Bungie reveals that the return of the Gjallarhorn rocket launcher in Destiny's forthcoming Rise of Iron expansion is not as powerful as its original version.

Although a lot of Destiny fans were practically elated to hear that Bungie was bringing back the Gjallarhorn rocket launcher for the science fiction shooter's next major expansion, Rise of Iron, the studio may end up alienating some fans with the way in which it reintroduces the weapon. As it happens, according to a recently published article in the latest issue of Edge Magazine covering the game's forthcoming DLC, Bungie has declared that the new Gjallarhorn is not going to be as powerful as it was in Year One of Destiny.

Of course, this reveal might not come as a surprise to some would-be Guardians, for even though a lot of fans of the game enjoyed the Gjallarhorn's ability to absolutely dominate in the first year of Destiny, many of those same players considered the rocket launcher to be ridiculously overpowered. In fact, Bungie even stepped in at one point by reducing the weapon's potency in order to balance the gameplay, and to place players in the position to experience more gun variety in the long run.

Interestingly enough, a couple of months back, Destiny: Rise of Iron’s executive producer Scott Taylor touched on the issue of the Gjallarhorn getting a nerf in the expansion. As he put it, Bungie was planning on making the weapon a big feature of the DLC, as it is easily "one of the most memorable weapons in all of Destiny," but it "will be appropriately tuned to Rise of Iron."

For those unaware, instead of simply having the Gjallarhorn be just another weapon to be obtained in Rise of Iron, Bungie is going to integrate it into the expansion in a rather unique way. All players who own the forthcoming DLC, no matter when they purchase it, will go on to receive a quest that leads to the end reward of the rocket launcher. That said, fans who decide to pre-order Rise of Iron will get the same Gjallarhorn with the same stats, but with a different skin, as it will be called the Iron Gjallarhorn and cast as a black and silver version of the classic gold and white one.

Just like with the Gjallarhorn, Bungie plans on riding a small nostalgia wave into Destiny's Rise of Iron by also bringing back old Iron Banner gear with the expansion. Guardians will be able to get the items through Lord Saladin and a new vendor named Shiro-4 after getting Iron Engrams from them. Fans will be able to use these to decrypt Year One or Two Iron Banner objects, but Bungie has neither confirmed what players will need to purchase the Iron Engrams with, nor if the returning gear's stats will be recalculated in a similar fashion of the Gjallarhorn.

At any rate, even though the Gjallarhorn's strength is going to be weakened somewhat, it's safe to say that Destiny fans are excited to see it make a comeback. Bearing that in mind, it will be interesting to find out whether or not the rocket launcher becomes one of the most used weapons in Rise of Iron, or if it merely gets regarded as a fun little novelty after a while.

Destiny: Rise of Iron is set to release on September 20, 2016 for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

Source: Edge Magazine (via Reddit)