This Week At Bungie - 08/02/18

This week at Bungie, the celebration has just begun.

We're watching Guardians return to the Red War with the Solstice of Heroes. You've got plentiful objectives to pursue, Moments of Triumph to complete, and new ways to experience campaign missions—and we're excited to hear your stories. Some of you have already been inspired by some of the changes, which has resulted in some awesome artwork found in the wild:

"Holy Cayde Light of the Solar"
"Holy Ikora Presence of the Void"
"Holy Zavala Protector of the Arc"

? by AltairRafuel - https://t.co/IwugYQC825 pic.twitter.com/TZJeTSiRP3

— Bungie (@Bungie) August 1, 2018

#Destiny2 @Bungie @A_dmg04 quick lil servitor thing pic.twitter.com/l2iiJ7BnWl

— croat (@oricksandcroat) August 1, 2018

This is just the beginning of a month-long event; Solstice of Heroes will be available through August 28. That's ample time to get in and start building up your armor.

Tally Marks

The community stories from Solstice of Heroes aren't the only thing that we're watching. Our Analytics team has helped us to bring forward some statistics from Season 3. From the looks of it, Uldren had better start running...

Checking Them Off, One by One

As Year 1 comes to a close, many of you are searching for every available item or piece of gear that can be found in Destiny 2. Some items will still be available in Season 4, such as destination weapons and armor sets. Other Year 1 items will be retired from vendors when Destiny 2: Forsaken releases on September 4, 2018:

• Vanguard
  • Year 1 weapons
  • Year 1 armor
  • Seasonal rewards
• Crucible
  • Year 1 weapons
  • Year 1 armor
  • Seasonal rewards
• Gunsmith
  • Year 1 weapons 
  • Year 1 mods, which will no longer be obtainable
  • Year 1 emblems
• Ikora (Vanguard Research Packages from Meditations)
  • Year 1 armor
  • Year 1 emblems
• Trials of the Nine
  • Year 1 weapons
  • Year 1 armor
  • Year 1 shaders
  • Year 1 ships, Sparrows, and Ghost Shells
• Iron Banner
  • Year 1 weapons
  • Year 1 armor
  • Year 1 shaders
  • Year 1 ships, Sparrows, and Ghost Shells
• Cayde's Stashes
  • Year 1 emblems

While these Year 1 items will be retired from these vendors, their stock will be refreshed with new gear featuring random rolls, ready for all players to earn in Year 2. Some items may return in Year 2, but not exactly as you remember them. Come September 4, a small number of weapons that you know and love will be updated to Year 2 standards, featuring random rolls and the capacity to accept Year 2 weapon modifications.

As a final note, players who have obtained Year 1 items can infuse them to higher power levels in Year 2. If you're looking to finish your checklist, make sure to read this week's Community Focus on DestinySets.com. This fan-made website can be linked with your Bungie.net account to give a full list of items you have yet to acquire—helping you to finish off your Year 1 collection before Forsaken releases.

Destiny 2: Forsaken Combat Stream

We know all this talk about new weapons and new mods has you wondering what combat will be like in the second year of Destiny 2. Rather than try to explain the new sandbox, we're going to show you.

Tune in and watch as we configure our Guardians to play a specific role in the arena. Catch a glimpse of the new user interface you'll employ to choose your weapon and modify it. Spectate a battle between developers on a new Crucible map to debut in Season 4.

There will be blood.

Celebration Coordinators

From the moment Solstice of Heroes began, the watchful eye of Destiny Player Support has been trained on the #Help forum, monitoring for any reports of issues during the celebration. Not only is the team ready to provide troubleshooting steps, but they also have some helpful tips for Guardians looking to maximize their orb generation.

This is their report:

Elemental Orb Generation
Solstice of Heroes is now live in Destiny 2. Included with this event are elemental alignments, which allows players to generate and stack elemental orbs to increase their damage output with the matching element for a short time. Additionally, players must collect Arc, Solar, and Void orbs in various activities to complete objectives attached to their Solstice Armor set.

While these orbs are generated randomly by defeating enemies, here are a few tips on how you can make sure you're generating the orbs of a desired element:

• Orbs are generated only by players who have an entire Solstice Armor set equipped (of any quality).
  
• Elemental orb generation does not require Super ability kills or Masterwork weapon kills. Players can potentially generate orbs on any kill, as long as they are wearing their full Solstice Armor set.
  
• Elemental orbs are generated based off of the player's equipped subclass, as well as their equipped Energy and Power weapons. If, for example, you wanted to generate only Solar orbs, changing your loadout to all-Solar helps you accomplish this. Kinetic weapons can also generate orbs based off of the player's loadout.
  
• You can generate and receive elemental orbs from local allies. If you're travelling in a fireteam, coordinating elements can help you more aggressively progress through elemental orb pursuits.
  

Be aware that the elemental alignments will expire when Solstice of Heroes concludes at the weekly reset on August 28, 2018. From that point on, players will no longer generate elemental orbs and will no longer be able to upgrade their Solstice Armor. For more information, including known and emerging issues, players should visit our Solstice of Heroes Vital Information thread.

Solstice of Heroes: Known Issues
Included in Solstice of Heroes are remastered versions of five missions from the Red War campaign. As players engage in these missions, however, we're receiving reports from players unable to progress through mission barriers after the "Joining Allies" message appears on screen.

The first and best troubleshooting step that players should attempt is to wipe and respawn. Players who encounter this behavior and are unable to work around it need to return to the Tower to restart the mission anew. To mitigate this issue, fireteam members should ensure they stay within close proximity of one another, especially as they transition between mission areas.

Additionally, we are currently investigating the following issues reported to the #Help forum:

• Some players are unable to upgrade their Solstice of Heroes armor after completing all objectives
  
• Objectives requiring specific Crucible Valor ranks are not progressing for some players
  
• Solar weapon kill objectives sometimes does not gain progress
  
• The Solar Super kill objective for the Rekindled Titan Helmet is progressing slower than others
  

If you are encountering any of these issues, please post a report detailing your experience. If you have a screenshot or video showcasing the issue, please include that in your report.

Moments of Triumph T-Shirt Offer
While Solstice of Heroes is live, players who achieve 250 Triumph points or more in-game may redeem an offer to purchase a Solstice of Heroes Moments of Triumph T-Shirt. To do this, eligible players must visit the Statue of Heroes in the Tower and accept the "Moments of Triumph T-Shirt" item under "Triumph Rewards".

Players who accomplish this will then be provided a code in the Solstice of Heroes section of their bungie.net profile. Players who redeem this code at checkout with their Bungie Store purchase of a Solstice of Heroes T-Shirt will be able to complete their purchase for $24.99 USD without customization, or $29.99 USD with customization (before tax and shipping).

If you wish to purchase a Solstice of Heroes T-Shirt but do not have a bungie.net profile, join up. Players who encounter issues with their bungie.net profile should visit our Account Creation help article.

Destiny Update 2.0.0 Vital Information
At the conclusion of Solstice of Heroes on August 28, Destiny 2 will be updated to prepare for the launch of Forsaken. In the week between August 28 and September 4, players will see some unusual behavior in-game as we make the transition into Year 2.

Here's a short list of what players should be prepared for, with more details to come at a later date:

In general, collections will be unavailable. Specifically, this includes the collections for emblems, as well as Exotic weapons and armor. If players want to have an emblem or Exotic item in their inventory during this week, they will need to prepare their inventory ahead of time. (Edited 8/02 at 5:50 p.m. PDT: While collections will be unavailable, items stored within the Vault may continue to be accessed.)
Nightfall strike scoring will not be available. We'll have more information about strikes and how they're changing in Forsaken in the coming weeks.

This is all in an effort to set the table for the launch of Destiny 2: Forsaken on September 4, 2018. Pardon our dust, and please plan accordingly.

Rolling

During the Solstice of Heroes event, you'll be challenged to complete many Moments of Triumph to earn awesome rewards. This week, we're celebrating a few moments where players triumphed over their enemies—moments that were recorded and submitted to the Community Creations page.

Winner: I Can't Believe What I'm Seeing

Runner Up: Calus vs. Claymore

If you'd like a chance to earn the Lens of Fate emblem, make sure to submit your video to the Creations page on bungie.net and include #MOTW in your title.

And before we move along, let's celebrate another moment of triumph for the top three fireteams from last week's Prestige Nightfall:

As we look to the last mile before launch, setting expectations is the name of the game. We'll be serving up information on everything from character progression to endgame. Have any burning questions about what's changing in Forsaken? Let us know on the Destiny 2 forum. We can't answer every question individually, but we'll look to answer as many as we can in the next few blog entries.

You may have noticed a recurring theme throughout this article. Solstice of Heroes is here, but it's just the beginning. Some of you have been very busy. We're already seeing some masterworked armor sets in the wild. People are already bragging about securing access to their trophy garment. Don't let that scare you, though. We're just three days into a month-long event. Feel free to show me your favorite emote if we happen to run into each other in the wild. I'll be grinding out all three sets, with my eyes on the final prize.

Cheers, and happy Solstice.
-Dmg04