Another update, another hiccup in Destiny 2. The Dawning event, the winter holiday event for the game, began on December 10, and while its new dragon-themed armor was getting the initial attention, Bungie accidentally made the event's optional paid event card free for players to claim.

The studio was quick to correct its mistake, but it's just yet another glaring issue added to the steady stream of bugs and missteps that have plagued Episode: Revenant.

During the Dawning, the Tower gets decked out in lights, Eva Levante shows up to help Guardians bake cookies, and snowballs appear in certain activities. While many players will spend their time baking, the cosmetic rewards are the real draw of the holiday. Alongside the new draconic appearance, Bungie also offered its typical paid event card, but it was accidentally made free for those who were quick enough before the studio swooped back in to disable it.

Bah humbugs

While it doesn't reward any gear or upgrade materials, the premium event card for the Dawning does offer exclusive access to certain event-specific cosmetics. When players upgrade to the premium Dawning event card, they'll immediately unlock a holiday-wrapped present-themed sparrow called Gift Wrapped, a blue and purple shader that perfectly compliments the dragon-themed cosmetics, and the Cozy Cat Emote that lets Guardians sit by a fireplace with their pet cat. Additional rewards are available through the premium event card, but those must be unlocked with Event Tickets earned by completing Event Challenges.

Once Bungie realized the premium Dawning event card was bugged to be freely given to early players, the studio quickly removed the entire event card system from Destiny 2. While this was only temporary, and both the free and premium event cards are now available again, there was a period where player participation was not tracked toward appropriate Event Challenge progress. That said, players who lucked out will not lose what they gained. "Players who obtained the Dawning Event Card Upgrade while it was incorrectly listed at no cost will keep it. Bank error in your favor - Happy Dawning," the studio commented.

More coal in your stocking

A wonky event card is one thing, but that's not all that's wrong with 2024's Dawning holiday. Bungie has confirmed several issues, including Dawning weapons not being focusable or rolling with the intended double Perks. Some holiday-related Triumphs are also seemingly broken, and players have both become stuck during the initial Dawning Quests or have been unable to start the event with additional characters after initially commencing the Dawning with a different character.

Episode: Revenant was already messy between Weightgate and the recent Tonic controversy. Now, the Dawning is here and stuffed with bugs and issues, too. It's just further fuel on the fire for Bungie's already precarious predicament, and the Destiny 2 community is reaching its wits' end. Destiny 2 content creator RickKackis said, "The Dawning Event Card is Glitched and ends up being removed[,] Double Perks on Dawning Weapons don't work[,] If you switch characters your quest progress is lost Bungie, just give the damn Event Card to Every Destiny 2 Player. There's not many players left. Treat them well."

Bungie has been communicative since the start of the Dawning, noting and following up on each identified issue as solutions are reached. The studio has shared that the Dawning event card is working back in-game and that weapon focusing should be working as intended. As for the other issues plaguing the event, hopefully, Bungie can right the ship before it saps the holiday spirit and goodwill out of the players sticking around.

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Christmas has arrived early in Destiny 2 in the form of the Dawning event, and the Mistral Lift Linear Fusion rifle is certainly one of the best rewards you can get for your grind.

The latest weapon holds high potential to become top tier in its own archetype, and especially so, if the player knows how to compliment it well with a good build and top-tier rolls. It's an Adaptive Burst Void Linear Fusion rifle that shoots in three-burst rounds and offers some amazing perks. But before we get into that, let's take a look at how you can unlock this gun in the first place.

How to get Mistral Lift in Destiny 2

The Mistral Lift is available exclusively during the Dawning event. To get the first copy of the gun, you'll have to complete event card challenges and eliminate targets with any form of Void damage. This includes your weapons and abilities, as long as they do the required type of damage.

Next, you'll have to get Dawning Essence to create gifts for the festive season. When you deliver the gifts, you'll get A gift in Return that can be used at Eva Levante to get specific weapons. Make sure to purchase all the required items to unlock weapon focusing. While this takes care of getting the gun, let's take a look at the best possible builds for it.

Best Mistral Lift Perks and God Rolls in Destiny 2

The Mistral Lift is reportedly becoming a new darling of the community when it comes to PvE. It's a far more limited choice when it comes to PvP. Nevertheless, here are the god rolls of the gun for both game modes.

Mistral Lift PvE God Roll

Fluted Barrel and Enhanced Battery offer a bigger magazine size and greater stability that can combine extremely well with the two perks. Bait and Switch will provide a 30% boost to damage, and Envious Assassin also amplifies the damage. Their trigger factors are also similar, making it easy for you to activate both of them by basically doing the same activity.

When it comes to content like Nightfall raids, Withering Gaze can be a good alternative as well. If you have aimed at an enemy for 1.5 seconds, your shot will weaken the enemy you hit. It's a good choice, but you'll have longer reload times.

Mistral Lift PvP God Roll

In PvP, you'll want to to avoid using Linear Fusion Rifles, as weapons with faster shooting rate will be far more beneficial. Do note that there is no other way to get the Mistral Lift apart from completing events that are currently available on the Dawning event card.

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With the "weightgate" controversy just barely in the rearview mirror, Bungie has confirmed that there is indeed another bug plaguing Destiny 2 players.

This time, it's the Episode: Revenant Tonic system, as the feature does not reward what it's supposed to when gains are expected. Unfortunately, issues like this are growing in prominence, becoming an apparent new normal after Bungie's consolidation and shift in priorities.

The Tonic system in Episode: Revenant allows players to earn reagants through gameplay, which are used to brew concoctions in The Last City. The idea is that these Tonics can be used to increase or target farm certain rewards and buff specific abilities and effects. In practice, however, it hasn't really felt like the system worked. Each Tonic only lasts for a bit, and as if the constant application wasn't annoying enough, it seems the feature isn't even working the way it should be.

Tonics are the latest broken Destiny feature

In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Bungie formally acknowledged an issue with Episode: Revenant Tonics. The studio noted that Tomb of Elders Tonics weren't increasing chances to earn the appropriate weapons. Bungie wasn't ready to announce a fix date, instead telling players it would test and validate potential solutions before providing more information.

While the studio only notes that Tomb of Elders Tonics were affected, the whole system has felt off from the get-go. Just like with the extensive testing done to verify something was wrong with weapon rolls, the Destiny 2 community is at a point where they don't take Bungie's word for granted. Some have even gone to similar lengths as the "weightgate" scandal, testing Tonics over several days to form a dataset.

Tonics are the latest thing players have realized aren't working correctly in Destiny 2, but the issue goes deeper than buffs simply not rewarding as many guns as they should. For the past few years, most, if not all, weapons released during a season were craftable. Players only needed to log on once a week, claim a free pattern from a vendor, and check out after they unlocked the blueprints for whichever weapons they desired. It didn't make for the most engaging structure for a looter shooter, but it was at least consistent.

Bungie tried doing something different by adding more depth to the looting system, which I totally agree with. Still, the process was fumbled so thoroughly that players are begging the studio to return to the one-pattern-a-week crafting alternative. It's a shame, as I imagine the studio won't be so keen to attempt to innovate after a debacle like this.

Bungie's losses are more apparent now than ever

It's hard to discuss bugs and issues within Destiny 2 and not bring up Bungie's layoffs between 2023 and 2024. First, in October of 2023, Bungie laid off an estimated 100 employees and delayed both Destiny 2's The Final Shape expansion and the upcoming title Marathon. Reporting followed that described a "soul-crushing" atmosphere at Bungie, including reckless decision-making, internal scandals, and a scramble to prove itself a good investment for Sony.

With Sony's earlier acquisition of Bungie, a second round of layoffs in July of 2024 meant that incorporating Bungie employees into Sony was possible. Bungie noted 220 employees were laid off in the second round, with another 155 moving directly to Sony. Between the reported layoffs (about eight months apart), the studio lost around 475 employees. And that's, of course, not including those who left as they started to see the writing on the wall.

Previous reporting noted that testing and QA were some of the first roles to go at Bungie and that reality is being felt now more than ever. That's not to say that Destiny 2 was without bugs and annoying glitches in the past, but I don't think I remember things being this bad since Curse of Osiris or maybe the early Shadowkeep days. Veteran Destiny 2 reporter Paul Tassi is even one of the extra unlucky players who can't create Tonics at all on certain characters.

At the very least, Bungie is looking into the issue now. That said, it seems like more and more, the Destiny community is doing the heavy lifting of identifying potential issues in-game. It's appreciated work by dedicated Destiny 2 players, for sure, but it should be Bungie's job to take care of the game, not ours.

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Well, I can't believe that I'm saying this, but Destiny: Rising is actually pretty fun. It's not perfect by any means, but it's remarkable how much it feels like I'm playing Destiny on my phone. Now, I gravitate toward Destiny: Rising during idle time and sneaking 10-15 minutes during breaks. It's not in any position to take me away from Destiny 2 proper, but it provides a quick Destiny fix and plays well enough that I'm willing to overlook some of the more annoying aspects of mobile games.

Destiny: Rising presents a respectable slice of Destiny 2's spirit on mobile, even making a few surprising improvements in some areas. That said, there's no getting around the fact that this is a true mobile-made experience, complete with predatory microtransactions and most of the other warts that haunt phone games. NetEase nailed the control and gameplay front, but under that, there's a sea of rare currencies, single-digit percentage reward chances, and even what appears to be several subscriptions, all aimed at getting players to fork over some dough. Even with all that, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't having fun with Destiny: Rising.

Alpha test perks

Before I get into my time with Destiny: Rising, I think it's important to know that the alpha test experience isn't wholly representative of the final product. And that's for better and for worse. There weren't any major barriers preventing progression through the game's narrative or systems, but there were features that were intentionally absent, like microtransactions (which conveniently hide what resources and premium features actually cost).

Inversely, alpha testers also had the opportunity to receive a slew of daily login and overall participation rewards. These were often extra handfuls of resources, ensuring there was never a drought of materials or currency for testers. Additionally, some milestones provided free access to in-game subscriptions that further increased rewards. No doubt these freebies will be absent from the release version of Destiny: Rising, and who knows how much those subscriptions cost and how grindy the game is without them.

The game is legitimately fun

All that said, I've been having a blast with Destiny: Rising. The game even served admirably as my main Destiny outlet during a week-long vacation to Disney World. I wasn't skipping Pirates of the Caribbean to play, but it went a long way in winding lines and while relaxing back at the hotel.

Everything a Destiny player might expect is on show and available in Destiny: Rising, from Strikes to PvP and even Raid-like challenges. Aside from the content you can launch into through a menu, Destiny: Rising doesn't skimp on the other familiar trappings of Destiny games, like open destinations, hub zones, public events, and discoverable secrets. The mobile game also isn't afraid to experiment, like a quest that ends in a high-speed Sparrow chase and an on-rails shooting segment.

There's no shortage of content to pursue in Destiny: Rising, but that only matters if the game is fun to play. Thankfully, I can say that if you enjoy the general gameplay and progression found in Destiny 2, then Destiny's first mobile outing is pretty similar. Players will still build their armory of weapons, manage the mods and power of said weapons, and then use those weapons to shoot aliens, hopefully resulting in the acquisition of a new gun. Destiny: Rising adds the twist of managing and growing a roster of existing Guardians, each with unique abilities and weapon preferences.

Mobile Destiny can feel this solid?

If you play Destiny 2, you'll feel right at home with Destiny: Rising. While there are some notable differences between the two games, like no option to crouch and semi-limited loadouts, Destiny: Rising really works some magic to make gameplay feel natural. That even goes for the touchscreen controls. While I initially spent some time using a Backbone controller on my iPhone to play, I quickly got used to using touch controls when I didn't feel like lugging around another accessory.

The most important parts of gameplay, moving, shooting, and ability use, all feel great, though it's much easier to gracefully combine these actions on a controller. Some niceties are built into the game for touchscreen players, though, like an auto-sprint option that can be toggled on and off easily while exploring larger destinations. Using the touchscreen is totally functional, more so than many other mobile games I've played, but using a controller makes Destiny: Rising play almost identically to Destiny 2, and I find that remarkable.

Sparrow Racing League, anyone?

Impressively, Destiny: Rising features an entire campaign alongside a wide assortment of activities that can be started anywhere via the menu. I have some bones to pick with the campaign, which I'll get to, but those are primarily about performances, presentation, and lore accuracy. The mobile game surprised me with a lengthy campaign offering memorable and fun moments to play through. It's just that the narrative surrounding these moments needed to be stronger.

The diversity of available activities, on the other hand, is strong. Are you one of those Destiny players who miss the days of the Sparrow Racing League? Well, Sparrow Racing is an Event in Destiny: Rising. The same goes for Clan challenges called Pack Ops and a Gwent-like card game called Shadowshaper Duels. There are also several variations of more conventional Destiny gameplay, including multiple Strikes and other varied activities that reward various materials.

My favorite activities thus far have been the variations of Singularity. The enigmatic Nine and Xûr host a series of forays into the roguelite genre. Each activity has multiple difficulty options, and as players progress through an attempt, they can choose from an assortment of randomized buffs after each successful round. The activities typically last for seven to ten rounds, featuring a boss at the end. In addition to completion rewards, players also earn currency to put toward a long-term skill tree for the mode.

The UI looks great on the surface

Learning the systems and discovering what's available in a mobile gacha game can be overwhelming, and Destiny: Rising's UI does some things exceedingly well while others fall short. A small UI window shows players their current objectives, and you can use your Ghost to access a more comprehensive menu system (a lot like Destiny 2). Under the icon for your Ghost, there's another that takes you to an activity hub. This hub works a lot like the way I imagine Bungie wants the upcoming Portal feature to work in Destiny 2, featuring recommended activities on a front tab and offering access to all available activities on various other tabs in the interface.

Between these two icons and the minimap itself, which can be tapped on to reveal a larger map and POIs, there's also an icon on the left side of the minimap that takes players to the Draw menu to pull for characters or gear. I like how the interface looks on the screen; there aren't too many options, and everything looks clean enough that it never feels like the screen is too busy with UI elements. That said, the Ghost icon has way too much stuff crammed into it, and the layout doesn't always make sense. 

For example, there are options in the Ghost menu for activities, Draws, and the map. The icons near the minimap are just shortcuts, but they function better as out-of-the-way, direct ways to access this content. It makes less sense to jump through the Ghost menu, yet the options are still there, crammed with everything else. Events like Sparrow Racing and Shadowshaper Duels make even less sense, as they're in the same place as login rewards and other gifts. This location, again, is accessed through the expanded Ghost menu.

Destiny: Rising's story needs some work

While I can argue that the UI is mostly fine and that only some of its placement doesn't make sense, I can't look past the painfully dull and poorly presented story. While the solid gameplay and a well-put-together opening tutorial mission help overlook some of the awkward writing and delivery, by the time players get a full loadout of weapons and start meeting some supporting characters in the central hub zone, it starts to wear thin. 

Unfortunately, voice acting and the evolving narrative never get much better, and it gets more egregious the more you realize how much of the voiced content was AI-generated. NetEase has stated that the AI voice work is simply a placeholder until the game is finished, and I will note that if that's true, Destiny: Rising may have just as much, if not more, voiced content at launch as Destiny 2 has currently. Of course, as I mentioned before, a lot of that content just isn't that interesting.

Generally, the story is about Wolf, the newest Guardian to awaken, finding his bearing amongst his fellows. Though Wolf is technically the main character, as new characters are introduced (and become earnable through the gacha system), a few quests or a dedicated adventure serve as an introduction and sometimes allow players to try out the new Fireteam member. However, the story mostly revolves around the interactions between the human defenders of Jiangshi Metro and the mixed community of Haven, a settlement with Guardians flocking to its Tree of Light.

This setup could offer some interesting stories, especially considering some of the Jiangshi Metro citizens don't harbor the best feelings towards Guardians. However, things never develop further than characters speaking their emotions and sending you off towards the next firefight.

The lore is a whole other issue

NetEase noted from the start that Destiny: Rising would be set in an alternate universe of the franchise, after the collapse but before the City age. While describing the game as an alternate universe works like a lore get-out-of-jail-free card, there are still some glaring lore and consistency issues within the game.

Probably one of the biggest gripes I have in this corner is the Fallen NPC that hangs around Haven. Even if this is an alternate universe where nothing I know about Destiny matters, the game sets up the Fallen as this arch-rival race of space pirates that are set on looting and pillaging a weakened humanity. If there are Fallen working with humanity in Haven, then the leaders in charge are grossly incompetent and far too trusting. As for the Fallen themselves, from their perspective, humanity is wounded and on the back foot; humanity "took" the Traveler. What do Fallen have to gain by joining their enemy, and is it worth the inevitable risk?

Another thing that bugs me is tying powers of Light to relics instead of a Guardians Ghost. In Destiny games, Guardians typically channel the Light through their Ghosts to manifest abilities. In Destiny: Rising, Ghosts still choose from among the dead to create immortal Guardians, but they seemingly can only channel the Light if they're lucky enough to stumble upon a relic. This, of course, happens to Wolf during the tutorial, but this creates a world where countless Guardians are awoken by a Ghost who didn't find a relic. What does that look like? They're just functionally immortal and that's it? 

At least if there will be Fallen ex-patriots or new rules for Light, explain it, please. The Fallen character in Haven simply notes it's following the "Great Machine," but that's just a thin excuse to justify an existence to ensure players can quickly identify Fallen technology throughout the story. Similarly, if Destiny: Rising is set during an era when the Light was weaker, and abilities had to be channeled through specific powered relics, okay, but tell me about it. This is a game working within an existing franchise; if something is different from that existing, preceding franchise, then please tell me why.

The grind might be rough

As I mentioned earlier, the alpha test had some benefits, including several tracks of login rewards and similar tracks for participating in select activities and events throughout the testing period. While this constant flow of materials ensured pretty much all of my earned characters could fully develop abilities and gear, things certainly won't be the same when the game finally releases.

The grind will likely be real, not only for desired materials but also for specific characters or weapons. In Destiny 2, a much-maligned modifier exists called Match Game. Match Game ensures that elemental shields are vastly empowered against anything that isn't a matching element. In Destiny: Rising, it seems like a version of Match Game is always on. This is exponentially worse if weapons are below level for the foes you're fighting. I found myself in a story mission against enemies with Void shields but only had access to Solar and Arc damage on my Guardian. It took several clips of auto rifle ammo before I broke the shield and could damage the enemy normally.

This annoyance also applies to Destiny: Rising's version of Champions, Shinka. These enemies also have shields and specific effects that are painful to play around without the desired weapon types to counter. For example, a Spread Shinka is best countered by a Guardian wielding a weapon with an explosion radius, like a rocket launcher. As Guardians are limited to the type of gear they can equip, you may not have anyone capable of wielding one, and that Shinka fight will be long and arduous, if not downright impossible.

Progression is also limited by resources, which should be familiar to mobile players. Here, that means Guardians can't unlock their full potential until you've earned multiple copies of the same one. Similarly, weapon level, mods, and a generic character level also contribute to overall power and naturally require resources to advance. That means players might reach a point where they need to be level 50 to participate in an activity needed to progress the story, but they've run out of the materials required to push them from level 40 to 50. In that case, players would either run whatever activity provides the desired resource or break down and get some via a microtransaction.

Better than expected, worried about monetization

Altogether, I still admit that I've been having fun with Destiny: Rising. I'm not blind to the probable inevitability of it blindsiding me with a flood of microtransactions and progression gates when it finally releases. Still, I can't deny that it's been a joy to play. 

I know it's a fool's longing, but I do genuinely hope NetEase leans back on what appears to be a whole lot of hidden microtransactions (or disabled annoyances that will push players toward microtransactions upon final release). Even if they incorporated a system much like the one alpha testers received, where players were substantially rewarded for ongoing participation in the game, that would be huge. Beyond that, I think in-game subscriptions that provide additional loot are a bit too far unless it too was incorporated into some loyalty reward system. 

I'm anxious to see where Destiny: Rising goes from here; it is now entirely on my radar. It will be interesting to see how NetEase responds to alpha testers, as several extensive surveys have been issued in-game, each rewarding a juicy stash of rewards. Monetization and microtransactions were among the first things players were curious about, so no doubt many noticed the same things I did and voiced their opinions also as I did. 

Most recently, NetEase announced a beta test for Destiny: Rising, allowing even more people to experience and trial the game. For me, it's proved itself a competent entry into the franchise; it just has to stick the landing.

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Revenant Act 2 in Destiny 2 has introduced a fair share of new artifact perks, and some of them can be amazing in terms of the current meta.

There can be no question marks over just how good Grenade Launchers currently feel on the meta. They have always had a strong spot, but the upcoming perks will make some of them a lot more powerful. Interestingly, you'll also get an Exotic launcher from the current pass, and combining them with the new artifact perks is only going to make it and all other launchers even better.

Complete list of new Revenant Act 2 Artifact Perks in Destiny 2

First, let's take a look at all the new perks that are going to be part of the game very soon.

The Alethonym, once unlocked, will be perfect with these perks, but you can also take a look at Ex Diris. Its potential rise in the current meta largely has to do with the perks that will be released as part of Act 2.

Putting aside the weapon changes that have been made to Ex Diris, the upcoming perks become a natural fit for this launcher. For starters, it will Blind enemies, which makes it a great choice for Arc Compounding. While the hits will blind the enemies, they will then get increased damage from Arc sources.

But even if you didn't manage to obtain this launcher from Season of the Witch or can't purchase it from Monument to Lost Lights, the upcoming perks will fit a lot of other weapons as well. You'll be able to access Revenant Act 2 on November 19, 2024.

The post All new Destiny 2 Episode Revenant Act 2 Artifact Perks appeared first on Destructoid.

Episode: Revenant is the Stasis season Destiny 2 players have been waiting for. Now, players can put together their most biting builds and shatter foes with frosty wrath. It's not that Guardians are deciding to start using Stasis just for the fun of it, but Bungie put a focus on the Subclass in Episode: Revenant through the Artifact Mods available and updates to the Exotic armor repertoire.

Players haven't really ever had a season to enjoy Stasis, as the Subclass wasn't super attractive following its launch in the Beyond Light expansion. Bungie has been steadily improving Stasis since then, and the Class and ability updates preceding Episode: Revenant were some of the biggest yet. These came alongside the aforementioned Artifact Mods and Exotic changes to position Stasis in the best place it's ever been.

Episode: Revenant Artifact

Episode: Revenant has an Artifact with great options to support a Stasis build. While each build and Class may focus on different things, the Stasis-focused Artifact Perks are general enough to work well with most Stasis builds. As such, players should enable One With Frost, Wind Chill, Crystalline Converter, Armor of Eramis, Hail the Storm, Brain Freeze, and Served Cold. Of note, Served Cold allows Stasis Shards to provide Class ability energy on top of melee energy, and Wind Chill grants Frost Armor with rapid Stasis weapon precision hits.

Warlock

It is time to put away those Osmiomancy Gloves. In Episode: Revenant, Warlocks can grant themselves and any nearby allies full stacks of Frost Armor whenever they cast their Healing Rift. The Rift will create a Stasis Freezing blast, generate Super energy for each ally buffed, and regen Class ability energy if used close to enemies. All that extra Super energy will allow Guardians to use Winter's Wrath frequently, which will, in turn, provide more Frost Armor, buff Shatter damage on foes, and increase Stasis weapon damage.

Subclass

Before jumping into the gear, Warlocks will want to make sure they have their Stasis Subclass set up in a way that makes the most of the entire build. While the melee ability is static, and the grenade choice can vary based on other loadout choices, a Healing Rift will provide an accessible health source and play into additional features once we add the Frostpulse Aspect. Frostpulse creates a Stasis shockwave that Freezes enemies after casting a Rift. Iceflare Bolts is the other Aspect of choice, spawning homing and Freezing projectiles after Shattering a Frozen target.

For Fragments, Warlocks will want to stick with Whisper of Rime, Whisper of Chains, and Whisper of Refraction. The trio offers increased Frost Armor effectiveness, Stasis Shard generation while Frost Armor is active, and Class ability energy on defeated Frozen/Slowed enemies. The other Fragment is a little more fluid depending on playstyle, with Whisper of Fissures being a fun choice for AOE mayhem or Whisper of Chill for even more Stasis Shards.

Gear

The build comes to life with the Exotic gauntlets Ballidorse Wrathweavers. It now provides Frost Armor to Guardians in range of the Winter's Wrath Super shockwave. Frost Armor is also granted via a Frostpulse Rift, which rewards max stacks to any allies in range. As if that wasn't nice enough, Super energy is rewarded whenever Warlocks provide Frost Armor to allies.

All of those features function well together, but Ballidorse Wrathweavers also provide increased Stasis weapon damage to anyone buffed by it and increased Shatter damage for anyone doing enough damage to enemies Frozen by the Warlock's Winter's Wrath Super.

Weapons aren't as crucial to the build as a proper mod and subclass setup. Still, an Exotic Stasis primary weapon like Wicked Implement will take advantage of the Stasis weapon damage buff and reward extra Super energy.

Stats and armor mods

Outside of the Ballidorse Wrathweavers, players will want to ensure the mods equipped on their armor support Class ability regen as much as possible without skimping on Resilience or Discipline. With that in mind, Guardians want 100 Resilience and then as much Recovery as possible. From there, any extra stats can go into Discipline for grenades.

• Head: Harmonic Siphon and Dynamo
• Arms: Momentum Transfer and Bolstering Detonation
• Chest: Damage resistance
• Legs: Recuperation, Absolution, and Insulation
• Class item: Reaper and Distribution

Titan

Titans finally have some Stasis skills to show off, following massive changes to both standard Class features and the Stasis Subclass specifically. Now, Titans can become the focus of the whole room, capturing enemy attention before Shattering them like an unstoppable bowling ball, knocking down pins of Stasis Crystals. Titans will be nigh unkillable with constant Frost Armor and lots of devastation at close quarters.

Subclass

Guardians will want Rally Barricade, Shiver Strike, and Duskfield Grenade for the Stasis Subclass. Shiver Strike is the only melee option, but it's been reworked to be reasonably solid. Rally Barricade offers the fastest Class ability cooldown, and Duskfield Grenade can Slow enemies on a whim, both of which can help the overall build function.

For Aspects, Diamond Lance is a no-brainer, offering ranged Freeze and Frost Armor with a slam. The other Aspect to take is Tectonic Harvest for easy Stasis Shard generation, which will grant Frost Armor, melee energy, and heal Titans when collected.

With the two Aspects chosen, Titans will get five Fragments to play with. Whisper of Rime, Whisper of Reversal, Whisper of Refraction, Whisper of Durance, and Whisper of Fissures all work together well. The Fragment combination puts an enhanced slow effect on enemies whenever they deal or receive melee damage and defeated slowed enemies grant Class ability energy. Frost Armor is also improved alongside Shatter damage, as Titans will make lots of Stasis Crystals.

Gear

For gear, players can choose between two playstyles. The safer option in high-end PvE content is the Icefall Mantle Exotic. Icefall Mantle grants Frost Armor from rapid Stasis kills and heals the Titan with each stack or refresh of Frost Armor.

The Exotic also replaces Rally Barricade with a unique Class ability that creates an AOE Freeze effect and grants the user full stacks of Frost Armor. Alternatively, players can take the Cadmus Ridge Lancecap for a spin to wholly lean into Diamond Lances. The Exotic lets Diamond Lances create Stasis Crystals, and rapid precision damage or precision kills spawn Diamond Lances. 

Titans can get a lot of use out of the reworked Salvation's Grip Exotic grenade launcher. It can charge a shot to create several Stasis Crystals, and regular fire deals increased damage to Frozen enemies and Stasis Crystals. The weapon can also reload itself by destroying multiple Stasis Crystals. Otherwise, players will want a primary Stasis weapon with the Headstone Perk to ensure Stasis Crystals are plentiful.

Stats and armor mods

Titans using this setup will get a little extra stat boost from the selected Fragments, but stat priorities should still seem familiar. 100 Resilience is the priority, followed by Strength and then Discipline.

• Head: Harmonic Siphon and Heavy Ammo Finder
• Arms: Impact Induction and Focusing Strike X2
• Chest: Damage resistance
• Legs: Stasis Weapon Surge, Absolution, and Recuperation
• Class item: Reaper and Distribution

Hunter

While Hunters benefit from the more significant Stasis changes abound, they'll likely want to fall back on an old favorite build centering around the Duskfield grenade. Hunters will litter the battlefield with Duskfield grenades, providing Frost Armor to allies within its enhanced range and debuffing enemies caught within. Stasis Shards and Orbs of Power will also track to Hunters, decreasing all ability cooldowns.

Subclass

Players will want Gambler's Dodge, Withering Blade, and Duskfield grenade for the Stasis Subclass setup. Gambler's Dodge can be used to refund a Withering Blade whenever needed, and the melee ability provides another source of Slow. Duskfield grenade has greater importance to the build, working with the Touch of Winter Aspect and the Exotic armor piece of choice to greatly improve its effects. The other Aspect for this build is Grim Harvest, creating Stasis Shards whenever Slowed or Frozen enemies are defeated.

For Fragments, players will want Whisper of Rime and Whisper of Chains to make the most of Frost Armor whenever it's available. Whisper of Durance makes Slow effects and Duskfield grenade last longer, creating more Stasis Shards, which will be automatically collected thanks to Whisper of Conduction. Finally, Whisper of Shards allows Hunters to shatter the Stasis Crystal formed after using a Duskfield grenade to boost grenade recharge rate.

Gear

If it isn't clear by now, Hunters will use the Renewal Grasps Exotic for this build. The gauntlets increase the size of the Duskfield grenade's effect and reduce damage from enemies inside. The Duskfield effect also grants Frost Armor to the Hunter and allies within its radius.

As for weapons, Hunters will ideally want something that can create Stasis Crystals, so they are not wholly dependent on the small Crystal created from Duskfield grenades. Verglas Curve can work well for this purpose, and the extra Super energy from kills is lovely, too. That said, it may feel less effective in more challenging content. In that event, Wicked Implement is a less flashy but reliable alternative.

Stats and armor mods

Like all Classes, Hunters will want to reach 100 Resilience first. From there, the focus should shift to Discipline and then to Mobility. Thankfully, some of the Fragments provide some stat boosts, so players will have a little help reaching their goals.

• Head: Harmonic Siphon, Dynamo, and Heavy Ammo Finder
• Arms: Bolstering Detonation X2 and Momentum Transfer
• Chest: Damage resistance
• Legs: Invigoration, Absolution, and Recuperation
• Class item: Reaper and Bomber X2

The post Destiny 2: Best Stasis builds to chill out Episode: Revenant appeared first on Destructoid.

Destiny 2 is in the midst of its yearly Festival of the Lost event, acting as a Halloween celebration for the game. Festivities run through November 19, adding event-specific content and rewards for its duration. While Festival of the Lost hasn't dramatically changed since it swapped the Haunted Forest for Haunted Lost Sectors four years ago, 2024's event does alter a few things with an aim to make the Halloween celebration more accessible.

Festival of the Lost is an event that dates back to the original Destiny. The Festival has seen its share of changes over the years, but the general gameplay loop still revolves around collecting Candy as a currency. Currently, Candy is used in tandem with Eerie Engrams to purchase rewards from the event coordinator, Eva Levante. That said, some of the best rewards featured throughout Festival of the Lost can only be earned by participating in the event. And even better rewards are available if Guardians are willing to shell out for some microtransactions.

How to start Festival of the Lost

Festival of the Lost has no content or entry requirements; the event is free to all Destiny 2 players. Eva Levante has taken up residence at the center of The Tower, and a visit to her is all needed to start getting spooky in-game. Eva will task players with an event introductory Quest called "Classic Carving." 

Classic Carving will teach players what Festival of the Lost offers and how to participate. By completing the Quest, Guardians will earn a Masquerader's helmet, and that's required to earn Candy. New Masquerader's helms can be obtained via Eva or Haunted Lost Sectors. While the default look is Master Rahool, players can change the appearance to any other mask earned across previous Festival of the Lost events.

The Classic Carving Quest will eventually instruct players to enter a Haunted Lost Sector. These are the main activity offerings for Festival of the Lost, and an Expert difficulty becomes available after completing Classic Carving. At the end of the Questline, Eva will reward players with a decent roll of the Arcane Embrace shotgun, the newest Festival of the Lost weapon.

Festival of the Lost Event Card

The Festival of the Lost Event Card is a collection of Triumph-like challenges with unique rewards. Players can optionally pay to upgrade the Event Card, unlocking additional themed cosmetics. The Event Card is accessible from the Quests tab in the Director or directly via Eva Levante. Event Card challenges aren't required to earn the Festival of the Lost Title, Ghost Writer, but some objectives can overlap.

The rewards earned through Event Card challenges are one side to the earnable loot for Festival of the Lost, with weapons, Festival masks, Sparrows, and various currencies available alongside the optional upgraded Event Card rewards. 

Haunted Lost Sectors

Haunted Lost Sectors aren't new to Festival of the Lost, but the process of completing them has changed a bit. In years past, players would need to complete other activities to earn Spectral Pages, which would then get converted into Manifested Pages after a successful Haunted Lost Sector. Now, Spectral Pages are out of the picture, and Guardians can earn Manifested Pages directly by completing Haunted Lost Sectors or other activities while wearing their Masquerader's helm.

The number of Manifested Pages earned in a Haunted Lost Sector depends on the group's performance. The activity places green summoning circles throughout the Lost Sector. When players stand in the circles long enough, a Headless One miniboss spawns and must be eliminated. A Lost Sector boss will appear after 10 Headless Ones are slain or after enough time has passed. It shields itself at 50% health, and players must defeat more Headless Ones that drop shield-destroying pumpkin bombs. If players finish the Haunted Lost Sector with more than 10 Headless Ones eliminated, they'll receive the maximum amount of Manifested Pages.

Manifested Pages are spent in The Tower at the Book of the Forgotten. This is a collection of short little lore entries with spooky undertones. There are four Volumes of Tales of the Forgotten. The older entries only cost one Manifested Page, while the latest Volume four can run up to nine Pages per entry.

Guardians can earn high-stat rolls of the Masquerader's helm from running Haunted Lost Sectors, and Expert Haunted Lost Sectors will reward a Masquerader's helm with a better chance at favorable distribution of the high-stat roll. Of course, the regular Haunted Lost Sectors have matchmaking, while the Expert version does not. As mentioned before, players cannot attempt an Expert Haunted Lost Sector until after they've completed the Classic Carving Quest. This similarly applies to alternate characters.

Festival of the Lost: Eva's loot

Eva Levante has a few new treats for 2024's Festival of the Lost. In addition to the usual Grab Bags and Festival of the Lost weapons, targeted Exotic armor makes a return from 2023's event. Alongside traditional Exotics, each Class' Exotic Class item is also available from Eva throughout 2024's Festival of the Lost.

How to earn the Festival of the Lost Memento

Like last year, earning a Festival of the Lost Memento has a bit of a hidden process around it. Players must complete three secret objectives to gain the Twilight Triumph, rewarding the Memento when it's claimed from the Triumph menu. Each task involves a Festival of the Lost mask unlocked from 2024's Event Card; some are more involved than others. That said, once you know what to do, each objective can be completed quickly. The Twilight Triumph tasks are as follows:

1. Complete the Hocus Focusing challenge on the Event Card and equip the rewarded Tower Staff Mask Ornament. Talk to Eva at The Tower; she'll offer The Mystery of the Missing Bags Quest. Talk to Saint-14 to resolve the Quest.
2. Complete the Heads Will Roll challenge on the Event Card and equip the rewarded Cursed Thrall Mask Ornament. With the mask equipped, Guardians must get 100 kills with explosive weapons.
3. Complete the Candy Corner challenge on the Event Card and equip the rewarded Finalized Ghost Mask Ornament. Guardians must get 50 sword kills in Expert Haunted Lost Sectors with the mask equipped.

Once all three objectives are complete, players can claim the secret Triumph and earn a guaranteed Festival of the Lost Memento. The Triumph will also reward the Spectral Carapace Emblem. After that one, players can continue to earn additional Festival of the Lost Mementos by focusing Eerie Engrams with Eva Levante.

Eververse Festival of the Lost cosmetics

The Festival of the Lost Event Card and Eva rewards represent the unique event swag that can be earned through participation, but the Eververse Store has plenty of additional options for cold, hard cash. Guardians can purchase additional mask Ornaments, Emotes, Finishers, Ghost flair, and even full Halloween costume transmogs. These offerings are available for Silver (real money) for the most part, though each year's Halloween costume is also available for Bright Dust.

The post Destiny 2: Festival of the Lost 2024 event guide appeared first on Destructoid.

As you're undoubtedly aware if you play Destiny 2, a minor controversy has been afoot over the past couple of weeks. The Weightgate, as it's come to be known, suggests that there have been some serious RNG Perk weighting problems that Bungie's been overlooking, but the fix is coming soon.

More specifically, Bungie has not only acknowledged that something's up with the way certain Legendary weapons drop but also promised full-fledged reparations to all players. The fix is dropping on November 5 as part of Hotfix 8.1.0.4, and it's a real doozy. Not only should this resolve any and all Perk weighting in the future, but it also comes with a real treat: an assortment of top-tier god roll Legendary weapons that were affected by the RNG problems.

A fix for Destiny 2's RNG Perk weighting problems is coming, but don't forget to claim your fancy new god roll guns

Even though Bungie initially said that there was "no perk weighting active for any legendary weapon perks in Destiny 2," this was quickly refuted by the community's research on the matter. It doesn't seem like anything malicious was afoot, but rather that there might've been some interlocking RNG systems messing about with one another. Whatever the case may be, the community's insistence on having Bungie look into it has borne fruit, and build 8.1.0.4 should no longer be affected.

With that all out of the way, Banshee-44 is about to become the most popular kid on the block for a little while. To apologize for the RNG shenanigans, Bungie is set to provide all players of Destiny 2 with an opportunity to stock up on some of the best weapons we could've wished for. Here's the full list of curated Legendary weapons coming to Banshee-44 on November 19:

• Rose Handcannon: Fluted Barrel / Accurized Rounds / Slideshot / Explosive Payload / Smooth Grip / Handling Masterwork
• Multimach SMG: Polygonal Rifling / Tactical Mag / Attrition Orbs / Kinetic Tremors / Reload Masterwork
• Indebted Kindness Sidearm: Smart Drift Control / Tactical Mag / Loose Change / Voltshot / Velocity Masterwork
• Compass Rose Shotgun: Corkscrew Rifling / Light Mag / Snapshot Sights / Slideshot / Handling Masterwork
• Adept Hothead Rocket Launcher: Hard Launch / Impact Casing / Tracking Module / Clown Cartridge / Reload Masterwork
• VS Chill Inhibitor Heavy Grenade Launcher: Countermass / Spike Grenades / Envious Arsenal / Bait & Switch / Reload Masterwork

These are remarkably potent almost across the board. I expect the VS Chill Inhibitor, in particular, to be a popular choice among those who only intend to pick up one or two of these weapons. At the same time, I also highly recommend picking up all of the featured weapons just because they're fancy, curated rolls we might not have a chance to claim ever again.

There are some caveats to keep in mind here, too. Firstly, since some of these are Dungeon drops (like the VS Chill Inhibitor) it should go without saying that they'll only be available to players who have the appropriate Dungeon key. Further, you'll also need to have completed Vesper's Host at least once to be able to claim them.

The second big caveat is that these guns won't be around forever. Banshee-44's inventory will only have them in stock from November 9 until December 3. Certainly, that's plenty of time to farm more than enough resources to claim all of them, but it's still only a limited-time deal. And a pretty generous one, at that.

"Our goal is to get you some perk combinations that were a bit harder to earn due to the bug. We do not currently have a planned deadline for acquisition, but we recommend picking these weapons up at your earliest convenience," explains Bungie in the featured Twitter post. So, this isn't worth dawdling about: claim the aforementioned curated rolls as soon as possible and enjoy them!

The post Destiny 2’s ‘Weightgate’ is finally being resolved, god roll guns given out to everyone appeared first on Destructoid.

There's a hidden Quest tucked away into Destiny 2's Festival of the Lost Halloween event this year. And while it's nothing that will reward players with a secret Exotic mission or a new weapon, it's a cute little romp that adds a little extra flavor to the four-year-old celebration. However, this Quest isn't outwardly advertised within the game. It takes a little curiosity, or the right know-how, to start the task, and the same goes for completing it.

The Festival of the Lost is Destiny 2's yearly Halloween celebration. While the event has had its share of surprises in the past, nowadays, variety comes in the form of new costume cosmetics each year. But this year, there's a bit of a surprise during Festival of the Lost. It's nothing as big as the Xenophage Exotic that was introduced during a Festival of the Lost past, but it's still a good bit of fun to get Guardians into the spirit of the season.

How to begin The Mystery of the Missing Bags

Before players can start the hidden Quest, The Mystery of the Missing Bags, there are a few things that players must complete first. The most important prerequisite is for players to complete the introductory Festival of the Lost Quest from Eva Levante: Classic Carving. This simple Quest will teach players the ins and outs of the event, gifting them a Masquerader's Hood Halloween mask and introducing the Haunted Lost Sectors.

Once Classic Carving is complete, players will gain access to the Festival of the Lost event card. It contains a set of event-specific Triumphs that contain a variety of rewards. The next thing Guardians need to do before they can obtain The Mystery of the Missing Bags Quest is complete the Hocus Focusing Triumph on the event card. All that's required is for players to head to Eva and focus an Eerie Engram. It doesn't matter what the Engram is focused into, so long as its spent. Once the Triumph is complete, it will reward players with the Tower Staff Mask Ornament.

The Ornament can be used to modify the appearance of the Masquerader's Hood, and hilariously enough, it makes the mask look a bit like Jotaro Kujo from Jo Jo's Bizarre Adventure. With the Ornament set and the Masquerader's Hood equipped, Guardians can pay a visit to Eva Levante in The Tower for a surprise bit of dialogue and the start of The Mystery of the Missing Bags Quest.

How to complete The Mystery of the Missing Bags

There isn't much to this hidden Festival of the Lost Quest. All that's required of players is a visit to the nearby Saint-14 in The Tower's Hangar. Saint will have his own bit of dialogue to add an extra bit of flair to the quick ordeal, and then he'll hand over a reward. Guardians will receive a Confiscated Grab Bag from the Exo. The rewards from the Grab Bag seem to range from just Glimmer to gear, with no apparent predictability.

While the quick little mask Quest can be completed just as quickly as it can be started, it's worth noting that there are other mask Ornaments available through the Festival of the Lost event card. It very well may be that this won't be the last time during the spooky season where Guardians don a mask to uncover some hidden surprises.

The post Destiny 2: How to start and complete The Mystery of the Missing Bags during Festival of the Lost appeared first on Destructoid.

If Destiny 2 players have ever felt like the odds were stacked against them when trying to earn a specific weapon roll, they might not be too far from the truth. The Destiny 2 community has come together to amass data that seems to point towards something going on with how Perks are distributed on weapons. While Bungie has responded and debunked previous questions about individual Perk weighting, it seems the studio found something worth looking into after recent player data suggested it's Perk combinations that might be weighted, not individual Perks themselves.

When players earn a weapon in Destiny 2, most of the time, that weapon drops with a random combination of Perks and weapon attachments. While crafting weapons allows players to sidestep lady luck, not every weapon can be Shaped. That's the case with the new arsenal of weapons from the Vesper's Host Dungeon, and that's where players started paying closer attention to what rolls were dropping on weapons.

The conspiracy theory holds water

Some players started to notice that it felt impossible to get the considered god roll of Envious Arsenal and Bait and Switch on the new VS Chill Inhibitor grenade launcher from Vesper's Host. As the weapons from the Dungeon aren't craftable, it's just a matter of running the encounters until the players are graced with the roll. But even then, the VS Chill Inhibitor god roll seemed exceedingly rare, so, the community brought the matter to Bungie's attention.

Bungie, having heard and responded to various drop rate worries over the years, responded as it normally does. In a seemingly now-removed post on X, Bungie noted, "Hey all, we had a conversation with our Sandbox folks this morning about this. There is no perk weighting active for any legendary weapon perks in Destiny 2."

Of course, the Destiny 2 community being what it is, some players didn't take Bungie's answer as definitive. Amassing data from across the community, players like @T1Vendetta and @kneewoah ran extensive testing to research weapon Perk distribution. According to the data, Bungie was technically correct. There is no apparent favoritism for any given Perks on weapons. That said, with two Perks on weapons, there seems to be something going on with how the Perks are paired.

Imagine the available pool of Perks on a weapon as two side-by-side columns of options in a fixed arrangement. While the first Perk (the left column) is truly random, after that Perk is chosen, the game has preferences on what comes next. Again, imagining those two columns, weapons prefer a set of Perks that are "close" to each other. The column perspective is important because, as tools that pull directly from the Destiny 2 API like light.gg show, that's how the game itself organizes and references these Perks.

Bungie acknowledges something is wrong

With all of the data pointing to Perk pairing not working as Bungie thought it did, and with the conversation and discourse spilling out online, the studio had to take another look under the game's hood. On October 24, Bungie posted on X, saying, "While we have confirmed that there is no intentional perk weighting on weapons within our content setup, we are now investigating a potential issue within our code for how RNG perks are generated." Bungie went on to thank the community for pursuing the suspected issue and amassing the quantity of data that it had.

The next day, Bungie was back on social media with news surrounding the investigation. "After investigation, we can confirm an issue has been found in our code where some random perk combinations are harder to earn per legendary weapon perk set," Bungie noted. "In some cases, desirable perk combinations are a bit easier to earn as well. While we inspected our content and confirmed each perk is weighted equally, an issue in perk pool RNG is the culprit here. Our team has quickly identified a potential solution to the issue, and we are rapidly working to validate the fix."

As of October 28, Bungie communicated its progress once again on X, explaining that it is planning to address the issue during an update on November 5. The studio again thanked the community for the part it played in identifying the issue, and promised some kind of a greater community thank you in the future. Right now, however, Bungie made a new Emblem available for all players. Players can redeem the free goodie at Bungie's website by using the code VHT-6A7-3MM.

A perfect storm

Players might not have realized something was off if there hadn't been a perfect storm of a situation that created the awareness. First off, the VS Chill Inhibitor, with its god roll, is one of the best weapons currently in the game, especially with the new Artifact Mods for Episode: Revenant. This created initial demand for the weapon, which got players hunting for it.

Often, the weapons players want are craftable, so the chase for a weapon extends only as long as it takes players to earn enough red-bordered "blueprint" weapons. Without crafting as an option for VS Chill Inhibitor, players became painfully aware of how difficult it was to earn the weapon with the desired roll. 

The final piece in the puzzle is that the god roll for VS Chill Inhibitor is actually one of the rolls that are least likely to drop. Suppose this wasn't the case and that the two Perks in question were "positioned" closer together in Destiny 2's API. In that event, there's a pretty good chance the desired weapon roll would've been easy enough to obtain that the community's suspicion would have likely never been raised. If that were the case, who knows how long this issue would have remained in the game undetected.

It was only through happenstance that all of these conditions coalesced when they did. However, it's a good thing that it did, as the scenario allowed the community to help Bungie identify and fix something fundamentally flawed on the backend of Destiny 2. While it's not every day that these kinds of conspiracy theories actually hold water, in this case, it's clear Destiny players aren't afraid of a little extra work to prove their point.

The post A Destiny 2 conspiracy theory proves something is up with weapon rolls appeared first on Destructoid.

For Honor is set to receive a crossover event for Halloween, bringing the Destiny universe into the game. At the same time, Destiny 2 players will soon partake in the yearly Festival of the Lost, the in-game Halloween celebration that has remained nearly identical since 2021. And yet, there's been no confirmation as to whether Destiny 2 will see any new content to benefit from the For Honor collab. It's a stark reminder of how Destiny presents itself from the outside looking in.

Bungie is no stranger to partnering with other studios to crossover Destiny to other franchises. This has happened several times in the past, with The Witcher, Mass Effect, Ghostbusters, and even Dungeons & Dragons being recent examples. In most cases, new content enters Destiny 2 to coincide with the collaboration, but this time, Bungie has been oddly quiet about whether this would be the case with this most recent partnership -- especially considering the extent of Destiny's presence in For Honor's Halloween event.

New Guardians rise For Honor

For Halloween, For Honor is getting a Destiny-themed event called Light of the Guardians. It will run from October 24 until November 14, adding enemies based on the Scorn from Destiny in a new mode alongside Destiny-themed cosmetics. The most iconic cosmetics are "The Crucible Lord" Lord Shaxx skin for the Centurion and "The Violet King" Saint-14 skin for Lawbringers.

The new mode for the crossover event is based on the existing Domination, but it makes a few changes to spice things up. The Scorn have invaded the map, with a Baron and its retinue taking up residence within the Cathedral map. Players won't have minions to help, so each match is a warzone between the new Scorn and the enemy team.

During the three-week event, players will earn weapons inspired by Destiny, and more are available through the in-game store. That said, players will receive a free event pass for Light of the Guardians, allowing free rewards to be unlocked through participation.

Festival of the Lost is getting tired

While For Honor players are getting an entire Halloween event built around the Destiny franchise, Destiny 2 players are getting the same old Halloween event they've been getting for four years. Of course, it's not as if Destiny 2 and For Honor share development teams, but it's still a little demoralizing to see an admittedly cool Destiny Halloween event appearing...not in Destiny 2.

Festival of the Lost is set to start on October 29, bringing back Haunted Lost Sectors yet again. The event has players enter decorated Lost Sectors to fight the unique Headless Ones enemies. All the while, Guardians collect Candy to use as a currency for event rewards. There's nothing specifically wrong with Festival of the Lost itself, but it's basically been unchanged for years.

While some rewards and the yearly Halloween costume cosmetics change, players have been diving into the same Lost Sectors, fighting the same enemies since before The Witness made its first appearance in-game. On top of this, the timing for Festival of the Lost feels off this year. With the event starting two days before Halloween and running for an assumed two or three weeks, the majority of the celebration is happening after Halloween has already come and gone. 

The timeliness of Festival of the Lost hasn't gone unnoticed by players either, with some taking to platforms like Reddit to voice their frustration and confusion. One commenter said, "So we get festival of the lost literately 2 days before Halloween. I think that is way too late it looks like I'll be playing other games Halloween events instead."

Bungie acknowledges For Honor crossover

While keeping Festival of the Lost nearly identical to previous years and starting it so late may be questionable, excitement could be rekindled with a snazzy focal point to get players excited about Destiny 2's Halloween event beyond its new wizard costumes. In this sense, bringing some of For Honor to Destiny 2 would make sense, but Bungie hasn't noted that's in the cards.

Acknowledging the crossover happening in For Honor, Bungie posted, "Knights, Samurai, Vikings, Wu Lin, and Outlanders prepare to upgrade your armory. Equip your favorite warrior with gear delivered straight from The Last City, during the Light of the Guardians Halloween event. Available Oct. 24 to Nov. 14. Dates and content may change." Notably, the studio did not mention that any content would be coming to Destiny 2; instead, Destiny content would be featured in For Honor.

While it's not impossible that For Honor content could come to Destiny 2 later, it would have made sense for Bungie to note that kind of news during this communication if it was official. As it stands, For Honor players can jump into a cool and unique Halloween event based on a more fantastical franchise. For Destiny 2 players, well, once Festival of the Lost actually starts, just keep running those Haunted Lost Sectors, I guess.

The post For Honor gets a cool Destiny crossover for Halloween while Destiny 2 players do the same thing 4 years running appeared first on Destructoid.

Ice Breaker, the beloved Exotic sniper rifle from Destiny, has finally made its triumphant return in Destiny 2. It has garnered some pretty universal acclaim from veterans and is sure to win over those who have yet to experience it. Here's how to get it.

Where to get the Ice Breaker Exotic sniper rifle in Destiny 2

This Solar sniper rifle, which uses Special ammo, has a chance of dropping upon completion of Vesper's Host Dungeon. To gain access to this Eliksni-hijacked station, Guardians will need to speak with Spider in The Last City and obtain the Rogue Network quest. The Dungeon itself can then be accessed on Europa.

Ice Breaker's eponymous Weapon Perk is an interesting mix of hot and cold. Dropping a foe with it causes them to explode. However, precision final blows or shattering a frozen target triggers an ignition.

Its Intrinsic Trait, No Backpack, encourages loadout synergy. Nabbing final blows or assists with another weapon or ability has a chance to create ammo for Ice Breaker. Should you get on a roll and take out beefier boys, then there's a chance to create multiple rounds.

Ice Breaker Perks

• Corkscrew Rifling: Increases Stability, Handling, and Range by +5
• Accurized Rounds: Increases Range by +10
• Composite Stock: Increases Stability and Handling by +5

Ice Breaker base stats

• Impact: 100
• Range: 87
• Stability: 48
• Handling: 50
• Reload Speed: 0
• Aim Assistance: 58
• Zoom: 35
• Airborne Effectiveness: 6
• RPM: 49
• Magazine: 10
• Recoil Direction: 64

Ice Breaker Catalyst

The Ice Breaker Exotic Catalyst is Icing-Breaker. Once equipped, landing a shot on slowed or frozen targets has a chance to return a round to the magazine. It's like a more forgiving version of Fourth Time's the Charm.

Acquiring the Catalyst is a bit of a chore as you'll need to complete the Rogue Network quest, two Triumphs, and a puzzle involving secret chests in secret rooms. It's a lot. That said, it certainly helps with the uptime on Ice Breaker's usage and is worth pursuing.

The post How to get Ice Breaker in Destiny 2 appeared first on Destructoid.

Continuing to inform players how Destiny 2: Frontiers will change up the game, Bungie has released another Developer Insight article announcing something called Solo Ops. The new activities are designed with solo players in mind, offering tailor-made content for those without a Fireteam. Solo Ops will be built to be replayed and are aimed to be around 10-minute excursions.

Solo Ops is the latest piece of news to come out of Bungie about Destiny 2: Frontiers. The studio has been particularly communicative about the future of Destiny 2, dropping Developer Insights on upcoming armor changes and addressing concerns with concept art and structure plans. Needless to say, Destiny 2 will be almost a different game by the time all of the Frontiers changes are implemented, including a greater focus on solo play.

What are Solo Ops?

Destiny 2 has plenty of content that can be played alone, like campaigns and Exotic missions, but none of it is really designed for a lone Guardian. While players often take up the challenge of running a Dungeon alone or braving high-difficulty Lost Sectors for Exotic Engrams, they must build around something designed for a group. Solo Ops aims to fill that void, offering something appropriate and worthwhile for players embarking without the aid of a Fireteam.

"Sometimes you just want to jump in and play for 10 or 20 minutes and feel like it was worth your time," Bungie noted. "The activities best suited to solo players are time-consuming; story missions can take half an hour or more to complete, Lost Sectors require you to go into the destination to play them, and jumping into multiplayer activities as a solo player (for example, soloing a dungeon) can be stressful and take even more time than the activity would with a fireteam."

To remedy this issue, the studio wants Solo Ops to be readily accessible, approximately 10-minute excursions that emphasize gameplay and fun over buildcrafting or reflexes. There's also a focus on making Solo Ops enjoyable to replay. Right now, the team is experimenting with variable enemy factions and objectives. Solo Ops's smaller, more intimate nature also allows Bungie to explore unused or forgotten locales, including some areas we've only ever visited during campaigns.

How will Solo Ops work?

Bungie explained that Solo Ops will be accessible through the upcoming Portal UI and be compatible with Frontiers' new Challenge system. Through steadily increasing Challenge, Guardians can earn progressively better gear. The studio commented on how the player score will affect rewards, noting, "You'll still want to play well in Solo Ops activities—your score will contribute to the quality of your loot—but we're trying to construct these missions so that getting a good score is a matter of moving, shooting, and looting rather than being determined by what loadout and build you bring into them."

Solo Ops are designed for one player, but they are not limited exclusively to solo play. Guardians can enter a Solo Op in a Fireteam of up to three members, but that's the limit. Bungie explained that it's working on implementing a system to scale up difficulty depending on the number of players. Similarly, the studio is looking into ways to add reactive enemy spawning instead of the fixed spawns that exist in most current Destiny 2 content.

While other players can join in on Solo Ops, Bungie noted that matchmaking will not be available for the activity. Instead, the studio recommends manually forming Fireteams for the content. Regarding the new Banes and Modifiers, Bungie said that it wants to include them in the content, but Modifiers couldn't be transplanted as-is.

"We haven't locked down any specific set of modifiers that we are going to support in Solo Ops," Bungie explained. "We can't just use the same modifiers as, say, strikes, because we're really aiming at a tight experience that solo players can enjoy, and we want to make sure the modifiers we allow don't push the missions away from that experience. We do plan to support Banes, as we think they offer an exciting way to increase the variety of experiences you have across multiple plays."

With Solo Ops, it seems single players will finally have some niche content made for them. Alongside everything else promised with Frontiers, it seems players will have more ways than ever to engage with Destiny 2.

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Long gone are pit stops to The Tower and other locales with Vault access. Episode: Revenant makes the Destiny 2 Vault available from virtually anywhere and adds in a few other conveniences to boot. Now, Guardians can access their collection of gear at any time and swap things around to their heart's content. The new system even adds an optional safeguard to protect you from yourself, preventing accidental vaulting with a single button press.

One of Destiny 2's most persistent annoyances has been the Vault system that Guardians use to store their gear. Initially only accessible in a few specific areas, it was the only in-game way players could store unused gear and retrieve stowed weapons or armor. The situation led to the Destiny community's wide adoption of third-party services like DIM or Little Light, offering an easier way to manage equipment between characters.

The Vault is everywhere

Guardians can now access the Vault at any time from the character screen. When viewing your Guardian, players can press W (or up on a controller D-pad) to open the Vault. There are no limitations to when and where this can be done, so it's even possible to pull an item from the Vault while in combat if players really want. Likewise, the same goes for depositing items into the Vault, especially in the event your inventory is full and you can't pick up new loot.

A long-time annoyance with the previous Vault system was how easy it was to accidentally store away gear you meant to equip. If players entered the character screen from the Vault, anything they'd try to use would instead get sent off to storage. Now, a new UI element in the top left of the character screen reminds players that they're looking at their inventory in "Vault Mode." It handily also offers a toggle using the Ctrl key (or L3) that allows players to equip gear from the screen, eliminating the fear of accidental vaulting.

These Vault changes are exactly the kind of self-sufficient quality-of-life updates Destiny 2 needs. It always felt weird that third-party apps and services offered more convenient inventory management than Destiny 2 itself, and it never seemed like an easy pill to swallow for new players introduced to the concept. Hopefully, after the success of these Vault changes, Bungie will consider tackling the dwindling total Vault storage or make the Postmaster available anywhere next.

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In Destiny 2's Episode: Revenant, creating new Tonics and discovering recipes is a core part of the experience. However, it can seem like progress is stalled after players make their first few Tonics, as it doesn't appear that any other recipes are known. The solution is more straightforward than it seems, and Guardians just need to continue creating Tonics.

Bungie released all of Episode: Revenant's Act 1 content at launch, removing any and all timegates. While the whole of Act 1 is available, players can't continue to progress Fieldwork with Eido until they learn more Tonic recipes. With each Fieldwork Quest obtained, the next will call for even more Tonic recipes to be mastered. Thankfully, discovering new recipes isn't a complicated process; it just requires the time and patience to farm the necessary materials.

Where do Tonic recipes come from?

New Tonic recipes are not found stashed in Raid chests or tucked away in a forgotten Lost Sector; they're instead discovered by continuously crafting the Tonics players already know. Tonics come in four distinct varieties: Uncommon, Rare, Legendary, and Exotic. 

After crafting enough Uncommon Tonics, Guardians will discover a Rare recipe. From there, more Uncommon Tonics can be made to potentially discover additional Rare Tonic options or Rare Tonics could be pursued to unlock Legendary recipes. Exotic Tonics are the outlier, as you can't learn a recipe for them. There's a modifiable chance that crafting a Legendary Tonic will reward an Exotic Tonic instead.

How many Tonics must be created before earning a new recipe?

The exact number of Tonics that need to be created before learning the subsequent new recipe is the same between all types of Tonic quality, but players will have to remember what they've already created. It takes five brewed Tonics to learn the next applicable recipe. For example, if you craft five Tonics of Worldly Gear, you'll learn the recipe for either Tonic of Worldly Armor or Tonic of Worldly Weaponry. And five more Tonics of Worldly Armor or Weaponry will reveal one of seven Legendary Tonics. After enough new recipes are learned, the Tonic menu will change to make it easier to swap between Tonic families.

Of course, the process of crafting a Tonic requires materials itself. Here's a breakdown of the materials and the quantity needed to craft the different Tonics available during Act 1:

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Episode 2: Revenant of Destiny 2 is not only the season of spooky adventuring, but also grenade launchers and Stasis. While the idea of a T-shirt cannon that fires shaved ice is amazing, it's sadly unavailable in the looter shooter. Instead, we'll have to make do with the Bitter/Sweet heavy grenade launcher. Here are the rolls to chase.

How to get Bitter/Sweet in Destiny 2

This Arc behemoth can be found in several different ways. The first is to run The Last City's Onslaught. If you're chasing pinnacle gear through the Pathfinder, you can imbibe one of Eido's potions that award Revenant weapons upon completing any activity. Finally, Eido herself might give you Bitter/Sweet via a rank-up reward. To help speed that process along, make sure to wear the seasonal gear as it provides a boost to rep gain.

Bitter/Sweet base stats

• Blast Radius: 65
• Velocity: 25
• Stability: 52
• Handling: 34
• Reload Speed: 42
• Aim Assistance: 63
• Zoom: 13
• Airborne Effectiveness: 11
• RPM: 120
• Magazine: 5
• Recoil Direction: 58

Destiny 2 Bitter/Sweet God Rolls

PvE God Roll

This roll is designed to burn bosses through burst damage. Envious Arsenal and Bait and Switch work in tandem to reload and buff damage while Spike Grenades ups the latter even further.

• Smart Drift Control: Increases Stability and Handling by +10, Velocity by +5, and Recoil Control by +15.
• Spike Grenades: Increases Stability by +10 while also doing increased damage on direct hits.
• Envious Arsenal: Dealing damage with the other two equipped weapons before readying Bitter/Sweet refills it from reserves.
• Bait and Switch: Deal damage with all equipped weapons to gain a 30% damage buff.
• Masterworked Handling: Increases Handling by +10.

PvP God Roll

Heavy ammo isn't always a guarantee in PvP, so we need to make the most of it when it does come around. This roll increases projectile speed and blast radius while Reverberation and Jolting Feedback spreads the joy to those nearby. It's quick, violent explosions for everyone. Hooray!

• Quick Launch: Increases Velocity by +10 and Handling by +15.
• High-Explosive Ordnance: Increases Velocity by +15 and Blast Radius by +10 while decreasing Magazine by -1.
• Reverberation: Final blows with Bitter/Sweet increase the size of its detonations for a short time.
• Jolting Feedback: Dealing repeated damage with Bitter/Sweet inflicts Jolt.
• Masterworked Blast Radius: Increases Blast Radius by +10.

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If ever there was a season for Destiny 2 grenade launchers to shine, then Revenant is it. Liturgy is a kinetic Stasis grenade launcher full of wondrous delights for both PvE and PvP. Here are the rolls to chase and drops to keep an eye out for while channeling your inner Belmont.

How to get Liturgy in Destiny 2

Being a seasonal weapon, there are several dedicated ways to add Liturgy to your collection. Completing The Last City's Onslaught runs drops season-exclusive gear. If you want to add a little variety, you can always consume one of Eido's potions that give a chance to award Liturgy for completing any activity. Finally, claiming rank-up rewards can do the trick. Just make sure to wear the seasonal gear to buff your rep gain rate.

Liturgy base stats

• Blast Radius: 35
• Velocity: 84
• Stability: 22
• Handling: 42
• Reload Speed: 32
• Aim Assistance: 72
• Zoom: 13
• Airborne Effectiveness: 3
• RPM: 100
• Magazine: 1
• Recoil Direction: 66

Destiny 2 Liturgy God Rolls

PvE God Roll

With Revenant's seasonal artifact providing plenty of buffs for both grenade launchers and Stasis, it would be silly not to take advantage of them. This roll is for fans of big explosions. Direct hits deal increased damage while also creating a slowing AoE effect. As if that weren't enough, you'll also nab some Frost Armor for your troubles.

• Volatile Launch: Increases Blast Radius by +15 while decreasing Velocity and Handling by -5.
• Spike Grenades: Increases Stability by +10 while also doing increased damage on direct hits.
• Rimestealer: Destroying a Stasis crystal or defeating a frozen target with Liturgy grants you Frost Armor.
• Chill Clip: Direct Hits with the top half of the magazine cause a detonation that slows nearby targets.
• Masterworked Reload Speed: Increases Reload Speed by +10.

PvP God Roll

Float like a butterfly and sting like someone with a grenade launcher. It might not be as poetic, but it's hard to argue with the effectiveness. This roll rewards constantly staying on the move while also providing quick, destructive blows.

• Quick Launch: Increases Velocity by +10 and Handling by +15.
• Spike Grenades: Increases Stability by +10 while also doing increased damage on direct hits.
• Perpetual Motion: Liturgy gains bonus Stability, Handling, and Reload Speed while the wielder is in motion.
• Desperate Measures: Weapon final blows grant bonus damage. Melee and grenade final blows grant a larger, stacking damage bonus.
• Masterworked Reload Speed: Increases Reload Speed by +10.

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I sure do love a good scout rifle. It gives the feeling of a sniper rifle without the ammo restrictions. Destiny 2 has always been a leader in how fun it is to run and gun, and the new Red Tape Scout rifle is no different. Here are the rolls to chase during Revenant.

How to get Red Tape in Destiny 2

This Stasis scout rifle can be acquired in a few ways. The first is via the new Revenant-specific Onslaught runs, accessed through The Last City. The second is to pop one of Eido's potions, which gives a chance to award the Revenant weapons after completing any activity. The third and final method is by earning rank-up rewards from Eido herself. Equipping the Revenant seasonal gear expedites this as it buffs rep gain.

Red Tape base stats

• Impact: 60
• Range: 42
• Stability: 33
• Handling: 54
• Reload Speed: 52
• Aim Assistance: 69
• Zoom: 20
• Airborne Effectiveness: 16
• RPM: 200
• Magazine: 15
• Recoil Direction: 66

Destiny 2 Red Tape God Rolls

PvE God Roll

This roll is all about turning groups of enemies into explosive bits of icy shrapnel. Headstone and Rimestealer will make short work of weaker foes while also bringing stronger enemies to a standstill. Throw in some Frost Armor and additional buffs from the seasonal artifact and Red Tape won't be leaving your seasonal rotation anytime soon.

• Arrowhead Brake: Increases Recoil Control by +30 and Handling by +10.
• Accurized Rounds: Increases Range by +10.
• Rimestealer: Destroying a Stasis crystal or defeating a frozen target with Red Tape grants you Frost Armor.
• Headstone: Precision final blows spawn a Stasis crystal at the victim's location.
• Masterworked Range: Increases Range by +10.

PvP God Roll

Scout rifles have largely enjoyed a top spot in the PvP meta since the beginning. Their range, accuracy, and overall ability to quickly end someone from a distance are tough to compete with. Red Tape is no different thanks to perks that make you deadlier at a distance.

• Hammer-Forged Rifling: Increases Range by +10.
• Accurized Rounds: Increases Range by +10.
• Keep Away: Increases Reload Speed, Range, and Accuracy when no enemies are within 15 meters.
• Adrenaline Junkie: Red Tape gains increased Damage and Handling from final blows with it or grenades.
• Masterworked Range: Increases Range by +10.

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Whatever one might think about Destiny 2's new Episode, Revenant, Bungie certainly delivered an interesting new narrative beat. There's plenty of stuff to do beyond the compressed main "quest", and the new Vesper's Host dungeon is fun, too. If you're not playing it solo, that is.

It would seem that Vesper's Host suffers from at least some of the same problems that have been popping up in Bungie's dungeons ever since Ghosts of the Deep launched. Notably, Bungie has once again chosen to turn the dungeon's boss fights into grindy ordeals thanks to their massively inflated health pools. When you've got two more pals jumping around the place, this isn't such a huge deal, but going at it solo is a wholly different beast. According to the community, Vesper's Host isn't going to be popular in this respect.

Vesper's Host is fun with a full fireteam, but a punishing mess solo

Don't get me wrong: there are plenty of reasons to play Vesper's Host right now. The armor is pretty darn great, the guns are fancy and useful, and the featured Exotic is none other than the original Destiny's Ice Breaker! Attempting it solo may be a punishing ordeal, however, according to long-time players.

Vesper's Host mechanics aren't that much different from the kind of stuff you'd expect out of a Destiny 2 dungeon by now. In due time, it's going to be entirely possible to get through the majority of the dungeon while chasing the revered solo flawless completion, but the final boss fight will be a trudge. That fight alone might take upwards of 30 minutes for a perfect completion, from what I've been seeing. Personally, I haven't even reached that encounter solo yet, and my experience with it in a fireteam confirms what other members of the community have been saying.

The thing about the final boss fight in Vesper's Host is that you cannot play it slow due to the wipe mechanic, and you cannot go at it quickly due to its difficulty. Most other final Dungeon encounters make it so you can grind the boss down over a longer period of time if it has plenty of health.

Alternatively, if there's a hard wipe mechanic in place, the boss won't have a massive health pool to begin with. Destiny 2's Vesper's Host takes both of these features and goes wild with them, ensuring that solo players, in particular, are punished for their efforts.

Obviously, Destiny 2's dungeons are designed first and foremost to be played in three-person fireteams. That's all fine and all, and having Vesper's Host balanced around a trio of players is perfectly fair. However, the fact remains that Bungie has certainly been pushing solo and solo flawless completions over the past few years, and I honestly can't see the issue in dropping the health pool of the final boss fight down a tad.

Warlord's Ruin was a solid showpiece after the mess that was Ghosts of the Deep, and I'm sorry to see Vesper's Host going back down the tedium pipeline. Let's see if Bungie reacts.

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Destiny 2's Episode: Revenant is a series heavily focused on the Stasis subclass, with a ton of artifact perks that enhance things like crystal creation, shattering, and Frost Armor to improve survivability. This has naturally made many Stasis equipment far more viable.

One such weapon that's come from the shadows isn't just because of the updates, but thanks to a new exotic catalyst. Here's how to get the Salvation's Grip exotic catalyst in Destiny 2.

Where to get the Salvation's Grip exotic catalyst in Destiny 2

Like many catalysts, the Salvation's Grip exotic catalyst is a random drop from completing ritual activities. This includes strikes, Crucible matches, and Gambit matches. Simply spamming these will eventually net you the catalyst. If you want to cheese it a bit, AFKing in private matches can snag you the catalyst after enough attempts.

Once you have the catalyst, you'll need to defeat a certain amount of targets using the Salvation's Grip. This progress can be tracked through a percentage on the details page of the weapon itself. Once you have 100% of the kills, you can then activate the catalyst immediately.

Does the catalyst make the Salvation's Grip worth using?

The exotic catalyst for the Salvation's Grip adds the Rimestealer perk, causing you to gain Frost Armor when shattering enemies or Stasis crystals. Since the exotic perk causes you to create Stasis crystals and freeze targets under the right conditions, this provides a huge amount of utility to the weapon and makes it great if you don't want a DPS-focused exotic weapon.

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Destiny 2's newest exotics may be at the forefront for many people, but you should give some older exotics some love too. I've been using the Bad Juju and Skull of Dire Ahamkara combo since this latest update, and if used correctly, you get Nova Bombs like they're grenades.

One such exotic for Titans got a nice buff with this patch, meaning it may have gone from mediocre to quite viable. Here's how to get the Peacekeepers exotic leg armor in Destiny 2.

Where to find the Peacekeepers exotic leg armor in Destiny 2

There are two ways you can secure yourself the Peacekeepers. The easiest way by far is to open up random Exotic Engrams. These have a better chance of giving exotic armor you've never gotten, with the Peacekeepers being among their drop table. The best place to farm Exotic Engrams will be strikes, where you can get a guaranteed Exotic Engram every three, six, and nine strikes completed each week.

You can get the Peacekeepers through Engram Focusing too if that isn't your style. This can be done at Master Rahool in the Tower, provided you've reached rank 16 and reset your rank with him. Once done, this unlocks a third page in the Engram Focusing tab of his menu, where you can spend an Exotic Cipher and an Exotic Engram to get the Peacekeepers. You can do the same for other exotic armor you have yet to get.

Are the Peacekeepers worth using?

The Peacekeepers come with the Mecha Holster exotic perk, which grants you better handling, airborne effectiveness, and movement while wielding a Submachine Gun. You'll also get more damage against single combatants the more you fire at them while reloading those Submachine Guns while they're stowed. This all heavily improves your effectiveness with Submachine Guns, which can pair nicely with great SMGs like the Huckleberry. It's certainly a better exotic in PvP, but that doesn't mean it's terrible in PvE either.

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While Salvation's Edge has taken much of the attention from people in Destiny 2, other raids are well worth checking out. This is especially true if Bungie updates the raids to add new perks to weapons or other loot.

With the launch of Destiny 2's second Episode, Revenant, one raid from way back in the Shadowkeep expansion has seen its weapons updated with new perks, making farming it a great choice. First, you need to know where certain drops come from. Here's the full loot table for the Garden of Salvation raid in Destiny 2.

All weapon and armor drops from Garden of Salvation in Destiny 2

There are four encounters from which you can earn loot in the Garden of Salvation. These are the Evade, Summon, Consecrated Mind, and Sanctified Mind encounters. The loot table below won't include the raid exotic because you must complete a puzzle and quest to get it as a guaranteed drop. There are also two secret chests, which have an equal chance to give any piece of gear you've already earned from other encounters. With that all out of the way, here are all the drops from each encounter (with an equal chance for each):

First Encounter: Evade

• Accrued Redemption Bow
• Zealot's Reward Fusion Rifle
• Kentarch 3 Leg Armor

Second Encounter: Summon

• Reckless Oracle Auto Rifle
• Prophet of Doom Shotgun
• Kentarch 3 Arms Armor

Third Encounter: Consecrated Mind

• Ancient Gospel Hand Cannon
• Sacred Provenance Pulse Rifle
• Kentarch 3 Chest Armor

Final Encounter: Sanctified Mind

• Omniscient Eye Sniper Rifle
• Kentarch 3 Helmet
• Kentarch 3 Class Item

Which gear is worth farming god rolls for?

Armor sets will depend on how much you want good stat rolls for your armor, but for weapons, there are a few worth farming for. The Prophet of Doom, for example, rolls with perks like Threat Detector and Closing Time, improving your stats the more you stay in battle. The Reckless Oracle also rolls with Destabilizing Rounds and the rare perk Paracausal Affinity, making it a great weapon for Void builds.

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Pulse rifles have a tendency to be hit or miss in Destiny 2. There are some seasons where they absolutely wreck shop and others where they're barely a blip on the radar. Despite the seasonal artifact having a strong emphasis on Stasis, there are some Arc mods that can make great use of the new Vantage Point pulse rifle. Here are the rolls to make the most of it.

How to get Vantage Point in Destiny 2

Vantage Point, like the other Revenant seasonal weapons, is acquired by running the new seasonal activities. At the time of this writing, these are the two Onslaught modes accessible via The Last City. It also has a chance to drop from Eido's rank-up rewards. To expedite that grind, equip four pieces of the Revenant seasonal gear for a rep buff.

Vantage Point base stats

• Impact: 29
• Range: 47
• Stability: 64
• Handling: 30
• Reload Speed: 42
• Aim Assistance: 57
• Zoom: 17
• Airborne Effectiveness: 21
• RPM: 390
• Magazine: 36
• Recoil Direction: 64

Destiny 2 Vantage Point God Rolls

PvE God Roll

Amplified and Jolt are intrinsically tied to the Arc subclasses. When Jolted, an enemy will take additional damage while also spreading damaging lightning to their nearby friends. When Amplified, your movement speed and weapon handling are greatly increased. Rapidly defeating enemies with Arc damage will give you the Amplified buff.

Essentially, aside from being an Arc pulse rifle, Vantage Point goes the extra mile and further enhances your Arc subclass. It's made for those with an inner Zapados.

• Arrowhead Brake: Increases Recoil Control by +30 and Handling by +10.
• Tactical Mag: Increases Magazine by +3, Stability by +5, and Reload Speed by +10.
• Eddy Current: Temporarily increases reload speed and handling after sprinting or while Amplified. Being Amplified improves this effect.
• Jolting Feedback: Dealing repeated damage with this weapon inflicts Jolt.
• Masterworked Stability: Increases Stability by +10.

PvP God Roll

This is one of those rare instances where the PvP God Roll is identical to the PvE version. Again, to maximize the potential of Vantage Point, you'll want to run an Arc subclass.

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Episode 2: Revenant of Destiny 2 has introduced a slew of vampire-slaying weapons. While I'm generally not a fan of sidearms, Insurmountable has caught my attention. Here's where to find it and what rolls to chase.

How to get Insurmountable in Destiny 2

Insurmountable, like all of the other Revenant weapons, can be acquired by participating in seasonal events. At the time of this writing, these will be the two Onslaught modes found in The Last City. Additionally, it can be found via rank up rewards from Eido. To maximize this, I recommend equipping four pieces of the seasonal gear as they provide a rep gain bonus.

Insurmountable base stats

• Impact: 51
• Range: 70
• Stability: 43
• Handling: 28
• Reload Speed: 21
• Aim Assistance: 86
• Zoom: 12
• Airborne Effectiveness: 25
• RPM: 260
• Magazine: 12
• Recoil Direction: 100

Destiny 2 Insurmountable God Rolls

PvE God Roll

If, like myself, you're a fan of staring into the Void, then Insurmountable might just be the weapon to change your perception regarding sidearms. This Revenant sidearm goes to work with Repulsor Brace and Destabilizing Rounds working in perfect harmony. As your foes are debuffed, final blows will grant you an overshield, letting you turn minions into resources.

• Hammer-Forged Rifling: Increases Range by +10.
• Flared Magwell: Increases Reload Speed by +15 and Stability by +5.
• Repulsor Brace: Defeating a Void-debuffed target grants a 45HP overshield.
• Destabilizing Rounds: Final blows cause nearby targets to become volatile.
• Masterworked Range: Increases Range by +10.

PvP God Roll

As for PvP, I'm not as fond of Insurmountable. It can work well in tight spaces, but there aren't any traits that make it stand out. As such, we want to get one that works as more of an all-rounder. Increased range and a buff to other stats will make it at least competent.

• Hammer-Forged Rifling: Increases Range by +10.
• Accurized Rounds: Increases Range by +10.
• To the Pain: When this weapon is equipped, taking damage increases handling and aim assist until the weapon is stowed.
• Desperate Measures: Weapon final blows grant bonus damage. Melee and grenade final blows grant a larger damage bonus that can stack.
• Masterworked Range: Increases Range by +10.

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Episode 2: Revenant of Destiny 2 has an incredibly lengthy intro. As your favorite Eliksni make their appearances, you'll be guided through the foundation for how this episode will work. One critical part is performing fieldwork with and for Eido. Yet, finding the Act I Fieldwork tab is surprisingly tricky.

How to access the Act I Fieldwork Tab in Revenant

To access the Act I Fieldwork Tab, speak to Eido in her apothecary in The Last City. It's the green icon with the potion on it. Once accessed, you'll see three categories: Minor Fieldwork, Major Fieldwork, and Key Fieldwork.

The problem many players, including myself, run into at this part is the instructions at the bottom of the screen never go away despite accessing the tab. By the time it appeared for me, I had already acquired the fieldwork and was ready to go. The fix for this bug is as simple as returning to orbit.

This bug has persisted in various forms for the past several years. It's annoying, to be sure, but once you learn to recognize it, the "fix" is easy. It serves as a painful reminder that Bungie leadership doesn't have its priorities straight, and the remaining staff's talents are being misused.

As for the fieldwork itself, it's fairly simple to complete. The first two involve going to Europa and recovering lost items while laying waste to enemies inside a Lost Sector and completing world tasks. I don't mind any excuse to head back to the frozen moon of Jupiter, especially if I'm wielding what is essentially a frozen stake thrower.

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Emblems in Destiny 2 are a great way to stand out from the crowd and give other players a glimpse of what they're getting when you roll into the fireteam. For some, emblems are another thing to collect in a game where FOMO sweetens that chase. So, when the Life for Life emblem was shown off in 2022 with no way to obtain it, some were salivating. Here's how to get it.

Where to get the Life for Life Emblem in Destiny 2

Two years after its release, players can finally obtain the Life for Life emblem by visiting Master Rahool in The Tower. While you're there, make sure to visit the Special Deliveries Terminal for the following rewards (if you've purchased the season pass):

• Arcology Vault Shell (Exotic Ghost Shell)
• (3) Ascendant Alloy
• (4) Ascendant Shard
• (1) Exotic Cipher
• (7) Upgrade Module

The Life for Life emblem was added in February 2022 with Season of the Risen. However, there was a small catch, as the emblem couldn't actually be obtained. Bungie would acknowledge this six months later in a TWAB. Two and a half years later, Bungie finally made good and included the Life for Life emblem.

I'll admit that it took me a hot minute to figure out what the icon in the emblem was. Then I remembered when Crow accidentally killed one of Empress Caiatl's most trusted psions. Ah, good times. It's why Lord Saladin is now bound to the Cabal and goes by the moniker of Valus Forge. So, in a season where we're still cleaning up Uldren Sov's messes, it's humorous that we get a reminder of his reborn self's goofs.

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One thing I love about Destiny 2 is the way it broadens players' vocabulary through its names for weapons and armor. Revenant's hand cannon, Exuviae, can also be defined as the shed exoskeleton of ecdysozoans. Do the Eliksni shed their carapaces? Who knows? Either way, that's some good food for thought while you chase this hand cannons God Rolls.

How to get Exuviae in Destiny 2

Exuviae can be acquired by completing Revenant seasonal activities. At the time of this writing, those are primarily the new Onslaught modes accessed via The Last City. It also has a chance to appear in rank-up engrams from Eido. Equip the seasonal armor to boost your rep gains with Crabcakes.

Exuviae base stats

• Impact: 92
• Range: 66
• Stability: 42
• Handling: 22
• Reload Speed: 29
• Aim Assistance: 61
• Zoom: 14
• Airborne Effectiveness: 32
• RPM: 120
• Magazine: 8
• Recoil Direction: 100

Destiny 2 Exuviae God Rolls

PvE God Roll

Exuviae is like Mortal Kombat's Sub-Zero in a gun. It's all about freezing your foes, blowing up the Stasis crystal they form, and getting a nice stack of Frost Armor for your troubles. Combined with the litany of Stasis buffs from Revenant's seasonal artifact, and Exuviae will be in your regular rotation for some time.

• Arrowhead Brake: Increases Recoil Control by +7 and Handling by +10.
• Tactical Mag: Increases Magazine by +1, Reload Speed by +10, and Stability by +5.
• Rimestealer: Destroying a Stasis crystal or defeating a frozen target with this weapon grants you Frost Armor.
• Headstone: Precision final blows spawn a Stasis crystal at the victim's location.
• Masterworked Reload Speed: Increases Reload Speed by +10.

PvP God Roll

While the PvE God Roll can work well in PvP, I'm more a fan of creating a well-rounded weapon. The following perks give plenty of stat increases while also giving buffs for dropping your enemies like flies.

• Corkscrew Rifling: Increases Stability, Handling, and Range by +5.
• Flared Magwell: Increases Reload Speed by +15 and Stability by +5.
• Encore: Final blows grant a stacking buff to Stability, Range, and Accuracy.
• Desperate Measures: Weapon final blows grant bonus damage. Melee and grenade final blows grant a larger, stacking buff.
• Masterworked Reload Speed: Increases Reload Speed by +10.

The post Destiny 2 Exuviae Hand Cannon – God Rolls and how to get appeared first on Destructoid.

While new weapons in Destiny 2 are the focus for most players, sometimes it's good to pick up some old tools of the trade. This is especially true with the launch of Episode: Revenant, where an old raid's weapons were updated to fit more modern standards.

One such weapon is highly sought-after by many players thanks to its strength when it was released. Titan players, especially, are hunting for it. Here's the god roll for the Prophet of Doom shotgun in Destiny 2.

The best perks and attachments for the Prophet of Doom in Destiny 2

The Prophet of Doom sports the Precision Frame archetype, causing its recoil to be far more vertical. This makes the shots easier to control, though that doesn't stop the recoil from being nasty. Thankfully, some of the news perks give us a way to fix that. The following perks do just that and more:

• Barrel: Rifled Barrel
• Magazine: Assault Mag
• Perk 1: Threat Detector
• Perk 2: Closing Time

Rifled Barrel brings that handling speed down but provides a healthy bonus to effective range, meaning you won't need to barrel stuff enemies as often. Assault Mag provides some stability to help with that recoil, alongside a healthy rate of fire boost. Threat Detector brings in some nice stability, faster reloads, and counteracts that lost handling if enemies are near you. With a shotgun, that isn't too difficult. Finally, we round things out with Closing Time, which improves the weapon's stats the more you empty the magazine. It's nothing crazy, but it sure helps.

If you're looking for some alternatives, Trench Barrel can be a good alternative for Closing Time if you're a Titan with a melee-focused build. Voltshot can also be good, provided you're in PvE and reload a bullet after every kill. Otherwise, the rest of this setup should be best in class.

The post Destiny 2 Prophet of Doom god roll – Best perks and attachments appeared first on Destructoid.

Episode: Revenant has begun within Destiny 2, and numerous changes to Exotics come with it. The alterations aren't just hitting a couple of weapons or armor but sweeping across many Exotics from both categories and for all Classes. And these Exotics updates are just the tip of the iceberg for what's changing in Destiny 2 for Episode: Revenant.

Bungie shared some of what players could expect ahead of Episode: Revenant through its This Week in Destiny communications and a Twitch preview stream. These offered insights into some significant changes coming in the Episode, from Titans gaining a taunt to be more like MMO tanks to the resurgence of the Inverted Spire Strike and big updates to Onslaught. These Exotic changes come alongside additional Class and ability tuning that shifts the gameplay sandbox from its The Final Shape-launch state.

Exotic weapon changes

Bungie noted that it wanted to focus its Episode: Revenant Exotic weapon sweep on options that have been previously underserved or synergized with the new Artifact Mods. Exotic SMGs start the Episode out strong, with Huckleberry gaining a reload effect on kills and the Kinetic Tremors Perk on its Catalyst. Tarrabah is also getting some love, mirroring a similar effect to the Riskrunner. It now offers 50% Solar damage resistance in PvE and 15% in PvP while the Ravenous Beast Perk is active.

Exotic grenade launchers are also getting some buffs for both the Special and Heavy ammo variety. Ex Diris is getting a sizable 33% damage increase to direct hits, which should be easier to land with some additional velocity and recoil changes. It also sports more ammo reserves and generates Hive moths more easily via two direct hits instead of only kills. The cooldown between moth generation has also been reduced from four seconds to three seconds. The Fighting Lion is getting a bit of a Void synergistic boost, creating a Volatile explosion on direct hits. Finally, the Prospector is getting a bit of a rework. It's now limited to six shots in a mag, and its remote detonation effects are now gone, but each shot now creates three high-damage cluster bombs.

Bungie also gave a couple of Exotic shotguns a day in the sun, Chaperone and Duality. Chaperone got a few changes to provide it with some PvE potential, allowing its The Roadborn Perk to trigger after two precision hits. The Roadborn increases handling, range, rate of fire, and precision damage. Bungie's tweaks also add 20 stability and a 25% increase in reload speed. Precision hits will extend The Roadborn, and base ammo reserves have increased. Duality has similarly received buffs to make it more usable in PvE, decreasing the number of On Black Wings stacks required to achieve full effects. The stacks will also last longer, shifting from seven to 10 seconds.

Alongside these broader categories, Bungie had a few outlier Exotic weapons that received some changes. The first one is Symmetry, which should be a bit easier to use, with kills also providing a stack of Dynamic Charge to keep its effects rolling. Bad Juju also had some quality-of-life changes to make it easier to use the weapon. The String of Curses buff now lasts longer, from three and a half seconds to five and a half, and the Catalyst now provides a seven-and-a-half-second timer. The magazine size has also increased, going from 27 to 36. Bungie notes that the Bad Juju has "become more haunted than it used to be…" Finally, Lumina got a small change, making its hip-fired projectiles behave more like healing shots from Support-frame auto rifles.

Alongside these buffs, one weapon got a bit of a nerf: Choir of One. Bungie noted the new Exotic performed a bit too well in PvE while not providing enough oomph in PvP. As such, Bungie reduced base ammo reserves to 200 from 250 and reduced the total max reserves possible from 384 to 300. The impact damage from Point-Blank projectiles has been reduced by 50%, but it deals 10% more hip-fire damage against players. Choir of One will start with seven shots in Crucible, and ammo pickups reward seven more.

Exotic armor changes

For all of the Exotic weapons that got changed, even more Exotic armor pieces received a tweak. Most of these alterations amount to a buff, especially when considered alongside the slew of Super and ability buffs in Episode: Revenant. However, some previously-dominant options have been pared down so that other Exotics can shine.

Warlock

Leaning into the idea of a Stasis-focused Episode, Ballidorse Wrathweavers have seen some tweaks to make it more effective in higher-tier PvE content. Targets frozen by the Shadebinder Super's projectile will now suffer 100% additional Shatter damage regardless of which player causes the Shatter. On top of this, Warlocks can gain a variable amount of Super energy for granting Frost Armor using Frostpulse or Winter's Wrath, depending on how many allies are affected.

Skull of the Dire Ahamkara is getting a small but valuable update, providing Super energy whenever players defeat enemies while Devour is active. Sanguine Alchemy got a rework and now acts as the default target-marking Exotic for Warlocks. Players can mark an enemy by damaging them from within a Rift, gaining 10% increased damage against marks. The Exotic also grants a Surge x4 to any weapons matching the damage type of your equipped Super.

The Verity's Brow and Spirit of Verity effect on Exotic Class items is getting a small change to front-load the brunt of the effect. The first stack of the Death Throes buff now provides 40% increased PvE grenade damage and adds 15% with each additional stack. Cenotaph Mask is also getting a minor update, bringing back the visual marker on targets under its effect. Speaker's Sight now has the ability to generate Orbs of Power back in PvP, creating one Orb per six instances of healing in the Crucible. 

On the nerf side of things, Osmiomancy Gloves got a bit of a debuff. The armor already provided a strong buff to Coldsnap grenades, so Bungie reduced bonus seeker distance and speed by 50%. It still allows the Exotic to generate grenade energy quickly, but Coldsnaps should be less of a nuisance in PvP.

Hunter

Starting Hunters off, Lucky Pants is getting a few changes, with some targeted to bring the Exotic into line with other options. An equipped hand cannon now provides a movement and slide distance bonus, and the bonus to airborne effectiveness now persists whenever a hand cannon is being used. Additionally, the Out of Luck cooldown will only apply when players swap the weapon or time expires after reaching seven stacks in PvE. The maximum hand cannon damage bonus has been reduced from 650% to 400%, but players no longer need to use a hand cannon with a damage type matching their Super.

After removing the previous effect on Young Ahamkara's Spine that refunded grenade energy on grenade hits, the Exotic now has a similar version of its original Perk. Hunters gain Tripmine grenade energy from ability hits, granting 33% energy in PvE and 8% in PvP. For the Exotic Class item, specifically for the Spirit of Synthoceps Perk, the melee damage bonus has been reduced by 50% when Stylish Executioner and Biotic Enhancements are both active.

Before Episode: Revenant, the Blight Ranger Exotic only had niche functionality to create Orbs of Power in a pinch, but it has been reworked a bit. Players can cancel the Super to Blind and damage nearby enemies, gaining an Arc weapon damage boost. The Super will no longer generate Orbs of Power from reflecting attacks, directly generating Super energy instead. 

Raiju's Harness lost a lot of its functionality to Blight Ranger, so Bungie rebuilt the Exotic to better represent its lore tab. The Exotic now buffs the Gathering Storm Super, summoning a lightning strike on all nearby enemies that Jolts and Amplifies teammates. Hunters can also generate Super energy by defeating Arc-debuffed foes.

Titans

Titans are taking full advantage of their Class changes and the focus on Stasis with Icefall Mantle. The Exotic has been reworked, rewarding a stack of Frost Armor for rapid Stasis kills. Stacks of Frost Armor from any source now heal and the unique Class ability, Icefall Mantle, now grants full Frost Armor stacks, too. The Class ability no longer impedes jumping or sprinting, and it also works when Thruster is equipped. The trade-off is that Icefall Mantle no longer offers a Stasis weapon damage bonus and now requires a Stasis Super equipped.

The Cadmus Ridge Lancecap Exotic is also bringing some Stasis-themed love, boosting the effectiveness of a Diamond Lance build. The Exotic no longer requires a Stasis weapon to create Diamond Lances. Titans will make one with any weapon kill whenever they're behind a barricade with a Stasis Super equipped. Additionally, any powerful combatants damaged by a Diamond Lance will create three Stasis Crystals.

Ursa Furiosa and the Spirit of the Bear Perk on Exotic Class items are also getting a tweak to support the reworked Unbreakable Aspect. The total amount of Super gained from using Unbreakable in PvE has been increased from 15% to 20%. However, that total is capped at 10% in PvP. On top of this, Spirit of the Horn, Spirit of Alpha Lupi, and Spirit of Hoarfrost now work with the Thruster Class ability on Exotic Class items.

The Thundercrash Super has always benefited from Cuirass of the Falling Star, but Bungie wanted to rework it a bit to provide more benefits beyond increasing Super damage. The Exotic now rewards Super energy whenever Titans get melee kills while Amplified and damage resistance is applied after the impact instead of an overshield. The damage resistance is 50% in PvE and 10% in PvP. To compensate for these other changes, the damage multiplier for the Exotic has reduced from 2x to 1.55x. However, total damage should still be similar to before Episode: Revenant after the Thundercrash buffs.

Bungie wanted to create an Exotic effect for Titans that worked similarly to how Lucky Pants performed for Hunters. As such, the Peacekeepers Exotic has had a bit of a rework, now providing a damage buff when continuously damaging enemies with SMGs. Players can amass up to 20 stacks, which becomes 100% increased SMG damage.

Finally, Mast of the Quiet One got a minor tweak. In addition to its previous effects, the Exotic now offers the Devour buff. Players will need a Void-based Super to use this new effect, but it will grant the life-stealing buff whenever Titans get kills while at critical health.

The post Destiny 2: Every Exotic change for Episode: Revenant appeared first on Destructoid.

The Alethonym is the biggest highlight gear wise with Destiny 2's Episode: Revenant launch. Not only is the weapon the second-ever primary ammo grenade launcher, but it can spawn Special and Heavy ammo bricks for both you and your team.

With how solid the weapon is, you might be wondering whether there's a catalyst for it and how it changes its performance. There is a catalyst, but there's a massive caveat. Here's how to get the Alethonym exotic catalyst in Destiny 2.

When to get the Alethonym catalyst in Destiny 2

The Alethonym's catalyst is unobtainable right now. Taking a look at the Season Pass, the catalyst is obtainable at rank 145, which doesn't unlock until Act II's launch. That won't be until the middle of November, so you'll need to wait until then to snag it. On the bright side, the catalyst is part of the free reward track.

As for what the catalyst will do once it's released, Bungie has remained tight-lipped on that front. If we had to wager a guess, it'll likely have something to do with generating Vestiges and building up the charge for that a bit faster. However, it could also be something to do with Stasis crystals or something like that. We're just speculating, though, so take those guesses with a grain of salt.

In the meantime, there are still plenty of other exotic goodies to collect. Take the Rime-Coat Raiments for example, which help with the Warlock's Bleak Watcher turrets a ton.

The post How to get the Alethonym exotic catalyst in Destiny 2 appeared first on Destructoid.