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Sunbracers & Synthoceps nerfed, Exotic armor gets Artifice slots & more in Destiny 2 armor preview

Several Exotic armor pieces have also received a buff along with additional keywords while various mods receive much-needed adjustments.

Sam Chandler

May 24, 2024 12:20 AM

Bungie

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Bungie has continued to unveil more changes coming to Destiny 2 with The Final Shape and today’s Exotic armor preview gives insight into how your favorite Exotics are changing. Several Exotics are being rebalanced to better perform with the element-agnostic Prismatic subclass, some are getting Frost Armor functionality, and a few fan favorites are getting hit with moderate – but needed – nerfs.

On May 23, 2024, Bungie posted its latest tuning preview, this one focused entirely on Exotic armor. This one wasn’t as chunky as the ability tuning preview, but it’s just as important. For a lot of players, the biggest impact to the sandbox will be the nerfs coming to Sunbracers and Synthoceps.

Firstly, when using Sunbracers, you will now only be able to throw four grenades instead of five and the increase to the grenade duration is now two seconds (as opposed to four). It’s not as major of a nerf as what we saw with Starfire Protocol (which was so hilariously overpowered), it’s instead bringing it more in-line with other Exotic options while still ensuring it retains its identity.

On the Synthoceps side, the enhanced melee damage will be removed sooner when you are no longer surrounded. This will now be a five second period instead of eight seconds. The idea here is that it was too easy to build this damage and then go face a boss one-on-one without anything else being around you. Though it will still be possible to deal big damage, you’ll need to be far more deliberate with your timing and likely need to consider keeping more foes alive.

Another big element of this update is that Exotic armor is finally getting Artifice armor stat slots. Once a piece has been Masterworked, you can upgrade it a final time using an Exotic Cipher (finally, a use for them) at which point you can pop in a +3 stat boost. This should help players hit higher stat splits and make Exotics feel just that bit more special.

In addition to this mod change, raid mods are being adjusted to make it easier to use them in a build. Their energy costs are being completely removed, which means you’ll no longer need to sacrifice some of the other class item mods to get a slight utility (or damage) bump in a raid.

There’s much more in the preview, so definitely check it out, but one last thing worth pointing out is the change to ammo finders. Currently, ammo finder progress toward generating a brick resets if you die. If you’re unlucky, you might never see a brick appear if you don’t quite get enough kills to activate it. In The Final Shape, your kill progress will continue after death, meaning you should eventually see some ammo on the ground, even if you’re using up all of your team’s revive tokens.

Be sure to keep an eye on our Destiny 2 page in the lead up to The Final Shape. Once the expansion launches, you’ll find plenty of coverage on our Destiny 2 Strategy Guide including a campaign walkthrough, god rolls, and how to unlock new Exotics.

Sam Chandler

Guides Editor

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 a Guides Editor. 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