Destiny 2 News Roundup – Grandmasters return and new loot for Season 21

Bungie were back this week talking about their reflecting on Lightfall article, grandmasters return next tuesday plus a preview of whats returning and arriving in Season 21 with regards to loot.

REFLECTING ON LIGHTFALL

Yesterday, we published a retrospective on Lightfall’s launch, the feedback you have given us, and some of the quality-of-life changes we have been cooking up for Season 21 and onwards. Destiny 2 is an evolving world, and we’re committed to making sure the resolution of our first saga lives up to its legacy.

As a recap, these were the main topics featured:

Guardian Ranks are meant to represent your accomplishments.
Your rank displayed will reflect your highest rank earned last season.
If you surpass that rank in the current season, the number will update.
Renewing previously completed ranks will be fast-tracked.
Returning players will start at Rank 5, and ranking from 5 to 7 will be faster than it was to rank from 6 to 7.

Commendations won’t be as tightly tied to Guardian Rank progression.
Reduced the requirements for Ranks 7 to 9.
Leadership commendations for Ranks 10 to 11 will be retroactive.
We are adding a ‘Best Dressed’ commendation.

Most activities will receive adjustments to difficulty and/or rewards.
Enemies won’t be as tanky in Legend and Master activities.
Scoring objectives will be adjusted to better suit bounties and Guardian Rank progression.
Improved Terminal Overload matchmaking.
Adjustments to team-unfriendly Vanguard bounties are coming, and more.

There will be better ways to obtain Exotic armor.
Vex Strike Force will award unobtained Exotic armor pieces, on a knockout list.
We are introducing Exotic armor focusing next Season.
Updates to more than 15 Exotic armor pieces are coming next Season.

Buildcrafting next steps for Season 21.
Two new armor mods are coming.
Shoot to Loot will collect Orbs of Power in addition to ammo.
We are adding one Strand Aspect for each class.
Artifact Perks will be refunded and applied individually.
You will no longer need to full reset to change your build!

There’s no Power level increase in Season 21, so the schedule will change a bit:
Trials of Osiris available in Week 1.
Weekly Grandmaster Nightfalls available in Week 4.
Conqueror gilding node is still planned for Week 7.

That’s a lot to chew, even as bullet points, but if you are really into Destiny 2 and want to know what’s coming, we suggest you go read the whole article.

WHO WANTS TO BE A CONQUEROR?

Season 20’s Grandmaster Nightfalls start on April 11. Those who have yet to earn the Conqueror Seal for the first time will only be able to complete one Nightfall a week. If that’s your case, be ready for Proving Grounds and remember to find proper cover in each room! Everyone who has already earned the Seal and are gunning to gild it can complete the six featured Nightfalls as quickly as they would like—even in one sitting as is tradition.

During Season 20, we have two additional Adept weapons available: The Buzzard, a Kinetic Adaptive Sidearm with awesome perks like the brand-new Kinetic Tremors; and The Swarm, the Arc Machine Gun that has been refreshed with new perks, like Target Lock. Don’t forget about the other Adept weapons though, you still have a chance to get that perfect Wendigo GL3 or the classic Hung Jury.

And since there’s been a few changes to hard content with the launch of Lightfall, here’s a reminder of how Grandmaster Nightfalls work in case you need it:

Your Power level caps 25 levels below the activity level. For Season 20, that means combatants will be 1840, but you will be 1815 at the most.
Combatants can take more hits, deal more damage and are quite aggressive.
Champions will be abundant, so be sure to have the proper weapons to deal with them.
There’s one Burn, that will cause you to receive 25% more damage from a certain element.
Also, two elemental Surges and Overcharged weapons, both granting a 25% damage increase.
Revives are limited. And after a certain amount of time, Darkness will encroach and you won’t be able to revive or be revived.
For a more detailed explanation on how those variables will affect you and your teammates, you can check this article about challenging content in Destiny 2.

And as a final note, we know some Heist Battlegrounds feel tough right now, so here are some of the adjustments coming in the Season 20 mid-Season update to make them more manageable:

Heist Battleground: Mars
Decreasing how often combatant spawn on higher difficulties in the Towers phase.
Increasing the map score multiplier to help players reach score goals without exploits.
Adding one additional ammo crate.
Other Heist Battleground changes
Reducing the frequency and number of some combatants waves in all boss fights.
Reducing the health of Deathtongue Choristers.
Hive runes will now have the same health on all difficulties.
Thinning out the Fallen tripmines in Heist Battleground: Moon.

ARE THOSE NEW STRAND WEAPONS YOU GOT THERE?

Last week, we shared that was your last chance to earn the Adept version of the Trials of Osiris weapon, Whistler’s Whim. This Kinetic Bow is out of rotation until further notice, although you can always get the regular version by focusing engrams with Saint-14.

We don’t want you to miss the opportunity to earn weapons that will leave the loot pool once Season 21 starts. So we want to share which ones will be out of rotation (as well as the new weapons entering the rotation) when the next Season launches.

Some details are still being kept under covers because we don’t want to spoil everything, but yes, there are new Strand weapons in the oven.

WEAPONS LEAVING

Nightfall
Mindbender’s Ambition – Solar Aggressive Frame Shotgun
Final week in rotation: 4/18
The Militia’s Birthright – Kinetic Lightweight Grenade Launcher
Final week in rotation: 5/2

Trials of Osiris
The Inquisitor – Arc Precision Slug Shotgun.
Final week in rotation: 5/9.
Whistler’s Whim – Kinetic Lightweight Bow.
Already out of rotation.

Iron Banner
The Wizened Rebuke – Arc High-Impact Fusion Rifle
The Hero’s Burden – Void Adaptive Submachine Gun

Competitive
Rose – Lightweight Kinetic Hand Cannon

WEAPONS ENTERING

Nightfall
Braytech Osprey – Void High-Impact Rocket Launcher
Loaded Question – Arc High-Impact Fusion Rifle

Vanguard
Positive Outlook – Void Precision Auto Rifle

Gambit
Strand Linear Fusion Rifle

Crucible
Randy’s Throwing Knife – Kinetic Rapid-Fire Scout Rifle

Trials of Osiris
Arc Glaive
The Messenger – Kinetic High-Impact Pulse Rifle

Iron Banner
Strand Fusion Rifle
Swarm of the Raven – Void Rapid-Fire Heavy Grenade Launcher

Competitive
Arc Sniper Rifle

Now that you are up to date with some of the new weapons that will fill your personal collection very soon, maybe you want to take a look at the sandbox changes coming. A few buffs here, some nerfs there, and a great range of new possibilities for your PvE and PvP builds.

CUTSCENES ARE HERE
Today we wanted to share something else we’ve been working on that has been a hotly requested feature. As of right now, our YouTube channel has all the cutscenes for the following releases:

What about the other expansions and future Seasons?

Almost every cutscene from Destiny 2 should eventually be uploaded. We are hoping to add one or two Seasons every few months.
But that’s not my Guardian.

True. Because these are all recorded videos, the footage couldn’t be customized for each viewer. However, our team did try and capture these cutscenes with a variety of Guardians across all classes and races to really showcase who our Guardians are.
Can I share my recordings on YouTube too?

We ask that you leave the cutscenes up to us. We totally understand (and allow) clips to be used during your video creation for MOTW or other content creations needs, but full cutscenes will need to remain on our channel.
If you have any other questions or suggestions, be sure to hit us up on the @Destiny2Team account