Destiny 2 is getting its first brand-new PvP mode in ages: an extreme, Clash-inspired mode called Eruption that turns killstreaks into explosions.
As Bungie explained in its latest blog post, Eruption is essentially team deathmatch with dramatic power-ups. After landing two kills or assists without dying, you'll become Surging and start to glow lightly. While Surging, you'll earn three points per kill instead of one and regenerate bonus ability energy with every kill. After five kills or assists in one life, you'll become Primed, glowing much brighter and gaining a big chunk of Super energy for every kill while also giving your whole team a bit of ability energy.
The kicker is that, while Primed, you'll have a 15-second timer that ticks down and only resets when you get a kill. If it reaches zero, you'll die – or rather, erupt. And the whole time you're Primed, everyone in the match will be able to see where you are. This gets especially wild when you consider that multiple players can be Primed at once.
Eruption sounds like an extremely high-stakes mode with wild match swings, and it's planned to launch in Crucible Labs in Season 18. After some live testing and tweaking, it will be added to Iron Banner, apparently "with a unique twist." Eruption won't permanently replace Control and Rift for Iron Banner, but Bungie's roadmap suggests Eruption will be the focus for Season 19, with Season 18 providing the feedback the team needs to refine it.
Speaking of Rift, a recent addition which revived an old Destiny 1 mode and updated it for Destiny 2's Crucible, Bungie's making some changes after addressing the problems that came with its launch this season. It's relaxing overtime rules, cutting downtime after scoring, discouraging kill-farming, and exploring 3v3 options. In the meantime, Rift will live in a weekly rotator in the Crucible playlist.
