After months of monitoring the changes Season of the Haunted brought to Destiny 2's Iron Banner, Bungie aims to make the PvP activity more rewarding as Season of the Seraph enters its homestretch while seeing it return more often after Lightfall launches. The Iron Banner has been a stalwart activity inside the Destiny universe since 2014, offering a more competitive slant to the standard 6v6 gameplay available in Crucible. It has seen its fair share of changes over the years, as well, and the newest changes look to address some of the criticism from players over the last few seasons.
Season of the Seraph is the final season for Destiny 2's fifth year, setting the stage for the events to come when the game's next major expansion, Lightfall, releases in February 2023. The season sees Guardians join the Brays, Mara Sov, and Osiris as they work to repair and reawaken the Warmind Rasputin to aid in the Last City's fight against The Witness. Guardians also need to hold back The Witness' forces, which have also taken an interest in Rasputin's dormant arsenal and treasure trove of secrets, in hopes of turning it against the Last City and its allies.
As with previous seasons, players got the chance to hop into Lord Saladin's Iron Banner to test their gunplay and abilities against other players to earn the new gear available in the activity for Season of the Seraph. The next time players will, though, they will be rewarded with even more XP as Bungie has confirmed it will be increasing the bonuses from having Iron Banner gear equipped inside the activity. Bungie said in its latest TWAB post it will be "doubling the multipliers" for using Iron Banner gear and "significantly increase the multiplier" for having an Iron Banner emblem equipped while "halving" the mode's multiplier for completed challenges.
The studio then touched on the activity's availability and plans to increase it following the release of Lightfall. Starting in Season 20, the Iron Banner will be available three times a season, rather than the twice-a-season cadence it has had since Season of the Haunted. Bungie added to expect dates for Season 20's Iron Banner weeks closer to the start of the season.
Both changes were met with largely positive feedback from the Destiny 2 community as they address two consistent criticisms of the Iron Banner from 2022. Many players argued the current method of gaining ranks made the mode too much of a grind, which was only made more difficult due to it only happening twice a season. While players are cautiously optimistic about the XP multiplier bonuses, the return to a cadence similar to the older monthly one has been welcomed by the community.
Destiny 2 is currently available on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
Source: Bungie