Destiny 2 News Roundup – Season 18 Artifact Mods, Destiny 2 Showcase and Twitch Drops

Bungie was back with their This Week At Bungie Update, giving us the details on Season 18 Artifact Mods, plus we have timing info for the upcoming Destiny 2 Showcase, plus Twitch Drop news. Loads of info to get stuck into today, so let’s get to it.

Let’s dive into the update from Bungie, starting with Artifact Mods for Season 18.

Season 18 Artifact Mods

A new Season means new mods, and we’ve heard the community loud and clear on the state of Champion mods. In addition to the weapon tweaks mentioned in last week’s TWAB, we’ve got a different menu up for grabs when it comes down to crafting that perfect build. Here to explain some of the new ways to build is Senior Designer Andrew Veen.

Andrew Veen: We’ve got a lot of love for Machine Guns, and with the weapon meta featuring them heavily with the new Season, we have several ways to share that love when crafting that perfect new Arc build. With Arc 3.0 being all about that rapid-fire mayhem, making mods like Holster, Scavenger, and Overload more obtainable and unlocked sooner seemed like a great fit.

There’s a trifecta of returning favourites from Season of the Chosen: Scout/Sniper Targeting, Anti-Barrier Sniper, and Sundering Glare. We’re excited about these especially because players have been clamouring for the return of Anti-Barrier Sniper, and this Season’s meta and encounter types made it the perfect time to add it in.

One of the new mods we’re featuring is Bad Amplitude. We created this particular mod to increase access to jolt in Season 18 while also giving players a new answer to the age-old question: “How can I make Champions explode?”

Hype Train Conductor and Trace Evidence are also new to the artefact, though these two mods will make more sense when you have had some hands-on time with Arc 3.0.

For mods that are entirely new, we’ve got those mods bolded so it’s easy to spot what’s new. Anything not bolded is either based on previous mods or are reprisals.

First row:

Overload Bows (Arms)
Unstoppable Pulse Rifles (Arms)
Anti-Barrier Scout Rifles (Arms)
Anti-Barrier Auto Rifles (Arms)
Unstoppable Shotguns (Arms)

After two perk choices:

Scout Rifle Loader (Arms)
Sword Ammo Scavengers (Legs)
Machine Gun Holster (Legs): Gradually reloads stowed Machine Guns over time. Stacks.
Scout and Sniper Targeting (Head)
Bottomless Bounty 1 (Head): Improves two Origin Perks.

After four perk choices:

Glaive Loader (Arms)
Focusing Strike (Arms): Causing damage with a melee ability grants class ability energy.
Combo Arc + Solar Resist (Chest)
Machine Gun Ammo Scavenger (Legs)
Bottomless Bounty 2 (Head): Improves two Origin perks.

After eight perk choices:

Overload LMG (Arms): Uninterrupted fire from equipped Machine Guns will stun enemies with a beam that delays energy regeneration and reduces enemy damage output. Strong against Overload Champions.
Anti-Barrier Snipers (Arms)
Bad Amplitude (Class): Damaging a Champion with an Arc ability causes the Champion to become jolted.
Surge Detonators (Class)
Inferno Whip (Class)

After ten perk choices:

Thunderous Retort (Class): Arc Supers do more damage when cast while in critical condition or while amplified.
Hype Train Conductor (Class): +2 seconds to amplified timer. Stacks.
Trace Evidence (Class): Precision hits on Arc debuffed targets will generate Ionic Traces.
Lightning Strikes Twice (Class)
Sundering Glare (Class)

As with Void and Solar, you all will make your own decisions on how to craft that perfect build. We’ll just take an additional moment here to say that Hype Train, Bad Amplitude, and Lightning Strikes Twice have a lot of potential for those looking to make a spicy Guardian even spicier.

Season 18 Roadmap

Iron Banner, Grandmaster Nightfalls, and more—oh, my! Yup, it’s that time again. Time to roll out the invite list for some key dates to keep an eye on when diving deep into the new Season. Let’s make it Facebook Official and set a date:

• Raid launch is set for August 26.
• Iron Banner arrives on September 6 and November 15.
• Both weeks will feature the new Eruption mode.
• Trials of Osiris brings back the Lighthouse on September 16.
• Grandmaster Nightfalls return on October 4.
• Festival of the Lost makes everything haunted on October 18.

Maybe this is the New Orleans in me (we love Halloween, OK?), but I’m particularly excited to see everybody running around in their community-voted Festival gear. Team Mechs, baby!

Destiny 2 Showcase

Only five more sleeps before we finally get to show off all the things the team has been working on behind the scenes. While Guardians around the world were busy confronting hard truths and learning what it means to be a survivor in Season of the Haunted, our developers have been hard at work on what the future will look like against The Witness and its impressive allies.

In case you’ve been living under a Cabal drop ship, our upcoming Showcase is bringing the noise on August 23, where we’ll be showing you a first look at what’s next in exciting detail. The festivities will be going down over on Twitch through official Bungie channels. Even better? There will be localization options for our global players. Here’s what you need to know.

When: August 23 at 9 AM PT
Preshow starts at 8 AM PT
Where: Twitch, YouTube, and Bilibili

For our global players, there are several available channels that will be localized to watch the upcoming Destiny 2 reveal stream. The main Destiny 2 Showcase will have localized subtitles available for the following languages on these channels:

French
German
Italian
Spanish
Brazilian Portuguese
Simplified Chinese
Japanese
Korean

TWITCH DROPS

Twitch Drops are debuting for Destiny 2 for the first time! As a small token of appreciation for stopping by to watch our Destiny 2 Showcase on Twitch, we will be offering up this glorious Starbirth emblem as a reward.

To be eligible, you will need to make sure that your Twitch account is linked with your Destiny 2 account in your Bungie.net profile so you don’t miss out on the emblem. It’s pretty simple; simply tune into the official Bungie Twitch channel (there are nine channels total) on August 23 from 9 AM Pacific to 11:30 AM Pacific and watch at least 30 minutes of the Showcase for that sweet, sweet celebratory loot. For more information, please visit our Twitch Drops help article.

Once the Showcase itself wraps up, don’t hop out too soon. Following our take on Show ‘n Tell, we’ll also be hosting a post-show livestream with some of the team to talk about what was shown off. We’re especially excited to welcome D_Flawless, a wildly passionate content creator that has proven time and time again that he’s got the stuff that Guardians are made of, onto the stage to chat with us. If you’re interested in learning more about the world of Destiny 2 from the mouths of those that continue to craft its future with each Season, then you’re not going to want to miss out on this.

Ready to learn more about Lightfall, Arc 3.0, and even more? Good, because we can’t wait to show you. Check out our official Destiny 2 Showcase Tune-in page for more details!