Destiny 2 is getting 50 more Power levels, more pinnacle loot, and huge Exotic armor changes

(Image credit: Bungie)

Destiny 2 Season of the Worthy will introduce several major sandbox changes, including a higher Power cap, dramatic Exotic armor changes and overhauls, and more sources of pinnacle-grade rewards. It will also change the way some Eververse items are sold, and add more gear to the world drop pool. 

Let's start with the new Power cap of 1,000, with pinnacle gear going up to 1,010. The new soft Power cap will be 950, at which point only powerful or pinnacle rewards will raise your level. This represents a 50 Power increase over the Season of Dawn, which is meant to "present an element of gear progression available each Season, as well as prepare underlying systems for future updates like the forthcoming one for Legendary weapons." The update in question will one day retire old Legendary weapons by capping their Power level (which I argued is necessary for the game). 

To make the new Power cap more attainable, Bungie is adding new sources of pinnacle rewards. An update coming in the middle of the season (likely mid-April) will upgrade weekly Crucible, Strike, Gambit, and clan challenges from powerful to pinnacle rewards. Previously, only end-game activities like the Nightfall, raids, Iron Banner offered pinnacle rewards, though the upcoming Destiny 2 Trials of Osiris PvP mode will also grant pinnacle gear. In addition to making pinnacle gear more accessible, this change is meant to "increase the pools of items that can drop in the pinnacle band." 

(Image credit: Bungie)

Bungie says it's also looking into pinnacle redundancy protection to prevent players from receiving multiple consecutive pieces of the same armor type. Pinnacle drops are scarce and offer small Power gains, so getting three boots in a row is maddening. There's no timeline on when this change will arrive, but the new pinnacle sources should make reaching 1,010 Power less painful. 

This brings us to the armor updates, which are surprisingly massive. For starters, world drops - loot you can get from any activity - will now include 11 armor sets instead of three, including old Faction Rally armor. Bungie says that "several sets that were previously unavailable or extremely difficult to acquire are now available as world drops." Together with new Destiny 2 Season of the Worthy armor sets like Seventh Seraph, this ought to shore up the fashion end-game going forward. 

Bungie's already revealed substantial class changes coming in the Season of the Worthy, and now we have a laundry list of Exotic armor tweaks too. There are dozens of tweaks, which you can read all about in Bungie's blog post, but here are the biggest ones: 

  • Orpheus Rig: Super energy refund now capped at 50%. 
  • One-Eyed Mask: now highlights marked targets instead of tracking them, eliminating wall hacks. Killing a marked target no longer grants a damage buff, but the previously removed overshield is back with a longer duration. 
  • Sanguine Alchemy: received a totally new perk, Blood Magic, which extends Rift timers whenever you get a kill while standing in that Rift. 
  • Contraverse Hold: now reduces incoming damage by 20% instead of 40%. 

Last month, Bungie revealed that next season will add the ability to change armor elemental affinity. In the same vein, Prime Engrams will now "more reliably drop armor with higher overall stat rolls and spikier distributions." Exotic armor will also drop with higher stat rolls, and Legendary armor will have a higher chance at good stats (though low rolls will still be possible), which should cut down on the need to farm individual pieces because your first roll was crap. 

Here are the latest Destiny 2 Twitch Prime rewards.  

Austin Wood

Austin freelanced for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree, and he's been with GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize that his position as a senior writer is just a cover up for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a focus on news and the occasional feature, all while playing as many roguelikes as possible.