This Week In Destiny – 11/30/2023

Nov 30, 2023 - Destiny 2 Community Team

This week in Destiny, Thanksgiving is over and some of you might still have a bellyache from eating too much turkey. For those who celebrated, we hope you all had a great time with your friends and family.

The first TWID in Season of the Wish is here, so let’s dive in. Here´s what we have for today:

The Final Shape release update.
Season of the Wish trailer and launch recap.
Crucible playlist update.
Iron Banner returns December 5.
A new dungeon awaits.
Savathûn’s Spire of Savings.
Player Support Report.
And the latest Movie of the Week and Art of the Week picks.

The Final Shape Release Update

As we confirmed earlier this week, we're moving the release date of The Final Shape from February 27 to June 4 to give our teams more time to deliver an even bigger and bolder vision. We’ll have much more to share on The Final Shape in April, when we’ll have plenty of new gameplay to showcase what the team is cooking up.

We’re also delivering more game content for everyone to jump into in the months leading up to launch. In case you missed it, here’s Game Director Joe Blackburn diving into the details of what to expect between now and June:

Season of the Wish launch article

Season of the Wish is finally here, and there are a ton of changes to keep track of: new loot, activities, and much more! For the Season launch, we published a new article that gets you up to speed all the important information. Here is a quick glance at what we covered:

New weekly missions.
New Seasonal activity: Riven´s Lair.
New amazing Destiny collab.
New Season Pass rewards.
New Artifact: Queensfoil Censer.
New dungeon.
Dragons Breath is back baby!
Weapon and armor updates.
And more...

Read the full article here.

Crucible Playlist Update

In the November 9 TWID, we talked about a number of PvP changes included in Season of the Wish. One of those topics was rotating variants of Control. We've been tracking feedback regarding this, and we want to let you—the PvP community—know that you have been heard. As such, we are sharing a couple of changes we are making in response to your feedback as well as a point of clarification:

Change #1: Control will be a selectable mode while modifiers like Sparrow Control are featured.
Change #2: Momentum will not be featured over the main Control node. It will instead cycle through the Quickplay rotator.
Clarification: Checkmate Control will only be featured as the main Control node for the first five weeks of the Season, after which you can find Checkmate in Labs.

So, if for some reason you really dislike Sparrows in your Control match, you can opt out.

Ultimately, we don't want to switch up the meta in your favorite mode on a week-to-week basis, but we do want to roll out Checkmate to a wider audience. And we want players who simply love vanilla Control to be able to stick to their favorite flavor, while everyone else can still enjoy their Sparrow sprinkles. Additionally, we are aware that the 6v6 Quickplay rotator is quite loaded with different modes, and that it might take an extra week or two for mint chocolate chip (or your favorite mode) to be featured.

The simple fact is that we can only make so many modes available at once before matchmaking times are impacted; nobody wants to wait in queue for ten minutes only to encounter the dreaded mongoose error. That said, we're actively exploring some options that will enable you to gather like-minded players and play your favorite modes together. We'll share more information on that when the time comes.

Recap Dev Insight: Fireteam Finder Beta First Look

Last week, we let you in on our plan for the Fireteam Finder beta. To protect the launch of the new dungeon we launched the Raid Stress Test today, so you can help us do some large-scale testing before we start rolling this feature out for more activities.

THE BETA PLAN

Raids Stress Test: November 30 from 9 AM PST to 5 PM PST.
Beta Period: Begins in December, pending Stress Test results.
Full Release: Targeting late January.

We are monitoring the results of the stress test very closely and will consider opening more and more activities as we progress. We will share more updates on our social accounts on the progress of the testing.

How to access the Fireteam Finder:

From the Director using the Roster tab.
Using the Fireteam Finder access point found on every activity’s launch screen.

Next week – Iron Banner: Tribute

On December 5, the first Iron Banner of the Season will start. Visit Lord Saladin in the Tower, and see what he has to offer. In the next Iron Banner, you will conquer other Guardians in the new mode: Tribute!

Here is some info on what to expect with Tribute we shared back in September:

Players will be able to deposit Crests at tribute stations to earn points for their team. Banking many Crests at once can trigger a Hunt phase, which activates a special tribute station and increases the value of all Crests deposited for one minute of gloriously chaotic gameplay. Take care, as other Guardians won't be the only things guarding these high-value tribute stations. Caiatl will be watching, Guardians, so let's show her what you’re made of!

We also have a surprise update: Starting on Tuesday, Lord Saladin will begin selling Iron Banner armor ornaments from Years 1 and 2 while the Iron Banner is active, so you can finally complete your collection, if you didn’t get the chance back in the day. The elusive Iron Symmachy set will also return as the base set at long last, while the Iron Companion set from the past year will move to legacy focusing. Time to put those Iron Banner engrams to work!

And after all these years, we’re paying homage to the Iron Banana with a brand-new emblem during Season of the Wish:

A New Dungeon Awaits

Tomorrow we are releasing a brand-new dungeon, Warlord´s Ruin, for fireteams and solo players to explore. Be ready to test how strong your Guardian really is. To access Warlord´s Ruin you must pick up the In the Shadow of the Mountain quest from Ikora in the Tower and launch the activity from the EDZ node in the Director. The final encounter difficulty is set to 1810, so be sure to bring your best gear!

Warlord’s Ruin goes live at 9 AM PST on December 1.

But wait, there’s more! Season of the Wish is just getting started, and here are a few dates to mark on your Guardian calendar:

Warlord’s Ruin – December 1
Iron Banner – December 5
The Dawning – December 12
Grandmasters Begin – December 19
Crucible Labs: Checkmate Countdown Rush – December 26
Iron Banner – January 2
Crucible Labs: Checkmate Clash – January 16
Iron Banner – January 23

Savathûn’s Spire of Savings!

Only one day remains to shop Savathûn’s Spire of Savings. Missed out on some past Bungie Rewards? The Retired Bungie Rewards Restock has you covered. Love to collect emblems? Both the Darkstar and Wishing Well emblems are yours for the taking with any purchases made during the sale. Take advantage of sale items up to 50% off as well as reduced shipping rates in the 48 contiguous United States, EU, and UK at the Bungie Store’s biggest sale of the year. Ends December 1 at 8:59 PM PST.

Player Support Report

Like wish dragons, do the wishbones in turkeys mean that they’re wish Turkeys?

Known Issues List  |  Help Forums  |  Bungie Help Twitter

FAQ FOR THE FINAL SHAPE DELAY

For those who have questions regarding their pre-order of The Final Shape, associated pre-order items, the Collector’s Edition, and more, please view our FAQ.

PREVIOUS SEASON PASS REWARDS

Players can claim their Season Pass rank rewards on their Previous and Current Season Pass page. Players may need to click their platform ID and then click it again for the Season Pass to load correctly.

Access to Season Pass Rank Rewards is only available for two Seasons: the Season they appeared in and the next Season.

KNOWN ISSUES

While we continue investigating various known issues, here is a list of the latest issues that were reported to us in our #Help forum:

Season of the Witch’s Arcana Cards incorrectly say they expire at the end of Season 22 instead of at the end of Season 23.
Some new players may be unable to spawn in the Tower Hangar when trying to complete the quest A Guardian Rises. This issue should be resolved in next week’s update.
When the Full Auto Melee setting is on, Glaives will almost always melee twice.
Players may receive a BIRD error in high-combatant-density activities when using builds that are able to kill combatants at high volumes within a short amount of time.
We are still investigating the issue where players are unable to correctly complete the All for One challenge in Crota’s End.
Some emojis in Fireteam Finder will be unavailable on certain platforms when the beta test launches.
The Deconstruct perk does not properly refund ammo on Fusion Rifles.
The Offering to the Oracle is unable to be turned in at the Oracle Engine.
Checkmate Control does not reward weekly challenge progress.
Rewards aren't consistently dropping for players completing the Riven's Lair and The Coil Seasonal activities.
The Balisarius-D pulse rifle is not being rewarded for players who complete their Competitive Crucible placement matches.
The Star Baker title is no longer available.
Festival of the Lost quests are still appearing for some players.
Some rocket launchers no longer appear in their preview screen.
New Dungeon and Seasonal armor sets appear in player Appearance screens even when not unlocked.
Ghost Activity Mods use placeholder icons.

For a full list of emergent issues in Destiny 2, players can review our Known Issues article. Players who observe other issues should report them to our #Help forum.

Musical Videos

We enjoyed this #Destiny2MOTW a lot because of how much creativity was put into both its video editing and song lyrics. Great timing as well, with Thorn being popular due to the recent Catalyst update.

Movie of the Week: Thorn (Destiny 2 Music Video)

Bring. Her. BACK.

If you don't know about one of the most hardcore pieces of lore from Season of the Witch, let me reacquaint you. It's about Saint-14, Savathûn, and Immaru. And one of them bites the dust a few times. A few hundred times, probably. Rightfully so, some may say.

Art of the Week: https://twitter.com/MrTragicX/status/1729190717233528980

That’s it for this week, folks. Go out there and challenge Warlord´s Ruin tomorrow! Also, show us where you can go with your Sparrow in the Universe. We are looking forward to seeing what places you come up with.

Until next week, Guardians. See you starside!

Destiny 2 Community Team