This Week At Bungie – 6/28/2018

After Expo Report

Matt Tieger, Game Director, High Moon Studios

After so many months of hard work, E3 is a glorious mix of relief and terror. The death of Cayde is a huge moment in the Destiny universe, and revealing that to the world was nerve-racking. I get a sense that the community is incredibly motivated to explore the Tangled Shore and avenge the death of their friend. As a game developer, what more could you ask for?

Steve Cotton, Game Director, Bungie

I think it’s fair to say that everyone on the team was both incredibly excited and a little bit anxious to reveal to the world how our Forsaken story begins. So, it was amazing for us to see the response right after. Between the questions of why and how, one thing was clear—there was going to be consequence in this world of immortal heroes, and this was going to sting. To see how quickly Uldren was elevated to every Guardian’s most hated enemy and how everyone’s plans for revenge solidified almost instantly was inspiring. Some people at the show got to play some of the first mission of the game, and we talked to them after. There were strong feelings while they played, but their plans to exact revenge only got more creative… more personal. In the end, the show was an incredible journey of conflicting emotions and now I am left with an uneasiness every time I visit the tower. Cayde is right there and I just want to warn him.  

Scott Taylor, Project Lead, Bungie

It was incredible to share Forsaken with the fans and let them get their hands on Gambit. The teams at Bungie and HMS have been developing Forsaken with the goal of reinforcing the hobby, and the reaction we got at E3 meant so much to all of us. There’s a lot more to reveal this summer, including details on Collections, Triumphs, and the major sandbox changes we’ve got planned. Everyone is working hard to put the finishing touches on the experience. Closing is one of my favorite phases of any project, and it’s a blast to see the game grow and evolve every day. We can’t wait to play it with all of you. 

Lars Bakken, Design Lead, Bungie

So, at E3, we lifted the lid on [REDACTED], finally unveiling Gambit to the world. I cannot express how overwhelmed we were by the positive sentiment around our new activity. Special thanks to all the people who stood in line—you are the true heroes. If you didn’t know, GuardianCon is the next stop on the hype train to play Gambit before September. Remember to keep a look out for those invaders!

Marking Your Calendar

An Early Preview…

Prestigious Affairs

Hey everybody,

In Destiny 2 Update 1.2.3, we will be launching Prestige versions of both Spire of Stars and Eater of Worlds raid lairs. Prestige raid lairs use new activity modifiers and a new system of curated loadouts to challenge you in new and exciting ways each week. I wanted to give a quick rundown of what you can expect to get, what you can expect to do, and answer some questions you might have.

What You Get

We believe players will be chasing after three different pursuits in the summer Prestige raid lairs.  

• 400 Power Weapons: The only way to get 400 Power armor before Forsaken is by participating in the Summer Solstice event, but the only way to get 400 Power weapons before Forsaken is by completing Prestige Spire of Stars and Eater of Worlds. Every time you complete all the encounters in a Prestige raid lair that week, you will be rewarded a 400 Power raid weapon. This can be any raid weapon from Destiny 2, not just the weapons that drop in that raid lair. 
  
• Raid Armor Ornaments: Each Prestige raid lair has its own set of unique armor ornaments. 
  
• Exotic Masterwork Catalyst:  Both raid lairs have a Masterwork catalyst that can be found only as a rare drop in the activity.   
  

What You Do

Each week, there is a curated weapon suite and a global activity modifier for Spire of Stars and Eater of Worlds. The weapon set and modifier will be the same across both activities.

• Curated weapon loadouts are based on weapon archetypes. So over the summer, you might see combinations that require you to equip Auto Rifle/Submachine Gun/Sniper Rifle or Scout Rifle/Hand Cannon/Rocket Launchers
  
• Loadouts are not locked inside the Prestige raid lair. You can bring tons of different guns into a raid lair and swap between them at will as long as the gun meets the required curation. For example, if you were doing Spire of Stars and the loadout is [Auto Rifle/Submachine Gun/Sniper Rifle], you might want to use Surous Regime for Val Ca’uor Phase 1, but swap to Ghost Primus for Val Ca’uor Phase 2 so you can equip D.A.R.C.I. for boss damage.
• We are shipping three activity modifiers that the raid lairs rotate between. Two of these modifies are brand new and were built from the ground up by the raid team to work in raids. The third is a fan favorite from Destiny 2: Prism. 
  
• Each of these modifiers is designed to provide Guardians with advantages over their enemies when they lean into it.
  
• The goal of using these modifiers and loadouts is to change the way you engage with Prestige raiding each week. The first week, the modifier and weapon loadout might synergize really well with strategies and armor exotics you’ve been using for months. Next week, the modifier and weapon loadout might push you to explore the encounter in a different way and use different exotic armors (looking at you Lunafaction). 
  

Questions you might have:

Is anything happening to the Prestige version of the Leviathan raid?

Nope! Prestige Leviathan will stay exactly as is, this weapon curation and modifier will only apply to Eater of Worlds and Spire of Stars—but in 1.2.3, it might be worth going back and playing some more Leviathan Prestige to see if Callus has a new way to enhance one of your favorite exotic Shotguns. 

Are Prestige raid lairs getting per-encounter changes?

Nope! When we originally created the raid lairs, we wanted to focus on making the normal modes of encounters the most complete forms of the experience. We believe these modifiers and loadouts will create more variety in your Prestige gameplay than small, per-encounter changes. We also believe that the mechanical complexity in Destiny 2 raid lairs is very high, and we want to lean more into the moment-to-moment sandbox engagement in Prestige. 

How many of the Prestige raid activities will be active each week?

All of them! Do you want to play all three prestige raid activities each week on three different classes for maximum Exotic catalyst and 400 Power weapon farming potential? GO FOR IT!

When will the Prestige raid lairs become available?

Current plan is for both Prestige raid lairs to be active with modifiers right when the patch goes live. We feel like this is in line with Prestige being a new way to play each week instead of a one-time event, but we are open to feedback on this.

Costs and Collections

What items from Year 1 inventory will Collections track?

Collections include any weapon, armor piece, Ghost, ship, Sparrow, emblem, or shader available in Year 1 of Destiny 2.

Is there anything I can dismantle before Forsaken launches?

If you have an item in your inventory right now, you can safely discard it and retrieve it from Collections in September. This does not include consumables, so hang on to those if they matter to you.

If I dismantled something previously, will it be waiting in my Collections this September?

Your Collection will begin with every piece of gear that you were holding in inventory or within your vault upon the launch of Warmind. If you had dismantled an item prior to May 8, it will not be available within your Collections.

What items from Year 2 can be reacquired from Collections?

With the addition of random perk rolls to items starting in Year 2, we had to make a tough call for Collections. We investigated numerous options for gear with random perks: fixed Collections perks, buyback limits, reroll mechanics, and many others—but each of these came with issues that impacted the Collections experience in a negative manner. Ultimately, we decided to disable purchase of all Year 2 randomly-rolled Legendary weapons and armor. 

We don’t like keeping some items from experiencing the full Collections treatment, so we’re looking at a long-term solve for storing your exact perk rolls in Collections. 

How much will it cost to reacquire items out of Collections?

We’re currently working on costs for item acquisition and will have more information at a later date.

We have two main goals when deciding on reacquisition costs:

• Reacquisition isn’t a currency sink. We aren’t trying to make you spend all of your hard-earned Glimmer. We just want to make sure the items you find out in the world still have value.
  
• Players won’t have to deal with currency conversions. For example, if a shader dismantles into Glimmer, it costs Glimmer to reacquire. If the shader came from Eververse, it will dismantle into Bright Dust, and therefore costs Bright Dust to reacquire. These same goals are true of all Collection items.
  

Note: A lot of you have been asking about the cost of shaders. We can say that they will have a cost to reacquire from Collections, but there will no longer be a cost to apply shaders to gear.

Here’s a quick example: Let’s say you just got that sweet Calus’s Treasured shader to drop from the raid. You’re able to apply it immediately at no cost. If you want that specific shader on all your armor, weapons, Ghost, ship, and Sparrow, you’ll need to pay some Glimmer to reacquire a handful of copies straight out of Collections.

Before we move along—purple and gold looks fantastic on the upcoming Tangled Shore Warlock armor set. You heard it here first.

When reacquiring gear from Collection, what Power level will they be?

Collection items will come out close to your current Power level, but will require infusion to be ready for endgame activities.  This is a delicate balance of making sure Collections don’t create a leveling exploit, but still providing items that are usable right away in most activities.

Iron Resolve

Lupus Visage

Last week, we reported an issue where the Lupus Visage ornament for Fighting Lion, featured in the Iron Ornament Bundle, did not properly unlock for some players after it was activated. With this week’s deployment of Destiny 2 Hotfix 1.2.1.2, this issue is expected to be resolved for all players.

 

Players who previously purchased this ornament should now find it when inspecting Fighting Lion. Players who purchase this bundle in the future will find this ornament in their modifications inventory.

 

Permissions

Over the past several months, we have monitored reports from players in Russia who repeatedly encountered the error “Permissions to access online multiplayer have changed or profile signed in elsewhere.” While it's still possible for players to encounter this error through natural causes, we believe the platform issues that caused the elevated number of these errors to be resolved.

For players who see this error in the wild, we suggest that you visit our Help article for troubleshooting information. As always, players who encounter repeated errors codes and do not find resolution by searching help.Bungie.net should report the error to the #Help forums.

 

Faction Rallies Known Issues

With the launch of this week’s Faction Rallies, we have players reporting that they've kept their allegiance from the last Faction Rallies, even after pledging to a different faction for this one.

While Destiny Player Support is currently investigating this issue, any player encountering issues while pledging to factions should submit a report to the #Help forums. If possible, providing captured video footage or imagery of your issue as it is encountered in game will be helpful in our investigation.

No Intermission