Original article: Just over a week after it was reported that Bungie — the developer of the 2017 live-service shooter Destiny 2 and this year's extraction shooter Marathon — would soon face "significant" layoffs, major cuts at the studio have now come, having been announced by Sony CEO Hermen Hulst.

Hulst revealed the news in a letter to Sony employees that was also published publicly, writing that the layoffs have impacted "a significant number of employees, including most of the Destiny team and some Marathon team members." Sony teams tasked with supporting Bungie have also been affected.

He went on to explain that "This decision was made only after extensive discussion and careful consideration," and that Sony worked with Bungie's leadership to evaluate its long-term plans, resource demands, and place within the PlayStation portfolio "before concluding that a reduction was necessary to align the studio’s resources with its current priorities and long-term goals."

"What Bungie has accomplished with Destiny over the past decade has been truly remarkable," Hulst wrote, of the space fantasy looter shooter's legacy. "The franchise has left a lasting mark on players and the industry, and everyone who contributed to its success should be proud of what they helped create."

He also made a point of mentioning that "Marathon remains an important part of our portfolio, and we will continue to support the team as they build on the strong foundation established in Season 1 and 2, and as they work on incubation efforts for future projects." Though the sci-fi extraction shooter reboot hasn't been a massive hit for Bungie and PlayStation, it does have a passionate and dedicated community of players.

"Our immediate priority is supporting affected employees through this transition. We are providing transition support and, where possible, working to identify opportunities across SIE and our global network of studios," Hulst continued.

"I want to sincerely thank every affected employee for their hard work, creativity, and contributions to Bungie, SIE, and the broader gaming community," he added. "I know today’s news is deeply difficult not only for those leaving, but for those colleagues and friends that remain. Please take the time you need to process this news and support one another."

These cuts come a month after Bungie announced the end of Destiny 2 development would come with its final Monument of Triumph content update on June 9, capping the title's nine-year lifespan. Though fans passionately rallied to try and save the game and get a Destiny 3 greenlit, there's been no sign that they've influenced Sony's plans.

In the weeks that followed, ex-Bungie community manager Liana Ruppert took to social media to claim that "A lot of money didn't go into Destiny" due to leadership "greed," leading to funding issues for the game. It also came to light that Sony's $3.6 billion merger with Bungie in 2022 was also reportedly an "emergency acquisition" that was necessary to keep the studio afloat.

Ultimately, after everything that's happened and come out in the last several weeks, I had a bad feeling that these steep layoffs were inevitable — and now that they've come down, I can't help but be very worried about Bungie's future as a developer. I also want to extend my best wishes to everyone affected at Sony and Bungie. I hope you're able to find new success in the industry or elsewhere as soon as you can.

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It's been a difficult few weeks for fans of Bungie's long-running live-service looter shooter Destiny 2 like myself, with the studio announcing last month that development on the nearly decade-old title would end with its final content update, Monument of Triumph, that released on June 9.

Since then, Bungie has continued to patch the game while it prepares to eventually go largely hands off and focus solely on server maintenance so that Destiny 2 remains playable. Sadly, however, I'd say it sounds like any live-service support for the space fantasy FPS beyond that will soon come to an end.

Addressing the community on social media, Destiny 2 comms manager Dylan "dmg04" Gafner explained that Bungie is getting "into our last string of hotfixes," and that the studio is "nearing the final delivery of patch notes" as it works on final adjustments and bug fixes for the game.

"As we get into our last string of hotfixes, the team is trying to squash as many bugs as possible," he wrote. "You’ll see some ability bug fixes next week, and a slew of other things touched in a later update, but we are nearing the final delivery of patch notes."

Gafner then went on to note that "some issues may not be addressed due to 'risk'" or because of "triage" priorities before Bungie steps away from Destiny 2. For example, fixes for issues that may cause further problems, low-priority balance changes, fixes for visual glitches with gear, or PvP playlist adjustments are the kinds of things the studio plans to forego as its support winds down.

Much bigger problems, though — such as a tech with the new portable Titan Ward of Dawn that lets you push raid bosses off the map and other broken strategies across PvE and PvP — are things that Bungie is focusing on taking care of.

He added that after the game's final update (the timing of which is to be determined), any further patches "will be restricted to severe issues like widespread crashes." Should major issues arise after that, Gafner says "we’ll likely lean on disabling items, abilities, or whatever the culprit is for the problem at hand."

"The finality of all this is a bit rough to get into, but wanted to set expectations appropriately. We aren’t going to turn a blind eye to your reports. May be limited with what we can do, but we’ll still try," he continued. "Appreciate you, always. See you out there."

While I'm glad that Bungie will still, in some capacity, tackle large issues that crop up after its full support for Destiny 2 ends, hearing that it will have to be incredibly selective with what it works on is quite sobering.

It hammers home that this is truly the end of a game so many of us have played and loved for years and years now — and based on recent reports about potential layoffs, I fear that it will be the end of Destiny and Bungie as we know it, as well.

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After nearly 10 years of standing tall as one of the industry's biggest and most popular live-service multiplayer games, Bungie's space fantasy looter shooter Destiny 2 is coming to an end. The studio announced development for the title was ending last month, with its final content update Monument of Triumph releasing last week.

Fans have rallied to push Bungie and Sony — which acquired the developer in 2022 — to greenlight the creation of a Destiny 3, with a Change.org petition for a sequel reaching nearly 400,000 signatures and player numbers skyrocketing for Monument of Triumph. Ultimately, though, I can't help but feel that the future for Destiny as a series looks bleak.

For many (myself included), that feeling has only been worsened by recent reports that Bungie will soon face a large wave of layoffs in the wake of Destiny 2's end. The first of these came from journalist Sylvain Trinel on Tuesday, who wrote that "at least 50% of the workforce" — potentially including roughly 400 in-house developers and contractors — will likely be cut this summer.

Paul Tassi, Forbes' Bungie and Destiny expert in contact with sources at the studio, then went on to partially corroborate Trinel's report. Though he doesn't "want to commit to a percent," Tassi says layoffs at Bungie are coming, and that they'll be "significant."

"I don’t want to commit to a percent, but it’s going to be significant. They don’t have a greenlit new project, and they can hardly throw 400 more devs on Marathon," Tassi wrote.

He also noted that he expects some veteran talent and devs in leadership positions to depart next month as they collect cash payouts from Sony: "You will also see some leadership/OGs leave in I believe July, which is when Sony deal cash vests for many of them."

These reports come soon after former Destiny 2 community manager Liana Ruppert provided insight into the game's steady decline in recent years that ultimately led to the conclusion of its development.

Specifically, she asserted that "a lot of money didn't go into Destiny" and that leadership pocketed many of the game's potential funds, stating that Bungie's new extraction shooter Marathon had much less of an impact than many fans assume.

Ruppert also claimed that Sony's merger with Bungie was an "emergency acquisition" agreed to for financial reasons, and that the studio would have been "very close to shutting its doors" if it didn't sell to the PlayStation publisher.

Assuming these reports are accurate — and do keep in mind that Tassi in particular has a track record of reporting on events at Bungie very accurately — the studio and its Destiny IP has some very dark days ahead. Even more game industry layoffs on top of the countless cuts suffered at Bungie and other studios would be devastating, and they'd also dash many hopes for an eventual Destiny 3 made by the talent responsible for so many years of Destiny 2's success.

How do you feel about Bungie, Destiny 2, and the possibility of a massive layoff wave at the studio? Share your thoughts in the comments.

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The moment that Destiny 2 developer Bungie announced that the game's live service development was ending with the release of its final content update, there was immediate backlash from the looter shooter's community against the studio's new game Marathon.

Many Destiny fans angrily blamed Marathon for Destiny 2's end, claiming that the latter was abandoned by Bungie developers in favor of the new extraction shooter. This led to some nasty arguments between players of both games I was very frustrated to see, and ultimately detracted from the community coming together to celebrate Destiny's legacy (and push for a potential Destiny 3) somewhat.

However, former Bungie community manager Liana Ruppert took to social media to address player assumptions and speculations, asserting that "A lot of money didn't go into Destiny" because of leadership "greed," and not because of Marathon.

"We’re [former developers] saying it went into leadership pockets," she explained. "You should be pissed, but keep the blame where it was. Marathon has way less impact than yall think."

Now, Ruppert has spoken on the relationship between Marathon, Destiny, and Bungie's business once again — this time stating that "the only way to keep Bungie alive right now" in the wake of Destiny 2's end "is to support Marathon."

"Half the community is going to hate me for saying this, but the only way to keep Bungie alive right now is to support Marathon," she wrote in a social media post.

"People keep comparing Marathon numbers to Destiny and frankly, that's ignorant. Marathon was never designed to do [Destiny] numbers," Ruppert continued. "The conversations about that were very upfront early. It's more aligned with Tarkov than Destiny. Completely different target markets that just so happen to have a wide intersection with Destiny target markets since it uniquely has so many."

Essentially, what she's saying here is that Sony — which acquired Bungie for PlayStation in 2022 — doesn't have Destiny-sized expectations for Marathon, and so even if the game doesn't grow to become as big as Destiny is, the publisher may consider it successful and continue to invest in Bungie projects as long as Marathon performs decently well.

"Their value isn't SOLELY in Marathon but if Marathon is considered a failed project — which it [is] not at this time — then that puts them up for grabs for turning the Bungie name from a production studio [into] a service of expertise that would benefit the whole Sony network," Ruppert added in a follow-up comment.

I'm not sure if we'll ever get a Destiny 3 or not, but if you want to see Bungie make it at some point, I agree with Ruppert that you should want Marathon to perform well, even if it's not really your type of game. Thus far, it hasn't been a colossal hit or anything, but it has a passionate community of players across Xbox, PC, and PS5 even so.

I tried it and had some good fun, and while I probably won't come back to it much, I do hope it — and Bungie as a studio — has good days ahead.

Would you like to see Sony and Bungie eventually move forward with a Destiny 3? I'm curious, so leave a comment and vote in our poll to let me know.

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To say that the last few weeks have been a rollercoaster if you're a fan of Bungie and its long-running space fantasy looter shooter Destiny 2 would be an understatement. In late May, the developer suddenly announced that development of the game would end on June 9, with one final massive Monument of Triumph content update sending the title out with a bang.

Destiny 2 has experienced a steady and severe player count decline over time due to slow and disappointing updates, though fans rallied to demand a Destiny 3 and vowed to flood the servers for the final patch — something they've followed through on while also gathering upwards of 400,000 signatures for a Destiny 3 Change.org petition.

The push for Sony and Bungie to greenlight a third Destiny and not end the series on such an abrupt note has also driven lots of conversation about what went wrong behind the scenes. That led former Bungie community manager Liana Ruppert to speak out, claiming that "A lot of money didn't go into Destiny" due to leadership "greed."

Now, she's commented on the health of Bungie's business once again — this time alleging that the studio "was below the red line" before Sony initiated its plan to acquire it for $3.6 billion in 2022. The merger with the PlayStation maker, she says, was an "emergency acquisition."

"Bungie was below the red line before the Sony acquisition. If it wasn’t acquired right then, the studio was very close to shutting its doors at the very least on Destiny," she wrote in a social media post. "It was an emergency acquisition."

Notably, this news lines up with previous comments from Ruppert and other ex-Bungie developers who fiercely criticized the studio's leadership for long-standing issues when major layoffs came to Bungie in 2024, after it had already gone through cuts in late 2023.

All signs point to grave resource mismanagement at the developer that put it in dire straits and drove it to strike a deal with Sony. At first, Bungie was given wide creative freedom under the PlayStation publisher, but its independence has been "getting tighter" since last year, and it's "becoming more part of PlayStation Studios."

Just last month, Sony reported a $565 million impairment loss attached to Bungie. That's further called the studio's autonomy into question, and has left many wondering how much control Sony now has over its future plans.

With Destiny 2 content development now over, the performance of Bungie's new PvPvE extraction shooter Marathon will undoubtedly play a large role in determining what the studio does next. The game hasn't exactly been a massive hit since it arrived in March, though it does have a passionate community of dedicated players.

Ultimately, if Bungie's financial troubles have been as severe as Ruppert describes them for several years now, it's likely going to take a long time for its workers and Sony to right the ship and stabilize the situation at the studio. I just hope that effort is actually invested, and that Destiny — and Bungie itself — has a place in the future.

How do you feel about Bungie and the end of Destiny 2? Share your thoughts in the comments, and also let me know if you want Destiny 3 or not in our poll.

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It’s hard to come up with words to describe what Destiny fans are, or rather have been, over the past few weeks, but relentless certainly comes to mind. After Bungie announced it would close the book on Destiny's live-service development, I've seen nothing short of an onslaught of pleas from fans begging Bungie and Sony to revive the franchise and give them Destiny 3, a sequel to Bungie's FPS, RPG, MMO-like looter shooter.

Players have gone so far as to flood Sony’s recent State of Play broadcast, creating petitions, and rallying behind a community-wide push to log in yesterday, on June 9, 2026, in an effort to send a message to Bungie and Sony. Well, they showed up in force, and then some.

For those unaware, SteamDB is a popular free-to-access database that tracks all things Steam, including player counts, game updates, and sales data. Thanks to an influx of more than 167,000 players jumping into Destiny 2, the site struggled to keep up and briefly crashed under the load.

It wasn’t just SteamDB that struggled under the pressure, either. Destiny 2 itself had trouble handling the massive influx of players, with many across Xbox, PlayStation, and PC reporting login errors as they attempted to get online.

The surge in activity also propelled Destiny 2 to the No. 1 spot on Steam's Global Top Sellers chart, and even I managed to finish getting the remainder of the DLC I needed due to a massive sale. This just further highlights how many players turned up for the game's final major update.

Now, while I’m certainly not one for pointing fingers, many were quick to point out that during this same period, Bungie’s other live-service game, Marathon, had just 5,000 players on Steam. Even as I write this, Destiny 2 is sitting at around 60,000 players, while Marathon is at roughly 7,000, so make of that what you will.

It’s also worth mentioning that Destiny 2 blasted past Marathon’s 88,000-player peak on Steam within minutes, which, for lack of a better phrase, feels like a bit of a middle finger to Bungie. More than anything, though, it’s also a testament to just how much people still care about Destiny, and I’m genuinely impressed.

I never really got into Destiny myself, but I do now own all the DLC, having recently started playing it with a friend, and I must say I can definitely see the appeal. So, I say fight on, Guardians, and I hope Bungie takes notice of this massive outcry from fans.

But enough about me. Did you take part in the Destiny 2 mass login, or have you already moved on? Let me know in the comments, and be sure to take part in our poll below:

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This year's annual Summer Game Fest was officially kicked off by Sony on Tuesday afternoon, with the PlayStation maker hosting a new State of Play event that gave players a closer look at several new and upcoming titles headed to PS5 and other platforms. Games like Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis and Onimusha: Way of the Sword left a big impact on many, with Marvel's Wolverine ultimately stealing the show.

And yet, much of the community's focus on the presentation had nothing to do with its contents, and was instead directed to the chat of the livestream — a result of players barraging it with a clear, unified message: "We want Destiny 3," either fully written out, in hashtag form, or conveyed with emotes. The spam continued for nearly the entire show.

For those who've been keeping up with the news surrounding Bungie's live-service space fantasy FPS series, I doubt the rallying cry will come as a surprise; since the studio announced Destiny 2 development is ending on June 9 when its final Monument of Triumph update comes out, players have passionately pushed for Sony to greenlight a sequel, surging a Change.org petition that now has nearly 350,000 signatures.

Fans were further spurred on by a comment from Destiny 2 community lead and principal communications manager Dylan "dmg04" Gafner, who wrote that "Guardians make their own fate" in a post on Sunday. He then reposted a call for Destiny 2 players to log in on June 9 and flood its servers for its final update, giving many hope that doing so might sway Sony to invest in future Destiny projects.

I'd also like to draw attention to the fact players have been driven to get loud by recent revelations about what's been going on at Bungie behind the scenes. Former Destiny developers have publicly claimed that "greed" from leadership led to a shortage of resources for the live-service shooter, with new comments aligning with what's been said about the studio's management after the devastating 2024 layoffs at the developer.

Reportedly, that lack of adequate support played a large role in Destiny 2's steady decline and imminent downfall — and fans feel strongly that the franchise deserves far more than such an abrupt and dissatisfying conclusion. After all, Destiny has been around since 2014 and has touched the lives of millions, and has left a monumental mark on gaming history.

As a veteran of Destiny 2 that played it frequently during its nine-year lifespan, I'm in full agreement with that sentiment, and have high hopes that the ongoing rally to demand a future for the series will bear fruit. I don't expect we'll hear anything about a potential Destiny 3 soon, but eventually, I'd be really happy to see it announced by Sony and Bungie.

My main concern is that Bungie as we know it may be a completely different entity by then; with Sony forced to endure a massive $565 million impairment loss attached to the developer and Marathon not exactly raking in massive success, one can't help but wonder if the publisher will put the studio through some significant restructuring. In the end, though, only time will tell what Bungie's future holds.

Do you want to see Sony and Bungie eventually make a Destiny 3? Share your thoughts down below.

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One of the longest-running live-service titles in the gaming industry has been Destiny 2, Bungie's 2017 sequel to the original space fantasy looter shooter that's received expansions and content updates across Xbox, PC, and PlayStation for nearly a decade. Now, though, Destiny 2 is coming to an end after a series of disappointing releases, delays, and decisions about its overall direction.

One final content update, Monument of Triumph, is scheduled to release on June 9; when it does, active Destiny 2 development will cease, with Bungie and publisher PlayStation (Sony) keeping the servers on but ultimately moving on from the project. Players fear this could be the end of Destiny as a franchise, and have rallied to surge a Destiny 2 petition while vowing to flood the servers next week.

Naturally, something fans all over desperately want to know is: what happened? What led to Destiny 2's rapid decline, and this sudden and abrupt end? Some believe that the game was largely abandoned for the development of Bungie's new PvP extraction shooter Marathon, and feel bitter about that project as a result.

However, several former Bungie developers have publicly focused their own criticisms on management and leadership at the studio, and have asserted that Marathon shouldn't be the target of the community's ire. One such developer is former Bungie community manager Liana Ruppert, and I think what she's had to say recently is important for fans to read.

"Oh I dunno, maybe listen to when the devs are calling out leadership for their greed? A lot of money didn’t go into Destiny," she replied to one commenter who asked how a large company like Bungie was having trouble putting together the resources to support Destiny 2. "We wouldn’t tank our careers for nothing."

"You’re not understanding me. Or what the devs are saying. We’re saying it went into leadership pockets," she added. "You should be pissed, but keep the blame where it was. Marathon has way less impact than yall think."

She went on to say that she's "been screaming about it for three years and all I got was blacklisted by [former Bungie CEO Pete Parsons]," and that players should "Vote with your wallet and make sure if you’re loud with your frustrations you’re just as loud about what you love."

Parsons is no longer at the developer and has been succeeded by Justin Truman as studio head; Ruppert noted "that influence is still there and takes a long time to root out unfortunately, the cancer was deep."

It's worth noting that comments from Ruppert and other ex-Bungie developers line up with similar criticisms made in 2024 when the studio was beset by significant layoffs after already experiencing cuts in late 2023. Several former workers spoke out against mismanagement and called on Parsons, still CEO at the time, to resign.

While much of the truth will likely always be obscured, statements from former Bungie workers make it pretty clear to me that the greed of the studio's leadership is to blame for the fate of Destiny 2, and potentially Destiny as a series. I'm hopeful for a light at the end of the tunnel for the developer, but with Sony recording a $565 million impairment loss attached to the studio, I can't help but be worried for its future.

How do you feel about the road ahead for Bungie? Will you play Destiny 2 one last time when the Monument of Triumph update comes out? Share your thoughts below.

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Some incredibly sad news regarding Bungie's long-running space fantasy looter shooter Destiny 2 came about a week and a half ago, with the studio announcing that the game's live-service development is coming to an end on June 9 following an extended period of underwhelming and delayed updates and expansions. At that time, its final Monument of Triumph content update is dropping across Xbox, PC, and PlayStation — one last hurrah before the end as the servers go into a static state.

It's good that the game will, at the very least, remain playable. But it's still a sad and sudden end for an experience that's been held dear in the hearts of millions (mine included) since its arrival in 2017, and one that players have rallied against with a petition for the development of Destiny 3.

Indeed, while Destiny 2's fate is sealed, there are hopes that enough of a push from the game's community will drive Sony and PlayStation (the company that acquired Bungie in 2022) to greenlight a sequel. Thus far, over 325,000 people have signed the aforementioned petition on Change.org — and there's encouragement from Bungie devs for players to flood the servers come June 9, with some thinking one in particular is hinting we could see a Destiny 3 eventually come if enough of a commotion is made.

Sunday, Destiny 2 community lead and principal communications manager Dylan "dmg04" Gafner posted a statement that caught the eyes of many: "Guardians make their own fate."

Longtime Destiny players will recognize the phrase as text that appears to signal the start of a damage phase against Atheon in the Vault of Glass raid. In this context, though, fans believe Gafner is alluding to the fact that players may be able to sway Sony towards supporting the creation of a Destiny 3 instead of moving on from the series.

Notably, Gafner went on to repost a rallying cry of "LOG ON JUNE 9TH" from community figure Zavalr, then followed that up with another post: "Do not go gentle into that good night."

He was referencing the use of the famous Dylan Thomas poem in the beloved film Interstellar, but hey, it sure is a pretty interesting time to Tweet out the iconic line. It precedes another very noteworthy one at the end of the first stanza: "Rage, rage against the dying of the light."

In the end, it's totally hopium to believe that the community will manifest the creation of Destiny 3 through a petition and a strong return of players for one last big Destiny 2 update. It's hopium I'll huff without hesitation, though, because Destiny means a great many things to a great many people, and it deserves better than to end in the disappointing place it's been steered to by poor executive leadership at Bungie and Sony.

Besides, Monument of Triumph looks like it's going to be an incredible update, so logging in will be worth it anyway. The colossal patch is adding and reworking a ton of weapons and armor sets, with revamped activities, new "Pantheon" raid gauntlet challenges, and more set to drop as well. It's no exaggeration to say that Destiny 2 is going out with a bang.

Do you plan on playing Destiny 2 one last time when the Monument of Triumph update releases on June 9? Let me know in the comments, and in our poll.

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In a recent interview with popular Halo content creator Mint Blitz, former Bungie level and mission designer Niles Sankey, who worked at Bungie from 2006 to 2015 and also served as Lead Mission Designer for Halo: Reach, had some rather strong words about the current state of the Halo franchise.

First, though, before we dive into all of that, I do recommend giving the full 50-plus-minute interview a watch.

It goes into some genuinely fascinating details about original plans for Halo: Reach, alongside behind-the-scenes insight into Halo 3’s missions that fans like myself will probably love hearing about. So, with that said, let’s jump right in.

Jumping straight into the nitty gritty here, Sankey was asked what he would do if given free rein to do as he pleases with Halo. In response, Sankey said:

Expanding, he continued:

“Microsoft has this great opportunity where they own the Halo franchise and they have this great opportunity to spin up a separate team to just build Halo titles that look like they were built from that era, from the Halo 3 era of gaming”

Honestly, given the current reported ongoings at Halo Studios, I’m all for this. I’ve personally always thought it was a shame that the Halo IP isn’t, at the very least, leased out to other studios to create new and interesting experiences.

Sankey goes on to lament just how expensive modern game development has become, arguing that as studios expand, they often lose the culture that made them successful in the first place. He also reflected on Halo: Campaign Evolved and some of the challenges that come with modernizing older Halo experiences, stating:

“You end up stepping all over the games that the fans like and then you have these unsolvable problems of should we have sprint or should we not have sprint or we need to make it look awesome but it's going to piss off part of the fans because the Forerunner structures are too clean”

To that end, Sankey believes the solution is fairly straightforward: “The obvious answer here is no, roll back to the 2007 era graphics and do it as a separate team.”

I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on this because, personally, I’d be more than happy with a new Halo game using graphics in the same style as Halo 3 or even Halo: Reach again.

To me, and I imagine many others, Halo was never really about graphics. It was always about the gameplay, sandbox, social features, story, and everything else that made those games special beyond simply “wow, game pretty.”

But those are just my thoughts. Let me know yours in the comments, and be sure to take part in our poll below:

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I stopped checking Marathon’s Steam charts within a week of it coming out, not because I wanted to see the game fail or anything, but because I got caught up in all the internet drama surrounding it. Having played the game myself and, quite frankly, disliking it, I was curious to see how it would hold up long term. Well, we now have some numbers thanks to Sony’s earnings report from last night.

For those unaware, PlayStation purchased Bungie for over $3.6 billion back in 2022 as part of Sony’s infamous, and now largely failed, live service gaming push. That strategy gave us games like Concord, alongside numerous canceled projects after the initiative failed to deliver the results Sony likely hoped for.

Successful as Bungie may once have been, Sony has now recorded another impairment loss tied to the studio totaling roughly $565 million. That comes on top of the $204 million impairment Sony reported last year, meaning the company has now written down well over half a billion dollars tied to Bungie in just two years.

As Xbox fans likely know all too well, Bungie was once heavily associated with Xbox thanks to Halo, a franchise many, myself included, still consider one of the greatest trilogies of all time. At the time, Sony's acquisition of Bungie probably made perfect sense. The studio had already moved on from Halo and found massive success with Destiny, proving it could build and maintain a huge live service audience.

I will say, just to keep things clear, an impairment loss does not mean Bungie itself lost $565 million directly. Rather, it means Sony believes Bungie is now worth less than it was when the company was originally purchased.

With that in mind, though, it still naturally raises questions about Bungie’s future, especially regarding Destiny and Marathon. Bungie recently stated it has years of plans mapped out for Marathon, but with numbers like this, it becomes increasingly difficult to imagine the studio, and potentially even its current games, remaining in a healthy position just a few years from now.

It’s a sad day for Bungie, and a worrying time for the studio’s future. With that in mind, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Do you have any specific opinions on this situation, or did you expect it?

Let me know in the comments, and be sure to take part in our poll below:

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In what I assume is a surprise, at least it was to me, Marathon has topped playtime on Xbox in the U.S.

Thanks to reporting from Circana via Mat Piscatella, we’ve got a look at player engagement for the week ending April 18, 2026.

Now, this isn’t a list of the most popular games. Instead, it tracks average hours played per user, and that’s where things get interesting, according to the report.

On Xbox, Marathon ranks number one for hours played per player.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance II follows in second, with Crimson Desert in third.

Platform leaders in weekly average hours per US player - week ending Apr 18 2026:Xbox - 1) Marathon 2) KCDII 3) Crimson DesertPlayStation - 1) Path of Exile 2) Neverwinter 3) StarfieldSteam - 1) NGU Idle 2) Idle Hero TD 3) Rocky IdleKinda fun. Source: Circana Player Engagement Tracker

— @matpiscatella.bsky.social (@matpiscatella.bsky.social.bsky.social) 2026-04-27T19:48:37.274Z

Over on PlayStation, Marathon is nowhere to be seen in the top three.
Instead, Starfield comes in at number three, following its recent launch on the platform after a period of timed exclusivity on Xbox.

Perhaps just as interesting, despite Steam being Marathon’s biggest platform by sales (via Forbes), it doesn’t appear in the top three there either.

That suggests Xbox players are spending more time in Marathon than players on any other platform, reinforcing the idea that Xbox continues to be a strong home for FPS engagement.

It is also worth noting that Marathon does not appear in the top 10 most played games on Xbox by player count in the U.S.

Which does highlight the difference between reach and engagement. Fewer players may be jumping in, but those who are playing seem to be spending a significant amount of time with the game.

At least on Xbox, Marathon might not be a mass market hit, but more like a highly engaged niche, which isn’t a bad thing.

I’ll be the first to admit, as I said, at the start, this is a surprise to me. I’ll also admit that I didn’t really expect this from Marathon, but I also didn't really enjoy the game.

Before you jump down my neck, I wasn’t one of the people who wanted to see it fail, quite the opposite, actually.

I think it’s great that Bungie tried something different, and hopefully the game can continue to grow, regardless of platform.

That said, what do you think? Are you as surprised as I am, or did you expect this kind of outcome?

Let me know in the comments, and be sure to take part in our poll!

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One of the largest and most controversial systems Destiny 2 developer Bungie added to the live-service looter shooter was content vaulting — a process that's seen pieces of old content removed from the game as new releases come out since 2020's Beyond Light expansion.

The studio said vaulting had to be done to keep the game stable, though fans ultimately still resent content vaulting and have pointed out no other long-running mass-multiplayer titles have had to introduce such a system. For many, it's considered an unacceptable removal of content they previously paid for, even as some vaulted content has been brought back over time.

With Bungie's long-awaited extraction shooter reboot of Marathon now finally out, many have worried that the developer will eventually introduce a similar type of content vaulting system to its latest FPS. However, the studio has confirmed that there are no plans for one, and that it's aiming for the game's content to be "evergreen."

"We want Marathon to be an additive experience in the sense that all priority contracts and story content aims to be evergreen, meaning that it doesn't matter when you join, you'll still be able to play through the established questlines and fill out your Codex with achievements and collections that allow you to uncover additional layers of the world," creative director Julia Nardin told Space.com.

"We'll be adding to this foundation over time in the live service environment, depending on our players' response and at a cadence we can support, but we know what direction we want to go in and what we want to create for the community to uncover next," she continued.

So, in other words, Bungie wants to avoid another content vaulting situation, and intends to keep all of Marathon's quests and story developments — and by extension, the maps their objectives are located on — available to new players for the duration of the game's lifespan, even as more are added over time.

It's great news for fans worried that we'd see a repeat of Destiny's widely panned vaulting, though personally, I'm not surprised there aren't plans to bring it back for Marathon. Aside from the colossal damage that doing so would hit Bungie's goodwill with, Marathon is also a far smaller and less complex game than Destiny.

Destiny has countless different maps, stages, missions, and modes, ranging from casual PvE patrol zones and three-player Strike activities to secret quest-driven missions, hardcore Dungeons and Raids, and a variety of PvP offerings. Marathon, in comparison, just has a handful of large map zones for its PvPvE extraction shooter gameplay, with a much smaller selection of weapons and other items.

Content vaulting being necessary was understandable for a game that's now approaching a file size of almost 200 GB, but Marathon barely hits 25 GB. Content vaulting in Marathon would be ridiculous — which is why it's not in the game.

With that said, Bungie didn't promise that it won't be a part of Marathon in the future; it just said it "aims" to make all of the game's content evergreen. Hopefully, though, the studio will never even get close to the point where it would begin considering content vaulting for its new extraction shooter.

🗨️ How do you feel about content vaulting?

How do you feel about Bungie's content vaulting system in Destiny 2? Do you hate it like many players do, or does it bother you less than most? Are you glad the developers are trying to avoid removing Marathon content over time? Let me know in the comments.

Join us on Reddit at r/WindowsCentral to share your insights and discuss our latest news, reviews, and more.

Datamining — AKA, the process of combing through a game's files for early looks at unreleased content present in its code — has become an increasingly popular way for players to leak upcoming additions in advance of their planned release dates. One developer, though, is cracking down hard on this practice for its latest game.

That developer is Halo and Destiny creator Bungie, and the game it's aggressively protecting is Marathon, its new sci-fi extraction shooter reboot of its classic '90s-era FPS that's come to Xbox, PC, and PS5. On its launch day last week, the studio took to social media to make it clear to its community that it's planning to enforce a strict no-tolerance policy for publicly sharing unannounced Marathon content.

"With today's launch of Marathon, we just wanted to give you all a heads-up that our goal is first and foremost to preserve the experience and surprises for all of our players," Bungie wrote. "As such, we will be issuing takedowns for any datamined content that has not yet been revealed to players."

Given that developers rarely front warnings like this, this notice was something of a surprise to many. However, Bungie's proactive and strict approach to quelling datamine leaks actually makes a lot of sense when you consider its history with Destiny, and also the structure of Marathon.

On top of the fact datamining has been prevalent in the Destiny community for years, Marathon has been designed in such a way that its community is able to slowly unlock secrets and future additions through gameplay achievements and discoveries. The upcoming Cryo Archive map said to feature Destiny raid-like mechanics is an example of this, and will be available once players figure out how to access it.

After contending with Destiny leaks for ages, it's honestly not surprising that Bungie is taking a firm and forward stance against datamining for Marathon. The community playing a direct role in the progression of the game's story and the addition of new content is exciting, but if dataminers spoil the surprises that await, it'd suck a ton of fun out of that experience.

But what about dataminers that rip models and environments from games in order to create artwork in programs like Blender? If that's you, don't worry — Bungie says as long as what you use to make your art is content that's already been revealed, you have nothing to worry about.

"Datamining files that are already revealed (character models, weapons, etc.) and creating fun art as a result will not be taken down. Creators, if it's currently playable in the build, go forth and do your thing," it added.

Notably, Bungie isn't the only developer that's making an effort to thwart leaking. Recently, Call of Duty publisher Activision "legally demanded" that the well-known dataminer TheGhostOfHope cease his reports, prompting him to comply and retire from leaking inside information.

This warning suggests a copyright takedown is the worst you'll get if you're still brave enough to post Marathon leaks, though I suspect the studio might pursue some sort of legal action against repeat offenders. After all, Bungie has aggressively sued cheaters before.

Y'know, I'm not going to tell you what to do, but ultimately? You probably shouldn't try and share Marathon leaks, if you're the kind of person with the datamining know-how to find them. It's clear Bungie will be on your tail if you do, and something tells me they'd be a bit harder to avoid than UESC patrols.

🗨️ Do you support Bungie's stance against leaks?

It's clear that with Marathon, Bungie has zero tolerance for datamining leaks that would likely spoil major upcoming additions coming to its hot new extraction shooter. Do you support the developer's stance, or do you believe it's too aggressive? I'm curious to hear what you think in the comments.

Join us on Reddit at r/WindowsCentral to share your insights and discuss our latest news, reviews, and more.

Bungie's Marathon, its new sci-fi extraction shooter and the reboot of its classic '90s FPS franchise, is now out — and the day after launch, the game's third map, Outpost, has now been released, and is available to select when loading into a run.

Outpost wasn't available to play on during the pre-launch Marathon Server Slam, but you can drop into it now as long as you've reached level 12 by completing runs and completing enough quests for the game's various factions.

It'll take you several hours to reach that point, but there's good reason for that; the upgrades and expanded options for buying gear to take into your raids you'll have by then will come in very handy on Outpost, as it's a significant step up in difficulty compared to the early game maps Perimeter and Dire Marsh.

Described as "a more functional, thriving UESC facility," Outpost is a smaller map centered around a large central structure that features a dark nighttime atmosphere, dangerous weather hazards, a greater number of tough PvE UESC enemies, and "enemy crews around every corner." The below video from Bungie shows what to expect:

Outpost's defining feature is the "Pinwheel," a "meat grinder of a structure" in the center of the map that towers over the rest of the stage and is filled with "nooks and crannies and hallways." Bungie says this building brings more verticality to the map compared to others, and overall, "it just becomes a real clusterf*** when you're in there fighting."

The Pinwheel is where you'll find some of the best loot Outpost has to offer, but the process of getting your hands on it will be "noisy," so you can expect a ton of intense PvE and PvP within the structure.

You'll definitely want to make sure you're going into Outpost with a full loadout of solid gear, plenty of ammo, and a healthy amount of meds — especially since Marathon's fast time-to-kill (TTK) means you can't afford to be caught unprepared in hot PvP zones.

Reactions to the map thus far have confirmed it's indeed the big difficulty spike Bungie said it is, with players reporting what feels like "1,000 turrets I guess," a "claustrophobic layout," and a whole lotta dying. One fan even commented that it "feels like a horror level," so be ready for constant nerve-wracking tension.

All in all, Outpost takes the high-risk, high-reward nature of Marathon's gameplay loop to an entirely new level, and will no doubt be where you'll find the most intense action until the community figures out how to unlock the endgame Cryo Archive stage, which is located on the UESC Marathon colony ship itself.

I haven't quite reached level 12 yet, but I'm excited to do so soon and jump into Outpost with my squad. I'd say I hope to see you there, but honestly, I don't...unless you've got some sweet loot with my name on it, that is. Stay frosty, Runners.

🗨️ Ready to jump into Outpost?

Now that the Outpost map is out in Marathon, are you ready to jump into it for a few high-stakes runs? How are you feeling about Marathon in general? Let me know in the comments, I'd love to hear from you.

Join us on Reddit at r/WindowsCentral to share your insights and discuss our latest news, reviews, and more.

Today, March 5, is quite a big day in the world of video games. Not only did Bungie — now owned by PlayStation maker Sony after its acquisition of the studio in 2022 — officially launch its high-profile, long-awaited sci-fi extraction shooter Marathon this morning across Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, and PS5, but indie developer Mega Crit also released its highly anticipated roguelike deckbuilding sequel Slay the Spire 2 in Early Access as well.

Of the two games, I'd forgive you for assuming Marathon is enjoying the bigger launch right now, especially with the crazy success of ARC Raiders proving just how mainstream extraction shooters — a traditionally niche genre — can get. But in truth, Slay the Spire 2 has actually blown up far more, at least on Steam.

Indeed, the Steam charts show that Marathon's launch player count has peaked at 86,718 concurrent players, while Slay the Spire 2's is 177,362, just over double that. Notably, Slay the Spire 2 is only on PC right now, so Marathon's availability on Xbox and PS5 is likely giving it a larger launch day player base overall. Still, though, the performance of Mega Crit's new indie title is incredibly impressive.

Comically, the studio actually posted a congratulations to Bungie for its release of Marathon as both games launched, with Mega Crit throwing playful shade at the studio and calling it a "small indie passion project."

"Congratulations to the Marathon team on their launch!" wrote the developer on social media. "Don't let small indie passion projects like this pass you by just because Slay the Spire 2 is out," it continued, along with a cheeky little heart emoji. No chill, man.

Of course, this is clearly all in good fun, though I will say I wasn't expecting Slay the Spire 2's launch day numbers to eclipse Marathon's like this. It goes to show just how popular the fantasy deckbuilding franchise truly is; Slay the Spire's fan base is as large as it is passionate, which is to say: very.

None of this is to scorn Marathon, by the way. On the contrary, I think it's off to a solid start so far, and very much want the reboot of Bungie's classic franchise to succeed. Admittedly, I'm not really much of a PvP player in general, but playing the Marathon Server Slam with my friends got me hooked on exploring and battling in its dark, yet vibrant and atmospheric world.

Both games are reviewing positively with players so far, with 89% of Marathon's 1,740 user reviews on Steam giving it a blue thumbs up and 94% of Slay the Spire 2's 1,402 reviews positive. This means that at the time of writing, both have a "Very Positive" rating.

Marathon is available across Xbox Series X|S, Steam PC, and PS5 for $39.99 (you can get it for just $33.89 at Loaded on PC), and notably has full support for crossplay and cross save. Launch kicked off its first season, which runs until June and will bring a new endgame Cryo Archive map the community needs to unlock along with a ranked mode, a new weapon, and more.

Slay the Spire 2, meanwhile, is only on PC while it's in Early Access, with Mega Crit expecting the title to remain so for the next year or two. It appears that the game has everything fans loved about the original, plus some big additions like new characters, support for co-op up to four players, and more.

Are you playing these new games?

The arrival of both Marathon and Slay the Spire 2 begs the question: are you playing either of these games right now, or do you plan to? Or perhaps you're going to play both? I'd love to hear from you, so let me know in the comments.

Join us on Reddit at r/WindowsCentral to share your insights and discuss our latest news, reviews, and more.

It's been a lengthy three-year wait for Marathon after Bungie first announced it in 2023, and the road to launch has been rocky, rife with controversies and negative optics after the poor reception to last year's alpha testing. After a delay and a major overhaul with reworked gameplay, visuals, and additional features, though, the extraction shooter has made a huge comeback — and its full release is imminent.

The long-awaited multiplayer FPS reboot of Bungie's classic franchise is now just hours away from its release across Xbox Series X|S, Steam PC, and PS5, and hype leading into the game's launch is sky-high.

A huge driver of that excitement was the free-to-play Marathon Server Slam that ran this past weekend, giving thousands of players the opportunity to try the shooter a few days ahead of its release date while helping Bungie test its servers. Aside from a few pain points like the complexity of the UI, feedback from Server Slam players was almost universally positive.

It's no exaggeration to say that Marathon is the talk of the town right now — so much so that it's currently in the #2 position on Steam's Top Sellers chart, behind only Resident Evil Requiem and above big names like direct competitor ARC Raiders and the highly anticipated Crimson Desert action RPG.

With preorders flying off digital shelves, there are undoubtedly countless fans curious to know when exactly they can jump into Marathon and start embarking on runs to Tau Ceti IV. If you're one of them, look no further; below, you'll find everything you need to know about Marathon's release date, launch times, and more.

The above graphic (shared by Bungie itself) as well as the table beneath it show the official release dates and launch times for the game. Specifically, Marathon is coming out on March 5 at 10 a.m. PT / 1 p.m. ET, with the developers releasing it at the same time globally across Xbox, Windows PC, and PS5.

That means depending on the region you live in and the time zone you have, it could be coming out as early as the morning of March 5 or as late as the middle of the night on March 6. Note that if you don't see your time zone above, you can use tools like this time zone converter to figure out when Marathon unlocks in your area.

Another thing worth highlighting is that if you've preordered Marathon, you can preload it ahead of its launch so you can start playing the game as soon as it releases. Preloads are available now across Xbox, PC, and PS5; the FPS' file size is quite small at just 23-25GB, so it shouldn't take long for most players to download and install.

If you haven't preordered yet but want to so you can preload Marathon, you still can. It's available for $39.99 on all of its platforms, though notably, you can get the PC version for just $33.89 at Loaded thanks to a nice deal.

Will you be playing Marathon?

Now that Marathon is just hours away from its full release, I have to ask: will you be playing it yourself? I wasn't expecting to like it very much myself since I don't play many PvP games, but I had a ton of fun playing Marathon with my friends during the Server Slam, and I'm looking forward to doing so again. Let me know how you're feeling about the game in the comments.

Join us on Reddit at r/WindowsCentral to share your insights and discuss our latest news, reviews, and more.

After reporting earlier this week that Marathon will be getting exclusive charms on PC and Xbox, and speculating about what those rewards might look like, the studio has now confirmed the details, at least for Xbox. Marathon shared the update on X (formerly Twitter), outlining exactly what players can expect.

Marathon, despite its rocky reveal and delays, is actually shaping up to look quite fun. At the very least, I am excited to get my hands on it and try it out with some friends. As an avid Xbox player, I now also know what to expect when it comes to exclusive cosmetics.

It is not quite what I had hoped for. Still, it is neat enough that it is worth sharing, so let’s jump right in. Compared to what PlayStation players are getting, the difference is noticeable.

To jog your memory, PlayStation Plus members are receiving three charms themed around Helldivers 2, Death Stranding 2, and Ghost of Yotei. Xbox players, however, are getting Minecraft-themed charms. There are two in total, one inspired by a Creeper and another by an Emerald.

They do not look bad at all. Quite the opposite, in fact. Still, given this is Bungie, and considering Destiny 2 previously featured Halo-inspired weapons, while Helldivers 2 received a full Halo crossover with ODST and a new map based on New Alexandria, I admittedly expected something Halo-themed here as well.

Perhaps I expected too much, and unfortunately, we do not yet know what PC players can expect.

Marathon is set to release on March 5, 2026, for Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and PC. Ahead of launch, a server slam will go live on February 26, 2026, giving everyone a chance to try the game before release.

The team has also been sharing additional details in the lead-up to launch, confirming that cheaters will be permanently banned with no second chances. The game will also feature dedicated servers, along with a reconnect system for players who disconnect mid-match.

All great features to see.

Are you excited for Marathon?

What do you think of the Xbox exclusive charms in Marathon? Let us know in the comments and make sure to take part in our poll below:

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Marathon is Bungie and Sony’s upcoming FPS. Similar in some ways to ARC Raiders, it is an extraction shooter that tasks players with gathering loot, gear, and weapons while fighting off other players and NPCs.

Sony typically secures exclusivity deals to strengthen its own ecosystem, especially as it doesn’t have the wide portfolio to do so itself. That has often meant games skipping Xbox and, previously, PC too. PC eventually became part of these arrangements, as excluding it proved unsustainable for many publishers, leaving Xbox as the platform most frequently left out.

Now, while Marathon is releasing on Xbox, many, myself included, expected it to at least offer exclusive in-game benefits only to PlayStation users. The assumption was that Xbox and PC players would miss out on certain perks.

That does not appear to be the case, so let’s take a look at what was actually said.

Xbox and Steam players won’t be left out

Marathon, in a post on X (formerly Twitter), responded to a user, @iSeekRest, who commented on exclusive PlayStation content. The original post detailed weapon charms for PlayStation Plus members featuring Helldivers 2, Death Stranding 2, and Ghost of Yotei.

Marathon was quick to clarify that weapon charms are also coming to Steam and Xbox players, however, whether they’re exclusive or not is unknown. This does immediately raise the question of what those platforms might receive.

As a long-time Halo fan, my first thought was simple: a Halo-themed weapon charm. It is not outside the realm of possibility, especially considering Bungie’s history and the fact Helldivers 2 has already featured a Halo crossover.

For Steam, it is less obvious. Most PlayStation titles are already available on PC, so it will be interesting to see whether it leans into Valve games or simply expands on existing PlayStation-themed cosmetics, given most PlayStation games are playable on PC.

Despite ongoing negativity around Marathon, with some comparing it to Concord 2.0, or even 3.0 following Highguard, which recently laid off most of its development team. However, sentiment has started to shift. Bungie appears to have gone back to the drawing board and listened to feedback, and the game is generally looking much better lately.

Marathon’s Server Slam begins February 26, 2026, and runs until March 2, 2026. The full release follows on March 5, 2026, for Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and PC.

Over to you

Will platform specific charms influence where you play Marathon, or does it not matter to you? Let us know in the comments and make sure to take part in our poll below:

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Ahead of its upcoming launch across Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, and PS5 on March 5, Bungie's new futuristic extraction shooter Marathon is enjoying a massive comeback in terms of overall player reception and perception. As a result, preorders for the FPS are selling extremely well, at least on Valve's PC gaming platform Steam.

Marathon was originally supposed to launch in September 2025, but was delayed indefinitely while Bungie added deeper gameplay elements and highly requested features like proximity chat, while also reworking the game's "graphic realism" art direction to give it a "darker tone" and addressing its publicized art theft debacle.

The studio then went quiet on the title until December, at which point it dropped a massive ViDoc video that showed off many extensive improvements made to Marathon, restoring the faith of many and reigniting excitement for the shooter. Then, Bungie announced its March release date this week and pushed preorders live, driving tons of players to buy their $39.99 copy early.

That's led to where things stand now, with Marathon currently of the best-selling games on Steam. In fact, on the platform's official Top Sellers chart, it's the second best-selling paid game (Counter-Strike 2, Warframe, and Marvel Rivals are above it, but are free-to-play) behind only Embark Studios' hugely popular ARC Raiders — another extraction shooter, notably, and Marathon's direct competition.

There's no way to track how well its preorders are selling on Xbox, but it's worth noting that Marathon is also the second best-selling game on PlayStation's preorders list, with Resident Evil Requiem (AKA, Resident Evil 9) holding the first-place position.

These are impressive feats for a game that many were calling "Concord 2.0" a few months ago, comparing it to the disastrous PC and PS5 hero shooter that Sony shut down less than two weeks post-launch, then ultimately axed permanently and closed its developer.

Clearly, Marathon isn't going to suffer a similar fate, and between everything that Bungie's shown off recently and this explosive preorder sales performance, the extraction shooter is actually poised to be quite a success — at least initially.

The first few months after launch is the period I expect will be the most interesting to watch, and also the most critical for Marathon to succeed strongly throughout the rest of 2026. After all, live-service games can't just launch well; they need to provide a quality, y'know, live service in the months and years that follow.

Battlefield 6 stands as a chief example of why this is important. While the large-scale multiplayer FPS became the best-selling game of 2025 and has enjoyed more success than any other Battlefield, its player count has plummeted due to underwhelming updates and additions in its first few months, with the devs delaying Season 2 to refine it and hopefully right the ship, so-to speak.

Of course, we won't know how well Marathon handles its own live-service formula until the game's March 5 launch, and after some time passes following its arrival. But at the very least, it's likely the game will have a stronger start than most thought it would just a few weeks ago. And it has to be said that, as the dev of Destiny 2, Bungie has a wealth of experience, here.

Note that while the Standard Edition of Marathon officially costs $39.99, you can get the Steam version for $36.69 at Loaded thanks to a nice deal. The $59.99 Deluxe Edition with some extra goodies is going for a discounted price of $54.39 at Loaded, also.

Are you excited to play Marathon? Do you think the game will have lasting success like ARC Raiders has thus far, or are you concerned that Bungie will drop the ball with its live service? Let me know in the comments.

Following the recent leak of a new trailer for Bungie's upcoming sci-fi extraction shooter Marathon, the Destiny 2 developer opted to officially reveal the game's release date earlier this week. It's officially scheduled to release on March 5, 2026 across Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, and PS5, with preorders available now.

Originally slated to come out last September, Bungie delayed Marathon after the poor reception of its Closed Alpha testing last spring, with many voicing concerns about shallow gameplay depth, the lack of highly desired features like proximity chat, and a flat visual aesthetic that lacked atmosphere. And, y'know, the whole art theft controversy.

December brought a huge re-reveal of Marathon that showed how the developer has extensively addressed all of these problems and more, however, leading to a significant amount of hype for the FPS building. That's culminated in Marathon preorders soaring to the top of Steam's Top Sellers and PlayStation's preorders lists, forecasting a successful launch.

In terms of mindshare and public reception, it's a huge comeback for a relatively unknown property (the old Marathon games were pretty niche and made in the '90s) that got off to a rocky start. But Joseph Cross, Marathon's former art director, questions how long risky and "unproven, unknown projects" like the extraction shooter will be afforded space to develop.

"Marathon is such a massive project. The studio took such a risk on this. You know, often times we felt like we were sort of getting away with something," he told ReaderGrev in a recent interview. "And I think about that in the big picture, the idea of studios funding unproven, unknown projects for six or eight years, for hundreds of millions of dollars, sort of on spec. How much longer are things like this going to exist? I’ve been part of a couple of them now."

Cross went on to note that as a developer, "it's not always intuitive" to think about the financial details of your project or the pressure to deliver a profitable product, as that mindset can impede creativity and drive you to avoid anything that seems risky. Instead, sometimes you have to "put on the armor of art and have faith in your perspective."

"It's not always intuitive to remember that above all of this is this product that's being funded and every day that goes by is a day you're going further into the red. You're not making money. The studio is not making any money," he said. "And so anyway, that's a big one, especially when you're really trying to channel creativity and get to the point where you feel like you can't impose anything that feels like a risk."

"I mean, what a mind f*** that is, right? That's where you have to sort of put on the armor of art and have faith in your perspective and experience as an artist. All great art, commercial art anyways, it’s doubted and there’s a level of skepticism — until there’s not," he continued.

It's hard to argue against that perspective when bold new IPs like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and ARC Raiders are dominating game award shows and player count charts, with other creative properties like Hi-Fi Rush, Dispatch, and Blue Prince making huge waves, too. Elden Ring, arguably the current game of the decade, was a high-risk push into the open-world genre by FromSoftware.

And yet, Cross' words suggest there's a growing sentiment among publishers that fortune does not favor the bold, and that risk tolerance in game development is on the decline. I sincerely hope this isn't the case; "safe" sequels and remakes or remasters are all well and good, but titles that bravely try new ideas and push the medium forward are truly the best of what gaming has to offer.

What do you think about Cross' comments? Do you believe it's important for game publishers to be more tolerant of risk as they support the development of new titles, or do you think they should be more reserved in choosing what to greenlight? Let me know in the comments.

Update Jan 19, 11.15 a.m. ET: Bungie has now released the previously leaked trailer along with confirmation of Marathon's release on March 5, 2026. You can see the post and the trailer embedded below.

This is not an official announcement from Bungie, but it is supported by an accompanying video spotted by Reddit user u/TheJuiceBaba. The trailer briefly appeared on the game’s Xbox Club page and appears to show a new cut of the game, ending with a release date of March 5, 2026.

Whilst I can't directly show the trailer here as it is being taken down, it can be found online; however, it is important to somewhat touch on the journey Marathon has gone on to get to where it is now.

It is no secret that Marathon has struggled to build momentum since its initial reveal. Many players questioned Bungie’s shift toward an extraction shooter, a genre that is difficult to execute.

That scepticism only grew after the game was found to have used stolen art assets, which sparked significant backlash online. Even without that controversy, excitement around the title never fully took off.

The situation was not helped by the arrival of ARC Raiders, another extraction shooter that appears to have resonated far more strongly with players. As a result, expectations for Marathon have remained fairly low.

Following its delay, Bungie has clearly been hard at work. While the game is still not fully winning me over, the recent improvements do suggest it is in a much better place than before.

What happens next for Marathon?

The leaked trailer has been taken down from the Xbox Club page and across X (formerly Twitter), although it can still be viewed for now via a direct link. Its removal does add weight to the idea that the release date shown may be legitimate, and it is sooner than I expected.

At the very least, Marathon appears to be coming along more confidently than before. Hopefully, Bungie can now avoid further controversy and focus on delivering a strong final product.

Marathon is set to launch on Xbox Series X, Series S, PlayStation 5, and PC. The PlayStation Store currently lists the game for a March 2026 release, and this leaked trailer may have given us a clearer idea of when it will actually arrive.

What do you make of Marathon’s leaked release date, and do you feel more confident in the game now than you did at its initial reveal? Share your thoughts in the comments and take part in our poll below:

Given that Bungie's upcoming Xbox, PC, and PS5 sci-fi FPS Marathon is itself an extraction shooter, you'd be forgiven for thinking that its main source of inspiration came from established and popular entries in the genre like Escape from Tarkov or Hunt: Showdown. According to the game's former director, however, this actually isn't the case.

Ex-Bungie executive Christopher Barrett — a longtime developer at the studio that majorly contributed to Halo, Destiny, and Marathon before he was fired last year due to a dispute over complaints of inappropriate workplace behavior — has revealed that the original idea behind Marathon actually stemmed from an MMO my parents played 20 years ago: Dark Age of Camelot (DAoC).

I have fond memories of watching my family enjoy the acclaimed 2001 title when I was a kid, and even dabbled in it myself a bit when I grew older, but I haven't heard it mentioned by anyone for years. Thus, to learn that it was primary inspiration for Marathon came as quite a surprise. After reading why, though, I immediately understood.

"The original inspiration was not Tarkov or extraction shooters. It was Dark Age of Camelot. A tense living world experience filled with co-op player stories and the potential danger of other players," wrote Barrett in a post on social media. "Extraction was just a convenient mechanic leveraged to create a ~15 minute game loop where players in the same session have multiple opportunities to succeed or fail."

That description sounds exactly like DAoC's realm vs. realm (RvR) zones in which players from the MMO's three distinct realms — Albion, Midgard, and Hibernia — could encounter each other and engage in PvP while fighting through dungeons and other points of interest filled with PvE mobs.

It also sounds a whole lot like the foundation of extraction shooter gameplay in general, which made me realize the core concept of the genre can be traced back to RvR MMO experiences as much as it can be to early-2010s ARMA and DayZ modding.

Barrett went on to list some of his "original design goals" for Marathon, some of which include persistent servers players can always spawn onto or extract from — think ARC Raiders sessions, but without a timer — a player-driven "living world" with "emergent dynamic events," a focus on facilitating unique player stories and experiences, and survival elements like broken limbs or leaking gas tanks to keep players on their toes and push them to creatively adapt.

He also imagines a game that draws on the lore and story of the original Marathon titles to present "a compelling, deep, interesting world that feels worthy of your time," an experience with completely unique and customizable player characters ("no heroes"), "live service robustness" and consistent updates, and win conditions that ensure playstyles beyond "PvP twitch dominance" have a "path to success."

Barrett concluded by noting that "I obviously can’t speak to the current game direction," and indeed, Marathon has deviated from this original vision in some ways. For one, the game has distinct Runner characters ("personality matrixes," if you will) with hero shooter-esque abilities, and it also features timed raids instead of persistent servers.

With that said, it also seems to be leaning in the direction of this original concept a bit compared to the game we saw earlier this spring. As revealed in a recent ViDoc showcase, proximity chat is coming to promote more social interactions between players, and PvE encounters are being made more dynamic and dangerous too; I expect these will encourage on-the-fly decisions to team up and help ensure each match feels unique.

We'll know for sure how the finished version of Marathon plays when it launches at some point in March 2026. It was originally scheduled to release on September 23, 2025 this year, but was delayed in June.

What do you think of Christopher Barrett's original vision for Marathon, and how it compares to the version of the game that Bungie is making now? Let me know in the comments.

Developer and publisher Bungie re-revealed its upcoming extraction shooter Marathon on Monday, showing off new gameplay footage and images while diving into what's new since the game was delayed past its original September 2025 release date.

Bungie notes that the game is leaning into a darker science-fiction tone. Instead of players leaving a duffel bag of goodies once killed, the Runner bodies remain, leaving corpses that decay over time. This adds to the gameplay, giving players a warning about possible nearby threats depending on how fresh a corpse appears to be.

Several new features have been implemented following player feedback from the alpha testing, including the addition of a solo queue, allowing a lone Runner to dive in without being teamed up in a squad.

Marathon also now supports proximity chat, leading to new encounters as players can communicate with others out in the wild. Maybe two squads might decide to team up, or instead go their separate ways?

While Bungie isn't committing to a new release date just yet, the game does have a pretty precise release window, and Marathon is now slated to launch at some point in March 2026.

Marathon will not be a full-priced game, and is instead launching at $40 in the U.S. Rewards Passes will not expire, and players will be able to purchase and finish prior passes, taking a page from similar systems in Halo Infinite and Helldivers 2.

There aren't any details right now, but Bungie notes that any players who buy the game will get access to numerous free updates throughout the year, including new maps, Runner shells, and more. Bungie says more information on the roadmap will be available "closer to launch."

When it arrives, Marathon will be the first full new game that Bungie has launched since Destiny 2 in 2017.

@4nt1r34l on X (formerly Twitter), or Fern Hook, is an artist whose work was stolen and used in Bungie’s upcoming extraction shooter Marathon. She publicly accused Bungie in May 2025, sharing comparisons between her designs and what appeared in the game, and some elements were shown to be 1:1 with her original work.

The issue became a significant controversy, especially because players were already testing the game, and early impressions were not positive. The art theft only added more pressure on the studio and fuelled wider criticism around the project.

As the situation gained traction, Bungie eventually responded and issued an apology to the artist. Art director Joseph Cross released a statement confirming the misuse of assets and described it as an oversight within the early stages of development.

The dispute is over, but Marathon still faces an uphill battle

Fortunately for @4nt1r34l, the dispute has now been resolved. The response to her post has been positive, with many replies showing stacks of money implying she received a satisfactory payout for the misuse of her work, but this, of course, is just speculation.

Bungie and Sony have not commented on the resolution since her announcement, and the terms of the agreement will likely remain unknown.

It is reassuring to see that she has been compensated for her art, and despite the wider issues at Bungie, its willingness to reach out and “do right” by her was encouraging.

Development of Marathon continues. The game was delayed after the controversy and is now expected to launch by March 2026, after originally being planned for September 2025.

However, fan sentiment remains low, and with competing titles like ARC Raiders has shown just how successful an extraction shooter can be, if done right. Gaining positive attention in the multiplayer space means it may be difficult for Marathon to build momentum around a project that is already facing negativity and even more difficult to remain relevant in an ever-changing gaming landscape.

In the most recent financial report to investors for Q2 FY2025, Sony gave a surprisingly transparent look at the state of its gaming business. Xbox was even mentioned by name, which is still a rarity in these updates. Sony’s full-year guidance remains steady despite several headwinds. Sales are now forecast to rise 3% to around $29.8 billion, driven “primarily due to the impact of foreign exchange rates”.

Operating income also stays at roughly $3.3 billion even after Sony absorbed a $200 million tariff hit this quarter. Sony highlighted the continued health of the PlayStation ecosystem. Monthly active users climbed 3% year-on-year to 119 million, and total playtime increased 1% across the quarter.

Live-service titles continue to play a major role in this, with “more than 40 percent of our first-party software revenue” now coming from recurring live-service games. Against that backdrop, Sony contrasted two of its biggest ongoing live-service bets. Helldivers 2 has surged after launching on Xbox, while Destiny 2 continues to fall short of expectations and contributed to a major impairment at Bungie.

Helldivers 2 released on Xbox on August 26, 2025, and early estimates showed just how strong that launch was. A report suggested it sold more than 900,000 units in its first six days on the platform. For comparison, its original PlayStation launch was estimated at around 633,000 units in the same six-day window.

The momentum continued well beyond week one. Helldivers 2 charted in the Xbox most-played charts throughout September and October, which showed that interest did not slow down after the initial burst. It became clear that the game had found a large new audience on Xbox and that the cross-platform move was paying off.

Sony confirmed this in its Q2 FY2025 report. It said:

The wording suggests Sony may not have expected such strong performance on competing hardware. It also raises questions about how Sony might approach future releases. With Microsoft preparing an Xbox-PC hybrid console, PlayStation games will already be available on the device through Steam. Releasing more of its older titles directly on Xbox Series X|S could be a logical way for Sony to capture extra revenue without risking its own platform strategy.

Bungie hasn’t been the success Sony wanted

In 2022, Sony made an all-in bet on Bungie. It acquired the studio for $3.6 billion and allowed it to remain operationally independent. However, in May 2025, Bungie came under fire.

Marathon, its upcoming extraction shooter that already faced a mixed reception, was found to contain unauthorized use of an independent artist’s work. This led the studio to apologize and commit to a full audit of its assets. Not long after, in August this year, Sony said that Bungie’s autonomy was becoming “lighter” as integration increased.

Now, during Sony’s Q2 FY2025 briefing, it directly addressed the decline of Destiny 2’s performance. Sony said:

Sony’s Q2 FY2025 materials confirmed the size and source of the financial hit. The report lists an impairment of around $204 million USD specifically “in connection with Destiny 2,” along with a further $118 million USD in development cost corrections inside the Game and Network Services segment. Sony said it recorded the impairment after Destiny 2 failed to meet the expectations it had when it acquired Bungie.

FAQ

We've got another big shake-up in the gaming industry, as longtime Bungie CEO Pete Parsons is stepping down.

Parsons announced the news in a blog post on Thursday, confirming that after 23 years (and serving as CEO since 2015), he is departing the company, which has developed some of the most iconic games in the history of first-person shooters, including the original Halo titles and Destiny.

"After more than two decades of helping build this incredible studio, establishing the Bungie Foundation, and growing inspiring communities around our work, I have decided to pass the torch," Parsons says.

"This journey has been the honor of a lifetime. I am deeply proud of the worlds we’ve built together and the millions of players who call them home – and most of all, I am privileged by the opportunity to work alongside the incredible minds at Bungie."

Stepping into the role of studio head is Justin Truman, another longtime veteran at Bungie who has worked as a designer, engineer, and, most recently, as general manager of Destiny 2.

"I am committed to supporting and working alongside every member of the team here as we continue pouring our hearts and souls into these worlds. Worlds that we love, and that we hope have been worth your time and your passion. Because ultimately those worlds only exist, and thrive, with you in them," says Truman.

"We are hard at work right now doing that – both with Marathon and Destiny. We’re currently heads down, but we’ll have more to show you in both of these worlds later this year."

Bungie still has a long, long road ahead

Under Parsons' leadership, Bungie grew into a massive company, with Destiny 2 reaching new heights as a live-service game before Sony acquired the studio for $3.6 billion in 2022.

For this acquisition, Sony aimed to draw on Bungie's live-service experience, allowing the company to operate separately as a multiplatform studio sitting next to PlayStation Studios, not underneath it.

Since then, Bungie has taken a mostly downward turn, with the company laying off hundreds of employees in an effort to maintain its independence under the terms of its acquisition.

The company also canceled a spin-off of Destiny, codenamed Payback, while other Bungie employees working on a new IP were spun out into a small new studio under PlayStation called TeamLFG.

Bungie's leadership has been widely criticized by former Bungie staff who either left the company or were cut across waves of layoffs.

Destiny 2, while still popular, is also on a noticeable decline, with the game's main story of Light and Darkness having wrapped up in the 2024 expansion, The Final Shape. Since then, the company has released new content, with the most recent addition, The Edge of Fate, receiving mixed impressions.

Bungie was aiming to launch Marathon — its first-person extraction shooter quasi-reboot of its original Marathon series — in September this year. Following mixed-to-negative feedback from a series of closed tests, as well as a huge scandal involving stolen artwork found in the game, Marathon has been delayed.

The game does not currently have a new release date, but is currently planned to launch at some point before the end of Sony's financial year, or before March 31, 2026.

In a recent earnings call, Sony openly noted that Bungie's independence was "getting tighter," with the parent company more involved in the studio's operations.

Time will tell just what is next for the storied video game developer, but whatever happens next, it will be with some new leadership at the very top.

Marathon is slated to launch across Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, and PlayStation 5.

It’s a far cry from when Sony acquired Bungie for $3.6 billion in 2022, with the promise that the studio would remain independent under the PlayStation umbrella. At the time, Bungie was expected to operate on its own terms, despite technically becoming a Sony-owned company.

Since then, however, things have become more uncertain. Destiny 2 has seen mixed responses to recent updates, with player engagement fluctuating, granted the game is getting on in years now. Meanwhile, Bungie’s upcoming shooter Marathon faced heavy backlash over stolen artwork and was delayed as a result.

Sony says Bungie’s independence is “getting tighter” says Sony

Sony CFO Lin Tao has confirmed that Bungie is now becoming more integrated into PlayStation Studios. Describing it as a gradual shift, Tao stated that the studio’s independence is “getting tighter,” a notable change from Bungie’s original status as an “independent subsidiary” following its $3.6 billion acquisition.

At the time of the deal, Bungie was promised creative freedom and operational autonomy. But in the years since, the studio has faced mounting challenges. In 2024, Bungie laid off around 220 employees amid declining player engagement. Reports also surfaced that CEO Pete Parsons had spent $2.4 million on classic cars since the Sony buyout, drawing criticism from fans and former staff.

Bungie’s involvement within Sony already felt significant, as it was tasked with consulting on other live-service projects in development across PlayStation Studios. One of the most notable examples was The Last of Us: Factions. According to multiple reports, Bungie raised concerns about the game’s long-term viability, which ultimately led to the project being paused and later cancelled.

Meanwhile, Bungie’s next big project, Marathon, has struggled publicly. The game received backlash for its visual direction and was further delayed after fans uncovered stolen artwork used in-game. Bungie has since removed the assets and scaled back its marketing while addressing community concerns.

Bungie’s PlayStation shift likely won’t impact Xbox

Bungie’s growing integration into PlayStation may cause concern for some Xbox players, but there’s more to it than meets the eye. Sony appears to be shifting its strategy, becoming more open to supporting platforms it once overlooked.

In the case of Destiny, there’s no indication of a pullback. Seasonal content is still rolling out as planned, with Ashes and Iron launching in September across all available platforms.

For Xbox players, nothing is expected to change; Bungie’s titles will likely always remain available on Xbox hardware, even as the studio becomes more closely aligned with PlayStation. It’s a strange moment where Sony is tightening control over its studios while also opening up their games to more players than ever before.

Marathon and Helldivers 2 signal Sony’s growing interest in Xbox releases

Despite criticisms of the game, Marathon — Bungie's upcoming sci-fi extraction shooter — is still confirmed to be released on Xbox and PC, alongside PlayStation. Initially, this seemed possible only because Bungie retained a level of independence following its acquisition by Sony.

However, recent developments suggest that Sony itself is leading the change when it comes to bringing live-service titles to Xbox. Helldivers 2, published by Sony, is now officially coming to Xbox in August 2025.

Arrowhead CEO Shams Jorjani clarified on Discord that “it was all PlayStation,” confirming that Sony pushed for the release. The move marks a noticeable shift in strategy, showing that Sony is increasingly open to expanding its reach beyond its own console and PC platforms – especially for games designed to thrive with larger, cross-platform audiences.

The next era of Bungie's long-running live-service looter shooter Destiny 2 kicked off on Tuesday with its The Edge of Fate expansion — the first of two this year, and one that introduces a radically different type of location and campaign for players to journey through and experience. So far, however, the DLC hasn't exactly gotten off to the best start.

At the time of writing, user reviews for Destiny 2: The Edge of Fate and recent reviews for Destiny 2 on the leading PC gaming platform Steam are "Mixed," with 382 of the former and 3,138 of the latter posted (many players left reviews for the expansion on the main Destiny 2 page). Ratings on Xbox and PlayStation are more difficult to measure, though most recent Destiny 2 Xbox reviews are negative and the expansion as a 3.79/5 star score on the PlayStation Store.

Additionally, according to SteamDB, the game's peak Steam player count on The Edge of Fate launch day was 99,193 — just short of 100K, and under a third of the 314,634 players The Final Shape had at release last year.

Those numbers weren't just because The Final Shape was the final DLC in the Light and Darkness Saga, either; every expansion since Beyond Light has achieved well over 200K day one players (Forsaken and Shadowkeep are too far back to track), with 2023's Lightfall holding the record of 316,750.

So, what's going on here, exactly? Well, from what I've been able to gather combing through user reviews and impressions across various social media sites, it seems like the general consensus is that while the story — a non-linear narrative centered around the mysterious forces of The Nine, their rebelling emissary Orin, and a new destination in the Reef "shrouded by dark matter" called Kepler — is excellent, there are significant problems with the expansion's gameplay and presentation.

More specifically, players have reacted quite negatively to Kepler overall, with many finding its Metroidvania-inspired design to be annoying to navigate and levying significant scorn towards one new mechanic on it in particular: Matterspark.

This power transforms your Guardian into an Arc-emitting ball that can roll around Sonic-style, squeezing through tight spaces and delivering powerful zaps to enemies and certain objectives.

However, it's been said that this mechanic is used way too frequently, and is paired with puzzles and encounters that don't leverage it in enough engaging ways to ensure it's not repetitive.

It's also reportedly quite clunky and difficult to control, and a number of players have even commented that rolling around in Matterspark form has caused them major motion sickness. Not great.

Kepler's art direction and visual style have also had quite a mixed reception. It's been criticized for being one of the least visually distinct and interesting locations in Destiny, and as a retired longtime player, I have to agree — at least based on what I've seen.

It's largely characterized by a rocky surface with scientific outposts and underground caverns filled with bulbous, fleshy growths; not very different from what we've seen from destinations like the Moon or Titan, ultimately.

The jury's still out in regard to The Edge of Fate's broader game-wide changes to loot and armor, as well as its new Portal feature that allows Guardians to curate which activities they'd like to play in and activate difficulty modifiers for better rewards.

There's also still The Desert Perpetual raid on the way, set to launch on July 19 and give players a new pinnacle six-man activity to overcome for desirable endgame gear.

Overall, though, it doesn't seem like the expansion will be the big win Bungie was surely hoping it would be — especially in the wake of its struggles with its upcoming extraction shooter Marathon, which got delayed after an art theft controversy and negative gameplay feedback from Closed Alpha testing. And that's not good news for Destiny's new dawn.

Of course, a bounce-back can't be ruled out, but Destiny 2's player numbers have been steadily declining over time — and not even a new expansion has brought them back to where they were just a single year ago. There's no getting around it: that's a big problem for the game and its future. Hopefully it's one Bungie can fix.

Destiny 2: The Edge of Fate is available on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One systems, Windows PC (via Steam, Epic Games Store), PS5, and PS4 for $39.99, though you can get it for just $33.49 at CDKeys. The $79.99 Year of Prophecy bundle that includes Rewards Passes and the upcoming December DLC Renegades is also $66.99 at CDKeys, and the $99.99 Ultimate Edition of it with instant access to some Exotics and bonus cosmetics is $83.89 at CDKeys.

Bungie is delaying its upcoming first-person extraction shooter Marathon, the studio shared on Tuesday.

Originally planned to launch on Sept. 23, 2025, Marathon now lacks a release date. Bungie says it will share new launch plans at some point this fall.

According to the update, the team is now focusing on the following improvements:

• Upping the Survival Game
  • More challenging and engaging AI encounters
  • More rewarding runs, with new types of loot and dynamic events
  • Making combat more tense and strategic
• Doubling down on the Marathon Universe
  • Increased visual fidelity
  • More narrative and environmental storytelling to discover and interact with
  • A darker tone that delivers on the themes of the original trilogy
• Adding more social experiences
  • A better player experience for solo/duos
  • Prox chat, so social stories can come to life

Per Paul Tassi at Forbes, "most" of Bungie found out about the game delay at the time it was announced.

All of this comes as Marathon has been inundated in bad PR over the last few weeks since Bungie admitted the game's art used stolen assets. The company stated at the time that it was committed to figuring out how the "oversight" happened and was working to ensure it did right by the artist.

Marathon is Bungie's first new game launch since Destiny 2 in 2017, and the first for the studio since it was acquired in 2022 by PlayStation parent company Bungie for $3.6 billion.

The acquisition placed Bungie as an independent studio alongside (not under) PlayStation Studios, providing advice and live service support while remaining a fully multiplatform company.

Since being acquired, Bungie has laid off hundreds of developers, with others being transferred directly to PlayStation, including a small team spun off into a new studio called TeamLFG.

Whenever it launches, Marathon is coming to Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, and PlayStation 5.

The upcoming 2025 extraction shooter Marathon has been all over the news recently, and not for many good reasons. Though its official gameplay reveal in April was received decently, it and its developer — Destiny 2 creator Bungie — have since been marred in multiple controversies. Now, a former developer has spoken out against what they feel is troublesome leadership at the studio.

The comments came from a BlueSky user named Spirited who formerly worked at Bungie on both Destiny 2 and Marathon as an online services engineer.

“As a former Bungie employee who worked on Marathon, I feel for those still at the studio," they wrote in a now-deleted post. "Working with engineering / Marathon leadership was extremely toxic and humiliating. I won’t speak about the rest, but Bungie leadership needs to be gutted completely."

Spirited also commented (this post has also been deleted) on the developer's leadership last year after Bungie cut 220 employees: "Every day was a fight for autonomy and trust. Every day was someone telling me I’m not allowed to speak on any issue or problem in a professional tone. Every day was someone telling me my industry experience didn’t matter and that some failed CEO knows best as our subarea lead."

It's a scathing sentiment that comes just days after Bungie found itself in the middle of an art theft scandal in which the developer admitted a former employee stole and used artwork from an artist's 2017 poster designs while developing Marathon. The company said in a response that it was "committed to do right by the artist" and that it had reached out, though similar controversies have now happened four times since 2021.

Over this past weekend, Forbes' Paul Tassi also reported that morale at Bungie is in "free-fall," and that "the vibes have never been worse." Employees throughout the studio are fearing what might happen to Bungie if Marathon fails to perform well commercially, all while the developer has had to scrap its plan to launch preorders this summer and is considering a "roadmap of public playtests" instead of a full Open Beta in August ahead of the scheduled September 23, 2025 release date.

All of this bad news follows a disappointing series of Closed Alpha gameplay tests that ran through late April to early May, with most of the feedback from players either lukewarm or fairly negative outright. Notably, Forbes' report indicates that Bungie leadership often ignored warnings from developers about what would and wouldn't be good for Marathon, with the need for a strong PvE element mentioned specifically.

The writing is on the wall for Marathon

If one thing's been made clear to me after all of what's happened within Bungie in the last few years, it's that the developer's leadership needs a big shake-up. From multiple waves of layoffs to repeated instances of art malpractice to reports of executives ignoring the expertise of developers across several departments, there are clearly deep-rooted issues stemming from the top that have hamstrung the studio's efforts and eroded its reputation.

I suspect Sony PlayStation — the company that acquired Bungie for $3.6 billion — will step in to take more direct control of the company in the near future. Regardless of whatever the result of such a move is, though, it's hard for me to imagine a future in which Marathon is as successful as Bungie needs it to be.

It's been said by sources at Bungie that Marathon will need to be in Circana's Top 5 games of 2025 in terms of sales for it to be a success, and frankly, after everything that's happened and how negative the overall reception to the game has been thus far, that seems like an impossibility. It's in a concerning position where it needs to sell extremely well for Bungie's health as a developer, but has been poorly received compared to direct competition like ARC Raiders — another $40 extraction shooter on the way that completely stole what little thunder Marathon had.

A delay beyond the September 23 release date is all-but-assured at this point, but even that may not be enough to right the ship. And if it's not, and Marathon ends up being a flop? I'm afraid we'll see further devastating layoffs at the studio, along with a downscale of its operations within Sony. I'm hoping for the best, but...it's hard to argue that the writing isn't on the wall.

This week, Destiny 2 and Marathon developer Bungie has found itself embroiled in a serious art theft controversy. On Thursday morning, an artist by the name of Antireal (here's her Ko-fi) shared a post on social media asserting that the studio stole various designs from a collection of poster designs she created back in 2017 and has used them in its art direction for Marathon.

To prove her claim, Antireal included several images in the thread (view them below) that directly compare pictures of Marathon's website, art from its official press kit, and in-game screenshots taken from the recent Marathon alpha playtest against pieces of her own artwork (her original designs are still up, proving they weren't made recently). The similarities are undeniably quite glaring, with many of Antireal's graphic designs, text elements, and even her personal logo visible on the surfaces of many of Marathon's in-game structures.

"Bungie is of course not obligated to hire me when making a game that draws overwhelmingly from the same design language I have refined for the last decade, but clearly my work was good enough to pillage for ideas and plaster all over their game without pay or attribution," Antireal wrote in a scathing follow-up post.

Now, Bungie has responded, confirming that it stole Antireal's assets and putting blame on the shoulders of a former employee that's no longer with the company.

"We immediately investigated a concern regarding unauthorized use of artist decals in Marathon and confirmed that a former Bungie artist included these in a texture sheet that was ultimately used in-game," said the developer. "This issue was unknown by our existing art team, and we are still reviewing how this oversight occurred. We take matters like this very seriously. We have reached out to [Antireal] to discuss this issue and are committed to do right by the artist."

"As a matter of policy, we do not use the work of artists without their permission. To prevent similar issues in the future, we are conducting a thorough review of our in-game assets, specifically those done by the former Bungie artist, and implementing stricter checks to document all artist contributions," it continued.

"We value the creativity and dedication of all artists who contribute to our games, and we are committed to doing right by them. Thank you for bringing this to our attention."

Notably, this is far from the first time that Bungie has been in a scandal like this. Last year, Bungie admitted a fan's personal artwork was used in the creation of a Nerf gun, and in 2023, it promised to compensate another artist after a piece of art almost identical to theirs appeared in a cutscene. And before that in 2021, a trailer for The Witch Queen DLC was found to contain a direct rip of fanart of the Hive goddess Xivu Arath.

The fact that this has now happened four times in four years is incredibly concerning, and there's clearly a major issue with how Bungie's art department handles watching for and dealing with plagiarism.

Worse still is the fact that this latest case is arguably the most blatant example of art theft yet; comparing Antireal's designs to the visuals of Marathon, you can make a convincing argument that her style is essentially the foundation of many of the extraction shooter's "graphic realism" designs. The game's art direction — one of the things people love most about it — uses an extensive amount of stolen work.

Antireal also went on to say that she's been followed by Marathon art director Joseph Cross and "a few others from Bungie" for several years, and has never once received communication of any kind. Not a good look, to put things (very) lightly.

You're probably wondering if Antireal is pursuing legal action; she's said that she doesn't "have the resources nor the energy to spare to pursue this legally," but that she's "lost count of the number of times a major company has deemed it easier to pay a designer to imitate or steal my work than to write me an email."

"In 10 years i have never made a consistent income from this work and I am tired of designers from huge companies moodboarding and parasitising my designs while I struggle to make a living," she added.

With how viral this controversy has gone and with how much support Antireal has gotten from the gaming community on her Ko-fi, though, she may be able to pursue something in the end after all. We'll see what happens.

Marathon is scheduled to release on Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, and PS5 on September 23, 2025.

Lately, Destiny 2 developer Bungie has been in the news because of the recently concluded alpha playtest of its upcoming 2025 extraction shooter Marathon and the flood of various community opinions about and issues with the title. Recently, though, it also came under the spotlight for a very different reason.

On Friday, a federal judge rejected a motion from Bungie to dismiss an ongoing Destiny 2 lawsuit in which the plaintiff — Matthew Kelsey Martineau, a writer also known by his pseudonym Caspar Cole — alleges that the studio plagiarized several major concepts from his unpublished sci-fi story that was viewable on his Wordpress blog during the creation of Destiny 2's Red War campaign and its Curse of Osiris expansion. The case was filed in October last year, and Bungie's request for a dismissal came just a few months later. Five months after that, it's now been denied.

You can read Judge Susie Morgan's 16-page ruling in its entirety here, but the long and short of it is that Bungie's proposal was refused because the developer no longer has playable builds of the Red War and Curse of Osiris releases. These were removed from Destiny 2 years ago as part of Bungie's "Destiny Content Vault" initiative, which sees the company periodically remove and "vault" pieces of legacy content as the eight-year-old game grows in size and technical complexity.

Bungie opted to submit YouTube playthroughs and community-maintained Destinypedia wiki pages as evidence instead, but third-party materials like these have been deemed insufficient for its case.

Despite the argument from Bungie that these YouTube videos and wiki pages "are true and accurate representations of Destiny 2 gameplay and information," the judge ultimately ruled that they're not sufficient for the type of side-by-side comparison that needs to be conducted here, and also that their third-party nature makes them unacceptable as evidence.

"The Court will not consider the exhibits attached to Defendant’s motion to dismiss and will not convert the Defendant’s motion to dismiss to a motion for summary judgment," reads judge Morgan's decision. “There has not been sufficient time for discovery, and the attachments are admittedly of third-party origination. Their authenticity has not been established."

Though one might assume Bungie could add Red War and Curse of Osiris back to a private build of Destiny 2 in order to effectively dispute Martineau's case, the developer has actually admitted this isn't possible due to the old content not being compatible with the game as it is now. "As Defendant admits in its reply, '[t]here is now no feasible way for [Defendant] to provide the Court with a reviewable form of the [Red War or Osiris] campaigns or to produce them should this matter proceed to discovery,'" reads part of the latest ruling.

As a result of all of this — along with the complexities of this lawsuit, given that concepts from a game are being compared to those of a written work — Martineau's case can now move forward, as the court found that "plaintiff has sufficiently alleged the elements of an action for copyright infringement."

Bungie faces a unique problem in this Destiny 2 case

When I first caught wind of this lawsuit last year, I didn't expect things to go very far; in my view, while there is perhaps some merit to Martineau's claims about Destiny 2's Red Legion faction specifically — in the new document, there's a detailed overview of numerous alleged ways the Red Legion group in his work is strikingly similar to the Destiny enemy — most of the other things he points to are far more vague and disputable.

One example of this is a comparison between Destiny's floating Traveler entity that gives Guardian player characters their powers and the Tononob Station in Earth's orbit in Martineau's story; both are "a massive celestial entity hovering above Earth," but such entities are hardly a rarity in science fiction stories.

As a result, I thought this case would be thrown out rather quickly, but it looks like it's about to become an even bigger issue for Bungie now that it's actually moving forward — and comically, the biggest reason why it is is because of Bungie's own decision to remove older forms of Destiny 2 content. Whether or not the Destiny Content Vault was a good decision for the health of the game or not is something that will be debated until the end of time, but one thing that's undeniable is that it's created a very unique problem for the developer in this lawsuit.

I still believe that Bungie will ultimately walk away from this case with a victory, but the fact Martineau actually seems to have a decent chance at winning this lawsuit is certainly quite the plot thickener. It will be interesting to see where things go from here, to say the least.

ARC Raiders is an upcoming extraction shooter from Embark Studios, creators of The Finals. The player finds themselves in the role of an aptly named ARC Raider, who scavenges the planet's surface for loot. Along the way, they'll come across other players and ARC machines, the true monarchs of the planet's topside.

The aesthetic is straight out of the 1980s, spun with a dash of Mad Max. Weapons are cobbled-together works of violence that play viscerally into your hands. Each has its pros and cons against various enemy types, robots and humans alike.

So far, it's a pleasure to play, which spells doom for any competition looking to launch alongside it. In this instance, Bungie's Marathon revival is undoubtedly set up to fail if it comes out anywhere close to ARC Raiders.

The extraction shooter genre is getting cramped

You may be wondering how I can compare two games that haven't even launched yet, which is a fair question. I know we're still five months away from the launch of Bungie's extraction shooter, Marathon, but I don't know if five months is anywhere close to the amount of time they'd need to bring it up to par with Embark Studios' ARC Raiders.

The aesthetic and perspective are both vehemently different between these two titles, don't get me wrong, but they both play into the same "extraction shooter" audience. This isn't a new genre full of untapped potential players to market to.

The market is dominated by the likes of the controversial Escape from Tarkov, Hunt: Showdown, alongside Dark and Darker. Other entries into the space have come and gone, like a personal favorite, Marauders, which now has barely 100 players on Steam.

Games like Call of Duty and Delta Force have also tried their hand, pitching their versions of the game type. Even now, more games are on their way, like Arena Breakout, which promises to offer a blend of realism and arcade-like combat.

With the market aging and becoming more refined with time, where does that leave the likes of Marathon and ARC Raiders? Especially with both planning their release in late 2025?

What makes ARC Raiders better than Marathon?

Look, enough people on social media have been on Marathon's case for not having that extraction shooter "hook".

The whole "let's play one more" feeling isn't there. It's frustrating with something that looks and plays as good as Marathon.

When it comes to gunplay, Bungie is king. In Destiny 2 and Halo before it, the moment-to-moment combat always came through clean. That's why it's so heartbreaking; Marathon looks like it should be fun, but it isn't. The game is going through an identity crisis.

Marathon takes the extraction shooter formula and attempts to break it down to a more digestible formula. As a result, every mechanic becomes a watered-down mess that isn't interesting to potential extraction shooter fans, all while missing many mechanics that players love in their extraction shooters.

ARC Raiders embraces the history of the genre and is working to perfect systems while making them more approachable. It looks to find an ideal balance of welcoming newcomers while allowing veterans to thrive, explaining itself at a fundamental level while allowing players the chance to discover.

Marathon tries to do something similar but removes too much of what makes the genre great. A short, but not definitive list of things missing from Marathon includes:

• Traditional crafting
• Solo play
• Skill trees

They may not seem like much, but these features give players more objectives and a functional sense of progression. For example, let me break down crafting.

ARC Raiders has multiple benches for the player in their hideout that they can build and level up. Each bench needs specific items to be built and another set of items to upgrade. These benches can be upgraded three times each. Easy to understand, right?

Alongside that, players will uncover a variety of blueprints in a raid. If they make it back, you'll most likely need an upgraded workbench to build said item. This becomes a damn good reason to upgrade that workbench. It grants the player tangible progression, which they can see, earn, and feel good about doing.

Marathon doesn't have that.

Then there's solo play, a hallmark of the extraction shooter genre. Escape from Tarkov is the pinnacle example of this.

ARC Raiders and Embark Studios have perfected it. I went into a few grouped matches and came across other groups. I followed this up with far more solo games, and I never even saw another group, just solo players.

When I play a game like Tarkov, I don't want to be forced to play with random players. That's why most battle royale games have a solo mode. Sometimes, I need to go in alone and play how I want to.

I have missions to accomplish that others won't. In many instances, forced group play isn't the way to go when making headway. If everyone has their own agenda to accomplish, no one is getting their stuff done without someone else sacrificing their mission progression.

ARC Raiders has better PvE over Marathon

Everyone who's played Escape from Tarkov knows how punishing the AI can be when ignored or misplayed. Extraction shooters demand good PvE combat to provide legitimate threats to be avoided or tackled for riches.

ARC Raiders provides a ton of PvE (Player versus Environment) content through ARC machines. Each machine has its unique value to the overall enemy experience. Some scout ahead to mark Raiders, while others are literal behemoths that only an experienced group should attempt to bring down.

When playing solo, these enemies need to be almost entirely avoided. Some demand heavy weaponry to penetrate consistently, meaning most weapons won't be suitable for eradicating them.

Anything above your most basic enemy will often take more than a single magazine. As a solo player, you'll need to avoid a lot of fights unless you're willing to take the risk of attracting players over while you're busy unloading on a single ARC over and over.

They also coordinate with one another, becoming a larger threat if they're not dealt with appropriately. Rocketeers, stunners, scanners, every enemy has something they do that complements the rest when grouped. The photo above perfectly illustrates a scenario where this happens.

I called in the elevator to extract below the surface when the sound alerted a behemoth of an ARC to my location. I had to deal with it and a couple of other roaming enemies. Using a well-placed lure grenade distracted the enemies just enough for me to dive into the elevator and extract.

That doesn't exist in Marathon. Instead, we're given soulless robots that don't give off that sense of dread when faced. They're not as nuanced, which is a shame from the studio behind the Destiny series, whose central premise revolves around groundbreaking PvE content.

I don't get it, but they need to get their act together if they're going to have any chance of taking on the masterclass that ARC Raiders is currently putting on.

Does anyone else share my thoughts on either Marathon or ARC Raiders? Is anyone else getting the same vibe I am with these games, or am I alone?

Let me know in the comments or on social media!

Following a recent string of alternate reality game (ARG) puzzles discovered and solved by fans, developer Bungie gave players their first in-depth look at its upcoming multiplayer game Marathon. First revealed in Spring 2023, the PvP-focused extraction shooter reboot is now officially slated to release this year on Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, and PS5 on September 23, and is the first new game from the studio since the 2017 release of Destiny 2.

The gameplay reveal, the longer gameplay overview, and Bungie's lengthy hour-long showcase were all released this past weekend, and it's been...interesting, to see the wider community react to the presentations. Overall, it seems most gamers have mixed feelings about what they saw; Marathon's high production value is undeniably apparent, but many felt what was shown lacked distinguishing features and mechanics to set it apart from its peers.

Overall, I can see where people are coming from, even if I do like what I've seen of Marathon so far overall. I dig its glitchy, futuristic, almost punk-like aesthetic with utilitarian architecture and vibrant colors, and everything about the core gunplay and movement looks snappy and satisfying thanks to punchy sound effects and beautifully detailed animations (granted, a few of these were clearly borrowed from Destiny, but still). Indeed, what Bungie showed makes the game look like a fun shooter, even if it hasn't helped it to stand out as a unique one.

Notably, though, content creators that were quietly invited to playtest Marathon in past months were also given the green light to share their thoughts over the weekend — and a feature I've heard about from a few of them (YouTuber Skarrow9, in particular) has me wondering why the developers didn't choose to spotlight it in these reveals.

According to them, the game's Marathon colony ship map — along with the others, albeit to a considerably lesser extent — will have PvE puzzles and secret mechanics for players to figure out as they battle other squads of Runners. In essence, it sounds like Bungie is drawing inspiration from Destiny's beloved raids and dungeons to add significant flair to this new PvP experience.

"The Marathon ship map, I think, is going to be very exciting. I hesitate to call it raid-like, in terms of Destiny, but it is definitely like, 'you are trying to solve puzzles and secrets ... while you are in the midst of PvP,'" explained Skarrow9 in a recent video, grinning with clear excitement. "That sort of thing is going to be the secret sauce for this game. ... All I want to do is go back to the ship and solve the secrets, and fight the enemies."

Pseudo-raid mechanics going on in the middle of tense, tactical PvP engagements sounds wild in the best way, and is exactly the kind of thing that would help Marathon catch the eye of FPS players that already have an abundance of titles to play. Which, again, makes Bungie's decision to not talk about that all the more intriguing.

Perhaps the developer wasn't ready to show these types of PvPvE engagements off, but polished or not, I'd argue attention should have been drawn to it. Marathon — a "premium title," albeit not a "full-priced" one — will likely be around $40, and will have a battle pass, too (and a microtransactions shop also, I'm willing to bet). That's a tough sell in today's era where nearly every PvP game is free-to-play, and if Bungie wants people to fork over their cash to get over that entry barrier, it needs to impress them; the ill-fated Concord, shut down permanently in October, is a glaring example of what can happen otherwise.

Showcasing raid-style mechanics are one way the studio could do just that (I'd like to see more of Marathon's classic aliens have more of a presence, too), and in the months leading up to the game's September release date, I'm really hoping it does. We'll see what happens.

Storied first-person shooter developer Bungie finally unveiled the gameplay for Marathon on Saturday, giving an in-depth look at the team's next big title, as well as the studio's first new game since Destiny 2 in 2017.

In the lead-up to Saturday, the studio held a fun ARG (alternate reality game) dropping tidbits about Marathon, including snippets of new music and character art. This in turn led up to having a robot controlled by players exploring the Bungie office the morning of the reveal.

You can check out the Marathon gameplay reveal trailer below:

The gameplay shows Runners (the player characters) fighting and killing each other in teams of three with advanced weapons and equipment, while a mysterious voice intones that death is coming for everything.

Marathon is set on Tau Ceti IV, where Runners explore ruins in search of treasures and long-lost AI. There are six types of Runners for players to choose from, evoking different archetypes with special abilities. Four have been revealed so far: Locus, Blackbird, Glitch, and Void.

Marathon is an extraction shooter, meaning the gameplay loop revolves around finding valuables and escaping without being killed. The exact number of players in a match will vary per map, with the map shown in the reveal features 18 players.

As an extraction shooter, Marathon is also a PvPvE game, meaning players have to contend with UESC forces in addition to other runners.

Marathon is something of a quasi-reboot, being developed as a reimagining and a sequel to Bungie's original trilogy of games that carried the same name. Marathon was first announced during the PlayStation Games Showcase in 2023.

The art direction of Marathon stands out from a lot of other shooters, with a unique style shaped under the leadership of Joe Cross, franchise art director, and someone that previously worked on the recent Dune films and Destiny 2.

While Bungie was acquired by PlayStation parent company Sony back in 2022, the studio remains a multiplatform developer that sits next to PlayStation Studios while technically remaining separate. Marathon is a pivotal game for Bungie, which has seen repeated layoffs over the last couple of years.

Players won't be waiting until next year to hop in, as Marathon now has a release date of Sept. 23, 2025. The game is slated to launch across Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, and PlayStation 5.

If you want to play even sooner, there's a closed alpha test coming on April 23, though this test is limited to North America.

To close out the reveal, Bungie shared a trailer for Marathon directed by Alberto Miego, who also directed two shorts for the Netflix series Love, Death, and Robots.

The trailer dives into the life of Runners, and how death becomes a blur over time.

The universe of Destiny 2 is heating up once more with the recent reveal of a Star Wars themed crossover. Crafted by Bungie alongside Lucasfilm Games, this new crossover event is bringing Imperial-themed skins for players to use, letting them dress their Hunters, Titans, and Warlocks as Death Troopers, Stormtroopers, and the Emperor's Royal Guards, respectively.

Alongside the new raiments for Guardians, there's also new ship and Ghost gear. If you've ever wanted your Ghost to look like the unfinished second Death Star from Return of the Jedi, or have your ship look like a TIE Fighter, this is your chance.

This crossover is rolling out as a part of Destiny 2: Heresy, the third chapter of the story epilogue that's been ongoing ever since Destiny 2: The Final Shape brought the finale of the Light and Darkness saga.

Back to the ship

Destiny 2: Heresy is taking players back to the Dreadnaught when they embark on a new activity called The Nether. It's been a while since the fall of Oryx in The Taken King, and with The Nether, Taken forces are pushing back against Guardians that attempt to explore the ship.

The team at Bungie is also shaking up the formula in this activity, introducing new Boons that alter the gameplay experience in radical ways. The Dreadnaught has changed since players last saw it, which means challenging opponents and boss fights await as Guardians attempt to take down the ship's weaponry and reverse the Taken corruption.

“We’ve also experimented with player modifiers, with increased health pools, no regenerating of health, low ammo drops and revive tokens, and a modification on healing in the sandbox over the course of play,” said Destiny 2 senior designer Ryan Harris, speaking with PlayStation Blog. “Players should look to build their loadouts geared for survivability as the game mode modifiers increase health pools of players significantly while also stopping all health regen.”

If you're eager to start exploring the Dreadnaught while decked out as one of the Galactic Empire's best, you won't be waiting long. Destiny 2: Heresy is slated to begin on Feb. 4, 2025 across all platforms.

Looking ahead, Destiny 2 is set to continue changing with more frequent (but smaller scale) DLC packs in the future, with major updates planned for later in 2025. Bungie is also continuing work on its upcoming extraction shooter Marathon.

Destiny 2 is currently available on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Windows PC, PlayStation 5, and PlayStation 4.

What you need to know

• Compiling data en masse, Destiny 2 players may have discovered a significant bug that's potentially been influencing perk rolls on weapons for years.
• Using data collected from the API of Bungie's looter shooter, players have put forth the "perk proximity theory" that suggests perks closer together in each weapon's API listing have a higher chance of rolling together in a combo, while perks that are far away from one another are less likely to drop together.
• The catalyst for this potential discovery was a new heavy grenade launcher called VS Chill Inhibitor, with players having an exceptionally difficult time getting the desired meta combo of Envious Arsenal and Bait and Switch. Those two perks are three spaces away from one another in the weapon's API listing, while much more common combos like Envious Arsenal and Explosive Light have perks that are right next to each other.
• Bungie has announced that it's been made aware of the issue, and is using player data as well as internal investigations to try and find "a potential issue within our code for how RNG perks are generated."

Original article: At the heart of the gear chase in Bungie's space fantasy looter shooter Destiny 2 are random rolls for perks, which are the traits on weapons that influence how they operate and what they're capable of. Over the years, some players have subscribed to the belief that less desirable perks are intentionally weighted so that they'll drop more frequently than better ones, which the developers have routinely denied. Now, though, fans may have discovered a very real bug that's interfering with perk drop rates — and it might have gone under Bungie's nose for years.

The catalyst for the potential find was the VS Chill Inhibitor, an exceptional heavy grenade launcher from the new Vesper’s Host dungeon added in the Episode: Revenant update recently. It can roll with the fantastic perk combo of Envious Arsenal and Bait and Switch, with the former completely refilling its magazine and the latter giving it a massive 35% damage bonus whenever you do damage with your other two weapons first. As you'd expect, this specific roll skyrocketed to the top of the boss damage meta immediately, but it's proven to be an exceedingly rare drop that's gotten statistics wizards in the Destiny community investigating.

First suggested on social media by streamer T1Vendetta as "copium," Destiny scientists like Newo and MossyMax have collected and compiled extensive amounts of data that suggest something called the "perk proximity theory" may actually be affecting drop rates. I won't get into the weeds of the drop rate numbers themselves here — Newo wrote a 10-page analysis paper you can read if you're curious — but essentially, the theory is that perks have a lower chance to drop together if they're far away from each other in Destiny 2's application programming interface (API). The below image from MossyMax shows what this looks like:

In this example, perks that are directly next to one another in their respective columns (yellow line) have dropped together the most, followed by perks that are one space away (green line), two (blue line), and three (purple line). You're supposed to have an even 1/36 chance to get any possible perk combination on a weapon with six traits in each column, but assuming this bug is real, it's affecting the drop rates so that perks in close proximity have a high 1/24 chance to roll, with ones far away from each other having woefully pitiful odds of 1/454.

I'll admit that at first, I found this theory incredibly hard to believe. After seeing the consistent pattern in all the data, though, it's clear that something really is going on — and it explains why people are having such a hard time getting their desired VS Chill Inhibitor god roll. Envious Arsenal and Bait and Switch are three spaces away from each other in the weapon's API listing (visible on Light.gg) and that combo has proven to be almost impossible to land, while Envious Arsenal and Explosive Light (the "runner-up" combo) are right next to each other and seem to drop together frequently.

What's truly wild is that by comparing information from a dataset published by Light.gg that shows perk combo distribution in every weapon since 2018's Forsaken expansion to perk columns on the site's individual weapon pages, one can see that this issue has potentially affected Destiny 2 for years, possibly making bad rolls more common, great rolls rarer than they should be, and vice-versa. The good news, though, is that thanks to player reports, Bungie has been made aware of the problem and is investigating.

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"While we have confirmed that there is no intentional perk weighting on weapons within our content setup, we are now investigating a potential issue within our code for how RNG perks are generated," wrote the developer through its official Destiny 2 Team social media account. "Many thanks to all players who have been contributing to data collection across the community. This data has been monumentally helpful with our investigation, and we are currently working on internal simulations to confirm your findings. We will provide more information as soon as it is available."

Previously, Bungie responded to player concerns by noting that there's no perk weighting active in the game, but I suspect the studio missed the "perk proximity" issue because it was looking for individual perks rolling more frequently than others rather than combinations of perks being unusually common or rare. Now that data collected by players gives a clearer idea of what the issue might be, the developer will hopefully be able to figure out what's causing the problem and take care of it.

All in all, this is shaping up to be one of the craziest scandals in the history of Destiny, though I definitely don't think any part of it was intentional on Bungie's part. Ultimately, with weapon crafting — a mechanic that allows players to give weapons the specific perk combos they want after earning enough "red border" versions of them — taking a backseat and traditional loot farming becoming more prevalent in the post-The Final Shape era, I'm just glad this was brought to the developer's attention when it was.

What you need to know

• Roughly three months after announcing Destiny 2: Frontiers, Bungie has revealed precisely what's next for that upcoming chapter of the space fantasy looter shooter and beyond.
• Specifically, the studio announced "Apollo" and "Behemoth" expansions for Frontiers and 2025, along with four "Major Updates" that will be released throughout the year at three-month intervals.
• Destiny 2 will have two "medium-sized" expansions and four of these season-style Major Updates in future years, with Bungie aiming to focus on making expansions more creative and experimental and Major Updates more substantial.
• Additionally, the developers plan to overhaul the core of Destiny 2 to streamline its UI, implement more adjustable difficulty options, and add new high-tier Legendary rewards to a range of endgame activities.

It's been just about three months since Destiny 2 developer Bungie first announced "Frontiers" — a major project for the space fantasy looter shooter that will take the game beyond 2024's The Final Shape and its three Episode releases. At the time, next to nothing was known about Frontiers other than that it's scheduled to come in 2025. Now, though, a new blog post has revealed exactly what Frontiers is and how it will shape the future of Destiny.

The post — published by Bungie on September 9, which is the 10th Anniversary of the franchise — explains that Destiny 2: Frontiers is a roadmap for the game's 2025 expansions and content additions. That roadmap includes codenamed major expansions "Apollo" and "Behemoth" in the summer and winter seasons, respectively, along with four "Major Updates" (two during each expansion) that will "refresh the Core Game with new and reprised content" that's completely free-to-play like everything in Into the Light was.

Notably, Bungie's structuring of Frontiers has been chosen for Destiny 2's annual model moving forward, meaning that players can now expect two expansions and four free Major Updates every year starting in 2025. This replaces the shooter's current schedule of one annual expansion and three longform Episodes, which itself took the place of the series' "one DLC + four paid seasonal releases" model that was used from 2019's Shadowkeep until this year's The Final Shape.

The biggest change here is the shift from one new expansion every year to two, which is being accompanied by a plan to make each of these major DLCs smaller, but more creative and experimental. "Starting next year, instead of one big Expansion, we are going to deliver two medium-sized Expansions, one every six months," writes Destiny 2 game director Tyson Green. "Each of these will depart from the one-shot campaign structure we’ve been using essentially unchanged since Shadowkeep, and each will be an opportunity to explore exciting new formats instead."

"We believe it’s time for Destiny to change and evolve, and that our community wants this game to grow and innovate too," Green continued. "And to do that, we need to start breaking some of the molds."

This fresh approach begins with the Apollo expansion coming in Summer 2025, which will kick off Destiny 2's next narrative saga and feature a "nonlinear character-driven adventure." In it, you'll be able to progress through the DLC's various different locations and story threads in an order of your choosing — a first for the franchise. Narrative director Alison Lührs didn't reveal much about it beyond that, but did tease that "Apollo ends with the narrative gasoline that will propel us into the next few years with a clear theme, goal, and a destination that won’t come at you as a straight line but will be well-worth the trip. It’ll reward you, it’ll surprise you, and it’ll take us places Destiny has never seen before."

The move back to four Season-style updates per year is also noteworthy, though it sounds like Bungie is aiming to make them much less formulaic than they were in the past. Green says "each update will be a substantial refresh of the core game, bringing new activities and reward content," and their free-to-play nature means they'll be more accessible than Seasons (the presence of a "Rewards Pass" on the Frontiers roadmap suggests they'll still have a paid battle pass attached to them, though).

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Speaking of the core game, it's something that Bungie is planning to refine and refresh as it moves Destiny 2 in its new direction. Specifically, the studio will address the looter shooter's complexity and raise its approachability for newer players, while simultaneously offering a wider array of challenge options and meaningful rewards for Guardians to earn.

Supplementary blogs about core activities, rewards, and a new activity browser codenamed "The Portal" explore these aspects of Destiny 2 and how Bungie is looking to improve them, but the TL;DR is that the developer hopes to streamline the game's user interface, make it easier for players to know what they should be playing to get certain types of loot, give them more adjustable difficulty settings with things like gameplay modifiers, and add exciting high-tier Legendary gear rewards to a variety of endgame activities.

Given that Destiny 2 is currently experiencing some of its lowest-ever player count numbers, it's clear that the game was in need of a big shakeup like this in the post-Final Shape era. Whether what's coming in Frontiers and the future actually pulls players back into Destiny long-term or not remains to be seen — I expect its success will hinge on how much it actually overhauls the experience — but what's been announced here sounds fairly substantial.

What you need to know

• Nearly a week after Destiny 2 developer Bungie announced it cut 220 workers from the studio and is moving 155 staff to other roles within Sony, it has posted an official statement on social media to reassure fans about the future of Destiny.
• Bungie says it remains "committed to Destiny," and to "supporting our community with transparency, and to delivering regular updates about the game." It also notes it will discuss "the future of Destiny and plans for our next multi-year journey soon."
• The developer's statements also come days after a recent Bloomberg report suggested Bungie recently cancelled a Destiny spinoff called "Payback," and also that it's moving away from paid annual expansions and towards smaller and free content updates similar to April's Into the Light release.
• The report also notes that Bungie has not been working on a "Destiny 3" sequel to Destiny 2, and is instead focusing on making the live service looter shooter more approachable for new players.

Just over a week since Destiny 2 developer Bungie announced it laid off 220 employees and transitioned 155 workers to Sony Interactive Entertainment, the studio has posted an official update intended to reassure players it still has a plan for Destiny and its future. Concerns for the series have been growing since the cuts were made public, especially since there were already roughly 100 layoffs at Bungie last October.

"We know that recent changes at Bungie have created uncertainty surrounding the future of Destiny. Rest assured we remain committed to Destiny, to supporting our community with transparency, and to delivering regular updates about the game," wrote the developer on X (Twitter). "We'll be talking with you all about the future of Destiny and plans for our next multi-year journey soon. Once we plant a flag for the date, we'll let you all know. Thank you for your patience, and we'll see you again soon."

Notably, Bungie's statement comes several days after a report suggested Bungie cancelled a Destiny spinoff called "Payback," which was said to be a third-person title in which you would "explore a large world while cooperating to battle monsters and solve puzzles." The report also suggested the studio will no longer develop annual paid expansions, citing declining sales year-over-year — including with this year's critically acclaimed The Final Shape DLC.

What exactly is next for Destiny 2 isn't currently clear, though the aforementioned report does note that Bungie plans to make smaller and free content drops like the popular Into the Light update released two months before The Final Shape's launch. There are also "vague plans" for a fresh storyline with new characters and worlds, which is likely what the "Frontiers" Destiny 2 project revealed in June is.

It's also been said that Bungie is looking to improve the onboarding process for Destiny 2, which is notorious for being insufficient, lackluster, and confusing for players new to the live service science fantasy shooter. This is something the game's community has been vocal about for many, many years now, so many will be pleased to hear that Bungie is looking to address it seriously.

For a long time, many believed Bungie is also working on a Destiny 3, but a sequel of some sort has reportedly not been in development. Instead, the developer plans to focus its efforts on Destiny 2 and Marathon — a PvP extraction shooter set in the sci-fi universe of the studio's classic FPS franchise that debuted 30 years ago in 1994. Details about Marathon are extremely scarce at the moment, though we do know it's expected to release in 2025.

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Analysis: After recent events, it's hard to be hopeful

While it's good to see that Bungie is planning to open up about its plans for the future of Destiny and its "next multi-year journey" soon, to say that it's hard to be hopeful or feel reassured after what's happened recently is an understatement. Personally, I don't have any faith at all, especially since there have seemingly been no significant leadership changes despite former Bungie staff placing the blame squarely on executives on social media in the wake of the cuts. In particular, CEO Pete Parsons has come under intense scrutiny by affected workers and the wider community after it came to light that the chief executive officer spent millions on cars after Sony acquired Bungie in 2022.

Ultimately, only time will tell what the future holds for both Destiny and Bungie. At the moment, however, it's been devastating to see more layoffs disrupt the studio and its workers at a time when the number of layoffs in the gaming industry in 2024 have now exceeded 11,000. My heart — and the hearts of everyone at Windows Central — go out to everyone who has been affected.

What you need to know

• Destiny and Marathon developer Bungie is laying off 220 employees, with almost another 200 moving into new roles across PlayStation. 
• According to a report from Bloomberg, this comes weeks after Bungie canceled a Destiny spinoff game codenamed Payback.
• Payback was reportedly a third-person game with inspiration taken from games like Genshin Impact. 
• Bungie is also reportedly scaling back future Destiny 2 support, with smaller updates planned instead of big paid expansions.

Bungie stopped work on a big Destiny spinoff weeks ago. 

That's according to a report from Bloomberg, detailing some of the conditions at Sony-owned Bungie that led to the layoff of 220 employees, with an additional 200 or so moving into new roles across PlayStation. Per the report, while Bungie was continuing development on Destiny 2 expansions and its upcoming extraction shooter Marathon, the studio was working on a number of smaller projects, including remakes of older games and a mobile version of Destiny. 

The biggest of these side projects was codenamed Payback. Designed as a third-person Destiny spinoff, Payback was inspired by other games such as MiHoYo's Genshin Impact. Payback was reportedly canceled two months ago, with the majority of the development staff now on Marathon, which is currently slated to launch in 2025 across Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, and PlayStation 5.

Looking ahead, Bungie is reportedly moving away from crafting big expansions for Destiny 2, as sales have been declining each year, even with 2024's critically acclaimed Destiny 2: The Final Shape. The report indicates that Bungie is not looking to begin work on Destiny 3, but instead improve the process by which newer players can easily jump into Destiny 2. 

Analysis: What a mess

With projects canceled and Bungie essentially down by a third of its staff following two rounds of layoffs — another 100 employees were let go back in October 2023 — it's clear that the company needs a big win. With a huge amount of its resources now on Marathon, I truly hope that game can deliver. 

Even if it does though, for things to get back on track will require a leadership change. It's possible we'll see Sony eventually assume full control of Bungie, but if this happens, I'm not sure how the company can be expected to run, considering one of the big ideas behind the $3.6 billion acquisition was for Bungie to provide live-service expertise on Sony's upcoming swath of games-as-a-service titles.

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What you need to know

• Sony's Destiny 2 and Marathon developer Bungie is seeing another wave of job cuts, with 220 employees being let go. 
• An additional 155 employees are being moved into different jobs across Sony Interactive Entertainment, with another handful forming a new team under PlayStation Studios. 
• This comes months after Bungie let 100 employees ago shortly before the delay of multiple projects.
• Bungie launched its widely-anticipated expansion, Destiny 2: The Final Shape, to critical acclaim just weeks ago. 

After a brief recess for summer announcements, the nonsense is continuing. 

Sony-owned Destiny 2 developer Bungie announced on Wednesday that the company is making even more cuts, with 220 roles being eliminated, which makes up around 17% of the current staff. This comes not even a year after Bungie already laid off around 100 employees, which was 8% of the company's 1,200 employees at the time.

Further cuts at Bungie are planned beyond these layoffs, but these cut employees won't be losing their jobs. Instead, they'll be transitioned over to new roles at Sony, with 155 workers (an additional 12% of the existing workforce) taking new jobs across Sony Interactive Entertainment. Finally, another handful of Bungie employees are being spun out as a new team under PlayStation Studios, where they will be working on a science-fantasy action game. 

"We were overly ambitious, our financial safety margins were subsequently exceeded, and we began running in the red," says Bungie CEO Pete Parsons. "After this new trajectory became clear, we knew we had to change our course and speed, and we did everything we could to avoid today’s outcome. Even with exhaustive efforts undertaken across our leadership and product teams to resolve our financial challenges, these steps were simply not enough. "

Bungie has not detailed if any members of leadership took pay cuts or were also affected by the layoffs. 

Sony acquired Bungie for $3.6 billion back in 2022, with the intent for Bungie to become a become a "global multi-media entertainment company" assisting PlayStation.

Bungie employees blame leadership

Current and former Bungie staff are outspoken regarding this decision, with former Destiny 2 community manager Liana Ruppert calling on Parsons to step down.

These words were echoed by another former staffer, Griffin Bennet. 

Destiny 2 global community lead Dylan Gafner, often known to players as "DMG," called the cuts "inexcusable."

Analysis: Unbelievable

Bungie's prior round of cuts was certainly disappointing to see, but not out of line with the rest of the gaming industry. Microsoft's Xbox division, Sony's PlayStation, Riot Games, Electronic Arts, Take-Two Interactive, and many, many others all grew near-exponentially during the years of the pandemic, and all of them have cut roles and studios in the reset that began in 2023. 

Now, it appears Bungie is cutting even further right on the heels of great success, with Destiny 2: The Final Shape being acclaimed for its storytelling that wove together disparate narrative threads across the last 10 years into one of the best games available across Xbox, PlayStation, and Windows PC. It's clear that Bungie will be full steam ahead on Marathon, but the future of Destiny is certainly more unclear following this round of layoffs.

Otherwise, my remaining thoughts right now are with the employees and their families. 

The first week of The Final Shape expansion for Destiny 2 may be over, but there’s still plenty of content for players of Bungie’s space fantasy looter shooter to engage with. The start of Week 2 brought the arrival of the game’s first seasonal Episode “Echoes,” and it’s also added special Exotic class items designed specifically for use with The Final Shape’s “multiclassing” Prismatic subclass.

With two randomly rolled Exotic armor perks on each class item that drops, these will undoubtedly become some of the most sought-after gear pieces from The Final Shape for anyone looking to put together the best Prismatic builds. However, actually getting them will require you to unlock and then complete a hidden Exotic mission called “Dual Destiny.” Be warned that this mission can only be done with a two-person fireteam, which means it can’t be completed solo or with three or more players.

I’ve put together a quick guide below that goes over everything you need to know about unlocking the Dual Destiny mission, so read on to learn how and start farming Exotic class items.

How to get Exotic class items in Destiny 2

The process of unlocking the Dual Destiny mission that will give you Exotic class items is pretty obscure and is easy to miss without a guide, but it’s easy once you know what to do and have a teammate with you. First, you’ll need to go to The Final Shape’s The Pale Heart destination and fully complete the Public Event-style Overthrow activity in its The Landing, The Blooming, and The Impasse regions. Overthrow will escalate to Tier 3 as you kill enemies, open chests, and complete small objective-based events (these are marked with Public Event icons); once Tier 3 is done, a boss will spawn that you have to kill.

In each area, killing the final Overthrow boss will cause the text “A Secret-Keeper of the Witch Queen is near…” to appear, indicating that you have five minutes to find and kill this enemy while Overthrow is on cooldown. These are Lucent Hive Wizards, and spawn in the same location within their respective regions each time. Here’s a list of where you can find each one:

• The Landing: In a cave in the southeastern part of the area, near the Lost Sector.
• The Blooming: Near the eastern side of the region, in a purple cave.
• The Impasse: Towards the southwest portion of the zone, close to where Taken forces set up a bubble shield during Overthrow.

Once you’ve killed all three of these Wizards, you’ll see a beam of green light in the sky coming from The Refraction area between The Landing and The Blooming. Head to where its origin point and fight the Dread enemies there until two Subjugators spawn, then damage them until they drop a Light or Darkness orb (each Subjugator will drop one of these).

Pick up one of the orbs and have your ally take the other, then head into the nearby cave that objective markers direct you towards. Inside, you’ll find pools of Light and Darkness energy; dunk the Light and Darkness orbs into their respective pools and a flag you can interact with to start Dual Destiny will spawn (you’ll also get some dialogue from Savathûn). Note that interacting with it will create a Dual Destiny node on the Pale Heart’s Director screen so you can launch the mission in the future without having to complete this process again (this is account-wide, not per character).

I won’t spoil Dual Destiny in this guide (it’s fantastic), but something important to know about it is that one player will need to be using a Light subclass (Arc, Solar, or Void) while the other needs to be on a Darkness one (Stasis or Strand). One or both players can also use Prismatic, provided one Light and one Darkness Super is equipped between the two of you. On top of that, each of the mission’s segments are timed; if you fail to progress before a timer runs out, you’ll be sent back to Orbit.

The mission itself is similar to The Whisper or Zero Hour, though it’s more complicated since it features some raid-like mechanics to figure out (they're not too complicated, though). Again, no spoilers here, but be prepared to communicate with your teammate and do something other than simply slay out. Once you finish the mission, you’ll get a guaranteed drop of Exotic class item armor with random Exotic perk rolls.

Given that they were marketed as a major draw for The Final Shape expansion, solo players will no doubt be very disappointed that unlocking Exotic class items requires playing through a mission in a duo. The good news, though, is that you only have to complete Dual Destiny once; while follow-up runs will guarantee an Exotic class item reward, there’s also a chance they can drop from opened Pale Heart chests after you finish the mission.

Destiny 2 is one of the best Xbox games and best PC games for fans of multiplayer and looter shooters, and The Final Shape — the final expansion in the Light and Darkness Saga — is finally here and available to play now.

What you need to know

• Destiny 2 developer Bungie has given fans a closer look at what they can expect from the rest of The Final Shape's expansion year, Year 7.
• Specifically, the game will feature three large seasonal Episodes. Echoes will focus on a growing Vex-related threat on Nessus, Revenant will be centered around Fikrul, the Fallen, and the Scorn, and Heresy will take players back to Oryx's Dreadnought amidst a shakeup of Hive leadership.
• Bungie also revealed Destiny 2's next big project, which is codenamed "Frontiers." It's slated for a 2025 release.
• Very little is known about Frontiers yet; it's unclear if it's an expansion, the name for a batch of new Episodes, or something else entirely. What we do know, though, is that it's for Destiny 2, which means that it isn't a potential "Destiny 3" sequel.

The decade-long Light and Darkness Saga may have come to a close with Destiny 2: The Final Shape, but Destiny — and more specifically, Destiny 2 — is far from over. In fact, even though The Final Shape has ended one journey, it's kicking off another with the dawn of Year 7's three seasonal Episodes that will build up to Bungie's next big release: a project codenamed "Frontiers" that's slated to come in 2025.

Frontiers was announced during Bungie's "The Journey Ahead" video documentary (you can watch it via the embed below) that also showed off what players can look forward to in Destiny 2's upcoming Episodes, all of which are $15 experiences centered around Echoes — fragments of the Witness' memories turned into powerful artifacts by a fusion of Light and Darkness. The first Episode is titled Echoes, and will see players investigate Nessus as an Echo that landed on it transforms it, alters the behavior of the Vex there in strange ways, and surfaces a new threat. That one goes live on June 11 (tomorrow) with Breach Executable, an offensive three-player activity.

The second Episode is Revenant, a Fallen and Scorn-themed release with Fikrul, the surviving leader of the Scorn, emerging as its antagonist with an Echo under his control. The vibe with this one is very "vampire hunter," with players becoming Slayer-Barons — essentially the Fallen version of a Witcher monster hunter — by literally brewing special potions and likely working with Mithrax and the House of Light. Finally, there's Heresy, which will take Guardians back to Oryx's Dreadnought and shake up the remaining Hive leadership in some way.

And Frontiers? Well, right now, nobody actually knows what it is yet, as the video didn't specify if it's actually a full-on expansion or if it's simply a codename for another batch of Episode releases. I suspect Bungie will eventually reveal more information as we approach 2025, but for now, all we can do is speculate.

The "Frontiers" title makes me wonder if we'll be leaving the Sol System for the first time since the first Destiny released in 2014, though this is only one way you could interpret the codename. Of course, given that it's a codename, this title may not have any relevance to its content at all. Again, only time will tell.

What is clear, though, is that Bungie clearly doesn't intend to end Destiny 2 any time soon. Many wondered if the studio would move on from the space fantasy looter shooter after The Final Shape's Episodes and begin working on a Destiny 3, but Frontiers' reveal strongly suggests that that won't happen until at least 2026 — assuming a third installment even comes at all.

Analysis: Bungie is COOKING right now

Destiny 2: The Final Shape will definitely go down in the series' history as one of its best (if not the best) expansions, and based on everything seen in Bungie's new video, it looks like players have plenty of additional great content to look forward to. Everything shown looked fantastic, from each Episode's theme and story direction to the design of their weapons and armor sets, and I'm excited to eventually dive into Echoes after FromSoftware finishes blowing my mind with Elden Ring's Shadow of the Erdtree DLC.

As I wrote above, there's far less to say about whatever the Frontiers project ends up being. My guess is that it will kick off Destiny's next major narrative arc with Year 7's Episodes "cleaning up" the loose threads from the Light and Darkness Saga, though ultimately, this is just speculation. Hopefully we'll learn more soon.

Destiny 2 is one of the best Xbox games and best PC games for fans of multiplayer and looter shooters, and The Final Shape — the final expansion in the Light and Darkness Saga — is finally here and available to play now.

What you need to know

• Destiny 2: The Final Shape's Salvation's Edge raid was finally beaten for the first time after 19 hours on Saturday morning.
• This led to Bungie immediately dropping a new finale mission for The Final Shape and the decade-long Light and Darkness Saga called Excision.
• Excision is Destiny's first 12-player activity, and features an incredible final battle between the Guardians and all of their allies and the Witness.
• I detail the mission in the text below, but go in blind and play it yourself. Provided you've finished The Final Shape's campaign, you can do so; there are no Power Level requirements.

After a grueling 19-hour World's First raid race, Destiny 2's Final Shape Salvation's End raid was finally beaten by Team Parabellum — and immediately following this crippling blow dealt to the Witness came Excision, a new climactic finale mission everyone in the community can participate in. With matchmaking for a fireteam of up to 12 players (making this the first 12-player activity in Destiny 2 history), multiple narrative cinematics, and an incredible final boss battle, Excision is everything you could hope for from an ending to Destiny's decade-long Light and Darkness saga.

I'll go over the mission in detail below, but honestly, you should go in blind and experience it yourself once you finish The Final Shape's campaign. You'll find the node for it to the right of Salvation's Edge's on the Pale Heart Director menu, and don't worry about Power Level requirements or difficulty — as far as I can tell, the former aren't in place for this finale, and with 11 other Guardians at your side, the latter is hardly an issue. Spoilers for Excision and The Final Shape campaign below.

The mission begins in the calm before the storm, as the Vanguard and its allies prepare for the final assault against the Witness and its remaining forces. Guardians, the Awoken, the Eliksni of Mithrax's House of Light, Empress Caiatl's Cabal, and even Savathûn and her Lucent Brood Hive all rally to the Stasis-wielding Commander Zavala as he gives a rousing speech, followed by a heroic charge into battle reminiscent of scenes in Avenger's Endgame or Return of the King.

You're thrust into war, then, with Sol's defenders and the Witness' armies clashing on one of the largest battlefields I've ever seen in a single Destiny instance while some of the franchise's best-ever music swells. With direct support from the Vanguard's coalition and many major story NPCs, you and your massive fireteam act as the tip of the spear that pierces the outer defenses of the citadel the Witness is taking refuge in.

Making your way inside kicks off the mission's second phase, and the fight against the Witness itself. Legions of enemies continuously arrive in an effort to stop you, but by absorbing reservoirs of the Traveler's Light found throughout the arena and dunking them in a rift, you can give yourself near-instant ability cooldowns to help vanquish them while simultaneously weakening the protective barrier around the Witness. Additional NPCs also come to help; Saint-14 might drop in to create an unbreakable Ward of Dawn bubble you can use for cover and a Weapons of Light buff, or you might see Mithrax and Savathûn arrive and give you special heavy weapons like Scorch Cannons and Synaptic Spears.

Eventually, you'll reach a simplified version of a Witness damage phase from the raid, during which everyone has to hop on a central platform, break the glyphs on the Witness' chest, and then hit the weak spot they reveal with everything they've got while avoiding powerful Darkness blasts. The fray can end in as few as two phases with perfectly executed DPS, though I think it's more fun if it lasts longer since I get more time to go crazy with my Prismatic builds and even more allies come to reinforce you.

Once you get the Witness down to its last chunk of health, the battle caps off with everyone's Ghost acting as a conduit for the might of the Traveler, and all 12 players blast it with beams of Light until it disintegrates in a massive shower of particles. This is where Excision's gameplay ends and its final cinematics begin, with our Ghost — now completely drained — falls lifelessly into our Guardian's hands.

Within an ocean of bright white, Cayde-6 approaches, and makes the ultimate sacrifice to save our Ghost by giving it the Light he was brought back to life with. Emotions were already running high, so when I got to this part of the finale, I was full-on crying; I can't think of a better send-off for one of the most memorable characters from Destiny's 10-year saga as we move on to a new era.

Everything comes to a close with a special epilogue in which we see the Vanguard and its allies releasing thousands of paper lanterns into the night sky to celebrate their hard-fought victory. At the center of it all is our Guardian, sitting side-by-side with Zavala, Ikora, and Crow — now the Hunter Vanguard, with Cayde's blessing — as the four ruminate on what the future holds. It then cuts to one final, beautiful shot of our Guardian silently watching the Traveler from afar, with our ever-faithful Ghost hovering at their side.

The story of Destiny doesn't end here — Crow reminds us that we still have Fikrul's remnants of the Scorn and Xivu Arath's Hive to deal with, as well as reports of unusual activity at Nessus (teasing the start of Destiny 2's first seasonal "Episode" next week) and a strange aurora of Light and Darkness the Traveler is "bleeding" out into Earth's atmosphere — but our decade-long fight against the Witness and its Final Shape is over. And honestly? I can't think of a more perfect ending.

Guardians make their own fate.

Destiny 2 is one of the best Xbox games and best PC games for fans of multiplayer and looter shooters, and The Final Shape — the final expansion in the Light and Darkness Saga — is finally here and available to play now.

The new Destiny 2 expansion The Final Shape has plenty of awesome gear to chase, ranging from new drops in the world loot pool to refreshed Season of Dawn weapons and powerful Exotic armor pieces that play nicely with some of the best Prismatic builds as well as other popular setups. The weapons that interest me the most, though, are the special new destination weapons obtainable while in the Traveler's Pale Heart.

There are eight of these in total, and each one can drop from The Final Shape campaign, various activities completed in the Pale Heart, and finished Pale Heart Pathfinder objectives (these have replaced many of Destiny 2's bounties). They're also craftable, which means once you get five Deepsight "red border" versions of a weapon to drop, you can level and craft one with the exact perks you want at the Enclave that was introduced in The Witch Queen DLC.

Nearly every Pale Heart weapon is incredibly strong, with multiple S-tier perk combinations and "god rolls" worth chasing or crafting as you prepare to battle the Witness and its allies. Below, you'll find a list of all the god rolls I plan to hunt for, including both PvE and PvP rolls as well as a brief overview of why I want them and why I believe they'll be meta.

Axial Lucana god rolls

• PvE God Roll: Arrowhead Brake / Liquid Coils / Reconstruction OR Demolitionist / Controlled Burst OR Incandescent / Charge Time Masterwork
• PvP God Roll: Arrowhead Brake / Accelerated Coils / Threat Detector / Kickstart OR Vorpal Weapon

We're starting things off very strong with Axial Lucana, which is undoubtedly one of if not the best Legendary Solar Fusion Rifle in the game for PvE thanks to the combo of Reconstruction and Controlled Burst. With that roll, you'll be dishing out tons of buffed boss DPS with a massively overflowed magazine. Alternatively, there's also Demolitionist in column three for grenade-focused builds, and Incandescent in column four if you want a roll for add clear. Go with Liquid Coils to improve your damage-per-shot and a Charge Time masterwork for faster shooting.

I suspect Axial Lucana will also see lots of play in PvP, as Precision Frame Fusion Rifles are popular in the Crucible and a good Threat Detector / Kickstart roll will let you map people from surprisingly far away after you slide. You could also go with Vorpal Weapon in column four if you need a specialized anti-Super special weapon.

Bold Endings god rolls

• PvE God Roll: Arrowhead Brake / Flared Magwell OR Tactical Mag / Headstone OR Rapid Hit / Dragonfly OR Demolitionist / Reload Speed Masterwork
• PvP God Roll: Smallbore / Accurized Rounds / To the Pain OR Rapid Hit / Eye of the Storm / Range OR Stability Masterwork

Bold Endings is one of Destiny 2: The Final Shape's two new Heavy Burst Hand Cannons (the other being a Void world drop), and it's a dream come true for fans of Stasis builds. The unique combo of Headstone / Dragonfly will spawn a Stasis crystal and then immediately shatter it with an explosion whenever you get a precision kill, instantly proccing the Whisper of Shards Stasis Fragment if you're using it and heavily damaging other nearby enemies. There's also Headstone / Demolitionist, which is a very rare pairing that's perfect for Renewal Grasps Hunters, Bleak Watcher Warlocks, and Cryoclasm Titans. If you'd prefer something subclass-neutral, you could opt for Rapid Hit instead of Headstone for speedy reloads and extra stability.

In PvP, the new To the Pain perk that buffs handling and aim assist as you take damage synergizes very strongly with the accuracy-boosting Eye of the Storm in column four, so that's the perk combo I recommend for the Crucible. Rapid Hit / Eye of the Storm is also a popular pairing on other weapons, and will perform well on this one too.

Embraced Identity god rolls

• PvE God Roll: Arrowhead Brake / Appended Mag / Reconstruction OR Rewind Rounds OR Destabilizing Rounds / Fourth Time's the Charm OR Precision Instrument OR Redirection / Stability Masterwork
• PvP God Roll: Fluted Barrel / Steady Rounds OR Accurized Rounds / Opening Shot / Moving Target / Handling Masterwork

Snipers aren't in the best place right now, but good rolls of Embraced Identity are nevertheless worth hunting down so that you have them ready for scenarios where having a sniper would be helpful. Reconstruction or Rewind Rounds / Fourth Times the Charm will give you what feels like an endless magazine as long as you consistently hit precision shots, though you could also opt for Precision Instrument in column four for a sizable damage buff against Major and Boss-tier enemies. Another weird roll I definitely want to try out is Destabilizing Rounds / Redirection, with the area-of-effect explosions from the former killing basic mobs that will then contribute to buffed shots against yellow bars and bosses.

PvP-wise, the only good option here is Opening Shot / Moving Target, but that roll is a dime a dozen on Sniper Rifles these days. It's worth getting if you don't have a good PvP sniper yet, though, especially since it's craftable and allows you to enhance the perks.

False Idols god rolls

• PvE God Roll: Jagged Edge OR Honed Edge OR Tempered Edge / Swordmaster's Guard / Relentless Strikes OR Unrelenting OR Incandescent / Surrounded OR Bait and Switch OR Chain Reaction OR One for All
• PvP God Roll: Jagged Edge / Burst Guard / Wellspring OR Unrelenting / Chain Reaction OR Vorpal Weapon

To me, this is the least interesting of the Pale Heart weapons, as since it's a Vortex Frame Sword, it deals less damage than other archetypes. However, it may still see some play in The Final Shape and the Echoes Episode, as it's got some good perks and the current seasonal artifact has a lot of perks for Sword DPS. 

Relentless Strikes returns ammo to you as you light attack, with Surrounded and Bait and Switch both giving you massive (albeit situational, in Surrounded's case) damage buffs. There's also Unrelenting or Incandescent / Chain Reaction or One for All for fun add clear, though most players don't use Power Ammo-using Swords for taking care of red bars (that's what Machine Guns are for).

Swords have never been particularly strong in PvP, but if you manage to get Power Ammo in a Crucible match, Wellspring or Unrelenting / Chain Reaction could be fun for slicing through players you catch off-guard. There's also Vorpal for taking out Supers.

No Hesitation god rolls

• PvE God Roll: Arrowhead Brake / Appended Mag OR Tactical Mag OR Flared Magwell / Physic OR Demolitionist / Circle of Life OR Incandescent / Stability Masterwork
• PvP God Roll: Arrowhead Brake OR Smallbore OR Hammer-Forged Rifling / Accurized Rounds / Physic OR Demolitionist OR Strategist / Circle of Life OR Incandescent / Range Masterwork

In stark contrast to False Idols is the No Hesitation Auto Rifle, which is undoubtedly the most interesting Pale Heart weapon. It's the first of a new Support Frame that can heal allies you shoot with it after you deal enough damage to build up a charge.

The roll to chase is Physic / Circle of Life, with the former perk granting you and your teammates the Restoration Solar health regen buff when you use the weapon to heal them and the latter rewarding you with a damage buff for that healing. Another great PvE roll is Demolitionist / Incandescent, which will greatly synergize with any Solar setup built around grenades or Scorch damage-over-time (and the explosive ignitions it can lead to). The same rolls will also serve you well in PvP, though there's also Strategist in column three to boost your stability after you use your class ability.

Pro Memoria god rolls

• PvE God Roll: Arrowhead Brake / Appended Mag OR Flared Magwell / Reconstruction OR Demolitionist OR Hatchling / Dragonfly OR Bait and Switch OR Target Lock / Reload Speed Masterwork
• PvP God Roll: Arrowhead Brake / Accurized Rounds / To the Pain OR Strategist / Tap the Trigger OR Dragonfly / Stability OR Handling Masterwork

Another weapon with a new archetype is the Pro Memoria Strand Machine Gun, featuring an Aggressive Frame with high damage and recoil per shot. Reconstruction / Dragonfly or Bait and Switch are the best rolls for general add clear, while both Bait and Switch and Target Lock in column four will work well for sustained single-target DPS. There's also Demolitionist and Hatchling in column three for players using grenade or Threadling-focused builds.

For PvP, To the Pain or Strategist / Tap the Trigger will help manage the weapon's recoil and make it a laser. Alternatively, you could go with Dragonfly for some multikill potential on grouped up players.

Someday god rolls

• PvE God Roll: Smallbore OR Barrel Shroud / Assault Mag / Threat Detector OR Dual Loader / Recombination OR Vorpal Weapon OR Cascade Point OR Swashbuckler / Handling Masterwork
• PvP God Roll: Smallbore OR Smoothbore / Accurized Rounds / Threat Detector / Opening Shot / Range OR Handling Masterwork

Most of the Pale Heart weapons are at their best with PvE-focused rolls, but Someday is a shotgun that's perfect for Crucible PvP. Precision Frame Shotguns are arguably the best for close-range one-hit kills, and the extremely rare combo of Threat Detector / Opening Shot gives it an exceptional effective range. Essentially, it's a god-rolled Matador 64 in the Kinetic slot, and a must-have if you're a "shotgun ape."

There's a few decent perk pairings for PvE, too; I'd go with Assault Mag for faster shooting, along with either Threat Detector or Dual Loader and Recombination for extremely high damage against a tanky target after clearing some red bars with a primary. In column four, there's also Vorpal for a Champion and boss-specific damage buff, Cascade Point for rapidly mag-dumping a yellow bar after hits with a different weapon, and Swashbuckler for synergy with melee builds.

The Call god rolls

• PvE God Roll: Volatile Launch / Tactical Mag OR High-Velocity Rounds OR Appended Mag / Subsistence OR Lead from Gold OR Slice OR Demolitionist / One for All OR Adrenaline Junkie OR Golden Tricorn OR Hatchling
• PvP God Roll: Quick Launch / High-Velocity Rounds / Beacon Rounds / Desperate Measures OR Vorpal Weapon

Last but absolutely not least is The Call, a Strand "pocket rocket" Sidearm that everyone wants their hands on after experiencing the incredible power of the Arc one, Indebted Kindness, that drops from the Warlord's Ruin dungeon. There's a ridiculous number of great perks on offer here, to the point where it'll be very difficult to get (or craft) a bad roll.

In column three, there's:

• Subsistence, for ammo returned to the mag after kills
• Lead from Gold, for extra ammo when you pick up a Power Ammo brick
• Slice, for Severing a target (reducing its damage by ~30%) after using your class ability
• Demolitionist, for grenade energy on kill and a full reload when throwing grenades
• Beacon Rounds, for easily landing shots in PvP with tracking

Then, in column four:

• One for All, for a 35% damage buff after hitting three enemies
• Adrenaline Junkie, for stacking damage buffs on kill that cap at 33% with five stacks (grenade kills give you max stacks instantly)
• Golden Tricorn, for a 15% damage buff after kills that refreshes and skyrockets to 50% if you get a Strand ability kill before it runs out
• Hatchling, for spawning a Threadling after precision or rapid kills
• Desperate Measures, for Golden Tricorn-like effects with smaller buffs, but the ability to activate while stowed and you're getting kills with other weapons
• Vorpal Weapon, for dealing 15% extra damage to bosses, vehicles, and Guardians using their Super

As you can see, there's an absolute treasure trove of traits to pick from for PvE with The Call. For PvP, I'd stick with Beacon Rounds / Desperate Measures, though you could roll with Vorpal too if you want something to deal with Supers.

Destiny 2 is one of the best Xbox games and best PC games for fans of multiplayer and looter shooters, and The Final Shape — the final expansion in the Light and Darkness Saga — is finally here and available to play now.

There's plenty of content to engage with in The Final Shape expansion for Destiny 2, but one of the first things you'll want to do — especially if you're planning to jump into the DLC's Salvation's Edge raid on June 7 and go for a day one clear — is fully unlock every Prismatic Fragment, Aspect, and ability. You'll get a handful of these from reward chests as you progress through The Final Shape's campaign, but most of these subclass elements will come from hidden chests off the beaten path, quests, or and explorations of the Traveler's Pale Heart after you complete it.

Getting the rest of your Light and Darkness Aspects and abilities is easy, as it just requires completing the straightforward Found in the Dark and Lost in the Light quests your Ghost gives to you post-campaign. Prismatic Fragments, though, are significantly more complicated. Some of them are obtained from secret chests within the campaign, a few are unlocked from Prismatic chests in the Pale Heart that won't open unless you complete a small puzzle, and you'll need Memory Vestiges of Light and Darkness — earned during Micah-10's Alone in the Dark cyst missions and from Darkness-corrupted chests in the open world, respectively — in order to combine them into full memories and make the final Fragment chests spawn in the patrol space.

In total, there are 13 Fragments to find, and I wouldn't blame you for feeling lost without a guide since the game doesn't give you a clear indication of what to do to hunt them down. Luckily, several Destiny content creators have put together some great video guides that go over acquiring all of Prismatic, including this excellent one from Datto I'm using as I write this.

The most time consuming of these Fragments to get seem to be the ones that require Light Memory Vestiges, as it sounds like there's an issue causing these to sometimes not spawn during cyst missions. If you don't end up running into these glitches, though, you'll probably spend most of your time getting the Fragments that come from hidden puzzles around the Pale Heart. There are five of these, and while none of them are particularly difficult, they're spread out across the patrol space evenly and a few of them require quite a bit of running around.

Overall, the process of fully unlocking Prismatic involves significantly more effort than getting Stasis or Strand did, and I like that doing so gives me a reason to explore the Pale Heart and appreciate The Final Shape's incredible environment design. Along the way, you'll also be getting plenty of drops of the new Pale Heart weapons, potentially including the new Support Frame Auto Rifle, No Hesitation, that heals teammates when you shoot it at them.

While you don't have to get all of Prismatic before moving on to the Pale Heart's other activities, doing so is definitely a good idea. With every Fragment, Aspect, and ability, you'll have everything you need to use some of the best Prismatic builds or experiment with the subclass to create some of your own.

Destiny 2 is one of the best Xbox games and best PC games for fans of multiplayer and looter shooters, and The Final Shape — the final expansion in the Light and Darkness Saga — is finally here and available to play now.

Original article: Nearly 10 entire years after the original Destiny game launched back in 2014, Destiny 2: The Final Shape — the climactic capstone expansion for the series' decade-long Light and Darkness Saga — has finally gone live. The Destiny 2 update has officially released and is available to play, with the patch now rolling out on Xbox, PC, and PlayStation.

The Final Shape represents a bombastic conclusion to a grand story that's been building ever since the first Destiny came out, with the space fantasy looter shooter's narrative introducing players to dozens of nuanced characters and exploring a wide variety of different themes. Now, at the end of its arc, Guardians are tasked with following the Witness — Destiny's main antagonist that wishes to coalesce the Light and Darkness to bring about a lifeless universe — into the Pale Heart of the Light-granting Traveler itself and thwarting its machinations.

At the core of that effort is Prismatic, The Final Shape's premier subclass that allows players to combine different abilities and Aspects from different Light and Darkness subclasses into one powerful jack-of-all-trades-style kit (check out some of the best Prismatic builds). Of course, the expansion also features a myriad of new weapons and Exotic gear pieces to chase, along with special new Prismatic-exclusive Exotic class items with a pair of randomly rolled Exotic armor perks. Prismatic, its components, and the new Pale Heart weapons are unlocked during the campaign and its aftermath, while the Exotic class items will become obtainable once Week 2 begins on June 11, after the DLC's new raid launches on June 7 and is beaten.

Destiny 2 started going through a resurgence in the weeks leading up to The Final Shape thanks to the excellent midseason Into the Light update as well as the announcement of some hugely positive changes the expansion brings (for example, the Power Level grind has been significantly shortened and made considerably less important). Because of that, it's not surprising to see SteamDB report over 300,000 players jumping into The Final Shape at launch on Steam alone. It's also not surprising that the DLC's release has been rocky so far with fans frequently reporting "Destiny 2 servers are not available" errors; thankfully, it looks like a good number of players (myself included) are getting into the game now, though some may still need to wait in a queue.

The Final Shape retails for $49.99, though right now, you can get it for nearly $10 off at CDKeys. Oh, and while you're waiting for the servers to improve, consider reading through the expansion's patch notes, which are ridiculously long. You'll find the full list in the section below.

Destiny 2 is one of the best Xbox games and best PC games for fans of multiplayer and looter shooters, and The Final Shape — the final expansion in the Light and Darkness Saga — is arguably the biggest DLC that Bungie's popular live service game has ever gotten.

Destiny 2 Update 8.0.0.1: Patch notes

Here are the official patch notes for Destiny 2's The Final Shape launch, taken directly from Bungie's own website.

Activities

• CRUCIBLE
  • Competitive will now use the Blended “1-1-1" Special Ammo system in place of the Crates system. We will begin rolling this system out to other playlists soon.
  • Adjusted spawns on Altar of Flame and Dead Cliffs for Countdown Rush to improve match balance.
  • Updated Private Match screens to support expanded options and to improve usability.
  • Updated sound effects for rank promotion and defense toasts in Competitive to better convey success or failure.
  • Fixed an issue where Relic meter was not correctly progressing in Relic.
  • Fixed an issue where Private Match activity modifiers would display inaccurately.
• SHADOWKEEP
  • Fixed an issue in the mission Beyond where players would sometimes get stuck without the activity progressing them correctly.
• WARLORD’S RUIN
  • Fixed an issue in Warlord's Ruin where the sound effect that occurs after a player is frozen by the tempest storm did not play correctly.
• CROTA’S END
  • Fixed an issue preventing completion of the All for One challenge and associated Triumph.
• THE PANTHEON
  • Fixed an issue where The Pantheon emblems appeared in the General category rather than the Raids category in Collections.

UI/UX

• GENERAL
  • Added a gameplay subtitles option that displays the speaker's name before their dialog.
    • This option is off by default. To activate it, navigate to the Options menu and toggle it to on.
    • This feature does not affect cinematic subtitles.
  • Added Reputation Boost information for ritual activities to the Director.
    • Hovering over the Rituals nodes at the top of the Director (Vanguard Ops, Crucible, Gambit) will display when reputation boosts are active.
  • Fixed an issue where dungeon tracking stats were not displayed on emblems.
• FIRETEAM FINDER
  • Improved placement and visuals of the Reselecting Activity button so players have better access to it.
  • Fixed an issue where Fireteam Finder lobbies for Crucible Labs weren't allowing the correct max number of players for the activity.
  • Fixed an issue where in some Fireteam Finder applications, player status was not displayed properly.
• GUARDIAN RANKS/JOURNEY SCREEN
  • Made visual and functional improvements to the Journey screen and Guardian Ranks icons.
  • Fixed an issue where the Cherished Guardian Rank objective displayed the incorrect Commendation score requirement.
• QUESTS
  • Added Milestones to the quest log.
    • Milestones will not count against a player's maximum quest/bounty capacity.
  • Tracked quests will be sorted to the top of their categories when the quest log is reloaded next.
  • Added an option to set a specific Quest tab as the default.
    • The default Quest tab will be the first tab opened when the quest log is loaded.
  • Added text to the Quest tooltip to communicate when a Quest is directly launchable from its Quest Details screen.

Gameplay and Investment

• ABILITIES
  • All Subclasses
    • All Super abilities now use the same damage-based recharge parameters.
      • Previously, energy gained through damage dealt and received was scaled based on the passive recharge rate of the Super, resulting in a broader delta between long-recharge Supers and short-recharge Supers than intended.
      • This will, for example, bring the real-world uptime of Ward of Dawn and Well of Radiance closer to the uptime of a Super like Arc Staff or Fists of Havoc.
  • Arc Subclasses
    • Arcstrider
      • Arc Staff:
        • Heavy palm strike attacks and heavy air slam blind enemies.
    • Disorienting Blow:
      • Decreased base cooldown time from 100 seconds to 90 seconds.
    • Tempest Strike:
      • Added additional damage resistance vs. PvE combatants when activated, lingering for a short duration after the attack.
    • Striker
      • Knockout
        • Increased bonus damage granted to powered melee attacks vs. PvE combatants from 25% to 50%.
      • Reworked healing behavior:
        • No longer unstuns health regeneration on melee defeats. Now instantly grants a chunk of healing that scales with the type of target defeated.
        • Player: 30 health points.
        • Minor combatant: 50 health points.
        • Major combatant: 75 health points.
        • Champion+ combatant: 100 health points.
      • Touch of Thunder
      • Lightning Grenade:
        • Now applies Jolt after the first damage event, rather than prior.
        • This means that the Jolt won't instantly pop on application, and attackers will need to either wait for the second lightning burst from the grenade or deal additional damage via other means to trigger the Jolt's chain lightning.
      • Storm Grenade:
        • Increased tracking travel speed when targeting PvE combatants by between 0.5 and 1 meters per second, increasing with the storm’s lifetime.
      • Thunderclap
        • Added additional damage resistance vs. PvE combatants when activated, lingering for a short duration after the attack.
        • Increased minimum damage vs. PvE combatants by 20%.
        • Increased maximum damage vs. PvE combatants by 33%.
        • Increased maximum damage vs. enemy players by 14%.
    • Stormcaller
      • Lightning Surge
        • Added additional damage resistance vs. PvE combatants when activated, lingering for a short duration after the attack.This is intended to help players survive during the final lightning strike performance until the player returns to first person and can maneuver out of danger
    • Ball Lightning
      • Increased the final arming shape size by 30%.
      • Fixed an issue where the arming shape was offset upward, higher than the maximum damage range of the projectile’s detonation.
    • Chain Lightning
      • Increased secondary chain projectile’s base damage from 27 to 54.
    • Arc Grenades
      • Storm Grenade:
        • Increased damage vs. PvE combatants by 20%.
        • Touch of Thunder variant’s damage is unchanged.
    • Skip Grenade:
      • Increased damage vs. PvE combatants by 15%.
    • Arcbolt Grenade:
      • Increased damage vs. PvE combatants by 15%.
    • Arc Fragments
      • Spark of Recharge:
        • Ability regeneration bonus now persists until the player returns to full shields, rather than deactivating as soon as shields begin to recharge.
      • Spark of Beacons:
        • Now also triggers on defeating targets with Arc Power ammo weapons while amplified.
      • Spark of Frequency:
        • Now also grants 15 weapon stability on powered melee hit, in addition to its reload benefit.
  • Solar Subclasses
    • Solar General
      • Restoration
        • Restoration’s full-body visual effects now reduce their intensity while the player's Super is active.
      • Cure
        • Cure's healing now takes place over 0.1 seconds rather than instantly.
        • This change is unlikely to affect Cure's efficacy in a meaningful way but is primarily intended to improve the readability of Cure's heal in the middle of combat in the UI.
    • Gunslinger
      • Lightweight Knife
        • Now has 2 melee charges by default.
        • Increased throw animation speed by 33%.
        • Reduced suppression time between throws, so both knives can be thrown very quickly back-to-back.
        • The additional melee charge does not stack with Ophidia Spathe, due to the Exotic’s unique energy recharge behavior. We’ll be monitoring this and evaluating how things are playing once things go live.
    • Knock 'Em Down
      • Reduced internal cooldown on throwing knife refund from 1 second to 0.2 seconds.
    • Gunpowder Gamble
      • Fixed an issue where Gunpowder Gamble was unable to damage Strand Tangles.
    • Golden Gun - Marksman
      • Reduced strength of Orbs of Power created on precision hit as follows:
        • When hitting non-boss enemies, reduced strength from 0.75x to 0.5x of a normal Super Orb of Power.
        • When hitting boss enemies, reduced strength from 0.75x to about 0.4x of a normal Super Orb of Power.
        • When hitting boss enemies while Star-Eater Scales is equipped, reduced strength from 0.75x to about 0.35x of a normal Super Orb of Power.
    • Sunbreaker
      • Consecration
        • Consecration’s slam attack can now shatter Stasis crystals.
        • Ignitions generated by Consecration now deal 20% additional damage to PvE combatants.
        • Fixed an issue where Consecration’s slam attack was sometimes unable to damage floating combatants while they were grounded.
        • Fixed an issue where Consecration’s intended PvE damage resistance was not being applied.
    • Hammer of Sol
      • Increased projectile submunition count when Sol Invictus is not equipped as follows:
        • If the projectile detonates within the first 0.7 seconds of its lifetime, it now creates 4 shrapnel submunitions, up from 3.
        • If the projectile detonates after the first 0.7 seconds of its lifetime, it now creates 6 shrapnel, up from 5.
        • When Sol Invictus is equipped, only 3 shrapnel submunitions are created, regardless of flight time.
      • Shrapnel submunitions now deal additional damage when Sol Invictus is not equipped, with the damage increasing after the first 0.7 seconds of the projectile's lifetime.
    • Dawnblade
      • Heat Rises
        • Fixed an issue where throwing some grenades while Heat Rises was equipped would produce Void visual effects on the player's hands during the throw.
    • Well of Radiance
      • Now grants radiant for 8 seconds when players exit the Well of Radiance area.
      • Reduced player survivability while standing in the Well of Radiance aura.
        • Reduced healing per second from 100 to 50 health points, matching restoration x2.
      • Increased heal on cast from 40 to 300 health points.
      • Reduced damage resistance vs. non-boss combatants from 40% to 20%.
      • Reduced damage resistance vs. boss combatants from 40% to 10%.
      • Damage resistance vs. enemy players is unchanged.
      • Increased maximum Orbs of Power from defeating targets while in the player's Well of Radiance aura from 4 to 5.
    • Solar Grenades
      • Swarm Grenade
        • Increased tracking shape size from 4 meters to 6 meters.
        • Increased linger duration from 7-8 seconds to 10-11 seconds.
        • Increased damage vs. PvE combatants by 20%.
  • Void Subclasses
    • Void General
      • Fixed an issue where Volatile could fail to auto-detonate if the target was defeated by the damage event that applied the Volatile effect.
    • Nightstalker
      • Snare Bomb
        • Increased linger duration of smoke after detonation from 3 seconds to 5 seconds.
        • Now applies small damage over time to enemies in the smoke, which increases in strength the longer they remain in the smoke.
    • Trapper's Ambush
      • Increased linger duration of the smoke after detonation from 4.5 seconds to 6 seconds.
      • Now applies Snare Bomb’s damage over time to enemies caught in its smoke.
      • Fixed an issue where Trapper’s Ambush’s smoke effects could be obstructed by ground geometry.
    • Stylish Executioner
      • Stylish Executioner’s weaken effect can now be applied by Glaive melee attacks.
    • Sentinel
      • Shield Throw:
        • Increased maximum bounce count from 4 to 5.
        • Increased maximum lifetime from 3 seconds to 4 seconds.
        • Now increases its tracking shape size and strength after each bounce, increasing its ability to consistently find a new target.
        • Slightly increased gravity and decreased thrust speed with each bounce.
        • Increased damage vs. PvE targets by 20%.
    • Ward of Dawn:
      • Armor of Light:
        • Removed Armor of Light overshield. Ward of Dawn now immediately applies a full Void Overshield to the caster and allies that enter its dome.
        • Armor of Light now instead grants additional damage resistance to players inside the Ward of Dawn:30% vs. enemy players and 60% vs. enemy combatants.
        • Effective health of players inside the Ward of Dawn dome remains roughly the same as it was before vs. PvE combatants.
        • Effective health of players inside the Ward of Dawn is significantly lower than it was before vs.other players in PvP, and cannot be further increased by stacking Bastion Barricades inside the Ward to gain additional Overshield layers.
      • No longer provides Weapons of Light by default. This behavior has been moved to the benefits of Helm of Saint-14.
      • Allies near the Ward of Dawn dome now have Void Overshield trickled on over time, similar to the volume behind a Bastion barricade.
        • This trickle rate is reduced in PvP activities.
      • The Ward of Dawn caster can now generate additional Orbs of Power by defeating enemies with melee attacks in or near their Ward of Dawn dome. Up to a maximum of 5.
    • Offensive Bulwark
      • Can now only extend Void Overshield’s timer to its normal maximum duration, to prevent an issue where players could get into a bad timer state.
      • Now regenerates a small portion of the player's active Void Overshield with each melee defeat.
    • Voidwalker
      • Chaos Accelerant
        • Magnetic Grenade
        • Increased maximum intensity of physics knockback impulse by 10%.
        • Increased damage vs. PvE combatants by 20%.
        • Now passively decreases the player's Magnetic Grenade’s cooldown by 10% while Chaos Accelerant is equipped.
      • Pocket Singularity
        • Increased detonation damage vs. PvE combatants by about 50%.
      • Nova Bomb
        • Cataclysm variant:
        • Increased seeker count from 4 to 6.
        • Fixed an issue where seekers could impact the environment on creation.
        • Vortex variant:
        • Increased Vortex linger duration from 7 seconds to 10 seconds.
        • Fixed an issue where the linger visual effects were shutting off early.
    • Void Grenades
      • Suppressor Grenade
        • Damage radius now matches Suppression radius.
        • This does not meaningfully change the damage profile of the grenade but is intended to provide additional feedback to the player when they have successfully Suppressed a target.
      • Voidwall Grenade
        • Fixed an issue where the central damage volume was offset significantly lower than the left and right volumes.
    • Void Fragments
      • Echo of Instability
        • Can now be activated by defeating targets with Forerunner's The Rock grenade.
        • No longer displays its HUD buff text unless a Void weapon is readied.
  • Stasis Subclasses
    • Stasis General
      • New Frost Armor keyword:
        • You are fortified by layers of durable Stasis matter, reducing incoming damage. Frost Armor damage resistance grows stronger as the player gains additional stacks.
        • Reduces damage from PvE combatants by 4.5% per stack and from enemy players by 2% per stack.
    • Stasis Shatter
      • Increased base PvE shatter damage from 200 to 400.
      • Fixed an issue where bosses auto-shattering were being hit by two instances of shatter damage.
      • Fixed an issue where players in an active Super would show immune damage flyouts when automatically breaking out of Stasis freeze.
    • Revenant
      • Grim Harvest
        • Added new behavior:
        • While Grim Harvest is equipped, Stasis Shards grant a small amount of health and a stack of Frost Armor.
        • Large Stasis Shards from Grim Harvest grant more health and Frost Armor stacks.
      • Now has a standardized cooldown when a large number of Shards are created very quickly.
      • Winter's Shroud
        • Added new behavior:
        • Slowing targets briefly increases the player's class ability regeneration rate.
        • Bonus is reduced in PvP game modes.
        • Now grants PvE damage reduction when activated.
      • Touch of Winter
        • Coldsnap Grenade:
        • No longer chains an additional time while Touch of Winter is equipped.
        • Instead, seekers now duplicate when they freeze a target.
        • Second and third seeker chains now create a medium and large Stasis crystal respectively, rather than every chain creating a small crystal.
      • Glacier Grenade:
        • Added an additional Stasis crystal to the ring formation, increasing total count from 6 to 7.
        • Glacier Grenade ring now forms over 0.27 seconds, rather than instantly.
      • Silence & Squall
        • Increased Squall maximum travel speed by 10%.
        • Squall storm now slows down when any target is within its area of effect to reduce instances where it could overshoot its target.
        • Increased damage and slow tick rate vs. PvE combatants by about 40%, bringing its freeze time from approximately 0.8 seconds to ~0.5 seconds.
    • Behemoth
      • Tectonic Harvest
        • Added new behavior:
        • While Tectonic Harvest is equipped, Stasis Shards grant a small amount of health and a stack of Frost Armor.
        • Now creates a Stasis Shard when shattering a frozen target in addition to shattering Stasis crystals.
        • Now has a standardized cooldown when a large number of Shards are created very quickly.
      • Glacial Quake
        • Now automatically begins sprinting when the player throttles forward.
        • This change should make Shattering the player's Stasis Crystals significantly more intuitive in the heat of combat.
        • Increased on-cast Freeze impulse radius vs. PvE combatants from 6 meters to 8 meters.
      • Shiver Strike
        • Increased damage vs. PvE combatants by 10%.
        • Increased size of melee target search area cone by about 50%.
        • Increased maximum lunge tracking angular speed from 7 degrees per second to 21 degrees per second.
        • The end result of these changes is that Shiver Strike misses significantly less and is able to bend its lunge trajectory more to find a target within its search area.
      • Diamond Lance
        • Increased thrown Diamond Lance detonation radius from 3.5 meters to 5 meters.
        • Increased Diamond Lance slam detonation radius from 6.75 meters to 8 meters vs. PvE combatants.
        • Diamond Lance now shatters Stasis crystals on direct impact.
        • Reduced Diamond Lance pickup interaction time from 0.2 seconds to 0.1 seconds, matching Strand Tangles.
        • Increased Diamond Lance pickup interaction radius from 0.7 meters to 3 meters, matching Strand Tangles.
      • Cryoclasm
        • Removed sprint time requirement. Cryoclasm now goes on cooldown for 4 seconds after one extended slide.
    • Shadebinder
      • Glacial Harvest
        • Added new behavior:
        • While Glacial Harvest is equipped, Stasis Shards grant a small amount of health and a stack of Frost Armor.
        • Now has a standardized cooldown when a large number of Shards are created very quickly.
    • Iceflare Bolts
      • Increased maximum seekers created before going on cooldown from 5 to 7.
    • Stasis Fragments
      • Whisper of Rime reworked:
        • No longer grants a Stasis Shard Overshield when collecting a Stasis Shard.
        • Now increases the maximum duration and stack count of the player's Frost Armor.
      • Whisper of Chains reworked:
        • No longer grants passive damage resistance when near a Stasis crystal or frozen target.
        • Now grants a chance to create a Stasis Shard when defeating a target while the player have one or more stacks of Frost Armor.
      • Whisper of Fractures reworked:
        • No longer increases melee energy regeneration while surrounded by enemies.
        • Now grants a stack of Frost Armor when the player shatters any frozen target with a melee attack.
      • Whisper of Torment
        • Grenade energy gains are no longer dependent on the player's current health value. Base grenade energy regeneration amount per incoming damage event increased from 5% to 7%.
        • While the player has Frost Armor, energy per damage event increases from 7% to 12%.
      • Whisper of Chill - New Fragment:
        • Stasis weapon final blows have a chance to create a Stasis Shard.
      • Whisper of Reversal - New Fragment:
        • While the player has Frost Armor, dealing or receiving physical melee (i.e., not projectile melee) damage slows the player's victim or attacker.
  • Strand Subclasses
    • Strand General
      • Grapple Tangles
        • No longer fully refresh their duration when Grappled to.
        • Now increase their duration by a maximum of 5 seconds per Grapple, reducing to a maximum of 1 second added after 5 consecutive Grapples to the same Grapple Tangle.
      • Grapple Melee
        • Can no longer be activated after firing a weapon, similar to sprint-or-slide-activated melee abilities.
      • Tangles
        • Tangles will now be paired with the text "Pick Up Tangle" instead of only "Pick Up".
    • Threadrunner
      • Ensnaring Slam
        • Detonation volume vs. enemy players is now a cylinder with a 6.5-meter radius, rather than a sphere with an 8-meter radius.
        • This results in fewer instances of victims correctly attempting to counterplay by jumping but being caught by the Ensnaring Slam detonation high up in the air.
      • Threaded Specter
        • Arming shape vs. PvE combatants now grows more quickly, resulting in more responsive detonations when used in close quarters.
      • Threaded Spike
        • Reduced damage vs. enemy players from 79 to 70.
        • Catching a Threaded Spike no longer breaks invisibility.
    • Berserker
      • Into the Fray
        • Reduced melee energy regeneration scalar from 4x to 3x in PvE activities.
        • Unchanged in PvP activities.
      • Banner of War
        • Reduced maximum timer from 30 seconds to 24 seconds.
        • Melee, Glaive melee, and Super damage bonus now have diminishing returns with Synthoceps as follows:
        • Melee bonuses decreased from 1.4x to 1.15x.
        • Glaive melee bonuses decreased from 1.25x to 1.125x.
        • Super bonuses decreased from 1.4x to 1.2x.
        • Melee and Glaive melee damage bonuses now have diminishing returns with Wormgod Caress, too.
        • Melee bonuses decreased from 1.4x to 1.1x, based on stack count.
        • Glaive melee bonuses decreased from 1.4x to 1.05x, based on stack count.
      • Frenzied Blade / Bladefury
        • Reduced the forward offset for melee lunge target point from 0.4 meters to 0.18 meters.
        • This should reduce instances where attempting to lunge to a target while at very close range resulted in the character lunging backwards.
    • Broodweaver
      • Weaver's Call
        • Added new behavior:
        • Defeating a target with Strand damage now has a chance to generate a perched Threadling, with a higher chance of generation from defeating more powerful targets.
        • This damage can be from any source, including other Threadlings.
    • Strand Fragments
      • Thread of Warding
        • Reduced Woven Mail duration on Orb of Power pickup from 10 seconds to 5 seconds.
      • Thread of Propagation
        • No longer displays its HUD buff text unless a Strand weapon is readied.
• EXOTIC ARMOR
  • Exotic armor can now be upgraded after it has been fully masterworked, granting an Artifice mod slot.
  • This comes at the cost of an Exotic Cipher and 10,000 Glimmer.
  • Hunter
    • Renewal Grasps
      • Replaced generic damage resistance with Frost Armor:
        • On entering your Duskfield Grenade volume, you or allies gain a stack of Frost Armor.
        • About every 0.9 seconds, an additional stack of Frost Armor is granted, resetting the timer.
    • Triton Vice
      • Glaive projectile final blows now always trigger a detonation that matches the Glaive's damage type, even when the Glaive does not match the equipped subclass.
      • The surrounded effect provided by Triton Vice while wielding a Glaive now lingers on the player for five seconds after no longer being surrounded.
    • The Sixth Coyote
      • Now creates an Orb of Power from final blows after using a class ability in addition to its previous behavior.
        • This is implemented as the Exotic granting a free copy of the Reaper armor mod's effects.
    • Star-Eater Scales
      • Increased the Orbs of Power required to grant maximum benefits from 4 to 6.
      • Reduced the increased Super energy gained per Orb of Power when the Golden Gun is equipped from 2% down to 0.5%.
      • Fixed an issue where the Super damage boost for attacks that occur quickly after initial cast, such as Shadowshot at close range, was not always applied.
      • Fixed an issue where a player could maintain the damage bonus after removing Star-Eater Scales.
    • Foetracer
      • Now grants the bonus damage it inflicts on a target to weapons. The damage type also matches that of the ability used to damage that target, instead of always matching the equipped subclass.
    • Assassin's Cowl
      • Now requires the player to expend a melee charge (or defeat an enemy via a finisher) to activate.
    • Mask of Bakris
      • Now requires a Stasis Super to be equipped, instead of a Stasis subclass.
      • Re-enabled the "Light Shift" debuff in the HUD when a class ability is not recharging.
        • This is a cosmetic-only change to keep the cooldown visible even while not holding a weapon that benefits from its damage boost.
      • Fixed an issue where Mask of Bakris applied a Tier 2 damage buff instead of a Tier 4 and failed to display the time remaining on a certain Solar weapon.
      • Additionally, the Solar damage buff will now function in the Crucible.
    • The Bombardiers
      • Now triggers an effect based on the equipped Super element, instead of the equipped subclass.
    • Celestial Nighthawk
      • Fixed an issue where players could swap from Celestial Nighthawk to Knucklehead Radar after activating their Super and be granted the benefits from both Exotics.
    • Dragons Shadow
      • Now triggers its effects when the player uses Ensnaring Slam or the new Ascension Arc Aspect.
    • Liars Handshake
      • Counterpunch now does Arc damage instead of Kinetic.
  • Titan
    • Helm of Saint-14
      • Now causes the wearer's Ward of Dawn to apply the Weapons of Light buff to allies.
    • Ursa Furiosa
      • Now provides increased movement speed while guarding with the new Unbreakable Void Aspect.
      • Also grants Super energy for guarding with Unbreakable that scales based on the amount of incoming damage the shield absorbs.
    • Eternal Warrior
      • No longer requires an Arc subclass for Arc final blows to grant its escalating Arc weapon damage bonus.
    • Armamentarium
      • Now creates an Orb of Power from grenade final blows in addition to its previous behavior.
        • This is implemented as the Exotic granting a free copy of the Firepower armor mod's effects.
    • Khepri's Horn
      • Increased the damage from the Solar blast by 100% in PvE.
      • The Solar blast now Scorches each time it hits a target, instead of Scorching only once.
      • Khepri's Horn now benefits from Ember of Eruption and Ember of Ashes (+30 Scorch in PvE and +15 Scorch in PvP).
    • Synthoceps
      • Reduced the amount of time that Bionic Enhancements lingers after no longer being surrounded, from 8 seconds to 5 seconds. This duration is now visible as a timer on the buff.
    • Severance Enclosure
      • Now requires the player to expend a melee charge (or defeat an enemy via a finisher) to activate.
      • Its explosions now require line of sight to damage enemies. We also reduced the knockback intensity of these explosions, which will now launch enemies more consistently vertically.
    • Heart of Inmost Light
      • Now displays a single, consolidated status effect icon in the HUD to communicate its state, instead of the two to three it used before.
        • The functionality of the Exotic is unchanged.
    • One-Eyed Mask
      • Fixed an issue where the negative status effects applied to victims by One-Eyed Mask no longer persist after death.
    • Precious Scars
      • Now requires a weapon matching the equipped Super element, instead of the equipped subclass.
    • Hoarfrost-Z
      • Now requires a Stasis Super to be equipped, instead of a Stasis subclass.
    • Cadmus Ridge Lancecap
      • Now requires a Stasis Super to be equipped, instead of a Stasis subclass.
    • Lorely Splendor
      • Now requires a Solar Super to be equipped, instead of a Solar subclass.
    • No Back Up Plans
      • Now requires a Void Super to be equipped, instead of a Void subclass.
    • Path of Burning Steps
      • Now requires a Solar Super to be equipped, instead of a Solar subclass.
    • Hallowfire Heart
      • Now requires a Solar Super to be equipped, instead of a Solar subclass.
  • Warlock
    • Ballidorse Wrathweavers
      • Replaced Stasis Shard Overshield with Frost Armor.
      • Activating a Rift grants the player and nearby allies the maximum Frost Armor stacks when Frostpulse is equipped.
      • Activating a Winter's Wrath shatter attack grants nearby allies the maximum amount of stacks of Frost Armor. When Winter's Wrath ends, the player gains maximum stacks of Frost Armor.
    • Mantle of Battle Harmony
      • Now grants Super energy ranging between +1.5% and +4.5%, depending on the target type killed.
      • Removed the 2-second cooldown for the perk's activation.
      • Now requires a weapon matching the equipped Super element, instead of the equipped subclass.
    • Secant Filaments
      • Updated Secant Filaments to require a Void Super instead of a Void subclass.
      • Secant Filaments Empowering Rift will now reset a player's existing Devour buff duration back to 11 seconds when they enter it, in addition to its previous behavior.
      • Fixed an issue where Secant Filament's Overload Rift was removing anti-Champion capabilities granted by the artifact.
    • Sunbracers
      • Reduced the increased Solar Grenade duration from 4 seconds to 2 seconds.
      • Reduced its increased grenade recharge rate to allow a max of 4 grenades while the effect is active, down from 5.
      • Fixed an issue where Sunbracers would not remove the "Sunbracers Ready" buff from the player when they throw a grenade.
    • Cenotaph Mask
      • Multiple players using Cenotaph Mask can no longer trigger its effect using a single enemy target.
      • Cenotaph's target lock visual marker is now hidden for the Exotic's wearer and only appears to the wearer’s allies.
    • Verity's Brow
      • Now requires final blows with a weapon matching the player's grenade damage type, instead of one matching the equipped subclass.
    • Felwinter's Helm
      • Now requires the player to expend a melee charge (or defeat an enemy via a finisher) to activate.
    • Wings of Sacred Dawn
      • Updated its description to correctly indicate that its effects are only active with Dawnblade equipped, rather than all Solar Supers.
    • Contraverse Hold
      • Updated its description to clarify it only works with Void grenades charged with the Chaos Accelerant Aspect.
    • Chromatic Fire
      • Now triggers an effect based on the player's equipped Super element, instead of the equipped subclass.
    • Promethium Spur
      • Now works with any equipped Solar Super.
    • Sanguine Alchemy
      • Now requires a weapon matching the equipped Super element, instead of the equipped subclass.
    • Vesper of Radius
      • The ability for the shockwave to blind now requires an Arc Super to be equipped, instead of an Arc subclass.
    • Karnstein Armlets
      • Fixed an issue where Karnstein Armlet's visual effects were not functioning correctly.
    • Necrotic Grips
      • Updated Necrotic Grips description to note that it requires a melee and that it works against both combatants and players.
• ARMOR MODS
  • The Artifice mod socket icon has been updated to make it more distinct.
  • Removed the energy cost from raid-specific armor mods.
  • Updated all Harmonic armor mods to change their element based on the currently equipped Super, rather than subclass.
    • This behavior is also now explained in their descriptions.
  • A Strand Resistance mod has been added.
    • Additionally, Harmonic Resistance is now compatible with Strand.
  • Heavy Ammo Finder and Special Ammo Finder armor mods now persist their progress towards an ammo brick through death.
  • Heavy Ammo Finder and Special Ammo Finder armor mods no longer function in Crucible, and opposing-team kills will no longer grant Ammo Finder progress in Gambit.
  • Heavy Ammo Finder and Special Ammo Finder armor mods have had their kill requirements increased by 20% for Guardians in a fireteam.
    • Solo Guardian requirements are unchanged.
  • Fixed an issue where Orb of Power mods would not pick up Orbs when Super energy was full. Mods affected are:
    • Recuperation (Leg Armor Mod)
    • Better Already (Leg Armor Mod)
    • Innervation (Leg Armor Mod)
    • Invigoration (Leg Armor Mod)
    • Insulation (Leg Armor Mod)
    • Absolution (Leg Armor Mod)
    • Orbs of Restoration (Leg Armor Mod)
    • Powerful Friends (Helmet Armor Mod)
  • Fixed an issue where multiple copies of Empowered Finisher could be active at once in rare cases.
    • Additionally, corrected an issue where its tooltip did not describe it as having no stacking benefits.
• OTHER
  • Fixed an issue where older Solstice armor did not display the correct glow color when using a Strand or Stasis Super.
• WEAPONS
  • Updated Heavy, Adaptive, and Aggressive Burst weapon intrinsic names to match burst count across all weapon archetypes. Functionality is unchanged. 
    • 2-burst: Heavy Burst 
      • Includes Sidearms, Hand Cannons, and Pulse Rifles. 
    • 3-burst: Adaptive Burst 
      • Includes Sidearms, Linear Fusion Rifles, and Adaptive Pulse Rifles. 
    • 4-burst: Aggressive Burst 
      • Includes Pulse Rifles. 
  • Removed the foundry name from the Veist Rapid-Fire, Häkke Precision, and Omolon Adaptive weapon intrinsics.
• WEAPON ARCHETYPES
  • Exotic Primary Weapons and Trace Rifles
    • Reduced damage bonus versus Minors from 40% to 30% (except Fighting Lion).
    • Exotic Primary Weapons and Trace Rifles benefit from the below damage buffs versus Minor combatants.
  • Increased base PvE damage versus all combatants. 
    • Pulse Rifles: 20%  
      • Exceptions: Graviton Lance and Revision Zero's Heavy Burst mode. (These both have an intrinsic PvE damage buff built in.) 
    • Pellet Shotguns: 10%  
      • Exceptions: Legend of Acrius, Tractor Cannon, Conditional Finality, and The Fourth Horseman. (These are all already performing as intended.) 
    • Slug Shotguns: 9% 
    • Fusion Rifles: 7%  
      • Exceptions: One Thousand Voices. (This one was just buffed.) 
    • Sniper Rifles: 7%  
      • Exceptions: Izanagi's Burden's Honed Edge shots and Cloudstrike's storm. (These are both performing well.) 
    • Glaive projectiles: 7% 
    • Linear Fusion Rifles: 5% 
  • Increased damage versus Minors (red bars)—this stacks with the base PvE damage increase. 
    • Sidearms, Trace Rifles, Scout Rifles, and Bows: 20% 
    • Auto Rifles and Pulse Rifles: 15% 
    • For Pulse Rifles, this is in addition to the above buff, and Graviton Lance and Revision Zero's Heavy Burst mode are included. 
      • I.e. Pulse Rifles will do 1.2 * 1.15 = 38% more damage to red bars. 
    • Submachine Guns: 10% 
    • Hand Cannons: 5% 
  • Increased damage versus Major combatants (orange bars). 
    • Trace Rifles: 20% 
  • Increased damage globally, including PvP. 
    • Machine Guns: 7% 
    • Swords: 7% 
  • With these damage increases, the following Spec mods have been retired:
    • Boss Spec, Taken Spec, Minor Spec, Major Spec, and Adept Big Ones Spec.
  • Scout Rifle
    • Updated the hip-fire reticle to better show accuracy and aim-assist state.
  • Hand Cannons
    • General
      • Reduced the screen shake dealt to players by Hand Cannon projectile impacts by 33% (does not affect flinch dealt to Combatants).
    • Heavy Burst
      • Reduced the base recoil of this sub-family to make them more stable.
    • Aggressives
      • Improved the stats of two Aggressive Hand Cannons that are returning in The Final Shape to be more competitive with our current offerings.
        • Crimil's Dagger (Iron Banner) 
        • Stability: 23 to 31 
        • Handling: 23 to 31 
        • Magazine Size: 8 to 9 
        • Airborne Effectiveness: 10 to 21 
      • Something New (Solstice) 
        • Stability: 27 to 30 
        • Handling: 24 to 30 
        • Magazine Size: 8 to 9 
  • Sniper Rifles
    • Increased minimum reserves from 14 to 17 shots; maximum reserve is unchanged.
    • Changed the way flinch works when taking damage from players (this does not affect incoming damage from combatants).
      • Increased the screen shake duration by 25%.
      • Increased the screen shake intensity by 350%.
      • Reduced the camera roll by 25%.
  • Linear Fusion Rifles
    • Reduced firing animation kick and recoil for Adaptive Linear Fusion Rifles.
  • Kinetic damage type weapons
    • No longer deal bonus damage to bosses; damage to other combatant tiers is unchanged. 
      • For example, a kinetic Sniper Rifle and a Stasis Sniper Rifle of the same subfamily will both deal the same damage to a boss. 
  • Wave Grenade Launchers
    • The size of the wave is now affected by the blast radius stat. This will mostly impact the width of the wave, though the length and height will also be scaled. 
      • The default display stat for the blast radius has been changed from 100 to 50 (where 50 represents the previous baseline—any stat over 50 will result in a larger wave segment than what was possible before). 
    • Special ammo Wave – Frame Grenade Launchers overperform as add clear weapons in their current state, so we've pulled the length of the wave back a little. 
      • Reduced the length of the waves from 22 meters to 15 meters (except for Dead Messenger). 
  • Swords
    • Updated the Sword reticle to better indicate its charge state. When Sword energy is consumed, the amount of delay the Sword has before it begins to recharge now subtly appears in the reticle. 
    • Fixed an issue where the Overwhelming Battlesong debuff from some missions would prevent Swords from recharging or losing energy while guarding. 
    • Fixed an issue where unpowered caster Sword heavy attacks would not reset the Sword's energy recharge delay. 
    • Fixed an issue where uncharged adaptive Sword heavy attacks cost the same amount of ammo as their charged counterparts. They now cost 1 ammo, same as other uncharged heavy attacks. 
  • Rocket Sidearms
    • Added a slight delay to the detonation to allow perks to activate correctly if they required precision kills.
• EXOTICS
  • Non-precision based add clear-Exotic Primary weapons:
    • Reduced splash damage by 10% on the following weapons:
      • Sunshot
      • Trinity Ghoul
      • Polaris Lance
      • Graviton Lance
  • Rat King
    • Swapped the firing animation to the same one used by other auto-fire Sidearms.
  • Dead Man's Tale
    • Baseline: 
      • Cranial Spike stacks now grant stability in addition to aim assist stat and range (+2 per stack). 
      • Increased reload speed benefit of Cranial Spike stacks. 
    • With catalyst, when hip-firing: 
      • Slightly reduced accuracy benefits. 
      • Increased magnetism falloff scale (1.6 to 1.7). 
      • Increased baseline rate of fire from 130RPM to 140RPM. 
      • Removed PvE-only damage buff that scaled with stacks of Cranial Spike and added a 15% damage bonus at maximum stacks of Cranial Spike. 
  • Colony
    • Now spawns additional insectoid robots on final blows. More robots (up to five) spawn from tougher combatants.
  • Touch of Malice
    • Increased duration of burn applied by the Darkness Ball against combatants from 2 to 3.5 seconds.
  • Necrochasm
    • Intrinsic perk now provides increased reload speed after precision kills. 
    • Increased duration of burn applied by the Cursed Thrall explosion against combatants from 2 to 3.5 seconds. 
    • Catalyst has been rebuilt. 
      • One for Thrall: Damaging 3 combatants in quick succession provides a period of increased damage, range, and aim assist. 
  • Truth
    • Increased area-of-effect (AoE) damage such that it doesn't lose noticeable damage due to not dealing impact damage.
    • Increased total reserves by 3. (This is on top of the reserves change to high impact Rocket Launchers from the 7.3.5 update.)
  • Queenbreaker
    • Increased damage versus bosses, minibosses, Champions, and vehicles by 12%.
    • Increased reserve ammunition by 3.
  • Symmetry
    • Catalyst now provides +10 reload speed, +10 handling, and the Eddy Current perk, in addition to its existing effects.
  • Cerberus+1
    • Focus fire now will activate on Special reloads following a kill and will no longer reduce range or rate of fire.
    • Updated hipfire reticle to better convey weapon spread.
  • Bastion
    • Reworked Saint's Fists perk: Dealing damage with melee increases the charge rate, damage, and reload speed for a short duration. Landing a majority of pellets in a burst increases melee damage.
  • Eriana's Vow
    • Breaking a matched shield or piercing a Champion's Barrier will cause the target to ignite.
  • Devil's Ruin
    • Fixed an issue where the firing animation from Devil's Ruin would get applied to other equipped Sidearms if the weapon was swapped during the firing animation.
  • Gjallarhorn
    • Updated the visuals of Wolfpack Rounds to match the damage type of the weapon. For example: 
      • On Gjallarhorn, they will use Solar effects. 
      • On the Royal Entry Void Rocket Launcher buffed by Gjallarhorn, they will have Void effects. 
  • Grand Overture
    • Grand Overture now displays 'Volley Ready' instead of 'Rockets Loaded' after special reload, to help better indicate when the rockets are primed to fire on trigger pull.
  • Osteo Striga
    • Now has a 4-second cooldown on the poison burst on kills. (Poison burst from sustained damage doesn't receive this cooldown.)
  • The Lament
    • Reduced healing effect by 20%. 
    • While this weapon does inherit the 7% global buff to Swords, we've reduced the damage of the high end of the chained heavy attack by 20% from that point. 
      • This means combos at lower stacks are less affected by the change than combos at higher stacks. 
  • Deterministic Chaos
    • This weapon is now intrinsically anti-barrier. 
    • The Heavy Metal and Vexadecimal perks have had their locations and behavior swapped. 
      • Heavy Metal now causes every 4th bullet to make targets volatile. 
      • Vexadecimal now causes every 16th bullet to also weaken targets. 
  • Divinity
    • Increased the number of shots required to generate the cage by 75% against combatants (PvP unchanged).
  • Ace of Spades
    • Fixed an issue that was causing the Memento Mori sound effect to replay when exiting out of sprint.
  • Edge of Intent
    • Edge of Intent Healing Turret updated to match Speaker's Sight Healing Turret.
    • Edge of Intent's alternate weapon action projectile no longer bounces off walls and non-floor geometries.
    • Healing Turret will spawn offset along the tangent of the surface hit.
    • Healing Turret now applies Cure and Restoration. Having the Aspect Touch of Flame equipped improves these effects.
• PERKS
  • Alacrity
    • Will no longer work in Rumble.
  • Archer's Gambit
    • Reduced the effect so it can be used on Legendary weapons.
      • Reduced draw time buff from 66% to 60%.
      • Reduced buff duration from 8 to 4 seconds (but it can now stack up to 8 seconds).
  • Grave Robber
    • Will now activate on dealing damage with a powered melee, in addition to standard melee kills.
  • The Fundamentals
    • The Fundamentals now maintains its state across death or respawn.
  • Chain Reaction
    • Branched between Heavy and Special ammo weapons.
      • Special: About 15% smaller AoE size and 20% less damage.
      • Heavy: Same AoE as before and 30% more damage.
  • Eddy Current
    • Now takes 1.5 seconds of sprinting to activate instead of 3 seconds. 
    • Also provides a bonus to handling and a 5% scalar on each stat at base. 
    • Being amplified will immediately activate the perk at its maximum effectiveness.
  • Underdog
    • Instances of Underdog have been replaced with Pulse Monitor.
  • Osmosis and Permeability:
    • These no longer drop off when pulling out a Ghost or similar actions.
    • Now partially refill the weapon's magazine on activation.
  • Chill Clip
    • Adjusted the number of slow stacks applied based on properties of the weapon.
      • In this case, Rapid-Fire Fusions like Riptide will still require 3 shots to freeze, but slower firing Fusions only require 2.
    • All other archetypes have been un-nerfed and only require 2 shots to freeze.
  • Killing Tally
    • The Killing Tally perk on the original 21% Delirium Machine Gun has been updated to match the version found on random-rolled weapons.
  • High Ground
    • Reworked to provide a stacking damage bonus when getting kills in any context (like Rampage) or instantly granting the maximum amount of stacks when damaging an enemy from the high ground.
    • PvE max bonus increased to a 25% damage bonus, and PvP max increased to 15%.
  • Perks that currently match the player's equipped subclass have been changed as follows:
    • Osmosis and Tessellation now match the damage type of the equipped grenade.
    • Permeability and Elemental Capacitor now match the damage type of the equipped Super.
  • Deconstruct
    • Now refills from reserves instead of from thin air and should trigger more reliably across weapon types.
  • Headstone
    • Fixed an issue where Headstone used a Stasis positive buff icon for its cooldown status message. Headstone now uses a cooldown icon, similar to other cooldowns.
  • Pugilist
    • Fixed an issue where the melee buff visual effect repeatedly flashed when Pugilist was activated by melee damage-over-time.
  • Dream Work
    • Updated to work with additional weapon archetypes.
  • Precision Instrument
    • Fixed an issue that caused this perk to activate too quickly on burst-fire Linear Fusion Rifles.
  • Heavy Burst Intrinsic
    • Now slightly reduces incoming flinch.
• GENERAL
  • The Wicked Implement Scout Rifle has been moved to the Monument to Lost Lights.
    • Its catalyst will now be available as a random drop via ritual playlist post-match rewards.
  • Updated new drops of Raid Adepts from Crota's End and Root of Nightmares to have 2 traits in their trait columns.
  • Added Weapon Enhancement to the Raid Adepts from Vow of Disciple and King's Fall.
  • Collecting base weapon patterns will now provide a boost per weapon set to the chance of getting a third trait in the trait columns on new drops.
  • This can be tracked via new Triumphs in each raid's respective collection.
  • Memento stack size limit has been increased from 1 to 3.
  • Mementos are no longer tracked in the Inventory tab.
  • Players can now view, track, and apply their collected Mementos within the inspection screen of an enhanced or shaped weapon.
  • Dismantling Faded Mementos will provide +1 Memento to use within the inspection screen.
  • If a player is at the new stack size limited of 3 Mementos, that Memento will not drop again until they are holding less than 3 Mementos.
  • Fixed an issue where Raid Adept Weapons from The Pantheon Triumphs dropped without selected perks. Players will now see these perks applied on those items.
  • At a later date, a fix will be applied to correct bad masterwork or enhanced intrinsic options on these weapons to the intended roll.
  • We recommend players select a Masterwork option that functions on that weapon type to get the stat benefit when upgrading to enhanced.
  • Removed Resonant and Harmonic Alloys.
  • Acquiring an Adept version of a weapon now unlocks Focusing for base version of that weapon.
  • Fixed an issue where anti-Champion mods were causing other weapon perks to fall off.
  • Fixed an issue causing Mindbender’s Ambition to not glow when getting kills.
  • Fixed an issue where the intensity on some damage screen effects and various projectiles could cause potential photosensitivity issues.
• POWER AND PROGRESSION
  • Power Bands have been updated.
  • Power Floor: 1900
  • Soft Cap: 1940
  • Powerful Cap: 1990
  • Hard Cap/Pinnacle Cap: 2000
  • For more information on Power changes, check out the April 25 TWID.
• SPARROWS
  • Adjusted the Alpine Dash Sparrow to have available speed options similar to other Sparrows and made the auto-reloading perk always available.
  • In the spirit of the original Sparrow upgrade progression from 2019, the side-to-side boost perk is only available during the Dawning.
• TRIUMPHS
  • Added Strand fireteam Triumphs to all previous raids.
  • These are not required for Seal or title but provide an additional optional challenge for all interested fireteams.

General

• The Tower's weapons vendor, Banshee-44, will now reset his weapons and their perks at the same time along with all other vendors at 10 AM PT.
• Fixed an issue where the tutorial prompt teaching players how to summon their Sparrow wasn’t always appearing.
• Fixed an issue where the shader library order in the Appearance Customization did not match the layout in other screens.
• Fixed an issue where the header for Ascendant Alloys did not match the format of other items in Special Orders.
• Fixed an issue where Paraversal Haul did not appear in Collections.
• Fixed an issue where the Bonus Objective progress bar could overlap with status effects UI.
• Fixed an issue where several emotes were not properly sorted with their associated quality level when viewed in the emote selection screen.
• Fixed an issue where the Season of the Dawn icon was not properly applied to items acquired from the Season of the Dawn Flashback offer.
• Fixed an issue where previewing associated Exotic weapon ornaments whose Pattern has been unlocked showed as Unacquired rather than Craftable in the Eververse.
• Fixed an issue where the Season Pass messaging did not note that a 20% XP bonus is unlocked alongside the Exotic weapon when the premium track is unlocked.

What you need to know

• Destiny 2: The Final Shape, the capstone expansion to Destiny's decade-long Light and Darkness Saga, is slated to come out next week on June 4.
• To help new players understand the plot, factions, and characters of this 10-year long story, James "My Name is Byf" Byford — the biggest Destiny lore YouTuber — has created an incredible 10-hour video that recaps the events of the entire franchise.
• The video includes narration and editing from Byford himself, along with bespoke fanart, community-made animations and music, relevant gameplay footage, and more.
• The video is premiering shortly after this article's publication, so check the text for the link to it and you can watch it live with other viewers as it debuts.

After 10 long years, Destiny 2's Light and Darkness Saga — a gargantuan narrative arc that's been building since the original game came out in 2014 — is finally reaching its climactic crescendo with The Final Shape expansion. Slated to go live on June 4 next week, the DLC represents a conclusion to that decade-long journey, as well as the dawn of a new era for future stories and adventures in the universe of Destiny 2.

Part of what makes this imminent final showdown with the Darkness and the Witness feel like such a big event is the scale of the conflict and the history of its participants; much like the heroes and villains of Marvel's cinematic universe, players have spent years with Destiny 2's vast cast of characters, with developer Bungie exploring countless themes throughout their developments, seasonal narratives, and an ocean of rich background lore. All of that coalescing into one bombastic climax makes The Final Shape a can't-miss-it experience for longtime Destiny fans — but if you're a newcomer, you'll be missing that connection to everything that's led to this moment.

Destiny 2's in-game Timeline feature does a solid job of catching "New Lights" up on the basic plot of past events. However, the removal of old base game, expansion, and seasonal content — and also the fact Destiny's story is split between two games — means there's a lot that new players can't directly experience and get invested in. Don't worry if you're one of them, though, because Destiny 2's biggest lore YouTuber, James "My Name is Byf" Byford, has created a colossal overview video that recaps the entire Destiny story in incredible detail, complete with faction and character backstories, bespoke fanart, community-made animations and music, relevant gameplay footage, and more.

Clocking in with a runtime of 10 hours, one minute, and 11 seconds, the video is so long that its length nips on the heels of The Lord of the Rings movie marathons, and it's got two intermissions intended for folks watching the recap's premiere live. It's actually premiering shortly as I write this, so if you come across this article soon after publication, you can tune in and chat with other viewers as you watch.

Byford — now with 1.6 million YouTube subscribers — has been closely covering the developing lore and story of Destiny ever since the space fantasy looter shooter debuted a decade ago, and I'm willing to bet you've watched or listened to some of his videos if you've ever been interested in learning more about it. I've always greatly enjoyed the way he narrates and edits his content, and even for big Destiny nerds like me, his discussions and coverage is useful to refer back to. For that reason, I'll definitely be checking this project out this weekend.

"I also have no shame in admitting that I teared up a bit at the ending to this," said Byford of the video, one day before it went live on his channel. "For the first time in a long time, I feel really, truly proud of this thing that I've made and of all the people who pushed so hard to help me bring it to life. It's a really special project."

Whether you're a New Light hoping to learn everything there is to know about the Destiny universe or a veteran looking for a refresher on specific parts of the Light and Darkness Saga, Byf's new video is a must-watch (its description has timestamps in the event you want to skip around to different sections). Just make sure you keep some snacks and beverages handy.

In terms of gameplay, The Final Shape will take players inside the Light-bestowing Traveler itself and give them access to Prismatic, a wild new "multiclassing" subclass that allows you to wield and combine abilities, Aspects, and Fragments from all five of Destiny 2's other subclasses together. Accompanying it will be Exotic class items with two randomly rolled Exotic armor perks, several new Exotic weapons and armors, a ton of new Legendary weapons to grind for, and a wholly original race of Darkness enemies called the Dread.

Destiny 2 is one of the best Xbox games and best PC games for fans of multiplayer and looter shooters, and The Final Shape — the final expansion in the Light and Darkness Saga — looks to be the biggest DLC that Bungie's popular live service game has ever gotten. Notably, preorders for it are on sale right now, and Destiny 2's older expansions are available for big discounts as well.

There's a little under a week to go before Destiny 2's highly anticipated The Final Shape expansion goes live and kicks off the bombastic conclusion to the game's decade-long Light and Darkness Saga, and until the game comes offline for pre-launch maintenance on Monday morning, players are rushing to get some last-minute prep done. After all, there are tons of amazing Destiny 2 weapons and powerful Exotic armaments to collect in Bungie's space fantasy looter shooter, and having lots of them at your disposal during your battle with the Witness will elevate your experience in the DLC.

With just a few days left before the expansion's release, though, you'll need to prioritize and focus on farming the most lucrative loot sources. And right now, the best activity to grind is unquestionably Onslaught, the three-player PvE wave-based horde mode added as part of April's free-to-play Into the Light update. Onslaught was already showering Guardians with loot before, but thanks to some big boosts to the mode's drop rates that came in the last two weeks, the amount of gear it's rewarding — both from direct drops and from Tokens of Bravery you can spend on drops in the Hall of Champions — is honestly downright ridiculous. After just a few hours of play, you'll be walking away with dozens of weapons.

The big reason you should be grinding Onslaught is that nearly every single weapon you can get from it will be (and already is) cemented in the Destiny 2 PvE meta. I go over the best god rolls to hunt in the section below, but know that whether you're hoping to pick up something for elite boss DPS, strong crowd control and add clear, or specialized buildcrafting utility, you won't have trouble getting something effective and fun to use from Onslaught's "BRAVE" weapon pool. Each weapon also has multiple great perk combinations available, so it's pretty unlikely you'll get something bad.

It's worth noting that while Onslaught isn't going away when The Final Shape arrives on June 4, the ability to attune to specific weapons to make them drop more often and get lucky "shiny" drops with two perks in each trait column is. Therefore, you should grind the mode now so you can target farm the weapons you want and snag some shinies, too. Note that the standard rate for shiny drops was very low before (2.5% or lower), but this week it was doubled, and since that increase, I've managed to get at least one or two per Onslaught run.

Onslaught itself is also just a ton of fun to play, with high enemy density and diverse wave spawns making it a highly replayable playground for creative and synergistic PvE builds. There's also a Legend variant of the mode that's harder, but gives you even better rewards; I wrote up some builds that work great in it (my builds skew a bit more towards "fun" than "meta"), but there are plenty of other setups for every class that will perform well, too. Generally, as long as you've got at least 100 Resilience on your armor for the 30% damage resistance it provides, you shouldn't have too much trouble in Legend Onslaught if you're an experienced player.

Ultimately, if you're not sure what to do in the days leading up to The Final Shape, hop into Onslaught and farm for some great weapons to use in the DLC. You'll be happy you did, especially if you plan to take on some of the expansion's harder challenges like the Legendary version of the campaign and its new raid that's coming out on June 7.

The best Destiny 2 BRAVE weapon god rolls

All 12 of the BRAVE weapons from Onslaught can get some truly exceptional PvE god rolls, but some are more useful than others overall. To give you an idea of the best ones to prioritize farming for, I've put together a list below that's organized in order from the best to worst weapons. Also included are the top perk combinations for each that you should keep an eye out for as you play.

• Edge Transit: Spike Grenades / Envious Assassin / Bait and Switch
• Forbearance: Ambitious Assassin / Chain Reaction OR Demolitionist / Wellspring
• The Mountaintop: Hard Launch / Spike Grenades OR Implosion Rounds, Auto-Loading Holster / Recombination OR Impulse Amplifier / Frenzy
• Luna's Howl: Appended Mag / Heal Clip / Incandescent
• Midnight Coup: Arrowhead Brake / Accurized Rounds / Explosive Payload OR Firefly / Kinetic Tremors
• Succession: Arrowhead Brake / Tactical Mag / Reconstruction / Vorpal Weapon OR Recombination OR Firing Line
• Hammerhead: Arrowhead Brake / Ricochet Rounds / Rampage OR Rewind Rounds / Killing Tally OR Onslaught
• The Recluse: Arrowhead Brake / Alloy Magazine / Repulsor Brace OR Subsistence / Destabilizing Rounds OR Frenzy OR Master of Arms
• Elsie's Rifle: Arrowhead Brake / Ricochet Rounds / Repulsor Brace / Destabilizing Rounds
• Blast Furnace: Arrowhead Brake / Accurized Rounds / Kinetic Tremors / Firefly OR One for All
• Hung Jury SR4: Arrowhead Brake / Accurized Rounds / Kinetic Tremors OR Enlightened Action / Firefly OR Explosive Payload OR Precision Instrument
• Falling Guillotine: Hungry Edge / Balanced Guard OR Swordmaster's Guard / Frenzy OR Vorpal Weapon / Eager Edge OR Surrounded

With Envious Assassin and Bait and Switch, the Edge Transit heavy grenade launcher has instantly become a top DPS weapon for endgame dungeon and raid encounters, arguably making it the single most-valuable weapon from Onslaught. I would focus on getting a good Forbearance wave frame grenade launcher next if you never obtained a good roll of the original from the Vow of the Disciple raid, with either Ambitious Assassin and Chain Reaction or Demolitionist and Wellspring; the former is superb for add clear, while the latter performs spectacularly in builds centered around grenades. The Mountaintop grenade launcher is also extremely valuable, with Auto-Loading Holster and Recombination making it a "kill this yellow bar now" tool and the combo of Impulse Amplifier and Frenzy making it a strong option for general-purpose add clear in the Kinetic slot.

From there, I'd move down the list and attune to each weapon so you can target farm each one as you go, making sure to complete the (simple) quests from Arcite 99-40 in the Hall of Champions that unlocks this focusing. The refreshed Luna's Howl has become a powerhouse for Solar builds with the combo of Heal Clip and Incandescent, while Succession with Reconstruction and Vorpal Weapon, Recombination, or Firing Line stands tall as Destiny 2's best sniper rifle. The Hammerhead machine gun is fantastic for slaying adds, and both The Recluse and Elsie's Rifle synergize strongly with Void builds. Midnight Coup, Blast Furnace, and Hung Jury SR4 will all see lots of play during The Final Shape since anti-Champion perks will be available for their archetypes (as revealed in a new blog post), and Falling Guillotine may get popular too since there will also be Artifact perks for sword damage.

I didn't focus on PvP options at all in this article, but one crazy good god roll for the Crucible I'll highlight in closing is Elsie's Rifle with Zen Moment and Headseeker. This combination turns the weapon into a two-tapping machine, and it's quickly become one of my favorite primaries to use whenever I have a reason to go into PvP activities.

Destiny 2 is one of the best Xbox games and best PC games for fans of multiplayer and looter shooters, and The Final Shape — the final expansion in the Light and Darkness Saga — looks to be the biggest DLC that Bungie's popular live service game has ever gotten.