Hello Guardians! It is Thursday, so you know what that means….. This week at Bungie. Let’s dive right in and see what news and updates that Bungie provides for us!
Bungie kicks this off with the Guardian Games. You can catch up on our breakdown here. Time to show off that class pride and show other Guardians what you’re made of. Or collect Medallions because ooh, shiny! We’re not here to judge. Eva Levante is back with her old stankin’ ass, don’t forget to catch up with her and get the class item and quests for the Guardian Games to garner medals.
We follow up the reminder of Guardian Games with lots of information about the next season of Destiny. Season 21 will be titled Season of the Deep. Season of the Deep begins on May 23rd at 10 am PT.
Bungie let’s us know they have plenty to share with us over the next few weeks but wanted to provide some new details in this edition of this week at Bungie. There will be three new Strand aspects becoming available in season 21. They are:
Hunter Aspect: Threaded Specter
Activate your class ability to leave behind a decoy woven from Strand matter that draws the attention of nearby combatants. After taking significant damage or when combatants approach, the decoy detonates, dealing damage and releasing Threadlings that seek out and attack nearby foes.
When players activate their dodge, they leave behind a decoy woven from Strand matter that draws the attention of enemies on the battlefield. Enemies will shoot at the Threaded Specter until it’s destroyed or expires, giving the Hunter and their fireteam enough time to get to safety. When destroyed, a Threaded Specter explodes into two Threadlings. Threaded Specter gives Hunter players access to Threadling generation and a new way to control the battlefield.
I don’t play as a Hunter, but that does seem like it will be super useful in group activities.
Titan Aspect: Flechette Storm
While sliding, activate your charged melee ability to leap into the air, knocking nearby targets away and dealing damage. While airborne, activate your charged melee again to launch a cluster of damaging, Unraveling projectiles. Repeatedly activating melee will chain additional throws.
With Flechette Storm, Berserkers have access to a powerful new slide-melee attack that quickly launches them up into the air and blasts away any nearby enemies. While still airborne, press the melee button again to fire a cluster of tracking projectiles that deal heavy damage and unravel enemies.
Titans being the most powerful in the game, this seems like a solid addition to their tool kit!
Warlock Aspect: The Wanderer
Tangles you throw attach to enemies and detonate into a suspending burst. Threadling final blows create a Tangle.
When Warlocks equipped with this Aspect pick up a Tangle, they weave the Tangle into The Wanderer. When thrown, The Wanderer travels through the air, seeking targets. Once it finds a target, it soars towards them, latches on, and explodes into a Suspending detonation that deals damage and suspends any nearby enemies. To round out the gameplay loop, The Wanderer also enables Threadling final blows from any source to generate a Tangle.
As a Warlock player, I am digging this from the sounds of it. I can’t wait to try out these new aspects next season.
Bungie continues on with a TL;DR version of the information about the changes coming to supers for Season 21. If you haven’t seen it check it our here on Bungie’s site.
Power Levels
The power levels will not changing for the next season. The Power Floor is 1600, the Soft Cap is 1750, the Powerful Cap is 1800 and the Pinnacle Cap is 1810. This is remaining the same for Season 21. If you have hit the Pinnacle Cap for Season 20, you will still be there for Season 21.
Exotic Armor Focusing and Decryption
Standard Decryption
- Allows players to decrypt engrams for free.
- Players receive random drops from standard Exotic engram loot pools.
- No additional cost.
Exotic Focusing Tier 1
- Focus an engram to receive a random roll of an Exotic from the associated expansion.
- Red War: Exotic Helms
- Red War: Exotic Arms
- Red War: Exotic Chests
- Red War: Exotic Legs
- Forsaken: Exotic Armor
- Shadowkeep: Exotic Armor
- Beyond Light: Exotic Armor
- The Witch Queen: Exotic Armor
- Lightfall: Exotic Armor focusing will be coming in a future Season!
- Requires ownership of the associated expansion as well as having previously acquired all armor pieces within the engram for your class.
- It will cost:
- 1 Exotic engram.
- 30,000 Glimmer.
- 1 Ascendant Shard.
Exotic Focusing Tier 2
- Focus Specific Exotic Armor for high cost.
- Requires ownership of the associated expansion as well as having previously acquired that piece of armor.
- It has a higher cost:
- 1 Exotic engram.
- 60,000 Glimmer.
- 3 Ascendant Shards.
- 1 Exotic Cipher.
Exotic armor stat packages should roll consistently higher stats, and with more frequent individual stat spikes starting in Season 21. You can expect the average stats to be in the mid-60s!
Since the Pinnacle Cap in Season 21 is staying the same, Bungie says the need for many Pinnacle Legendary rewards has dropped significantly. They are changing the rewards for the basic ‘complete activities’ challenges to a focusable Powerful Exotic engram. This gives most players 3 to 9 free, achievable, and deterministic weekly Exotic engrams, ready for focusing.
You will be losing some pinnacle drops, so reaching the Pinnacle Cap will be a bit slower for everyone.
Other sources of focusable Exotic engrams:
- Random world drops
- Season Pass paid and free tracks (6 paid, 2 free per Season)
- Vendor reputation tracks (one each reset after the first)
You can expect additional focusable Exotic engram sources in future Seasons!
Deepsight Activation and Crafting Economy Changes
In Season 21, Bungie will be adding the ability to electively activate Deepsight on weapon instances to obtain pattern progress. This capability will be accessible through a new mod slot in the weapon details screen for eligible weapons.
- To perform a Deepsight activation on a weapon, you will need a new Deepsight Harmonizer currency. Non-raid weapons will cost 1 Harmonizer, while raid weapons will require 15 Spoils of Conquest in addition to the 1 Harmonizer cost.
- This Deepsight Harmonizer currency can be obtained from Season pass rank rewards, 3 in the free ranks and another 3 in the paid. This will be the sole source of this currency for the initial rollout of the feature. Additionally, only one Harmonizer can be stored in the inventory at any time—this currency does not stack.
- Not all weapon instances will be compatible with Deepsight activation:
- You will be prevented from activating Deepsight for a weapon that has already had its pattern unlocked.
- Weapons that previously had Deepsight will be ineligible. You cannot activate Deepsight on a weapon instance which had originally been acquired with Deepsight, nor can you activate Deepsight multiple times on a single weapon instance.
- Weapon instances purchased from raid vendors will be ineligible, however weapons purchased from Xûr and the Gunsmith will support Deepsight activation.
Crafting costs will also see a change in Season 21:
- Legendary Shard costs will be removed from all crafting components. Glimmer and Enhancement Core costs will remain untouched.
- Enhanced weapon costs are based on weapon Masterwork costs, and thus will still require Legendary Shards as we are not yet modifying the weapon Masterwork economy in Season 21.
Quality of Life Updates
In Season 21, Bungie is adding boosted Triumphs to legacy content with randomly dropped Exotic weapons to bring them up to our standard for raids and dungeons. They have been added to existing Triumphs and are retroactive, so if you already have done the requisite Triumphs, you immediately start getting a boost! Last Wish: One Thousand Voices, Deepstone Crypt: Eyes of Tomorrow, Vow of the Disciple: Collective Obligation, Vault of Glass: Vex Mythoclast and Kingsfall: Touch of Malice will be getting stat boosts.
Finest Matterweave and Rainmaker Deprecations
It’s time to say goodbye to the Finest Matterweave and Rainmaker consumable items. In Season 21, these items will no longer drop from any source in the game. In any instance where players would have received a Finest Matterweave, they will receive 1 Enhancement Core instead. Whenever players would have gotten a drop of a Rainmaker, they will instead earn 3,000 Glimmer.
All existing instances of these items in players’ inventories can be consumed to directly grant their associated materials.
- All existing instances of Finest Matterweave can be Dismantled for 1 Enhancement Core each.
- All existing instances of Rainmaker can be dismantled for 3000 Glimmer.
Daily Bounties
Existing daily bounties requiring you to get a specific type of kill—grenade, headshot, or any of the Special or Heavy weapons—now require twice as many kills to complete but can be done anywhere in the game, with increased progress in Vanguard Ops or Nightfalls. If you only plan on doing these in Vanguard activities, you should see no change in behavior.
We also added a number of new bounties:
- Killing elites, mini-bosses, and Champions.
- Kills with elemental abilities, with bonuses for killing with a subclass verb.
- Complete 2 Vanguard activities.
Regarding repeatable bounties: all enemy-type kill bounties (Hive, Vex, Taken, Cabal, Fallen, Scorn) have significantly increased requirements, but can be advanced by killing any combatant in a Vanguard activity, with significantly increased progress for killing the correct type of combatant.
Bungie is also adding a new repeatable bounty—one for getting fireteam kills in a Vanguard activity.
Archie the Dog/Good Boy Protocol
Archie is returning in Season 21! Now that we’ve found him a permanent home in the Tower, we are re-introducing the Good Boy Protocol stat tracker and moving it to the Account/Career category. Your previous progress from Season 19 will also carry over!
Important Season Pass Info Starting With Season 21
There is going to be an increase in the standalone Season Pass price, beginning with Season of the Deep. Here’s what you can expect:
- Season Pass: 1,000 Silver -> 1,200 Silver
- Season Pass + 10 Ranks Bundle: 2,000 Silver -> 2,200 Silver
This will be the new pricing for Season Passes in Lightfall’s year for those looking to maximize their rewards with each new Season, Bungie will be evaluating new approaches to post-launch content in the year of The Final Shape.
Pricing will remain unchanged for the Lightfall standard edition (which includes access to the current live Season at the time of purchase) and Lightfall + Annual Pass edition (which includes access to Seasons 20-23).
Trials of Osiris
There is a ton of details on Trials and labs and new rewards. The new shader Glorious Patina does look pretty dope!
The added in a reminder for Guardians to check out the Prime Gaming Rewards, you can check out our coverage of the latest stuff by clicking here.
They also have some free wallpapers for both Mobile and Desktop of your Guardian Games Hunters, Titans and Warlocks
What do you think of this week at Bungie? Let us know in the comments below or hit us up on our Twitter account by clicking here. As always stay tuned to Culture Splat for more content! Also don’t forget to check out our Destiny 2 Mugs over on our shop
