Destiny 2 Update Makes Big Changes to Weapons and Exotic Gear

Bungie releases a new update for Destiny 2, finally addressing some longstanding bugs while also making balance changes to weapons and armor. Even though Episode Revenant is rapidly approaching its end, Bungie continues to make adjustments and tweaks to Destiny 2 in an attempt to improve the overall experience for players.

It’s been a rough episode overall for Destiny 2, as players have run into a wealth of issues and bugs, with more than a few being major issues. In fact, two discovered bugs were investigated and exposed by the community, with Destiny 2 players discovering a major weapon perk weighting issue as well as some crafted Tonics not working as originally intended. With the holiday season now behind the studio, Bungie is releasing a new update to fix many of the remaining issues currently impacting Episode Revenant.

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During this week’s reset, Bungie released a new update that made tweaks to activities like the Crucible and Vesper’s Host dungeon. However, Update 8.1.5.3 really focused on gear, finally addressing the major Ballidorse Wrathweavers damage issue in Destiny 2 that players noted back in November. The exotic item is now reenabled for use, and no longer able to rapidly increase its damage. Other exotics were also tweaked in this update, including the Hunter’s Celestial Nighthawk, Titan’s Stoicism, and the Mantle of Battle Harmony and Stormdancer’s Brace for the Warlock.

Exotic armor wasn’t the only major change in this patch, as Bungie also made changes to various weapon archetypes. Sidearms, Lightweight Scout Rifles, Rapid FIre Auto Rifles, and more were given a damage boost, while High-Impact Pulse Rifles were nerfed slightly. As Bungie previously noted, the Graviton Lance pulse rifle was also nerfed in Destiny 2, having its RPM reduced back down to 300 in an effort to prevent it dominating the current Crucible meta. Whisper of the Worm and Ace of Spades also saw a couple of bug fixes as well.

FOr many players, these changes were long overdue, though it’ll be interesting to see what sort of impact this update has on the overall health of the game. Recently, Bungie has seemingly been fighting an uphill battle as Destiny 2 player engagement has seen a rapid decline. Bugs and other controversies within Episode Revenant have left many frustrated with the current state of the game and with another episode remaining, even though its one that brings back the fan favorite Dreadnaught location, all eyes will be on Codename Frontiers this summer to see if Bungie can turn things around.

Destiny 2 Update 8.1.5.3 Patch Notes

Crucible

General

• Fixed an issue where some ability kills could generate a Special ammo brick.

Dungeons & Raids

Vesper’s Host

• Raneiks Unified
  • Fixed an issue where using Hunter’s Shadowshot Super ability on Raneiks Unified could result in the encounter crashing.
  • Reduced the number of active servitors that appear when splitting the boss during DPS.
    • Rebalanced boss health values to compensate for the reduced number of servitors.
  • Re-enabled Hunter’s Shadowshot Super ability in the activity.
• Infiltration
  • Fixed an issue that allowed nuclear cores from the traversal to be used outside of the encounter.

Gameplay and Investment

Exotic Armor

Titan

• Stoicism
  • Spirit of Alpha Lupi
    • Reduced heal impulse when using Thruster to 30 HP.
  • Crest of Alpha Lupi
    • Reduced heal impulse when using Thruster to 60 HP.

Warlock

• Ballidorse Wrathweavers
  • Fixed an issue where Ballidorse Wrathweavers could increase the damage dealt by shattering targets frozen with Winter’s Wrath far more than intended.
• Mantle of Battle Harmony
  • Fixed an issue where Mantle of Battle Harmony’s perk could be activated during Song of Flame to extend its duration.
• Stormdancer’s Brace
  • Fixed an issue where Stormdancer’s Brace would not refund energy if the player was in Transcendence during their Stormtrance Super.

Hunter

• Celestial Nighthawk
  • Fixed an issue where Golden Gun incorrectly was receiving the boosted roaming Super recharge benefits while Celestial Nighthawk was equipped.

General

• Fixed an issue where the “Iron Intent” armor set was missing the “Iron Lord’s Pride” intrinsic perk.
• Fixed an issue where Solar Weapon Boost x4 was unable to be applied via Exotics such as Mantle of Battle Harmony, Foetracer, or Path of Burning Steps to weapons besides Two-Tailed Fox.
  • The Daito manufacturer extends a heartfelt apology to all Guardians for this error.

Weapons

Weapon Archetypes

• Sidearms
  • Heavy Burst
    • Increased body shot damage from 30 to 33.
    • Increased critical hit damage from 48 to 52.8.
• Submachine Guns
  • General
    • Increased magazine size by 10-15% depending on magazine stat and rate of fire.
• Pulse Rifles
  • High-Impact – Now requires six crits on all resilience levels above 1.
    • Reduced body shot damage from 22 to 21.5.
    • Reduced critical hit damage from 39.6 to 38.7.
    • Reduced Aim Down Sights (ADS) damage falloff scalar from 1.7 to 1.6.
  • Lightweights
    • Increased body shot damage from 17 to 20.4.
    • Increased critical hit damage from 31.45 to 31.6.
• Scout Rifles
  • Lightweights
    • Increased body shot damage from 32 to 38.
    • Increased critical hit damage from 64 to 64.6.
• Auto Rifles
  • Rapid Fires
    • Increased body shot damage from 13.5 to 13.6.
    • Increased critical hit damage from 23 to 23.1.
• Hand Cannons
  • Precisions
    • The intrinsic Hand Cannon Precision Frame now reduces your ADS movement speed penalty by 10%.
• Sniper Rifles
  • Reduced the camera roll component of flinch against players by 20%.
• Heavy Ammo Grenade Launchers
  • Reduced self-damage by 50%.

Perks

• Skulking Wolf (Iron Banner Origin Trait)
  • Now activates in PvE and, when active, makes enemies slightly less accurate when targeting you.
• Target Lock
  • Reverted the Update 7.3.5 specific tuning for Sub Machine Guns.

Exotics

• Graviton Lance

• Whisper of the Worm
  • Reduced the camera roll component of flinch against players by 50%.
• Ace of Spades
  • Fixed an issue where the Firefly perk on Ace of Spades was dealing Kinetic damage instead of Solar damage.

General

• Fixed an issue where the Scavenger’s Fate Shotgun unintentionally received Demolitionist. This perk will be replaced with Slideshot, with enhanced versions of Demolitionist being replaced with Enhanced Slideshot.
• Fixed an issue where the Omniscient Eye Sniper Rifle did not have access to Enhanced Precision Instrument at the Relic Crafting table.
• Fixed an issue where the Season of Arrival’s version of Crimil’s Dagger had incorrect stats.
• Fixed an issue that allowed the Harmony and Discord perks to be activated by using certain abilities or getting onto vehicles.

Platforms and Systems

• Fixed an issue where audio could cut out during some cinematics.
• Fixed a server crash that caused a high frequency of #Guitar errors across many activities and destinations.

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Dive into the world of Destiny 2 to explore the mysteries of the solar system and experience responsive first-person shooter combat. Unlock powerful elemental abilities and collect unique gear to customize your Guardian’s look and playstyle. Enjoy Destiny 2’s cinematic story, challenging co-op missions, and a variety of PvP modes alone or with friends. Download for free today and write your legend in the stars.

An Immersive Story
You are a Guardian, defender of the Last City of humanity in a solar system under siege by infamous villains. Look to the stars and stand against the darkness. Your legend begins now.

Guardian Classes
Choose from the armored Titan, mystic Warlock, or swift Hunter.

Franchise

Destiny

Released

August 28, 2017

Multiplayer

Online Multiplayer
, Online Co-Op

Engine

Tiger Engine

ESRB

T For TEEN for Blood, Language, and Violence

How Long To Beat

100+

Steam Deck Compatibility

no

X|S Optimized

YES

PS Plus Availability

Essential, Extra, & Premium (The Witch Queen)

Expansions

Destiny 2: Forsaken
, Destiny 2: Shadowkeep
, Destiny 2: Beyond Light
, Destiny 2: The Witch Queen
, Destiny 2: Lightfall

Number of Players

1-6 (Co-Op)

OpenCritic Rating

Mighty

Cross Save

yes

Cross-Platform Play

PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One & Xbox Series X|S

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