Bungie released a new update for Destiny 2, concentrating on knocking out bugs and fixing issues, while also making a positive change to the Portal. Considering all of the recent discussion online regarding the Portal and Bungie's upcoming plans for Destiny 2, players are bracing for some less than favorable tweaks in a few weeks.
A recent Bungie blog revealed the upcoming sandbox and gameplay changes planned for Destiny 2's Ash & Iron major update. Alongside new content, Ash & Iron also serves as a sort of midseason refresh, and part of that means a huge update. One of the more controversial changes is with the Solo Ops activity within the Portal, which Bungie plans to nerf the rewards given to players by reducing the power level. Bungie is hoping to make the other activities more appealing for players, but the backlash to these proposed changes has been very vocal. For now, Bungie has released a much smaller update, but it does include a positive change to the Portal.
Destiny 2 Teases Major Buffs For The Edge of Fate Mid-Season Update
Bungie teases some major buffs coming to Destiny 2 during the Ash & Iron mid-season update, helping to improve buildcrafting and player choice.
For many players, the biggest change of the new update is with the Fireteam Ops activity within Destiny 2's Portal menu. When matchmaking in Fireteam Ops, the time limit for each difficulty has been increased substantially, giving players more time to earn bonus points for their end score once the activity has been cleared. For Expert Difficulty, the target clear time has been increased by 25%, while Master and Grandmaster have seen a 50% and 75% boost respectively.
Trials of Osiris has also seen a fix in this patch, where a character attempting to claim rewards at the Lighthouse after completing a passage couldn't if an alternate character attempted to claim them without a passage. Bungie has made Lighthouse access and the rewards within "account-scoped", so once a character goes to the Lighthouse, access is reset for all characters until another passage is completed.
Additionally, the popular Hunter exotic, Liar's Handshake has also had an issue fixed in this update, as well as the Spirit of the Liar perk. Prior to this update, players were able to use unpowered melee, grapple melee, or combination blow melee to deal increased damage to other players on the hit that activates the perk. Not only that, the change also applies to the boost to grapple melee, allowing it to deal increased damage on occasions. This isn't the first time that Liar's Handshake has significantly boosted Hunter damage in Destiny 2, pushing Bungie to once again patch the exotic item.
Destiny 2 Update 9.0.0.8 Patch Notes
Kepler
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Fixed an issue sometimes leading to URCHIN errors when launching the Kepler Weekly Missions.
- These should now properly tell you when someone in your fireteam has a full Strangelet capsule. These need to be integrated at the Altar of Relativity before being able to enter another Strangelet mission of the same difficulty.
Crucible
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Fixed an issue where a character who completed a Lighthouse passage would not receive rewards from the Lighthouse chest if an alternate character tried to claim rewards first without having a passage in their inventory.
- Access to the Lighthouse, and rewards from the Lighthouse chest, are now account-scoped.
- If one character completes a Lighthouse passage, another character can purchase a separate Lighthouse passage at Saint and go to the Lighthouse to open the chest in place of the first character.
- Once a character goes to the Lighthouse, access will reset for all characters until the player completes another passage with seven wins on any character.
- Fixed an issue where old Trials passages were not being deleted on characters after weekly reset.
Portal
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Increased Matchmade Fireteam Ops time limits across the board.
- Expert +25%
- Master +50%
- Grandmaster +75%
Raid and Dungeon
The Desert Perpetual
- Fixed an issue in the Agraios, Inherent encounter where players who wait for the boss to automatically align could read which accelerator to avoid charging.
UI/UX
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Fixed an issue causing bright engram XP gains to erroneously appear in the loot stream after reaching Reward Pass Rank 100.
- XP earned has not changed, this is a purely visual adjustment to reduce UI clutter.
Gameplay and Investment
Exotic Armor
Hunter
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Fixed an issue where Liar's Handshake and Spirit of the Liar could cause an unpowered melee, grapple melee, or combination blow melee to deal increased damage to other players on the hit that activates the perk.
- This change also fixes an issue where Liar's Handshake and Spirit of the Liar would cause grapple melee to deal increased damage in some situations.
Abilities
- Fixed an issue where Ward of Dawn and Well of Radiance were taking too much damage from bosses.
Gameplay Modifiers
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Made adjustments to the Volatile Shields modifier to reduce the frequency of visually disorienting effects.
- Increased cooldown on unshielded debuff from 5s to 10s.
- Players must now fully heal before they can get the unshielded debuff again.
General
- Fixed an issue with the Bushido Vest Hunter chest piece using incorrect visuals.
- Fixed an issue with the Obsidian Durasteel Mark that caused unintentional visual errors when worn on female body types.
- Fixed an issue with Synthcord not going to the Postmaster if claimed while already holding the maximum amount in inventory.
- Fixed an issue where event reroll chips could be wasted in the Seasonal Challenges menu. These daily challenges cannot be rerolled, and it is no longer possible to use reroll chips in this menu.
- Fixed an issue with the Hoplite Ghost Shell that unintentionally caused its default visuals to appear unfinished.
WHERE TO PLAY
Play Destiny 2: The Edge of Fate. Guardians will track a mysterious signal to a location at the edge of the solar system, where they will uncover a truth that redefines their future.
The Future Is Now - A new adventure and the start of a new saga in Destiny 2. World tiers allow Guardians to select the level of difficulty that is right for them and reap the rewards that come with victory. Higher tiers offer more challenge, additional narrative threads, new secrets to uncover, and more powerful gear to collect.
Destination Abilities - Push the limit of your Guardian’s capabilities and unlock the mysteries of Kepler with new destination abilities, powered by the mysterious Anomaly. New Foes - Two new enemy combatants have entered the fray. Cut down swarming masses of Vex drones known as Kobolds, and face diabolical hovering Fallen Corsairs, each intent on standing in the way of your success.
- Multiplayer
- Online Multiplayer, Online Co-Op
- Engine
- Tiger Engine
- Franchise
- Destiny
- Platform(s)
- PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, PC
