This Week In Destiny - 10/19/2023

This week in Destiny, we are—AAAAAAH, IT'S A HEADLESS ONE!  

Oh, no, it was just my cat. My apologies, but since Festival of the Lost started, I see those three-eyed things everywhere... and I love it! There’s tons of great loot to obtain, but we can also be playful and a bit scary on the side. More about that in a second, just after a message from our sponsor: the topics from last week's TWID. 

• A preview of Festival of the Lost. 
• An update from our PvP strike team. 
  • More Checkmate tuning. 
  • Matchmaking changes in Control. 
  • A long Season 23 preview. 
• Sparrows will be Always on Time, if you know what I mean. 
• Remembering The Craftening with an emblem. 

And what's in the oven for today?   

• A spooky event deserves community activities. 
• An update on Sparrows. 
• Vanguard extra ranks and double Nightfall loot! 
• Final week in rotation for some weapons. 
• Have you tried Checkmate Rumble? 
• New Prime Gaming Drops available. 
• The Player Support Report. 
• Some amazing Art of the Week and Movie of the Week submissions. 

Let's get on with it.

Let's Celebrate Festival of the Lost Together 

Abuelita Eva Levante is back at the Tower for three weeks, and she’s brought a new edition of the Book of the Forgotten. Fill it with the pages that enemies drop inside Haunted Sectors, collect tons of candy, and earn some loot. And for those that wish to go full into the spirit of the event, we have very special armor ornament sets ready. 

A Beetle And Two Spiders Walk Into A Bar... 

You might have seen them in action already, but it's never too late to share a better look at the new universal ornament sets. Yes, the ones you all voted for a few months ago!

Hunter - Mygalomorph Set 

Titan - Crawling Chaos Set 

Warlock - Carapace Set 

 All three sets are available in the Eververse in-game store during Festival of the Lost. 

Legend And Haunted 

One of the new additions to Festival of the Lost this year are Legend Haunted Sectors, a more challenging take on the event activity. Matchmake with other players or go with a premade team, and see how fast you can defeat as many Headless Ones as possible. The featured Legend Haunted Sector rotates every 150 minutes and has its own node in the Tower. Enemies will hit a lot harder, be more aggressive, and have several modifiers (like threats and surges) active. You will need a good build to survive.

In exchange for your bravery, you’ll have a higher chance to earn an Exotic Engram when you complete the activity. There’s also World loot pool gear and Festival of the Lost weapons when you take Headless Ones down. And don't forget about the Eerie Engrams that you can use for Hocus Focusing into specific Exotics and Festival of the Lost weapons! 

Cosplays, Pumpkins, and Masks! 

Since we love this time of year so much, we want you all to celebrate both in the game and in real life. For example, how about a small cosplay contest? No need to spend much or work hundreds of hours on it. Keep it fun, keep it simple. Just work on something that will make you look scary, silly, and charming, then share it with us using the #ThreadsofFright hashtag on social media.

But why stop there? If you have a pumpkin just lying around, or calabazas as I call them, start carving. We are good if want to use a different canvas for your work, too. As long as we end up with something as menacing as a Headless One, or another creature that could make a Guardian sweat, we are good. 

And since good things come in threes, here’s one more idea: Eris Morn, one of our biggest monster experts, had a hair-raising glow-up during Season of the Witch, and we loved it. To help you follow suit, we have prepared a template of Eris’s mask that you can download. The first one is a template for both a 3D version and a flat version. The other link has the instructions.  

• Here's the mask (PDF format) 
• And here are the instructions (PDF format)

Personalize yours to make the most amazing version of Hive Eris, and then share it with us with the #HiveErisMask hashtag on social media.

We'll choose our favorite carvings, costumes, and mask creations among the community and award them the Art of the Week (or Movie of the Week) recognition they deserve as well as the very frightening, very cool looking Hallowed Coronation emblem: 

If you need some inspiration for your cosplay, maybe check the chilling collab we had with the Swedish body paint and make-up artist Felicia Henriksson. And some of your favorite content creators will be doing their take on the Hive Eris mask, so maybe you can grab one idea or two from their streams! 

Gotta Go Fast 

After last week's announcement that Sparrows will be getting a boost in velocity, we wanted to share some additional information with you all. 

We've heard feedback for a while now that players who own Always on Time (AoT) want to feel like they can safely swap to other Sparrows without sacrificing optimal performance. Therefore, with Season 23, we set a goal to help players feel more comfortable swapping off of AoT by improving baseline Exotic and Legendary Sparrows, while letting AoT retain some unique functionality.  

All Legendary and Exotic Sparrows will have two speed selection options moving forward: one matching AoT's speed and one matching the older highest speed that was available to offer a choice in handling and speed control. Upon login, players will (in most cases) default to the fastest option immediately and see the speed update to 190. All Legendary and Exotic Sparrows will also move from 100 to 150 health to be more durable to match AoT's health pool.  

AoT will continue to retain a few unique benefits, including slightly better fuel economy, slightly lowered enemy aggression, and slightly better side-to-side boost. We're hopeful that these changes will improve player comfort in swapping off of AoT to use their favorite Sparrow in most play sessions, but that their investment in AoT remains valuable. 

Twice the Loot, Double the Nightfalls 

If you haven't already heard, Nightfalls have double rewards this week and also provide increased reputation when playing on any of the Vanguard Playlist activities. That includes strikes. So you have a great opportunity to reset your ranks with Zavala, to farm materials for next Season, or to get a perfect Buzzard roll, which is the Adept reward featured this week. If you are still looking for an Adept one you like, we advise you to jump into the Grandmaster playlist very soon. 

Weapons Exiting the Loot Pool 

Because we don't want you to miss the opportunity to get any of the weapons leaving the loot pool, we are letting you know when they’ll stop dropping.  

Nightfalls 

• Buzzard’s final week is 10/17. (That's this week!) 
• The Swarm’s final week will be 10/24. 

Trials of Osiris 

• The Immortal’s final week will be 10/24. 
• Astral Horizon’s final week will be 11/7. 

Remember that the regular version of all these weapons will still be available for focusing at their respective vendors (Zavala and Saint-14), but you won't get them as regular drops from completing the activities, and their Adept versions won't be obtainable. We'll announce what weapons will take their place soon. 

Are you ready to Checkmate Rumble? 

Checkmate has been in Crucible Labs for the past four weeks, first with Control as the game mode and then with Survival. Now it's Rumble’s turn in the spotlight. Fight alone against a bunch of other Guardians and come out on top, if you can.  

While the Checkmate modifier is active, players have a small bump in health, Special weapons don't get ammo as often, and abilities regenerate a lot slower. The outcome: more strategic gameplay.  

Checkmate Rumble will be available for this week, then Control will be back for the next three before Survival serves as the Season close. There are some interesting adjustments coming, too, so please take a look to them here if you haven't already. 

Scary Good Prime Gaming Drops 

If you have a Prime Gaming membership, you’ll get these freebies from us starting tomorrow, October 20, at 9 AM PDT:  

• Boo Exotic Emote 
• Winchester's Ruin Exotic Sparrow 
• The Lycan's Mire Shell Legendary Ghost Shell 
• Festival of the Lost Sigil Legendary Ghost Projection

Here's an article to learn all about Prime Gaming.  

Player Support Report 

Somehow the moon got even more haunted this year. No clue how. 

Known Issues List  |  Help Forums  |  Bungie Help Twitter

CROTA’S END 48-HOUR CHALLENGE MODE EMBLEM 

On Tuesday, October 17, we fixed an issue where players who qualified for the Crota’s End Contest Mode emblem and earned the All For One Triumph did not receive the emblem after completion. Players who qualified should now see the emblem and associated Triumphs in-game. 

To qualify for the emblem and Triumph, players must have completed the Crota’s End raid and the Crota’s End Challenge mode within 48 hours of the raid’s release. 

CLAIM YOUR EVENT CARD ITEMS 

Festival of the Lost concludes at the weekly reset on November 7. Players should make sure they claim any completed objectives and available rewards from their Festival of the Lost Event Card prior to the conclusion of the event. 

The Event Card and any unclaimed rewards will no longer be available once the event ends. 

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: 

1. Mindbender’s Ambition no longer glows when dealing damage. 
2. When the full auto melee setting is on, Glaives will melee twice by mistake. 
3. The Shhhh! emote no longer displays the intended holographic boss. 

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. 

The Spirit of the Season

Timon: My favorite game plus one of my favorite movie scenes! This is a masterpiece!  

Movie of the Week: Dance-off distraction, by Mythical via X/Twitter

Ivan: It’s the time of the year when people try to scare you, and there are skeletons and candies everywhere. This #Destiny2MOTW has the spirit! Enjoy your upcoming Halloween, Guardians! 

Movie of the Week: This is Halloween 

Sometimes You Just Need Some Tea 

Hippy: To say that Season of the Witch has been a trying one for Eris and the gang would be a massive understatement, but the important thing is that she wasn’t alone through even the worst of it. Surrounded by those that love her, Eris has more than earned a little rest. Let’s be honest; sometimes, you just need a nice cuppa and some solid R&R.  

Art of the Week: Tea and silence by @antlerlad via Twitter/X. 

Sam: When the Taken King returned, he thought he was here to conquer us and our world. And well, he couldn’t because we’re Guardians and we win. Here is a great shot of the whole squad, baddie and all. 😊 

Art of the Week: Taken Kind by NoNosdoodles via Twitter/X- (20) Nono on X: "I just noticed that I didn't post the final version of the drawing, so here it is! 🫡 #DestinyArt #Destiny2Art #AOTW https://t.co/YLHOShRUV2" / X (twitter.com) 

And that’s all for this week. Let's go back to celebrating Festival of the Lost. Those nasty Headless Ones need to be brought into line, and there's also more Triumphs to complete the Event Card. You can get some more Mementos for crafted weapons, too. And, of course, a ton of Eerie Engrams to earn some amazing weapon rolls. I'm looking for an Acosmic with Enlightened Action and Repulsor Brace, and maybe a fancy Stasis Horror Story with Dynamic Sway Reduction and Target Lock, or maybe Headstone.  

‘Hasta luego’ 

Br1