Destiny 2 News Roundup – Guardian Games and Season 17 New Loot

Bungie was back this week with their latest This Week At Bungie update giving all the latest news for Guardian Games 2022, which is just around the corner. We also got an early sight of new weapons coming to Destiny 2 in Season 17 including new playlist weapons, returning Nightfall weapons and new Trials weapons, so there’s plenty to get excited about in this roundup of all the news from Destiny 2.

Before we get into it, quick PSA, I am on holiday from tomorrow until Sunday 15th May, meaning I’m not going to be posting my regular videos like Trials, Xur, Destiny 2 weekly reset and next week in Destiny 2 until I get back. It’s the first real holiday I’ve had since the pandemic began, so I’m going to make the most of it. I’ve prepared a few videos to upload while I am away, but just to give you a fair warning. Looking forward to getting back into it come 16th of May, but for now… let’s get into the latest Destiny 2 news from Bungie.

Guardian Games and Beyond

Eyes up, Guardian, it’s that time of year again. Next week, Guardian Games 2022 will kick off on May 3 and is free for all players of Destiny 2. This event is a tradition and it’s the perfect excuse to get into that friendly competitive spirit.

While the spirit of the annual class battle remains the same, Guardian Games 2022 does have a few changes that players can look forward to. First things first, what determines the winner? Much like previous Guardian Games, participants will be tasked with depositing those hard-earned medallions at the Podium in the Tower. You know the drill: medallions can be earned by completing certain activities and mini quests called Contender Cards and Platinum Cards. These activities are designed to be flexible, so if you’ve got the time, we’ve got those shiny medallions.

Higher-tier medallions, which grant more points, can be earned in activities like raids, dungeons, competitive PvP (Trials of Osiris and Survival), the Seasonal activity (PsiOps Battlegrounds) on a higher difficulty, and more. Lower-tier medallions, which are important too, drop in content like Gambit, Vanguard Strikes, Quickplay Crucible, and other Throne World activities at the standard difficulty level. Gold medals can be earned by completing Contender Cards in easier activities, whereas Platinum medals drop when Platinum Cards are completed on tougher content. Basically: Play what you want, snatch those Pinnacles, and scoop up some shiny medallions to bank at the Tower.

But wait, there’s more.

Something new coming to Guardian Games this year is Strike Scoring, which factors in play time only for Guardian Games playlists. Additionally, we’ve got Strike Medals, which are designed to reward players for pulling off some pretty impressive feats, like taking out a ton of enemies with a fancy little combat jig like Shatter. This should also help with players that feel like they are being matched with others that just zip right through strikes. Why rush through when you can score some additional points by going ham and showing the bad guys what’s up?

There are two Guardian Games playlists: Training and Competitive. And when you play matters. Let’s break it down:

• On Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, the place to be is the Training playlist. Here you can earn practice scores (the combined score of your entire fireteam).
• On Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, it’s time to get sweaty in the Competitive playlist. This is where you’ll earn exciting rewards.
• Players can earn buffs in the Recreational, Training, and Competitive playlists by ranking bronze, silver, gold, or platinum. These last until the next weekly reset.
• You can use these buffs in the regular Vanguard Ops playlist.

Players will also be able to unlock torches to light in the Tower based on their highest score past a certain threshold. For example:

• Lighting the bronze, silver, gold, and platinum torches grants rewards and a glow that can be seen on the right shoulder of a Guardian’s armor.
• So you can feel extra pretty.
• Lighting the torch is monumental when it comes to the Guardian Games experience, and we want Guardians in Destiny 2 to feel that significance in-game. For any personal medallion deposits, there’s some more glow action on the way with an accompanying left shoulder glow, as well. Any progress is an accomplishment, and we want you to feel proud of the time you put in.

The overall structure for Guardian Games is designed to focus on skill level, meaning that higher scores are achieved by taking on tougher activities, defeating enemies, staying alive, and completing an activity in a timely manner.

New bounties have also been thrown in for this year’s festivities to help players feel inspired to engage in the Guardian Games Strike and Battlegrounds playlists; a little nudge for players to engage with the event-specific Vanguard Medal system, if you will.

Since there is nifty new content this year, we’ve also updated our Contender and Platinum cards, as well as our medallion rewards, for completing those new challenges. New raid? Check. Legendary and Master Lost Sectors? Check. New Seasonal content? Yup, also check. You can choose to spend your time in the newer content, but it’s not required to participate. More options, more ways to play. Keep it fun, keep it fresh, but also keep the core spirit alive for what Guardian Games is, and that’s a community-wide effort to show off some class love.

Let’s get to the rewards, shall we? What are they? For those that have an affinity for Submachine Guns, The Title is a new legendary SUBARCHTYPE that will be available during the event. According to Jason Briggs, a Test Lead at Bungie, The Title “is a Hakke Void SMG for the Energy slot that is an aggressive frame with a unique origin perk, Classy Contender, which grants class ability energy with final blows from this weapon. It has a wide range of perks that it can roll with, and players will have many opportunities to earn fully Masterworked drops with double perks in both the third and fourth columns.”

Class Items can also be earned, as well as another shot at Heir Apparent and its catalyst, so the sandbox is about to get a little more interesting during the Guardian Games celebration.

Oh, and did we mention that the players that score in the top 10 percent at the end of the event will get a spiffy new emblem to show off? Yeah, we’ve got that too:

The emblem for the player that scores in the top 10 percent will be awarded after we combine their highest scores from each week. When the event ends, the combined score will determine who made it to the top of the player base for Guardian Games. This will unlock a special Triumph and boom, emblem awarded.

With every player having their own unique play style, most have a main class. This is awesome but does mean that not every class has the same number of Guardians competing for that Guardians Games win. Last year’s games included a 10 percent “catch-up” buff that allowed for each class to have a fighting chance, regardless of how many players are in that class pool. This was to encourage players to feel like they have equal footing regarding competition, and it seemed to work out pretty well in the end. But there is always room to make improvements, so this year, each team’s score multiplier will start with whatever value they ended on during last year’s festivities. Titans, having placed 3rd the most days, will have the largest boost. Warlocks, with the second most days in 3rd place, will get a moderate boost. Hunters, having placed 3rd the least number of times, will get the smallest boost. A little added bonus includes a minor 4 percent bump to their multiplier for the class in second place, with a 10 percent bump for those in third place.

We heard you liked the graphs in the last TWAB, so we’re throwing one in here for good measure to break down participation rates of the three classes since the launch of The Witch Queen, seen below. This graph breaks down the time spent for all three classes ramping up towards this year’s Guardian Games since the launch of The Witch Queen, giving us a little insight into where everyone is at these days and what sort of class engagement we’re expecting to see:

As mentioned in a previous TWAB, Guardian Games 2022 kicks off on May 3 and will run until May 24, so get that gear ready and make your fireteam proud.

Season 17 Weapons

With a new Season comes new rewards. The next Season is going to be a doozy, but we want you to experience the story and its surprises on your own, no spoilers here! That being said, we did want to share some of the rewards that are coming down the pipeline.

With Season 17, the ritual weapons available when ranking up will be the Heavy Machine Gun, Chain of Command. Like previous Seasons, this reputationally-driven reward will come with a unique ornament that depends on the vendor:

• Crucible – Mandated Artillery Ornament
• Gambit – Insubordination Ornament
• Vanguard – Standard Regulation Ornament

For those itching for new Playlist weapons:

• Crucible – Riptide Fusion Rifle
• Gambit – Dead Weight Shotgun
• Vanguard – Strident Whistle Bow

For Nightfall drops (includes both standard and adept versions)

• Horror’s Least Pulse Rifle
• D.F.A. Hand Cannon

And finally, Trials of Osiris:

• Forgiveness Sidearm
• Burden of Guilt Fusion Rifle
• The Messenger Pulse Rifle and Shayura’s Wrath will be leaving the Season 17 pool.

Season 16’s weapons will be shifting over into the standard loot pools with the Crisis Inverted Hand Cannon in Crucible, the Herod-C Auto Rifle in Gambit, and the Vanguard Shotgun Fortissimo-11.

We’ll have more to share about Season 17 closer to launch date, but for now, these are the “pew pews” to look forward to.

Let me know in the comments what you think of Guardian Games, plus what you think of the weapons coming to Destiny 2 in Season 17.

That’s it for this guide for the latest Destiny 2 news. For more Destiny 2 news like this check out This Week In Video Games on YouTube and subscribe today.