Future Destiny 2 expansions will deliver more new guns than Destiny 2: Shadowkeep and Destiny 2: Beyond Light, Bungie promised in a new blog post, and the studio has other plans to address "a few clear-cut misses" with the loot changes implemented this November.
In a motherload of an overview, assistant game director Joe Blackburn outlined Bungie's plans for gear sunsetting, Strike loot, season 13, transmog, and more. Another standout point is that crossplay support is coming in 2021. Relatedly, cross-generation console multiplayer is rolling out on PS5 and Xbox Series X today.
Let's start with the "clear-cut misses" Blackburn mentioned, notably Beyond Light's small loot pool and the frustration of seeing players use weapons that are no longer obtainable. To address the loot pool, Bungie's adding six new legendary weapons to Destiny 2's core playlists in Season 13 – two each for Strikes, Gambit, and Crucible – on top of the new seasonal loot. Nightfall Strikes will also receive three reprised weapons as unique loot: The Palindrome, The Swarm, and Shadow Price are all returning with random rolls. Grandmaster Nightfalls will also drop Adept versions of these guns, which will presumably resemble the Adept weapons available in Trials of Osiris.
That's just the immediate solution for the lack of loot. Looking to the future, Blackburn says "future annual releases will have more weapon rewards than Beyond Light or Shadowkeep." As such, Bungie will be hiring for its rewards team to beef up its loot production process.
"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," Blackburn says.
To help keep desirable weapons obtainable, Bungie's adding a few more guns to the Tower's new Exotic kiosk, which lets players purchase vaulted weapons using Exotic ciphers. This includes Felwinter's Lie, Whisper of the Worm, and Outbreak Perfected, all of which have had their quests removed from the game. On top of that, Bungie's updating the Legendary engram loot pool in Season 13 to ensure that soon-to-be-sunset weapons don't show up.
"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," Blackburn says. "That said, this will require a few exceptions and some updates to the live game."
Finally, this blog post offered a timeline for some previously teased updates and features which are planned for 2021. In addition to crossplay, this includes the as-yet-undated return of the Vault of Glass raid and the release of armor transmog in Season 14. You can check out the work-in-progress transmog interface below.
For Season 13 specifically, Bungie's planning more Legendary Lost Sectors for the Moon which will contain three new Exotic armor pieces, DDOS protection for all consoles, and two more returning Destiny 1 Strikes (Fallen SABER and Devil's Lair).
Phew. That's quite the haul, both literally and figuratively. In summary: more loot in future expansions, extra loot in Season 13 to offset Beyond Light's small loot pool, more ways to obtain gear tied to vaulted quests, and highly requested features like crossplay and DDOS protection are in the works. Not bad for a random Tuesday.
Our Destiny 2: Beyond Light review noted that the expansion is a bit lacking in guns, but there's still plenty to love about it.
