Destiny 2 is nerfing The Lament, Felwinter's Lie, 120 RPM hand cannons, and more

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It sounds like a very special fusion rifle is on the way

Destiny 2
(Image credit: Bungie)

Destiny 2 Season 14 will see many weapons, perks, and archetypes rebalanced, including big offenders like 120 RPM hand cannons, Felwinter's Lie, The Lament, and more.

Bungie outlined some of the changes in its latest blog post, which notes that more granular details will be shared in a future post. Today's blog is pretty rich in its own right, though, with new Iron Banner weapons kicking things off. Next season's Iron Banner events will feature a familiar hand cannon and sniper rifle, but there'll also be a new shotgun and machine gun in the mix. Iron Banner gear hasn't been properly updated in ages, so this ought to make the event more exciting for Season 14. 

New weapons aside, plenty of old favorites are getting some changes now that they're staying around forever in the absence of sunsetting. Here's the short version of the changes we've heard so far:

  • 120 RPM hand cannons will have their effective range reduced by two to four meters depending on range stat
  • Falling Guillotine heavy attack ammo cost increased from four to six 
  • Chip damage removed from swords and the Bastion fusion rifle
  • Quickdraw handling bonus will disappear after swapping to or aiming a weapon, and this perk will be replaced with Surplus on new and existing Felwinter's Lie and Astral Horizon shotguns
  • Frenzy damage bonus reduced from 20% to 15%
  • Reservoir burst damage bonus reduced from 33% to 25% to make room for heavily teased "upcoming content," which suggestions that either Loaded Question or perhaps the Vault of Glass' Vex Mythoclast are due for a rerun 
  • The Lament heavy attack damage reduced by 16%
  • Bastion spread angle increased by 13%, shots will now stagger Unstoppable Champions

These changes come on the heels of buffs to Celerity and Bottomless Grief, two end-game perks that were actively avoided in end-game content. Bungie's also looking at "things like Iron Grip, Subsistence, Unrelenting, and more," including linear fusion rifles as a whole. 

To round things out, Bungie confirmed that with the transmog and shader changes coming in Season 14, players can now safely destroy all their shaders to convert them into legendary shards. Season 14 starts on May 11, so clean out your inventory before then. 

Bungie has a new IP in the works which is currently scheduled to launch in 2025.

Austin Wood
Austin Wood
Senior writer

Austin has been a game journalist for 12 years, having freelanced for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree. He's been with GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize his position is a cover for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a lot of news and the occasional feature, all while playing as many roguelikes as possible.