Bungie will be making changes to Destiny 2's latest update, Lightfall, after receiving backlash from online players about the update's difficulty and various other areas that need adjustment. Lightfall launched in February 2023 and serves as the penultimate update to the light and dark saga of Destiny 2. Bungie seeks to tweak the update to be more in line with its vision, while still retaining its challenging elements for new and veteran players alike.
Following the initial release of Lightfall, the update was met with criticism from online players regarding a variety of areas. Among the different areas that fans felt needed adjustment were the commendation system as well as the difficulty, with some fans even describing the update's new events and enemy patrols as "oppressive" according to Bungie in its official statements regarding the upcoming changes.
Bungie released a statement on its official website regarding the upcoming changes to Lightfall, including a statement from Destiny 2's Game Director Joe Blackburn. Blackburn stated that "We’ve taken a broad look at community feedback across the game since launch and have been working to address several areas in the coming weeks, while also forging ahead on content for our upcoming seasons." The post then goes on to elaborate on the upcoming changes for Lightfall, as well as following updates. While some of the changes will be readily apparent following their implementation to Destiny 2, others won't be so obvious.
Among the most notable changes to Lightfall will be edits to the ranking system, which will allow players to renew their ranks from higher seasons quicker. Another change to the ranking system are resets to commendation counts, which will be done to show off a player's experience with the newest update's content. Difficulty will also be changed following backlash, in particular regarding enemy health and damage modifiers along with spawn rates. Bungie seeks to lower enemy spawn rates in certain events like Heist Battlegrounds, and boss fights. Bungie will also be reducing the amount of elite enemies within the patrols around Neomuna. While Bungie wanted the patrols in this area to be more dangerous for Destiny 2 players, the changes in question are an effort to keep the difficulty challenging yet fair.
Bungie is a studio that takes its audience's criticisms to heart, with the Lightfall tweaks being the latest example of that mentality. While Lightfall is just over a month old, Bungie has already used data and player feedback to fine tune the update to be more in line with the studio's vision for the last seasons of Destiny 2. With changes to difficulty, the ranking system, a new display to the Journey Screen and more, it's clear that the Bungie is working hard to retain its player engagement and enjoyment of Destiny 2 before its conclusion.
Destiny 2 is available on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
Source: Bungie