Destiny 2 is celebrating Bungie's 30th Anniversary next month, starting Dec. 7. The Bungie 30th Anniversary celebration will include a new dungeon, six-person matchmade activity, the return of the iconic Exotic rocket launcher, the Gjallarhorn, and reprised weapons from the original Destiny.
Alongside the celebration, Destiny 2 will also receive a sizeable patch including changes to the game's sandbox. Mid-season patches like these have only become more common since Bungie introduced the Destiny Content Vault, aligning with the promise that the system's implementation would allow them to make more significant changes at a more frequent pace.
As part of the changes in this mid-season patch, weapons will get balance changes. In Bungie's weekly blog, it detailed a slew of buffs and nerfs coming to various weapon archetypes as well as specific Exotic weapons, some of which have not been touched in a long time by the developers. Among the most important changes to weapon archetypes are the nerf to slug shotguns in PvE, reducing their damage bonus from 30% to 20%, and the buff to pellet shotguns, giving them a 10% increase to PvE enemies. Additionally, linear fusion rifles are getting a flat damage buff of 10%, which should help make them feel competitive even without the need for Particle Deconstruction, this season's artifact mod.
Caster swords are also getting a buff to ammo economy, making their heavy ranged attacks cost five ammo instead of eight. Lastly, bows are getting a 10% damage buff to red bar enemies and sidearms and fusion rifles are getting fixed to work as hitscan weapons on systems running below 60fps. When it comes to the Exotic weapon tuning on the way in the next patch, the Whisper of the Worm, D.A.R.C.I., and Sleeper Simulant's buffs look the most important.
The Whisper of the Worm and Sleeper Simulant are both receiving bonuses to their ammo economy, and all three weapons are receiving damage buffs, leading some to believe that bosses in the near future will encourage the use of precision damage-dealing weapons.
These are not all the changes coming to archetypes and Exotic weapons in the Dec. 7 patch, but the full list can be found below at the source link. Some noteworthy mentions are a Vex Mythoclast nerf targeting aim assist and its Overcharge buff, Arbalest getting anti-barrier rounds, and the addition of a full-auto mod for weapons that are traditionally tap-fire guns. This is an accessibility mod that was previously promised, but it will eventually be turned into a setting so that players can use other mods on these guns, without having to sacrifice damage for ease of use. The 30th Anniversary Celebration will be live in about a month, and more information will be coming soon about other sandbox changes coming in the patch.
Destiny 2 is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.
Source: Bungie