There’s not a ton to boil down for you out of this week’s This Week at Bungie, but what’s there may be significant for you. You can find Bungie’s original post here.
What we do have is a lot of statistics, and some data regarding Year One weapons as we roll into Year Two in four weeks. Solstice of Heroes is well underway at this point, and I hope this week’s update finds your armor grinding underway (or not, if you’ve chosen not to pursue it).
Season Three Statistics
Bungie posted an infographic with tallies from Season Three to date. You can find that in their original post, or view the image itself here.
The numbers I found interesting:
- Normal mode raid clears: 6.4 million
- Prestige raid clears: 757 thousand
If you’ve completed one or more Prestige raids, congratulations; it’s something that’s not common. I’m curious how these numbers compare to Destiny 1’s raid activities.
- 194 thousand players have Whisper of the Worm
- Just less than 9 thousand players have Redrix’s Claymore (the Season Three Competitive PvP-exclusive weapon)
My thought on this was that Redrix’s ended up being rarer than perhaps had been anticipated, and based on this tweet from Kevin Yanes, I might be correct:
And the last number:
- Players deleted over 800 million shaders from their inventories.
I think I kind of get what they were going for with consumable shaders, but from a user interface standpoint, I feel they missed the mark significantly. I’m interested to see where they go from here for Year Two.
What’s Happening to Year One Gear in Year Two?
With the transition to Year Two, the weapons and armor from Year One will undergo some changes. There will be limitations to most Year One gear, for instance:
- Year One gear will be infusable up to the new power cap, but
- They will keep their static rolls and not gain random properties like Year Two gear will,
- You won’t be able to use Year Two mods in Year One gear. And Year One mods are being essentially retired from the game, so at some point, the mod you have slotted in a Year One piece of gear seems to be what it will have forever.
There will be exceptions to this rule, as some Year One gear is being “upgraded” to Year Two versions, but it sounds like this will be for new drops only and not affect previously-acquired gear.
Personally, I hope the raid gear is updated in this way. I’ll dislike having to acquire new sets, but it would disappoint me to leave the Leviathan gear more or less permanently behind, as gear without the Year Two perks sounds like it will have a hard time competing with newer stuff.
Year One Gear Disappearing from Vendors
As part of the above-mentioned reset to Year One gear, current vendors will rotate some gear out of their inventories forever, to be replaced with new Year Two stocks. If you want any of these things to end up in your Collections going forward, you’ll need to acquire them in the next four weeks. Here’s what’s going away, and from what vendors:
Year One Weapons
- Vanguard (Zavala)
- Crucible (Shaxx)
- Gunsmith (Banshee-44)
- Trials of The Nine (Emissary of the Nine)
- Iron Banner (Lord Saladin)
Year One Armor
- Vanguard (Zavala)
- Crucible (Shaxx)
- Vanguard Research (Ikora)
- Trials of The Nine (Emissary of the Nine)
- Iron Banner (Lord Saladin)
Year One Emblems
- Gunsmith (Banshee-44)
- Vanguard Research (Ikora)
- Trials of the Nine (Emissary of the Nine)
- Iron Banner (Lord Saladin)
- Cayde’s Stashes (Treasure Map locations)
Other Year One Cosmetics
- Trials of the Nine shaders, ships, Sparrows, and Ghost shells
- Iron Banner shaders, ships, Sparrows, and Ghost shells
Note that Year One mods are also being retired and will no longer be available from the Gunsmith starting September 4th. An exchange program for Year One mods still in your inventory has been announced, but no details are yet available.
Destination vendors, such as Failsafe, Asher Mir, Brother Vance, and the like will retain their gear into Year Two, but no more regarding any changes to them or if they will be upgraded to Year Two standards is known.
The next question is, of course: “What about all of these tokens and things? How will they work?” Word has surfaced in a Reddit thread that economy changes and what’s sticking around will possibly make it into next week’s TWAB. I’m looking forward to seeing what that will entail.
If you need to see what gear you don’t yet have to go after an elusive piece or two, I suggest using Destiny Sets to find that information.
Combat Reveal Stream This Tuesday
Next Tuesday, 7 August, at 10 am Pacific, there will be an official stream from Bungie discussing at least:
- The new weapon slots system
- The new ammo economy
- The new user interface for weapons and modding them
- A new Crucible map coming in Season Four
- Increased time-to-kill in the Crucible
These changes will also affect PvE content, so if you are interested in the changes, consider tuning in. I’ll be watching, and will try to get a summary up either later that day or the day after to give you the relevant bits. Decreased TTK sounds like it will fundamentally change the Crucible, and the new weapon slot system sounds like exactly the change Destiny 2 needs going into new content.
(Intentionally) Broken Features to End Season Three
During the week starting 28 August until the launch of Forsaken, there will be some reduced functionality in Destiny 2 as we prepare to enter Year Two. Here’s what will be broken:
- You won’t be able to claim Emblems out of your Collections.
- You won’t be able to generate new Exotics out of your Collections.
- Nightfall Strike scoring will be disabled.
The post also teased that changes are coming to Strikes in Year Two. My personal hope is they will change the requirements for Strike-specific loot to stop requiring the Nightfall, and otherwise make that gear more attainable by a broader selection of players.
How Elemental Orbs Are Generated
A small number of outstanding issues for Solstice of Heroes were dropped in the post, including how Elemental Orbs are generated. The relevant info:
- When you wear the full Solstice armor set at any rarity, orbs are random drops either of your subclass element or your equipped weapon elements.
- Nearby players will also generate orbs based on these properties.
- You only have until reset on 28 August to complete any goals requiring Elemental Orb generation.
For the rest of the outstanding issues, please check out Bungie’s original post here.
Vendor Barks Being Reduced?
Based on this Reddit thread, it looks like the frequency of how often you hear the vendors in the Tower and other locations prattle on about the same things over and over might be changing. The Bungie quote:
The team is looking to tune how often vendors speak when you walk by them. You’ll still hear about Fenchurch, but not as often – especially when you’re retrieving items from the Postmaster.
Thank goodness. The forecast given is for this to drop either in 2.0 on the 28th of August, or in 2.0.1, the week after.
Happy Hunting!
Good luck to all of you in your Solstice of Heroes chase. I hope you find the event enjoyable. I’ll be chasing that ship.
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