Overview

Bungie released a new blog post detailing upcoming Destiny 2 changes ahead of the Renegades expansion and Ash and Iron content drop. The update covers weapon tuning, power leveling adjustments, new content, and reward system changes. These updates aim to improve player progression, gear retention, and event scheduling, while addressing community feedback and concerns.

Heavy Metal Activity and Sandbox Update

• The Heavy Metal Launch Node has been removed from the Tower map; players can now access Heavy Metal via the Crucible Ops menu or Heavy Metal Event Home.

• Recent sandbox changes, announced in preparation for Ash and Iron (launching September 9th), focus more on nerfs than buffs, leading to mixed reactions from the community.

• Bungie’s approach to balancing has been questioned, with many players feeling that nerfs outweigh positive changes.

Trailer and Thematic Updates

• The new Plaguelands/Ash and Iron trailer showcased upcoming weapons and an exotic mission.

• Some disappointment remains in the community due to the apparent lack of SIVA-themed content in Ash and Iron.

• More details about the new content and its themes are expected in the upcoming livestream.

Power Leveling and Portal Reward Changes

• Bungie is increasing the chance of earning Prime Engrams from activity completions in Crucible, and raising bonus focus drop rates from 25% to 66%.

• After September 9th, certain mods (Grappler, Hypercritical, Oscillation, Match Game) will be removed from matchmade portal activities.

• Power leveling from 500 to 550 will now grant a consistent +1 power for A or A+ activity grades, making the upper power climb more predictable.

• This change will also apply to A grades in the 400–450 power range when Renegades launches.

• The power grind from 400 to 500 will be naturally accelerated due to the new 550 power cap, making progression faster.

• Earning tier 5 rewards in the portal will become easier: at higher power levels, lower activity grades (e.g., B+ at 500 power) will guarantee tier 5 drops.

• Players will be able to earn tier 5 rewards before launching activities by adjusting modifiers, and as power increases, the grade requirement for tier 5s will decrease.

• These changes are designed to make the final 150 power levels much faster and more rewarding, especially with increased Prime Engram drops.

Event and Activity Rewards

• New weapons and armor are coming to the shared portal pool, including:

  • Midermini Tool (revised lightweight SMG)

  • Drang (solar adaptive sidearm)

  • A new high-impact Strand rocket launcher

• Trials of Osiris will feature Burden of Guilt (Stasis fusion rifle) and the Ever-Burning Glitz (rapid-fire auto rifle).

• Iron Banner will offer an updated Finite Impactor (solar adaptive hand cannon).

• Pinnacle Ops will include a new precision scout rifle (Forced Memorializer, kinetic) and Seraphine Haze (aggressive SMG with Stasis damage).

• A redacted weapon will be available for Solo and Crucible Ops.

• The new Smokejumper suit armor set grants:

  • 2-piece bonus: brief, rapidly decaying damage reduction when picking up an orb of power.

  • 4-piece bonus: super damage causes health and shields to regenerate while moving; additional super damage refreshes the effect.

• New Crucible Ops, Iron Banner, and raid armor sets are also planned.

• Dungeon lairs (Pit of Heresy, Beneath the Necropolis, Duality: Nightmare of Galron, and Warlord's Ruin: Heffern's Vengeance) will be added to Pinnacle Ops, featuring boss encounters from these dungeons.

• For two weeks after Ash and Iron launches, these dungeon encounters will be available to all players, with a modifier allowing legacy dungeon gear farming (not updated gear).

Featured Gear and Seasonal Bonuses

• All legendary gear from Season of Reclamation will remain as featured gear in the upcoming Season of the Lawless, preventing a soft sunset of current loot.

• All new exotics from Season Reclamation will also be included as featured gear in the next season.

• Starting in Season of the Lawless, featured gear bonuses will be standardized: 5% weapon damage and 10% armor resistance, removing the current tiered system.

• This change extends the usefulness of current gear and reduces the impact of seasonal bonuses, though Bungie acknowledges ongoing community concerns about the featured gear system.

Event Scheduling

• The Epic Raid has been rescheduled to September 27th, with contest mode active through September 29th.

• Bungie moved the date to ensure a smoother experience for all players, especially those participating in contest difficulty or the raid race.

• The delay may be inconvenient for some, but aims to improve event quality and reliability.

Decisions

• Epic Raid date changed to September 27th to enhance player experience and event stability.

• Featured gear from Season of Reclamation will remain usable in the next season, ensuring continued utility for current gear and exotics.

Action Items

• September 9th – Bungie: Launch Ash and Iron content drop and implement sandbox changes.

• Shortly after September 9th – Bungie: Remove selected portal mods from matchmaking and apply the updated power reward structure.

• Two weeks post-Ash and Iron – Players: Farm legacy dungeon gear from new Pinnacle Ops dungeon encounters.

• September 27th – Bungie/Players: Participate in the rescheduled Epic Raid and contest mode.

• Season of the Lawless launch – Bungie/Players: Take advantage of featured gear retention and new standardized seasonal bonuses.

Destiny 2 Update Summary

What's up guys, Houndish here, and today is Thursday, so following Bungie's blog post yesterday regarding sandbox changes, weapon tuning and stuff, we get another blog today from Bungie, and of course with the reveal coming up for Renegades and Ash and Iron, a lot of the focus is moving to new content and the changes Bungie have planned there. We get a few more bits of confirmation about some of that stuff today, so we'll be rounding it all up, hopefully with some positive news that'll be received well in the community. Bungie's recent track record on that is Pretty sketchy, isn't it?

So let's see how it pans out today, I suppose. If you guys enjoy the video, a rating really does help me out on the channel. But now let's get into it.

And first, some quick updates, because I don't want to spend a ton of time on it again, but Heavy Metal Launch Node from the Tower map has been removed, so given that that version of Heavy Metal was dropping old gear, players can now access the activity via the Crucible Ops menu or Heavy Metal Event Home. That's the first thing to keep in mind. Just yesterday, of course, we got that big sandbox update from Bungie, with a lengthy list of changes, as they describe it, dropping in Ash and Iron on September 9th. The reception for many of those changes has been, well, not brilliant from the community, largely because there's a perception that Bungie are focusing much more on nerfing things than buffing things. Whether you agree with that is up to you, you'll have to give me your thoughts down below.

And if you want to see what those sandbox changes are, I'll link a separate video as well. Next up, of course, today we got the Plaguelands trailer, or should we say Ash and Iron trailer. I thought some of the new weapons looked pretty cool, and the exotic mission. I know there has been a lot of disappointment about SIVA not seemingly really being a theme in Ash and Iron.

I totally get that as well. I guess we'll see how that plays out, some of it. We'll see in the livestream next week.

Getting into the juicier bits of Twit though, and the more impactful stuff in relation to power changes. Bungie firstly highlights some previously announced reward buffs for the portal, so increasing the amount of drops from fire team ups activities, players having a chance for prime engram drops per portal activity completion reward, and account highest power being used for reward score. They're obviously nice.

They say additionally, they're increasing the chance of earning prime engrams on activity completion in the crucible and have increased the bonus focus drop rates from 25% to 66% in the crucible. So in terms of power leveling, that's good when you keep in mind the additional chances for prime engrams from those. They talk about portal buffs here that we're getting in the update.

Or should I say, an update after September 9th. This is 9/1/0/1. So some of these changes actually come in shortly after Ash and Iron, but they say we're removing some mods from match made portal experiences. Those mods will be Grappler, Hypercritical, Oscillation and Match Game. Then in terms of power leveling, they're creating a more consistent power reward experience for the upper power climb.

So from 500 to 550 power, if we earn an A or A+ grade, we'll get +1 power on activity completion rewards. So that will be a consistent increase to power I'm assuming that will affect multiple rewards if we're in Pinnacle or Fire team ups as well. So Primes actually will not be the main way of leveling up that last 50 power levels moving forward.

They say this change will also be in effect for A grades in the 400 and 450 power range when Renegades launches. So... This is currently the plan on how things are going to work moving forward.

That last 50 levels being significantly faster than it is now. Because keep in mind, this will also pair up with us getting more Prime Engrams. So there'll be more tier 5 loot in that power band at least, as well as faster progression. They also note the power climb in Ash and Iron specifically from 400 to 500 will be naturally accelerated by the power cap increasing to 550. So realistically, that change to the final 50 levels will probably be in the game before most people are actually doing that part of the power grind. So that's a positive.

It however does not really touch on the power climb up to 400 and beyond, which I know there's still feedback about. I personally didn't mind it massively, but it does take a long time. Totally recognize that some people will like it more than others, right? Naturally. So give me a thought about it.

Separately, though, they say they're improving Fireteam Ops rewards and rapidly aligning on a plan. So they'll share more details in future. They also want to reduce gameplay penalties when running out of time in Grandmaster difficulty in the portal, so they will no longer zero out of revives when you hit the time limit, although that will still apply in conquests.

Another big one here though, they also want to make tier 5 rewards easier to earn in the portal, so from 450 power onwards, platinum or diamond reward ranks will earn a score that essentially guarantees tier 5 drops from activity completion rewards. And to confirm you'll be able to earn tier 5 before launching the activity, add modifiers to adjust the forecast, until we get the tier five engram actually appear as a reward. So otherwise, as we go up in power, we'll be able to earn tier fives with progressively lower grades. So at 500 power, you'll only be required for a B plus for tier fives. And that's a good thing, at least in relation to power leveling actually having meaning, right?

There's been a lot of discussion about the fact that we level up to play harder content. And in some ways, the game essentially gets harder as you power level. But this is at least a benefit to being at those higher levels, because at max level, you'll be able to run easier activities with guaranteed tier fives every time. So these reward changes definitely significantly improve the power grind in that last sort of 150 or so levels. Probably overall a smaller increase in the speed of leveling before that point, although Prime Engrams also factor into leveling, which are being buffed across the board.

So give me your thoughts on that, and ultimately we'll just have to see how it all feels actually in the game next week. Bungie teased some new rewards for the portal here though. The shared portal pool will get the Midermini tool, a revised lightweight SMG, as well as Drang, which is the solar adaptive sidearm, and a new high-impact rocket launcher, which is the strand one we saw in the trailer. So Drang, interestingly, is not a rocket sidearm, which it kind of looks like in the trailer. Maybe that'll be perks or origin traits or something.

Otherwise, Trials of Osiris will get Burden of Guilt, as well as the ever-burning Glitz. Rapid Fire Auto Rifle, Burden of Guilt, Stasis Fusion Rifle Iron Banner will see an updated Finite Impactor, Solar Adaptive Hand Cannon, New Precision Scout for Pinnacle Ops, Forced Memorializer, Kinetic, Seraphine Haze, and Aggressive SMG with Stasis Damage. Outside of those, there'll additionally be a Redacted Weapon for Solo and Crucible Ops, And a new solo and fire team ops armor set called the Smokejumper suit. So the two piece bonus allows when you pick up an orb of power to gain a brief period of rapidly decaying damage reduction. Then the four piece is super damage causes health and shields to regenerate while you're in motion.

And additional super damage refreshes the effect. It's an interesting one. The damage reduction component sounds all right. But there'll also be new crucible ops, iron banner and raid armor.

They speak about the dungeon lairs as well, where they confirm Pit of Heresy, Beneath the Necropolis, Duality Nightmare of Galron, and Warlord's Ruin: Heffern's Vengeance. Basically, the boss encounters from those three dungeons is what will be added to Pinnacle Ops. They will not automatically drop updated Dungeon gear though, Bungie say for two weeks after Ashen Iron, Pit of Heresy: Duality and Warlord's Ruin will be available for all players.

After that, the encounters will remain in the portal, but during the two week period, there'll be a modifier that basically allows you to adjust the rewards into legacy dungeon gear. So we'll be able to use those encounters to farm old dungeon stuff, but not updated dungeon stuff. I know straight away there's going to be a lot of comments about Bungie not updating any of the dungeon things.

Safe to say that definitely would have been the way to do it to keep players happy, but probably something that we'll see in the future, I suppose. There's something here though relating to featured gear which is actually a big plus. So this will affect Renegades onwards but they say all legendary gear from season reclamation will be included as part of the season of the lawless featured gear.

So basically all of the stuff we've earned in Edge of Fate with the teal icon on it will continue to be marked as featured gear next season when we get to Renegades. That basically removes the soft sunset on our loot from this particular season. And they say all new exotics from Season Reclamation will also be included as part of the Lawless featured gear list. Additionally though, starting in Season of the Lawless, the new gear bonus will be a flat bonus for all featured gear, and it will no longer be tiered as it currently is, and will be a maximum of 5% damage for weapons and a maximum of 10% damage resistance for armor. So that's another component there's been a lot of talk about, and Bungie are essentially reducing the effect that that season bonus has overall, as well as keeping current gear featured for longer than was originally planned.

So in the long term, I think obviously there's more conversations about power leveling and featured gear over time. I still don't think featured gear should be in the game whatsoever, but it sounds like Bungie are kind of buffering and kicking that problem a bit further down the road because ultimately players are going to continue to have an issue with it. So there'll need to be a longer term fix, but I am happy about that in relation to Renegades. Final couple of things very quick right here. Bungie have actually moved the Epic Raid back to September 27th and contest mode will be active through September 29th.

So right at the end of the month now, I think it was going to be on the week before initially, they apologized for the inconvenience and they say the highest priority is to ensure a smooth experience not only during the race but for players who wish to take on contest difficulty or play the epic raid in general. So keep in mind that change to the date, obviously frustrating if you'd planned for it already, but I guess it is better overall if it's actually enjoyable and not really broken. Not really sure specifically why it's being pushed back, but sounds like it's better to do that than to not.

So there we go, guys, for the moment, definitely some positive power changes for folks who are in those upper power bands. Like I said, if you're working from, you know, between 200 to 400, It's going to be accelerated a little bit with this update because there are more rewards being added to activities and Prime Engrams are going to drop more readily, which will improve the experience if you're in the final 150 or so levels of what will be the new max power cap 550. Then leveling is going to be incredibly fast in comparison to what it is right now with Primes and pretty consistent tier five loot is also the plan on the most part by the sounds of it. So give me your thoughts. We will see how it feels next week.

Also, let me know what you think of the trailer Bungie showed earlier on. Seen some mixed feelings about it. I will reserve judgement until I play it next week. For the moment though, cheers for watching, and I'll catch you guys very soon.

Destiny 2 NEWS: Power Changes, Easier Tier 5's, Feature Gear Rework, New Armor Sets, Portal Weapons, Dungeon Loot Info, Renegades & More (Year of Prophecy) ▻EDGE OF FATE NEWS UPDATES! #Destiny2 #EdgeofFate #YearofProphecy