGES

• Moved Nightfall challenges from Weekly Nightfall activity to Nightfall: The Ordeal, and retuned completions
• Removed Daily Heroic Story Mission, Strike, Gambit, and Crucible challenges
• Removed Ikora Weekly Bounty Completion challenge
• Removed Petra's weekly challenge
• Added Weekly Bounty Completion challenges to Shaxx, Banshee, Zavala, and Drifter

RAIDS AND DUNGEONS

• Added rally banners to Leviathan, Eater of Worlds, and Spire of Stars 
• “The Shattered Throne” Dungeon is now available at all times instead of on a three-week cycle
• It can also be launched and reset from the Director

DESTINATIONS

• Black Armory forges are now accessible through a director launched playlist on EDZ

NEW LIGHT

GENERAL

• The Power level of all players' current gear will be set to 750 at launch. All new characters will start at Power 750
• Black Armory Forges, Gambit, Gambit Prime, the Reckoning, and the Menagerie are available for all players
• Leviathan raid lairs Eater of Worlds and Spire of Stars are available for all players
• All players can enter Free Roam on all destinations, including the Moon (once the destination has been unlocked)
• Many previously quests can now be picked up on various vendors

NEW GUARDIANS

• New characters are no longer required to play through Red War, Curse of Osiris or Warmind (a.k.a. Classic) campaigns before accessing various activities and quests
• New characters can acquire the classic campaign pursuits from Amanda Holliday
• If the player acquires a campaign pursuit for a mission on a planet they have not yet unlocked by earning XP, that planet will become unlocked
• For example, if the player has only unlocked the EDZ and Titan, and then they acquire the Curse of Osiris campaign pursuit, the Mercury destination will become unlocked
• New characters have immediate access to all playlist activities (but they still might not meet the Power requirements for higher tiers of Player Elected Difficulty, or they might need a special item like a Mote Synthesizer to play the Reckoning)
• New character will be granted the New Light main quest. This quest will lead them through most ritual activities, Year 1 seasonal content, and Year 1 destinations
• For new characters, Zavala, Shaxx, and Drifter will initially have simplified inventories. Players must complete a short intro quest for Strikes, Crucible, and Gambit to unlock the full inventory of bounties and pursuits on these vendors

BLACK ARMORY

• Quests
• The Black Armory area of the Tower Annex is now accessible to all players
• Simplified the Black Armory intro quest
• Removed the quests needed to Unlock the Izanami and Gofannon forges
• Exotics
• Le Monarque and Jotunn are now first unlocked via pursuits found on Ada-1
• The quest for Izanagi's Burden can now also be acquired from Ada-1
• Forges
• Introducing the Forge Rotator
• Found on the EDZ Director Screen
• Launch directly into a forge by selecting the node
• Which Forge is playable rotates daily
• Forges are no longer launched from EDZ or Nessus
• Rewards
• Weapon frames no longer require specific forges in order to be completed

WARMIND

• Escalation Protocol access is no longer gated on any campaign completion requirements

GENERAL

• Fixed an issue where the "Cross Save Enabled" messaging was displayed for players who did not have Cross Save enabled.
• Players can now use the Right-Stick and/or Mouse Wheel to scroll up and down on the Lore Tab without having the cursor focused on the scroll bar
• Removed the Seasons Node on the Director (all seasonal information can be seen via the Seasons tab)
• Added Key Mapping options for the Store, Quests and Seasons tabs
• Added a small "You are here" indicator around a destination node (and a string in the tooltip) when the player is in that destination
• The character level on the character nameplate has been replaced with the character's Class Icon
• Fallen Spider Tanks are no longer utilizing stealth technology on their front mini-guns
• Players who've obtained the Salute emote in the past can now correctly select it in their collection and assign it to their Emote wheel
• The EDZ Region Chest Triumph now has a requirement of 20 chests for completion
• Activating the Fist Bump and Handshake multiplayer emotes will now correctly announce to the Battlefeed
• Removed a duplicate "Iron Truage Suit" armor set entry found in Hunter Collections
• Runefinder buff will now only award Runes to the player with the buff and not have a chance to grant Runes for other fireteam members

REWARD SYSTEMS

• Apply actions will work on the first attempt
• Huginn will no longer sell Tinctures to players who have full inventories (no free space)
• Fixed an issue where some items would not appear in the loot stream if multiple items were awarded at the same time
• Multiplayer (Buddy) emotes will now have a visible indication of where a player can stand to be able to interact and initiate the emote
• Players who complete Gambit Prime Civic Duty bounties (which don't require playing Gambit) will now correctly retain their Infamy points when returning to Orbit from destinations/activities
• The last shipments of the Vestian Dynasty sidearm have been recalled from all sources and vendors and sent to Spider for disposal
• The Queen of Hearts exotic ship now dismantles in 4 seconds, like other exotics, and now correctly uses the exotic acquired SFX
• Fixed an issue where Gambit Prime envoys didn't count towards the Envoy While It Lasts bount
• Failing the first encounter for any Black Armory Forge will no longer award planetary destination materials
• Fixed an issue where players would lose rewards if they claimed a bounty in private matches
• The timer for Timed Activities (such as the Heroic Whisper of the Worm mission) will now activate after 5 minutes if at least one player has loaded into the activity
• Fixed an issue where the "Bank This!" Gambit medal was not being correctly awarded when Invaders killed opposing Guardians holding motes near their Bank, which was preventing the associated "Bank This!" Triumph from progressing

And that's all she wrote. That's a lot of changes coming to Destiny 2 with update 2.6.0.1. Now that Shadowkeep is finally here, be sure to keep it locked to Shacknews so you don't miss out on any of the latest findings. Head over to the Shadowkeep guide up for everything you need to know.

Sam Chandler

Head of Guides

Hailing from the land down under, Sam Chandler brings a bit of the southern hemisphere flair to his work. After bouncing round a few universities, securing a bachelor degree, and entering the video game industry, he's found his new family here at Shacknews as Head of Guides. There's nothing he loves more than crafting a guide that will help someone. If you need help with a guide, or notice something not quite right, you can message him on X: @SamuelChandler