This week’s Destiny 2 update covers the launch of the Solstice event, key gameplay adjustments, quality-of-life improvements, reward changes, and security actions, alongside upcoming content and patch highlights from the dev team.

Solstice Event Highlights

• Solstice event is live, featuring new holofoil weapons, armor glows, and event-exclusive activities.

• Solstice brings back lustrus armor from 2019, upgraded with Armor 3.0 and unique set bonuses.

• Event weapons include the new Apex Light SMG and Festival Flight grenade launcher; returning is the Fortunate Star bow.

• Weapons have special “holofoil” versions with increased gear tiers; top-tier drops are highly sought after.

• Event activities offer plus-one gear tier drops, with holofoil weapons granting plus-two tier plus same-tier armor.

• Players can obtain cosmetics, shaders, and weapons via challenges and the 15-rank rewards track.

• Eververse store features new beach-themed armor sets purchasable with Bright Dust.

• Twitch drop available for the Gracious Gloss emblem by watching or subscribing to Destiny 2 streams before August 19.

Gameplay & System Updates

• 9.0 update and Edge of Fate brought significant changes; multiple fixes are queued for imminent release and 9.9 major update.

• Rural tab color vibrancy is being restored and kept as an exploration hub alongside the portal.

• Reward preview issue in mixed fireteams and Keplar Mythic difficulty adjustments for solo play are in progress.

• Baseline raid and dungeon difficulties are being reduced; higher reward tiers to be made more accessible.

• A new infinite Bright Dust source comes in update 9.5.0, with an earlier grant to makeup for missing rewards.

• 9.1 will add new activities and rewards for both Edge of Fate and the core game.

• Power progression will be sped up due to current slow pace, and further adjustments are under review.

Rewards & Activities Balancing

• Portal activity rewards are being tuned for balance; Fireteam Ops rewards are too low and will be improved.

• Cruiser Ops to see raised rewards at lower ranks and increased drop rates for exclusive weapons.

• Raid drops to improve in both quantity and tier for first-time completions.

• Feedback is driving ongoing adjustments for both solo and group play activities.

• Upcoming Ash and Iron update in September is expected to bring significant changes.

Matchmaking, Security & Store

• Matchmaking added to Grandmaster Fireteam Ops at 360 power requirement, emphasizing teamwork and careful play.

• Upcoming Accelerator score multiplier aims to help players reach higher reward scores.

• Security update: ban waves issued for cheaters and benefiting fireteam members in contest modes, with carnage reports removed and additional bans possible.

• Bungie Store’s Solstice savings run August 5–19 with discounts and free Destiny 2 emblem sunburst for purchases.

Event & Update Calendar

• August 5–9: Solstice event and Grandmaster Fireteam Ops matchmaking.

• September 2: Heavy Metal event returns.

• September 9: Ash and Iron major update with new dungeon content; further details to come.

Known Issues & Fixes

• Fortunate Star bow will properly receive lightweight frame benefits in update 9.0.0.6.

• Dead Messenger disabled in PvP due to unintended high damage.

• Lighthouse chest rewards and trial hand cannon stat issues are under investigation.

Decisions

• Adjust Fireteam Ops, cruiser ops, and raid rewards.

• Reduce raid and dungeon difficulties.

• Restore infinite Bright Dust earning opportunities.

Action Items

• Early to mid-August – Dev Team: Implement immediate fixes and rewards balance changes.

• September 9 – Bungie: Release Ash and Iron major update with new activities and progression speed increases.

Questions / Follow-Ups

• Is a second ban wave planned for contest cheaters?

• Will matchmaking be expanded to all game activities in the future?

• Are additional adjustments to activity reward structures planned before Ash and Iron?

Destiny 2 Update Summary

Another week, boys, and another twab. This week in Destiny, the weather is hot, another scorcher, and Space Grandma is back in the tower. This can only mean one thing.

Solstice has returned, bringing new holofoid weapons, armor glows, and even more hotness. It's time to crank up the heat and get a lit in the tower, because the glows, guys, the glows. Before we get to Solstice, here's a breakdown of what we're discussing today, including a word from our Destiny 2 dev team. So, update from the Destiny 2 dev team. Okay.

Solstice is live updates to the portal, security updates, bungee storm rewards. So let's hit it. So update from the D2 dev team, where we're at.

It's been a busy few weeks here. The sheer amount of changes that landed in 9.0 with the edge of fate has had our team working hard to address issues This is a snapshot of of where we are and of some of our areas of focus. So what we're doing. In addition to the things we could fix and fix quickly, we have more queued up for imminent updates over the next few weeks and more as part of our first post-launch major update plan for 9.9.

Restoring color vibrancy to the rural tab, which will continue to live alongside the portal as the exploration-focused part of our activity offering, a fix for the reward preview being lower than the actual rewards granted when in mixed fire teams. Keplar Mythic difficulty will be adjusted to make it more accessible for solo play. Baseline Raiden dungeon is being adjusted down and higher reward tiers are being made more accessible. Contest modes will also bump the tier further.

Restoring an infinite source of Bright Dust with the objective system update in 9.5.0 and an earlier grant to make up for the missing source. Okay, so they're just going to outright give us an amount, okay? And then 9.1 will contain much more than the above, including new activities and rewards in both the Edge of Fate and the core game. All right, so right here, Kepler Mythic difficulty will be adjusted to make it more accessible for solo players. Again, pretty much you could do it solo, but man, it is hell.

You need a fire team, in my opinion. But right here, baseline raid and dungeon difficulty is being adjusted down. Interesting, because they actually just dialed back things already. But curious to see what else they're going to do on that front.

And getting Bright Dust into the game there for everybody to earn. Good. All right. Now, what we're planning. Beyond all of the above, we have much more in the works, too.

We've been hearing what you've had to say over the past three weeks and have gathered your feedback to focus on several areas. Power progression is our most important topic right now, and we are still identifying the adjustments we plan to make. Progression is clearly slower than we want it to be, and we plan to generally increase the speed of progression for most players.

Portal reward balance is being actively adjusted up and down to make more activities feel evenly rewarding. Fireteam Ops is in particular is feeling too low right now and we're working to make it feel viable to make progress while playing with friends. Cruiser Ops are also getting close attention and we're looking at raising rewards at lower ranks and increasing the drop rates for cop exclusive weapons.

Raids have a good baseline weapons and armor, but drops are not high enough tier and not enough of it drops for the first time investment. We are planning to improve both the tier and drop rates in future updates. We have even more things planned for our 9.5.0 Renegades reveal, but but everything above is under active developments and will be in the game in the coming weeks and in 9.1 in early September. That's... Surprising.

I actually thought they weren't going to do any of this until Ren and Kate's. I was under the assumption we were going to be living with the way the game feels now, especially like from a power progression standpoint for the rest of the season. They were going to let it play out, but it looks like they're going to be adjusting this in Ash and Iron. Now from our team, we want to thank everyone for your patience and support as we follow up and continue to work on making adjustments on the immense amount of change in 9.0. We make every internal effort to ensure a stable launch and a good experience, but nothing compares to the torrent of live feedback from a large player community to help perform our decision-making.

Destiny 2 is a living environment, and we're constantly working to react to what we learn from you, so please continue to share your feedback with us. Okay. That's probably the biggest thing from the day's 12. I mean, how do y'all feel about this? Essentially, I'd like this right here.

Fireteam Ops is going to be more rewarding. I mean, the way it looks now is like, I mean, Destiny is supposed to be a game you play with friends. Yet, the most optimal way of playing right now to level up is solo ops.

which is playing solo, playing alone. So yeah, increasing the rewards there. I hope they go further than that.

Like I want some, I want them to look at things like Onslaught and Coil. Guys, I ran Onslaught last night and to me Onslaught is still, especially like the OG Midtown Onslaught, it's still like some of the best activities Bungie's ever, between that and Coil, some of the best activities Bungie's ever made. The problem is, is no one's going to commit 40 minutes to those activities because the rewards just don't match.

When you can commit 40 minutes to that activity, get three drops, or do one solo op run in three minutes for the one drop. I mean, just do the math. It's obvious that solo ops is the way to go. So I would just love it if we just had the activities that are actually fun to do. That'd be the most rewarding.

And then the same also applies for any other new activities that get brought to the game. I know like solo players are probably going to be like, I don't want to have to go team up with people to play those activities, but I think solo ops should still be rewarding. This just goes in tandem with it. All right, Solstice is live. It's that time of the year again when the sun's ablaze.

Greenery has adorned the tower. Yves Levante has brought everyone's water toys and swimwear to celebrate this year's Solstice event. Weapons, the water toys, or this year's solstice weapons one returns two are new new is the year tide apex light solar submachine gun the festival flight aerial denial strand grenade launcher let me just say this guys we just put out a review for it if you get a chance get this gl use the mod temporal blast you will wreck everything you can get stacks of temporal so fast and it completely chunks down enemies it destroys champions, destroys Briggs.

I was like running a Grandmaster fire team op last night solo and he was just wrecking everything. So just use that mod with it. It is disgusting. All right. Returning is the fortunate star void bow and the Hold on.

Is that just the only returning? I thought they said there was two returning. Okay. Beachfront.

Sunsets sure are beautiful. But if you'd rather play in the ocean on a sunny day, the weapons also come in beach waves under holofoil versions. That's right. So if you get lucky enough in this Solstice event, which lasts for another week and a half, if you get a tier five, that's really good.

If you get a tier five plus a holofoil version, you need to lock that. That's like... The best drop you can get from this event.

Alright, reward drops. All Sosa's drops are plus one gear tier. While Sosa's live holoful weapons drops are plus two gear tier alongside a piece of armor at the same tier. Armor in the Sosa's Forge. This year's event brings back a familiar armor set from 2019. The name of Lustrous Armor, which have been upgraded to Armor 3.0 with the unique set bonuses.

So right here, this is like, the two pieces not that good. It's alright, but it's receiving healing temporarily. Grants you solar weapons, increased flinch resistance, handle and reload speed.

That's pretty good but this one right here the four piece cauterize rapid solar final blows heal you and that's any solar final blows you can use this in tandem with heel clip or you can just use it by itself now using the solstice forge which now lives in the event home you can unlock with lustrous armor and glows for those with a fashion interest you may have noticed that both glow and non-glow versions appear as ornament options once the glow is acquired you can claim lustrous armor using the solstice alloy Speaking of which, what is the mission today? What's the solo op mission today? You can always select these. It is Caldera. Damn, they put it back to Caldera already?

All right. i mean it's really it's the best solo mission so now you can also select these when customizing the boon and event modifiers check out one of the modifiers in all of its sun and sun death ray glory yeah they're great modifiers actually more information about the modifiers can be found on last week's twin now speaking of armor have you checked out the new eververse sets yet whether you want to dress for the beach surf in the ocean or play in the pool we have the right outfit for you sexy Again, you can buy this with Bright Dust, everybody. You don't have to use silver. Now, like Arms Week, rewards for Solstice live in the new event home full of daily challenges, a weekly challenge, and a 15-rank rewards track.

The track is available to all players and includes exclusive items such as the new Flutter by Holochip, Tier 3 Holofor versions of each Solstice weapon, a unique shader, ship, sparrow, ghost, Solstice weapon, engrams, and more the sosa scorch crucible ops head over to the cruise pops to join in on the madness that is social scorch slaughter your opponents with the blaze of fiery explosions with the scorch cannon to earn sources alloys and a and event rep prepare to be burnt okay we're done now souls event twitch drop to celebrate the souls of summer event a new twitch drop is live for the gracious gloss emblem if the sub you are participating in destitute live stream between now and august 19th to earn the gracious gloss emblem luke is a gifted sub i thought it was just watching for 30 minutes yeah that one should be a just watch for 30 minute emblem we're pretty sure you just have to watch guys the other day i think it was it was a Like a 30 minute watch time. I'll be honest. I've checked. I'll go back and double check. Unless they've changed it.

I thought it was just a watch only one. Before it's watch. Now it's gift. Okay. All right.

So the portal, Fireteam Ops Matchmade GM difficulty. You wanted it. You got it.

This week, we added Matchmade to Grandmaster difficulty to Fireteam Ops. Be prepared. This isn't for the faint of heart and requires a solid building teamwork.

The required power for access is 360, but basic combat power is 400. So tread lightly as you enter the fray. Like expert and master before, the selected challenges, banes, and boons will be different each day. Both locked loadouts and limited revives are on, and you can only be revived by teammates, so be careful out there, Guardians, and look out for your fellow fireteam members. Next week, the portal will receive an update in the form of the Accelerator score multiplier, which slightly increases the challenge multiplier, making it easier to attain higher reward scores.

Now, here's an update calendar of what Season Reclamation will offer to all players. So, the weeks of August the 5th through the 9th, We got Solstice event. Matchmaking opens for Grandmaster Fireteam Ops.

Week of September 2nd, Heavy Metal returns. Okay. It's probably going to be a pretty good way to also level up.

September 9th, Ash and Iron major update. And then dungeon content, more details to come. Okay.

Okay. And again, the Ash and Iron update, guys. We're going back to the Plaguelands.

And Bungie says that we're getting some sort of activity that we've never seen in Destiny before. Whatever that is. So I will say on the topic of opening up matchmaking for things, I think Bungie should just open up matchmaking literally for everything in the game.

Just let it happen, man. Some people are going to join up on players that are bad or toxic or whatever. But just let it happen, dude.

People will find other people to game with that way. All right, security update. Earlier this week, our product security team issued a ban wave to fire teams found to be cheating during the Desert Perpetuals contest mode. Players who benefited from those cheating in the fire team were also included.

This is in addition to the many, many bans we've already issued during the race itself. In addition to this ban wave, we've also removed the associated post-game carnage reports from our API. Breaking our community code of conduct, including cheating during the contest difficulty or other activities, is a ban of offensive players benefiting from cheating during can also be subject to punishment.

If you suspect someone has cheated, either in contest mode or other areas of the game, please submit a report to our contact form. All right, good. I think the number, it's like something crazy.

It's like the number dropped to like, it went from 500 teams, 500 some teams that completed it to like 190. Luke, correct me if I'm wrong on that. Yeah, so Bungie removed 112 contests completions from the contest raid totaling about 624 players who were involved in that. Interesting.

I thought there was more because originally all the reports coming out there was going to be more. Is there a second band wave coming, Luke? That's what I've been hearing people say that Bungie is still taking names and such, but Yeah. All right.

Bungie Store Sosa Savings. A celebration of our Sosa's events. Stop by the Bungie Store for Sosa's Savings August 5th through August the 19th. There you'll find discounts on exciting products, including the Nerve Limited Destiny 2 Ace of Spades Blaster, the Art of Destiny Volume 3, the Floating Traveler Lamp, and more.

In addition to the saving, enjoy $7.77 flat rate shipping during the Sosa sale. Any purchase made at the Bungie Store during the Sosa's Savings will also come with the Destiny 2 emblem sunburst. That's... That's sexy. That's hot.

All right. All right. Bunch of rewards also retiring soon.

There you go, guys. Okay. Now, Fortunate Star Bow update. Due to the Fortunate Star Bow displaying as a precision bow but being built to be a lightweight frame, it is not currently receiving the intrinsic benefits of either lightweights or a precision frame. We'll be updating all versions to correctly receive the lightweight benefits and update 9.0.0.6.

Interesting. Interesting. All right, we've got a number of known issues, guys, that I'm not going to go through.

This one right here. Oh, due to an issue where dead messenger can output more damage than intended PvP, it has been disabled within those activities. All right, so people were abusing it last weekend, man. Terrible.

Absolutely terrible. As a final note here from Bundy, as we come to a close, we want to let you know that we hear your feedback about the portal, rewards, raids, dungeons, and more. There are active discussions taking place daily about all these items and what we're working on for the future. We'll share more details soon. In the meantime, we hope you're enjoying Soul Sisters and getting lots of fire drops, literally and figuratively.

Okay, now we're done. The Destitute Community Team. That's your 12, guys. Main takeaway for this, the game should be easier to level in come September, come Ashdown, which I know seems like an eternity from now, but it's gonna happen.

And you could wait if you want, or you can still follow our leveling guide and do the thing. You know what I mean? Yeah, right here. The trial spreadshot hand cannon has an incorrect stat package. Interesting.

The lighthouse chest rewards are sometimes giving lower gear tier rewards than intended. Yeah, yeah. Dude, it sucks.

If you get a seven win streak, go to the lighthouse and you get a tier two drops. All right. Okay, so it's being looked at.

Slap that like button like your mama told you, right?

Another week boys and another TWAB!! This week, we've got a ton of great quality of life changes that will be hitting the game soon to improve the power grind process. On top of that, we've got a quick run down recapping some of the new content to hit with the launch of Solstice 2025 this week.

#bungie #destiny2 #twab

Dev Team Update 5:16

Solstice 2025 9:18

The Portal: Fireteam Ops Matchmade GM Difficulty 10:40

Security Update 11:43

Bungie Store Solstice Sale 12:15

Fortunate Star Update 12:30

Known Issues 12:44