This week at Bungie, we’re back in action.

It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Since the last TWAB, you’ve gotten your hands on Hawkmoon. The Dawning has come and gone. Next-generation consoles received some wonderful enhancements. You’ve released a crow from their cage, and Lord Saladin watched as you decimated your foes with Stasis in the Iron Banner.

On the Bungie side of things, we took a breather. This last year has been full of challenges that none of us expected. Even through everything 2020 had in store, we were able to get Beyond Light and Season of the Hunt in your hands. This did come at a bit of a cost, though, and we needed some time to recharge our batteries for a new year. We have no doubt that 2021 will have mountains to climb and unexpected surprises, but we’re all excited to get back into the groove for a new year of Destiny development.

So, let’s get this party started. We’ve got four TWABs between you and a fresh Season of Destiny 2 content. You’re hungry for what we've got planned, and we’re eager to dish out the goods. First up, we’ll be looking at a few changes to vendors, Dreaming City and Moon rewards, and some sandbox tuning for Hunter Stasis abilities in the Crucible.

Even the biting chill of Europa can’t freeze the warm hearts of Guardians during this special time of year. Eva Levante welcomes you to the Tower to learn a new recipe, to find an unexpected gift or two, and take a trip in your tricked-out Exotic ship while you’re at it. Spread cheer and get gear… The Dawning has returned.


A delicious holiday treat has a few requirements: a handy recipe, the finest ingredient materials for you to gather, and a primed Holiday Oven. New vendors and seasonal rewards await!


Celebrate the season and spread good cheer! Earn Dawning Spirit by completing missions, bounties, and recipes. With personal and communal goals available, the more Spirit that Guardians generate, the better the rewards that Eva will have for everyone to share.


Enjoy a cozy ride in a new Exotic ship, complete with a smorgasbord of features. Generate Dawning Spirit to unlock your ship’s aesthetic delights, including three selectable engine effects, a unique transmat effect, an animated shader that’s as unique as the ship itself, and more!


Earn the new Legendary Fusion Rifle Glacioclasm and show the enemies of humanity that, even though this is a season of forgiveness, the forecast still calls for pain.


Looking for something special to spruce things up? Tess has just what you need to finish off your holiday décor, from an elf-themed Ghost shell (shelf not included) to weapon ornaments that will turn heads as you trim down your naughty list.

This week at Bungie, Hawkmoon, next-gen, and the Dawning, oh my! 

OK, so it’s been another action-packed week with updates to the game and news about the future, so let’s just get into it. We started off on Tuesday with an early morning dev update on the state of rewards in the game. We wanted to share some of the plans to improve rewards as well as a few other exciting things coming up. The whole update is definitely worth a read, but I stole some bullets: 

• In Season 13, we’re adding six new Legendary weapons to our ritual activities, two each for strikes, Gambit, and Crucible. 
• In addition to the weapons above, Nightfall strikes are getting three unique weapons, with The Palindrome, The Swarm, and Shadow Price all making their Destiny 2 debuts. If you’re brave enough to take on Grandmaster Nightfalls, you will be also able to earn Adept versions of these weapons.  
• Transmog will be coming with Season 14. More details to come. (See work-in-progress mock-ups!) 
• DDoS protection for Destiny 2 players on all consoles will be coming in Season 13. 
• The Vault of Glass raid returns in Year 4. 
• Crossplay is coming in 2021. 
• Two strikes (Fallen S.A.B.E.R. and Devil’s Lair) are coming to Destiny 2 in Season 13. 
• Legendary and Master Lost Sector rotation will be expanded to include the Lost Sectors on the Moon in Season 13, and there will be new three new pieces of Exotic armor to chase. 

That very same day, Update 3.0.1 went live with several important fixes as well as next-gen enhancements for consoles so you can experience the beauty of Destiny 2 with moar frames and moar FOV! We wrote up an article that covers these new enhancements in detail as well as the new ability to pick up bounties from the Companion App and the return of the Prophecy dungeon.

This week also saw the return of Hawkmoon. The highly sought-after Exotic Hand Cannon makes its debut into Destiny 2 with a reworked perk that no longer relies on RNG but still packs a punch. Season Pass owners can now visit Spider to set off on the quest to claim their Hawkmoon.


You can read about the Dawning, Warlock melee changes and more in the full TWAB on Bungie.net.

Back in June, we shined our spotlight on some of the art created for Season of the Worthy. Today, we have a special treat. Not only do we have art ready to share from Season of Arrivals, we also have some beautiful shots from Beyond Light as well. A few of our talented Bungie artists have sent us art they worked on and each has even more up on their linked sites you can browse through as well. Go down the list and gaze at the beauty Destiny 2 has to offer.


Tyson Allen 


Mark Goldsworthy 


 Jesse van Dijk 


An-Tim Nguyen 


Rusty Durbin 


Kevin Whitmeyer 


Lee Hinds 


Ryan Choi 


Joseph Biwald 


Aaron Cruz 


Eve Astra 


Eric Pfeiffer 


Ian McIntosh 


Marc Thompson 


Madison Parker  


Lani Ming 


Mike Poe 


Ryan Kamins 


Dorje Bellbrook
 

Hey everybody,

My name is Joe Blackburn, and I’m the Assistant Game Director on Destiny 2. If your free time looks anything like mine, you’ve been spending a lot of it on Europa over the past few weeks. Some of you may know me from my previous Bungie life when I worked with the raid team and on Season of Opulence. I'm back thanks to a revive from Luke and team as we work together to create a Destiny 2 future that we’re all excited about. Today I want to spend some time with you on a subject that is near and dear to every Destiny 2 player’s heart: rewards.

There’s a thing I ask a lot around the virtual office, “How are we making every Season the best time to jump back into Destiny?” Destiny is a very large and complex game, and while this is what also makes it a game we love, we want Destiny 2 to continue to evolve, to be a world with momentum.

Introducing Infusion Caps is part of addressing this, a way to make sure that the overall number of rewards Guardians need to care about in order to be competitive in Destiny isn’t prohibitive. It is also a way to continue evolving each season’s meta, while at the same time making sure players still have a ton of options when choosing what they want to bring into the next challenge. Our goal from the beginning with Infusion Caps is to improve and keep Destiny 2 fresh over time - what we’re most looking forward to is how this system will introduce innovation to the season-over-season meta, how creative builds from the community will shine, and how we can continue to deliver more unique hand-crafted gear that aligns with the world narrative and where the universe is going.

While we still are hard at work on improvements to how we rotate gear out of the Destiny Power ecosystem (what gear you can infuse to max Power), there were a few clear-cut misses with our first rollout. 

• The initial reward pool with this release was just too small. 
• It's frustrating to be playing Destiny and see another player use a weapon that is no longer obtainable in game.

I’m going to spend a lot of time talking rewards, but before we deep dive, let's get the TL;DR out there. These are the big commitments we’re making today. 

• With each season in Year 4, Destiny 2 will grow the overall Power ecosystem for weapons. 
• With very few exceptions, all weapons you can take to the Power cap should still be earnable in game.
• Future annual releases will contain more new weapons to collect than Beyond Light or Shadowkeep.

With Beyond Light we took on the huge challenge of rebuilding our technology from the ground up. One of the benefits of this was improving the speeds with which we could make and update Destiny. You’ve already seen some of those gains since launch, with updates such as buffing the Legendary engram coming in much faster than we’ve been able to do in the past. But Season 13 will be here in just a couple of months (very soon in the world of Destiny development), so let's talk about how we are continuing to leverage our technology to act with agility.

Season 13 is the first chance for us to prove our commitment to growing the overall Power ecosystem with each release in Year 4. We want to make sure that, with each new season, there are more weapons to take with you to tackle that Nightfall Ordeal or Master Bunker E15 than there were before. 

While I won’t be spoiling what new stuff you’ll be able to chase in our next season, I did want to touch on a few changes we’ve made to the reward offering specifically based on what we’ve seen in Beyond Light. 

• In Season 13, we’re adding six new Legendary weapons to our ritual activities, two each for strikes, Gambit, and Crucible.
• In addition to the weapons above, Nightfall strikes are getting three unique weapons, with The Palindrome, The Swarm, and Shadow Price all making their Destiny 2 debuts. If you’re brave enough to take on Grandmaster Nightfalls, you will be also able to earn Adept versions of these weapons. 

Season 13 not only represents the start of our commitment to growing the Power ecosystem, but it also is an opportunity for us to improve how we can keep Destiny accessible to new players. New Guardians are essential to the health of our community and, as with our investment in features like the “New Light” introduction on the Cosmodrome, we must also invest in making sure the reward structure of Destiny is approachable to everyone.

In a recent patch, we added the Season 10 and 11 weapons to the world drop pool and we removed the Season 9 weapons. This was important for a few reasons.

We want to make sure that players have a way to earn all Power-relevant weaponry in the live game. If a group of new Guardians is just getting into Grandmaster Nightfalls and they see guides on YouTube involving Warmind Cells, we need to provide a path for them to participate. 

At the same time, we don’t want to be clogging up the reward streams with weapons that are about to exit the Power ecosystem. So anything that’s only going to be around for a few more months shouldn’t be something a player can accidentally obtain.

In Season 13 we will continue to allow all players to gain Season 11 and Season 12 weapons in the world drop pool while Season 10 weapons will be obtainable through a more prescriptive source. This means that Legendary engrams will no longer reward these soon-to-expire weapons. If you want to chase a specific piece of soon-to-be-capped loot, you’ll find it with the Gunsmith. This is all part of our larger commitment to making sure that players can always earn anything they might need to take on challenging activities. That said, this will require a few exceptions and some updates to the live game. 

As far as exceptions, we don’t plan on adding methods for players to acquire holiday weapons like the Braytech Werewolf outside of participating in those yearly celebrations. For updates, this does mean in Season 13 we will be adding limited time quest weapons like Felwinter’s Lie, Whisper of the Worm, and Outbreak Perfected to the Exotic Kiosk in the Tower. 

After covering things we’d like to change, I want to spend some time talking about what must stay the same. Destiny is a game built on exciting rewards. From Bastion to IKELOS_SMG_V1.0.2 to Falling Guillotine, the rewards over the last twelve months have continued to evolve the way Guardians play the game. In Beyond Light, I believe the Rewards Team nailed it again with incredible new Legendary perks like Recombination, Thresh, Chain Reaction, and Reconstruction. Alongside these perks came what I believe is one of the best lineups of Exotic weapons and armor in Destiny history.

But where we succeeded in quality, we failed in quantity. Even as Season 12, the Deep Stone Crypt, and the full breadth of Europa weapons came online, the total count of weapons in Beyond Light is lower than we want. So, we’re making the commitment now that our future annual releases will have more weapon rewards than Beyond Light or Shadowkeep. 

There’s no way for us to make more rewards at Destiny’s standards and still maintain the health of our current team, therefore we’re going to reinforce the Rewards Team with more talent that will allow us to deliver quality and quantity in the future. Molding someone new into a master Destiny gunsmith takes time. This isn’t going to be a change that the community will feel next week, but it does put our best foot forward as we step towards The Witch Queen and Lightfall.

Increasing the Reward Team’s size is one of our long-term initiatives, but it is not the only upgrade to our gear rotation plan that we want to get into the oven. We envision a better solution for how armor intersects with infusion caps. The personality of armor comes from mods right now, so gaining a new piece of armor often means just trying to find a piece of armor that replicates the stat allocation you already have on a piece in your vault. While we are not ready to talk concretely about armor plans right now, we do want to get more gameplay novelty on armor itself so that looting a piece of armor in a new season has the potential to change the way you play.

Expect to hear more about armor and other holistic upgrades to the way gear rotates in and out of the Power ecosystem as we harden plans in the new year. 

And that new year will be here before you know it. A big chunk of the team will be taking some hard-earned time off to rest and relax ahead of coming back to the studio and diving into 2021. We have a lot of work to do and, while I’m looking forward to the break, I also can’t wait to get to work on some of the huge stuff we’ve got coming in the new year. Without spoiling too much, here’s a brief teaser of some of the things that are on their way in Destiny 2, Year 4:

• Transmog will be coming with Season 14. More details to come. (See work-in-progress screen captures, below. Not final, may change!)
• DDOS protection for Destiny 2 players on all consoles will be coming in Season 13.
• The Vault of Glass raid returns.
• Crossplay is coming in 2021.
• Two strikes (Fallen S.A.B.E.R. and Devil’s Lair) are coming to Destiny 2 in Season 13.
• Legendary and Master Lost Sector rotation will be expanded to include the Lost Sectors on the Moon in Season 13, and there will be new three new pieces of Exotic armor to chase.

Now that I’ve ranted longer than a raid leader on Val Ca'uor, let’s wrap this thing up. 2020 has been a hard year for so many folks out there, and I hope that Beyond Light has been able to be a bright spot over the past couple of weeks. Playing Destiny 2 alongside you helps keep us going. We’re going to keep our ears and eyes open for more feedback as we continue towards 2021. I hope your holiday treats you well and can’t wait to share more Destiny with you in the new year. 

Thanks for your time,
Joe

This week at Bungie, we prepare for next gen.

It’s been a while since we last spoke. I mean, it hasn’t been too long. We took a quick week off for holiday, but we’re back to the grind. There’s a bit to catch up on. Since the last TWAB, new Exotics have been discovered throughout Europa. Banshee has found new memories. The Deep Stone Crypt has been infiltrated. A dinosaur was sent into space.

Quite a few of you have been asking about raid statistics. It’s always fun seeing how many players took on the challenge for a completion during the first week. We dug through our databases and found some fun stats to share, and we’re happily surprised by how many of you completed your first ever Jacket Quest.



A final fun fact: Over 979,680 Guardians unlocked The Lament since the quest went live. That’s a LOT of sword damage.

Now that we’ve covered the time that’s passed, let’s get back to business.

Earlier this week we kicked off our Game2Give Light Keepers charity initiative and, to no one’s surprise, the Destiny community has shown up in force. At the time of writing this TWAB, you’ve already raised above $450k, and we’re still in the first week! Our overall goal is to raise $2 Million, and we're well on our way.

If this is the first time you're hearing about our Light Keepers initiative, head over to the announcement article to learn more. We have a few incentives for you when donating, including emblems and a unique in-game Bungie Foundation ghost!



We also announced our charity milestone rewards, one of which you’ve already unlocked. In case you missed it, say hello to the concept art of our upcoming Dawning 2020 Titan universal Ornament.



If you’d like to chip in a few dollars for charity, head over this way to help out and donate. We have more Dawning concept art to share, and some lore readings from special guests once you break the $1 million donation mark!

• $250k – Dawning 2020 Titan universal ornament concept art (You've already smashed this milestone)
  
• $500k – Dawning 2020 Warlock universal ornament concept art
  
• $750k – Dawning 2020 Hunter universal ornament concept art
  
• $1 million – Dawning 2020 Legendary Reward preview
  
• Every $100k after reaching $1 million – Guest lore reading

For the full schedule of featured streamers, head on over to the Game2Give website to learn more.

Below the frozen tundra of Europa lies the Deep Stone Crypt. For decades it has remained dormant. Your fireteam cautiously approaches, weapons raised, and the final plan is set in motion. Unique rewards await those who can triumph in its enigmatic depths.



Tune-In Nov. 21 @ 10am PST and witness one team become legend.

Don't miss the 'Race To World First' featuring the all-new Beyond Light Raid: Deep Stone Crypt.

This week at Bungie, the Crow has found a new nest.

Hello, and welcome to the second TWAB of Beyond Light. We’ve got a bit to cover today, so we won’t spend too much time on introductions. Season of the Hunt kicked off proper on Tuesday. If you haven’t jumped in just yet, we have some wonderful web lore to get you prepared. I wasn’t mentally prepared for part 2...

IMMOLANT PT. 1 // IMMOLANT. PT 2

TWO DRINK MINIMUM

Wrathborn Hunts have begun. We still have the Deep Stone Crypt Raid, The Dawning, Trials of Osiris, Iron Banner, and more to look forward to over the course of the Season.

This week, we're talking through the raid race, an upcoming security feature, a charity initiative, Stasis tuning, loot, and more. Check out the full TWAB for more.

Entire planets have vanished. In the chaos that follows, Xivu Arath, the Hive God of War boldly moves to seize power. If left unchecked, she threatens a solar system already in turmoil. While investigating the growing threat, Osiris finds himself in need of help. Fortunately, a new – and yet familiar – ally known as the Crow joins you in the rescue...

GEAR & REWARDS



Gear, XP, rewards! Get the Season Pass and instantly unlock the new Seasonal armor set and new Exotic Shotgun, Duality. You also get an XP boost that speeds up your Seasonal ranks and engram unlocks.

THE HUNT BEGINS



Hive shrines are appearing throughout the system. The Spider has felt the effect of this disturbance and wants to strike a bargain. Work with him and the Crow to build a device that will draw Xivu Arath’s lieutenants out of hiding. Once constructed, upgrade your Lure, snare your prey, and challenge the Hive god.

FANG OF XIVU ARATH

Pulled from the jaws of a Hive God, the Fang of Xivu Arath increases your Power every time it’s upgraded. Unlock new Seasonal mods and choose new ways to customize your playstyle.

Three expansions. One epic bundle. Get the Destiny 2: Legendary Edition now at a 15% discount until December 1, 2020, 10 a.m. Pacific.  

Experience the epic sci-fi action of Destiny 2 and all of its expansions with Destiny 2: Legendary Edition. Create your Guardian and enjoy a cinematic storyline in an ever-evolving universe. Join your fellow Guardians for challenging co-op missions, or compete against them in a variety of PvP modes. The Legendary Edition includes the critically acclaimed expansions Forsaken, Shadowkeep, and Beyond Light, as well as access to the current Destiny 2 season: Season of the Hunt. Legendary Edition owners also get access to the Exotic Pulse Rifle “No Time To Explain” and its catalyst. 

Destiny 2: Legendary Edition contains the following:  




In a high-stakes prison escape, Uldren Sov and his eight Barons took out legendary Hunter, Cayde-6, and unleashed chaos across the Reef. Take justice into your own hands and venture into a new frontier filled untold mysteries and treasures. 




As the heroes of the Last City turn their attention to the frontiers of our galaxy, new Nightmares awaken from their slumber beneath the Lunar surface. Join Eris Morn and confront a sinister evil that poses a threat far beyond her understanding. 




The frontier of Europa holds many lost secrets, including the dark power of Stasis. Work with the mysterious Exo Stranger to harness this new power before Eramis, the Kell of Darkness, bestows it on her Fallen forces. Grow your arsenal, command Stasis, and go beyond the Light. 




Entire planets have vanished. In the chaos that follows, Xivu Arath, the Hive God of War boldly moves to seize power. If left unchecked, she threatens a solar system already in turmoil. Guardians will work to build a device that will draw Xivu Arath’s lieutenants out of hiding. Once constructed, upgrade your Lure, snare your prey, and challenge the Hive god.