Bungie announced today it’s getting rid of Destiny 2‘s most beleaguered mechanic: sunsetting. Starting in Season 14, new weapons will no longer have an expiration date.
“This is a big change for Destiny and one that we did not make lightly,” assistant game director Joe Blackburn wrote in a sweeping new State of Destiny post over on Bungie’s website. “However, we believe there’s nothing more important in Destiny than getting our rewards right.”
Introduced in last spring’s Beyond Light expansion, sunsetting gave every piece of loot in the game outside of exotics an infusion cap that prevented players from raising its power after a year from when it was first added to the game. This effectively gave every item players worked hard to grind for an expiration date. the gear could still be used in non-power-oriented activities like Crucible and patrols, but in raids and other end game content it would no longer be viable. The aim of sunsetting was to help better balance and focus Destiny 2‘s loot pool, but players have understandably been frustrated with seeing their favourite guns made obsolete. Less than a year after the mechanic was first announced, Bungie’s already reversing course.
“We’ve made the decision that any weapon or armour that can currently be infused to max Power will continue to be able to reach max Power permanently,” Blackburn wrote. “Starting in Season 14 we won’t be capping the infusion on any weapons or armour that have not already reached the cap as of the start of Season 13. This means you’ll be able to take your Trustee, your Falling Guillotine, and all the high-stat armour you’ve earned this year to take on the raid in The Witch Queen.”
The flipside of this is that it sounds like Bungie will be more strict in curtailing the use of certain weapons deemed to be overpowered. Felwinter’s Lie, a legendary shotgun earned as part of a tedious questline early last year, is everywhere in PVP modes. It was previously set to sunset after the current season. Now Bungie will have to find a different way to deal with it.
Blackburn also revealed some other changes coming to the game. The power progression in Destiny 2 has also been a tedious grind of late, and sure enough that’s getting overhauled as well. “To combat this, we will be experimenting with a new Power level cap,” Blackburn wrote. “Starting in Season 14, we will only be raising the Power cap by 10 for each non-expansion season. This means if you reach the maximum Power in Season 13, when next season rolls around you will be directly in the 10-point Pinnacle band of the Power pursuit.” Hallelujah.
There’s some other good news too:
- PVP is getting three major updates: a non-emote mode to address peeking, Stasis and other subclasses getting re-balanced, and new perks to shakeup the meta. These changes are set to arrive in season 15.
- Bungie is clamping down on cheating by doubling the size of its security team.
- Trials of Osiris rewards and matchmaking will be overhauled to make them less of a bummer and make it easier for solo players to join in.
- Destiny 1’s Vault of Glass raid comes back in season 14 and will get Master and Grandmaster difficulty versions by the end of the year.
- Transmog is definitely coming in season 14 (yay) but will be powered by bounties and come with a grind all its own.
- Ikora Rey will finally return next season.
- Cross-play will be implemented in season 15.
While I’m disappointed to see The Witch Queen expansion slip to next year, these massive improvements and new features rolling out through the rest of the year have me feeling optimistic about Destiny 2’s future. Then again these big State of Destiny-style posts often do. We’ll see how the changes actually hash out once they’re in the game.
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