Once upon a time, the Destiny 2 meta was dominated by a single incredibly powerful weapon. Alright, so that's actually happened multiple times in Destiny 2 history with multiple different weapons, but in this case, the subject is the Whisper of the Worm sniper rifle. Introduced in 2018, Whisper of the Worm was briefly the game's most powerful weapon, and remained useful well into 2019. Nerfs ultimately ended its widespread use, but now Bungie is turning the corner. Major buffs for Whisper of the Worm are incoming.
In its latest community update, Bungie broke down its planned buffs for Whisper of the Worm. Bungie noted several key areas where it felt like the Whisper of the Worm was too weak, justifying these buffs in detail. To start, Bungie says Whisper of the Worm takes too long before its Whispered Breathing catalyst buff kicks in. Further, while the White Nail magazine refill was nice, it doesn't adequately reward players for sustained accuracy. Then, in general, Bungie says Whisper of the Worm isn't very useful in "short damage phases."
With those three focuses in mind, Whisper of the Worm is receiving three buffs. The first is a reduced activation delay for Whispered Breathing, cutting the timer from 2.1 seconds to 1.2 seconds. Next, White Nail will now reload Whisper of the Worm by pulling two bullets from inventory and one from thin air. That doesn't bring back the infinite reuse of the original version of the gun, but 1/3 of that is still good. Lastly, Whisper of the Worm is getting a flat 10% damage buff to help its usage in all scenarios.
There remains one big issue surrounding the Whisper of the Worm, however. The mission to acquire Whisper of the Worm and to unlock its Catalyst is no longer available. Bungie's made it so Whisper of the Worm can now be bought at the Monument to Lost Lights, but the Catalyst remains inaccessible. Bungie's said before that it plans to find a new way for players to unlock the Catalyst, but it won't arrive for some time -- if at all.
The big question that won't be answered immediately is whether or not the buffs to the Whisper of the Worm will make it useful again. What made the Whisper of the Worm so valuable initially is that it was safe. It was a sniper rifle with unlimited ammo (when used effectively), after all. The updated version does not have unlimited ammo, so even if it does a lot of damage it may not be efficient. Or players may simply not want to deal with the stress of figuring out whether it's efficient.
The Whisper of the Worm is just one of many weapons getting buffed as part of Destiny 2's 30th Anniversary celebration. Bungie is making sweeping changes to weapon archetypes, as well as over a dozen other Exotics. Whether or not Destiny 2 players pick up the Whisper of the Worm, the new meta in the game should make for a fun shakeup.
Destiny 2 is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.