This Week At Bungie - 10/04/2018

This week at Bungie, Guardians gave chase to the goals that meant the most to each of them.

Be it Power, Triumphs, Exotics, or quests, there was an aim to achieve. Ever since Cayde-6 met his doom in the depths of the Prison of Elders, we've shared a journey through the discoveries in Forsaken. Week after the week, the community conversation has been dominated by the revelation of new secrets and challenges. Some of you have lamented the fact that's it's been hard to keep up, but all of these things still await you.

Now is a good time for each Guardian to take stock of what they've accomplished, what fights are next on their dance card, or what they'd most like to add to their Collections. We've asked the question about Triumphs, god rolls, gear sets, and even titles. There is still a lot to accomplish in Forsaken—plenty left to earn and learn. You might have to speed right past some of these accolades or rewards in your rush to become raid ready.

We have some more tricks up our sleeves to keep your Guardian lifestyle rich and exciting, and those conversations will begin soon. In the meantime, there are still some questions we'd like to answer about how the day-to-day experience will be changing with the next round of updates.

Let's dig in and set some expectations.

Gambit and the Malfeasance Quest

The following changes are currently in development for Destiny 2 Update 2.0.5, planned for October 30. If any issues are found in the course of that work, changes may be delayed or tweaked accordingly. Make sure to stay tuned for future updates. Without further ado, here's what you need to know, coming directly from the Gambit team.

Malfeasance Acquisition: We've heard player feedback concerning the spawn rates of the Ascendant Primeval Servitor, and we are making adjustments to how frequently it will appear.



During week three of the curse cycle, also known as a full-curse week, the Ascendant Primeval Servitor will have almost the same chance to spawn as any other Primeval. We will also be increasing the chance for the boss to spawn during lesser-curse weeks, but it will still be lower than during a full-curse week.

For full transparency, since the Ascendant Primeval Servitor spawn rate will increase significantly when these changes are released, we are tweaking how ship and Sparrow rewards drop from the boss. Vanity items are no longer guaranteed drops for subsequent boss kills after you earn the quest, instead the vanity items will now only have a chance to drop.

Quitter Protection: We are currently developing a change to Gambit matchmaking that will help with the extended load times some players have been experiencing. When this change is released, we will be re-enabling quitter penalties for the Gambit playlist. However, we have increased the number of games players can leave before they are restricted from the playlist. We are making this change to help mitigate some situations where bad internet connectivity results in a restriction.

Power Ammo Crate Changes: To help balance some weapons, we're changing the amount of ammo that you will receive when opening an ammo crate with certain weapons equipped:

• Sleeper Simulant: Ammo crate will grant two shots (down from four)
• Swords: Ammo crate will grant 12 Sword ammo (up from six)

The Gambit team is closely monitoring community feedback and looking at game data. In future updates, you should expect changes to Gambit bounties, how frequently you earn rewards, and other changes to the mode that will give teams in the lead a greater advantage. We'll be back in future weeks to shed more light on the future of Gambit as it continues to evolve.

The Gambit Team

Update Calendar

Last year, we used Roadmaps to telegraph how Destiny 2 was going to evolve. In the months to come, our plans for the Seasons and the Annual Pass are the items worth illustrating. That doesn't mean that you won't receive updates that address the issues you've been talking to us about. Here are some downloads that we hope are worth putting on your calendar, as well as a quick preview of what to expect from each of them.

Destiny 2 Update 2.0.4, tentatively scheduled for October 16, 2018:

• Added the ability to hover over Lost Sectors to see their name once a player has looted them
  
• Players can now track up to three pursuits
  
• Added Through Fire and Flood, Zenobia D, and Crooked Fang-4fr to the world Legendary pool— Edge Transit will have some company
  
• Increasing Scout Rifle damage in PvE and against non-player enemies in Gambit
• Fixed a bug where Prime Engrams were going straight to the Postmaster at the end of Crucible matches; they will now show alongside other end-of-match rewards
  
• Added transmat effects to Collections, under the Flair category
  • Tracking for acquired transmat effects began with the launch of Forsaken on September 4; transmat effects gained (inventory or Postmaster), used, or dismantled after that date will be unlocked in Collections
  • Transmat effects are unlocked when added to player inventory, NOT when you gain ships that have them pre-socketed
• We have identified a very rare issue where the Gambit invasion portal will not reactivate once used, and we are currently developing a fix
• We are developing a fix for an issue where One Thousand Voices may cause loud screeching audio when fired while strafing or jumping

Destiny 2 Update 2.0.5, tentatively scheduled for October 30, 2018. Please note, the changes listed below are currently in development. These could change, be impacted by delays, or cut if issues are found. Stay tuned for updates!

• Rebalancing functionality of Distribution/Dynamo perks, requiring players to be near opponents for Super energy benefits
  
• Slightly increasing Sword damage in PvE to address player feedback
  
• Slightly increasing Fusion Rifle damage in PvE
  
• Increasing viability of Malfeasance in PvE and Gambit activities
  
• Adjusting visibility of the Titan's Banner Shield, making it easier for players to see through the effects
  
• Adjusting Exotic rewards to help reduce the number of duplicate drops
  • Players may still receive duplicates, but there will be better chances for Forsaken exotics when receiving Exotic rewards
    
• The chance for a Nightfall Unique Reward to drop will increase each time a Nightfall is completed without a unique drop
  
• Adding Masterwork Cores as rewards for specific Spider "Wanted" bounties and general Scrapper bounties
  
• Reducing the time for single-shader deletion from your inventory
  
• We are developing a fix for an issues where a team will defeat the Ascendant Primeval Servitor, but the opposing team receives credit for the kill
  

Expect more details on the blog for each update in the coming weeks.

Wishes and Curses

If Forsaken was like any other Destiny content release, right about now, you might be wondering when another version of the raid will rear its ugly head full of eyes and teeth. Approaching Forsaken, the Raid Team had specific goals in mind for Last Wish and how players would engage with the content:

As we hope you have noticed, our goals for this expansion have been very different. All year long, we've been working behind the scenes to reinvent the way a story campaign feeds into a lasting hobby. We set out to change everything from the way you collect gear to the way you tackle the endgame.

With the goals to create a more varied and rewarding experience across the endgame of Destiny laid out before us, we had to make a series of difficult choices. One of these choices was that we would not be creating multiple difficulties of Last Wish. Instead, Forsaken would focus on making sure the single difficulty mode of Last Wish was highly rewarding and that there were plenty of unique activities to participate in for great rewards across the entire endgame. Once this decision was made, we focused on creating one definitive version of Last Wish with no qualifiers attached to it.  We wanted to create an experience that offered the truest forms of every encounter from day one, and offered some of the most powerful rewards in the game to anyone who could succeed. 

Watching your reactions to Last Wish has been one the highlights of the Raid Team's career, and we can't wait to see how you fare this December in the Black Armory's brand new raid lair. 

If you're holding an Annual Pass, look for more about the next lair we're creating for a raider such as yourself real soon. First, though, there are other events to observe.

Lost and Found

Welcome to October. This month will be home to another Festival of the Lost. It begins on October 16, 2018, with a celebration of lost heroes and a new challenge to tackle. It includes a costume party, and you're all invited. It ends with a quest to solve a murder.

Be on the lookout next week for a full reveal of what we're scaring up for this season.

Player Support Report

As we continue to march forward into Season of the Outlaw, Destiny Player Support is on task to keep you updated on the latest investigations. New issues? Incoming maintenance? Outbreaks of Weasels? They've got you covered.

Backend Maintenance
On Tuesday of this week, we conducted backend maintenance to Destiny services. While no systems were brought offline, API users may have noticed a momentary interruption of Companion services.

Yesterday, we conducted bungie.net maintenance. Within this brief maintenance window, bungie.net fireteam features were disabled. Players who have observed service and stability issues following these maintenance windows should report them to the #Help forum.

For the latest information on upcoming deployments and maintenance, players should check our Destiny Server and Update Status page, follow @BungieHelp on Twitter, and monitor our support feed on help.bungie.net.

Toil and Trouble
With the launch of Season of the Outlaw, we've updated how players gain ranks and earn loot from Commander Zavala. Players who visit him may notice that he has a new reward system called Nightfall ranks.

Nightfall ranks represent a player's progression through all of Destiny 2's Nightfall strikes and are incremented every time a player completes a different Nightfall strike with a bonus threshold beyond 100,000 points. For each Nightfall where players surpass its bonus threshold, their Nightfall rank will increment upward by one whole point. For players to achieve the maximum Nightfall rank of 14 and make Zavala's tier-10 Masterwork Toil and Trouble available for purchase, players will need to surpass the 100,000 point bonus threshold in all 14 Nightfall strikes.

In addition to Nightfall ranks, Commander Zavala also oversees the Vanguard ranks. This system functions much the same to prior seasons, and only requires players to earn Vanguard packages by turning in reputation tokens earned by completing strikes and Vanguard Bounties.

WEASEL Errors at Character Select
In recent weeks, Destiny Player Support has become aware of an issue where some players are encountering WEASEL errors when attempting to log into one or more of their characters at the Character Select screen. Additionally, players may be unable to view affected characters on bungie.net and third-party applications using API services.

Upon investigating this issue, we believe it is caused by bounties expiring while they are left in a given character's Postmaster. While we are working to resolve this issue for characters who are already affected, players can proactively take mitigation steps by ensuring that no bounties are left in the Postmaster before logging out of a play session. It's critical to note that character data is not at risk due to this occurrence, and all characters are expected to be intact once this issue is resolved.

For information on a fix as soon as it is available, players should keep an eye on our Updates page.

Destiny 2: Forsaken Known Issues
In addition to the items listed above, Destiny Player Support is tracking the latest issues reported by players on the #Help forum. Provided below is a brief overview of the latest known issues in Destiny 2: Forsaken.

• Gambit Malfeasance Boss: We are investigating issues where a team will defeat the Ascendant Primeval Servitor, but the opposing team receives credit for the kill.
• Infusion Without Masterwork Cores: We are investigating an issue where players who have no Masterwork Cores in their inventory are unable to infuse gear, even if Masterwork Cores are not required for the immediate infusion cost.
  
• Heroic Adventures on Mercury: For players wishing to play Heroic Adventures on Mercury and aren't able to do so, they must speak with Brother Vance and play through the Normal Adventures first.
• Clan Bounty Percentage: We are tracking an issue where Hawthorne's weekly clan XP percentage appears to be resetting during the week for some players.

For the latest known issues as soon as they are available, players should visit our Forsaken Vital Information and Known Issues list.

Flawless Footage

As players have continued to uncover mysteries of the Dreaming City, they've also uncovered the next step in acquiring the Rivensbane Seal. Talk about watching a movie at edge of your seat—this fireteam had to get through without a single death! Goes without saying, but some of these will contain SPOILERS.

Movie of the Week: 13th Wish—Petra's Run—Flawless Raid


Runner Up: What Would a Titan Do?


Runner Up: Synchronized Supers

If you'd like a shot at the Lens of Fate emblem, make sure to submit your video to the Creations page on bungie.net.

For the last week, I've been lost. No internet, no TV, no cell reception... not even a microwave. The smell of boiled eggs filled the air as I searched for technology and Destiny news around the steaming thermal features of Yellowstone. Somehow, I made it out alive. I feel I've changed, somewhat. The beautiful views of wild Buffalo (Bison bison) and untouched landscape of the nation's first national park gave me a new perspective on things.

With all that said and done, it's good to be back. Luna's Howl is in my holster, but Not Forgotten is my next goal. What's next on your list? 

See you out there, Guardians.

Cheers,
Dmg04