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Destiny 2 got very specific about the future of lootin', shootin', and space magickin' in Year 2 and the Forsaken expansion today. In an hour-and-a-half-ish livestreamed presentation, Bungie fleshed out some previously announced changes, like the totally reworked weapons loadout system, and also introduced welcome new ideas like tweaked ammo and mod systems. It was a lot of information to take in, but I've gone through and picked out the five biggest bits of info to get your Guardian gears turning.
Guns are more flexible and deadly
The raw act of shooting has always felt good in Destiny, but that's no reason to have to do so much of it, right? The Destiny 2 Year 2 update will universally make guns more powerful: the 'two bodyshots and a headshot from Better Devils to down a Guardian' kind of powerful. And then, of course, there's the new loadout system that lets you equip three shotguns at once (if you really want). The main thing you have to worry about isn't damage type now, it's ammo type.
You could equip two guns that take Special ammo to deal more damage, sure, but you'll have a harder time keeping them loaded - and you won't benefit as much from the scaled-up Precision damage. The third slot is still reserved exclusively for weapons that use Heavy ammo. And let's not forget that everything is getting randomized perks again. Meaning you can get a good, better, and best Better Devils.
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...and abilities have been scaled up to match
If guns are more deadly, abilities sure can't stay the same either. For example: it really sucks to pull off a cool shoulder charge move on somebody in the Crucible but not destroy them utterly. That's gone. Bungie is giving pretty much every ability that puts you into third-person mode some cinematic kick to match, with one-hit kills all around. That goes for the new Super ability Bungie's added for each existing subclass as well (like the one that gives Titans a giant flaming sledgehammer to swing around).
Oh, and don't worry if all your abilities are on cooldown - straight-up melee attacks have become two-hit kills as well.
The mod system makes so much more sense now
Mods were… kind of weird before. You had to go through a bunch of rigmarole with The Gunsmith to get any of the mods you actually wanted, and they still didn't change that much interesting stuff about your guns. The new mod system will let you slot in more compelling changes, like giving your gun a deeper magazine, or making your radar pop up faster after lowering your gun, that sort of thing.
And how's this for a sensible way to find new mods: they'll show up on those random-rolled gun drops, and if you don't want the gun, you can dismantle it… and keep the mod! Then put it on a gun you actually do want! Yes!
The new PvP ammo system punishes campers
The gun changes I mentioned before extend to how the Crucible will portion out ammo. Big tweak #1: You'll now spawn with Special ammo, assuming you have any guns that use it equipped. You'll always spawn back in with the same amount; if you have two Special ammo guns, your allotment of ammo will just be spread out between them. Big tweak #2: the only way to get more Special ammo in the middle of a fight is to pick it up off of fallen Guardians.
That means if you just camp on the edge of the map with your Special sniper and pick off enemies here and there, you're going to run out of ammo fast (and you're actually providing more ammo for the enemy team to grab). That should have some pretty big knock-on effects for making Crucible matches feel more dynamic.
The week of August 28th is going to be weird
The Destiny 2: Forsaken release date is set for September 4. But the big Destiny 2 Year 2 patch that will put all of these systems-level changes into place will actually arrive a week before, on August 28. So the way you kit your character out, from the guns to the mods to the ammo, will be very different, but you'll still only have the regular Year 1 content (weapons, armor, Strikes, crucible maps, etc) to try it out on. It's gonna be a strange week, but hopefully in a good way?
If you think you've put a lot of time into Destiny 2, just wait until you read that Destiny 2 players have spent 25 years deleting shaders and more strange Year 1 facts.
