Destiny 2 "Going Fast" Update Completely Revamps the Sandbox

The latest patch for Destiny 2 is here and it is HUGE. Bungie has been preparing this one for [...]

By Liana 'LiLi' Ruppert

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The latest patch for Destiny 2 is here and it is HUGE. Bungie has been preparing this one for awhile now, ever since their roadmap was revealed earlier this year. These most recent changes are all about "going fast" and making crucial changes to the sandbox and overall experience. It's a game changer, but the journey is far from over! We are only at the halfway mark of that giant list of proposed changes and Bungie does what they can to make good on their promise to D2 players that this game will be one they will want to play.

Below are the full patch notes for the strikes and the sandbox:

Strikes

  • Nightfall strike unique rewards
    • Possible rewards include Legendary weapons and Exotic accessories
    • Drop rates increase in likelihood based on score thresholds
  • Strike repetition reduction
    • Players will no longer see the same strikes back-to-back in strike playlists
  • Challenge Card
    • Increased the Power handicap maximum from 40 to 45
    • Fixed an issue where "Tree of Probabilities" wouldn't end immediately after Valus Thuun's death if he was killed very quickly
    • Fixed an issue where players could respawn below the boss fight of "A Garden World"
    • Fixed an issue where vehicles were not rewarding points when destroyed
    • Fixed an issue where Orbs granted points in public areas

Other

  • Exotic repetition reduction
  • Protections were put in place that prevent back-to-back duplicate Exotics from Exotic Engrams
  • Fixed an issue where some emblems were not displaying what statistic they track
  • Prometheus Lens correctly appears in the Exotic weapon collection for players who acquired the item from Xûr without owning Curse of Osiris
  • Reduced interaction time for patrol beacons and activity totems from 3 seconds to 1 second
  • Fixed an issue where applying or previewing a shader on an item would return players to the top page of the shader inventory

Sandbox

Weapons
  • Pulse Rifles
    • Increased PvE damage for all Pulse Rifles by 16%
    • Increased rate of fire for adaptive and high impact Pulse Rifles
      • Adaptive: from 360 rpm to 390 rpm (+8.3%)
      • High Impact: from 320 rpm to 340 rpm (+6.3%)
    • Increased base damage for adaptive, high impact, and rapid-fire Pulse Rifles
      • Adaptive: from 14.5 to 16 (+10.3%)
      • High Impact: from 16 to 18 (+12.5%)
      • Rapid-Fire: from 12 to 12.5 (+4.2%)
      • Increased precision multiplier for lightweight Pulse Rifles from 1.5x to 1.6x (+6.7%)
      • Decreased precision multiplier for adaptive Pulse Rifles from 1.55 to 1.475 (-5.8%)
      • Design Note: This keeps precision damage close to where it is now, when you factor in the base damage and rate of fire buffs above. This puts most of the buff into body shots, but in the end, this still increases precision damage overall.
  • Scout Rifles
    • Increased PvE damage for all Scout Rifles by 15%
      • Increased base damage for high impact Scout Rifles from 37 to 40 (+8.1%)
  • Hand Cannons
    • Increased PvE damage for all Hand Cannons by 15%
      • Precision Hand Cannons deal 0.15x more precision damage, increasing from 1.5x to 1.6x (+6.6%)
    • Increased hip fire accuracy when using controllers on console and PC by 33%
    • Increased ADS accuracy when using controllers on console and PC by 25%
  • Sidearms
    • Increased PvE damage for all Sidearms by 15%
    • Increased hip fire accuracy; reduced cone by 20%
    • Increased ADS accuracy; reduced cone by 12%
    • Increased inventory (allowing more reserve ammo to be stored)
    • Increased range falloff start by +1 m
    • Increased ADS movement speed
  • Submachine Guns
    • Increased PvE damage for all Submachine Guns by 10%
    • Set optics to 1.3x
    • Increased inventory (allowing more reserve ammo to be stored)
  • Linear Fusion Rifles
    • Increased PvE damage for all Linear Fusion Rifles by 50%
    • Increased aim assist
    • Decreased flinch multiplier
  • Shotguns
    • Increased PvE damage for all Shotguns by 35%
    • Increased inventory (allowing more reserve ammo to be stored)
    • Increased aim assist on SUROS precision Shotguns
  • Sniper Rifles
    • Increased PvE damage:
      • By 20% for yellow bar enemies
      • By 40% for red bar enemies
    • Increased precision damage, which now scales with the weapon's rate of fire
      • Changed from 2.5x for everything to 3.0x at the lowest rate of fire up to 3.5x at the highest rate of fire
    • Increased aim assist
    • Increased inventory (allowing more reserve ammo to be stored)
  • Grenade Launchers
    • Increased blast radius
      • Drum-Fed Grenade Launchers: +0.5 m
      • One-Shot Grenade Launchers: +1.0 m
  • MIDA Mini-Tool
    • Decreased the MIDA Mini-Tool's optics to match other Submachine Guns
    • Prevented the stacking of Lightweight and the MIDA Mini-Tool's Lightweight perks
    • Adjusted player movement speed to match the MIDA Multi-Tool
  • Auto Rifles
    • Decreased range by 10 for all precision Auto Rifles
    • Decreased aim assist for all precision Auto Rifles

Perks

  • Scaled up PvE damage for the following perks:
    • High Impact Reserves
      • From 1.12x to 1.30x (+16%)
    • Kill Clip
      • From 1.33x to 1.53x (+15%)
    • Rampage
      • From 1.33x at 3 stacks to 1.65x while at 3 stacks
      • Also increased duration from 3 seconds to 3.5 seconds
  • Dragonfly
    • Buffed damage
      • From 50 to 65 (+30%)
      • +30% additional damage against combatants
    • Updated FX
  • Explosive Rounds
    • Decreased PvE Explosive Rounds damage multiplier by 15%
    • Increased PvE damage for the base weapons to compensate for this decrease
  • Grave Robber
    • Reloads 50% of the magazine instead of 30%
  • Timed Payload
    • Splits damage 55/45, explosive/direct instead of previous split which was more direct damage
Abilities
  • Increased Super regeneration rates from 6:40 minutes to 5:00 minutes
  • The output of every increment of the Mobility stat, from 2 - 10, has been increased allowing for a significant boost in player speed
  • Vanishing Step (invisibility upon dodging) and Vanish in Smoke (Smoke Bomb invisibility)
    • Dodging remains unchanged and still breaks both aim assist and projectile tracking for the duration of the actual dodge
    • The invisibility granted by Vanishing Step no longer breaks aim assist or projectile tracking in PvP (unchanged in PvE)
    • Increased the duration of invisibility granted by Vanishing Step by 1 second
    • Increased the duration of Smoke Bomb invisibility by 1 second
  • Increased the movement speed of "melee Supers" (Fist of Havoc, Sentinel Shield, and Arc Staff)
    • While these Supers are active, sprint speed is automatically set to the fastest possible sprint speed (no additional perks needed)
    • Characters automatically sprint when you request forward movement
    • Increased movement acceleration to reach max speed almost instantly

Titan

  • Increased the distance the player travels with an untargeted airborne shoulder charge attack (Shield Bash, Seismic Strike, and Hammer Strike) back to 4.5 m
  • Lift
    • Strafe Lift
      • Increased top speed of Strafe Lift
    • Catapult Lift
      • Increased the initial horizontal acceleration gained from activating Catapult Lift
      • Increased the amount of time Catapult Lift can be active to allow for more control

Hunter

  • Arc Staff
    • Increased the speed of the Arc Staff dodge animation
    • Increased the speed of all Arc Staff attack animations
    • For Arc Staff Super cast animation and all Arc Staff melee attacks, reduced the amount of time you're locked in animations before you can move or attack
    • Increased the AoE range of all Arc Staff attacks

Warlock

  • Glide
    • Overall
      • Increased the initial extension of vertical speed gained from activating Glide to allow for quick, on-demand bursts of speed
    • Strafe Glide
      • Increased the top speed of Strafe Glide
      • Greatly increased the horizontal acceleration of Strafe Glide to allow for more in-air maneuverability
      • Increased Strafe Glide's max height to match the other vertical movements
    • Burst Glide
      • Greatly increased the top speed of Burst Glide (higher than Strafe Glide's top speed)
    • Balanced Glide
      • Recalibrated Balanced Glide to gain some of the added speed of Burst Glide and some of the added horizontal acceleration of Strafe Glide.
      • Design Note: Our intent is for Balanced Glide to have some of the properties of both Burst and Strafe Glide without being as potent as either version.
  • Dawnblade
    • Decreased the cost of throwing sword projectiles with the Daybreak Super, allowing for one additional throw
    • Increased the Super duration extension gained from the Everlasting Flames perk (~+20%)
    • The buff granted by the Swift Strike melee ability now removes all in-air accuracy penalties while active
    • Decreased the Icarus Dash cooldown from 10 seconds to 6 seconds
    • Increased the grenade and melee energy that Heat Rises gives you per kill from 10% to 16%
  • Fixed an issue where players could throw infinite numbers of Nova Bombs in Mayhem
Mods
  • Mods that affect ability regen rates (i.e., for grenades, melee, and class abilities) now have increased output (16.667% per mod). They still cap at 3 mods (50% regen rate).

There were also a ton of changes made to the MMO's crucible, which you can see the full details right here.

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