TL;DR:

Update from the D2 Dev Team

(MoSadie’s note: If you get the chance I highly recommend reading the full version of this section in the Original TWID for the developer insights.)

Where We’re At

It’s been a busy few weeks. The game needed a lot of fundamental changes, and making those changes was just the beginning. There is much more to do to update and improve systems and get them feeling dialed in.

What We’re Doing

In addition to the quick fixes, more is queued up imminent updates over the next few weeks, and more as part of the first post-launch Major Update, planned for September 9th, 2025:

• Restoring color vibrancy to the World Tab
• A fix for reward preview being lower than the actual rewards granted when in mixed fireteams
• Kepler Mythic difficulty will be adjusted to make it more accessible for solo play
• Baseline raid and dungeon difficulty is being adjusted down, and higher reward Tiers are being made more accessible. Contest Modes will also bump the Tier further
• Restoring an infinite source for Bright Dust with the Objective system update in 9.5.0 (Renegades), and an earlier grant to make up for the missing source
• 9.1.0 (Major Update) will contain much more than the above, including new activities and rewards in both The Edge of Fate and the Core Game

What We’re Planning

Feedback has been heard, and there will be focus on several areas:

• Power Progression is the most important topic right now, and progression is clearly slower than the team want it to be. The plan is to generally increase the speed of progression for most players
• Portal Reward Balance is being adjusted both up and down to make more activities feel evenly rewarding. Fireteam Ops in particular is feeling too low right now, and work is being done to make it feel viable to make good progress while playing with friends
• Crucible Ops are also getting attention, with a look at raising rewards at lower ranks and increasing the drop rates for Comp-exclusive weapons
• Raids have good baseline weapons and armor, but drops are not high enough Tier, and not enough drops for the time investment. There is a plan to improve both the Tier and drop rates in a future update

Even more is planned for the 9.5.0 Renegades reveal, but everything above is planned for the next few weeks and the 9.1.0 Major Update in September.

Solstice is Live

Weapons

New

• Yeartide Apex light Solar Submachine Gun
• Festival Flight Area Denial Strand Grenade Launcher

Returning

• Fortunate Star Void Bow

Reward Drops

All Solstice drops are at +1 Gear Tier while Solstice is live, and Holofoil weapons are +2 Gear Tier (and also drop a piece of armor at the same Tier)

Armor And The Solstice Forge

This year’s event brings back the 2019 armor set, upgraded to Armor 3.0 with a unique set bonus:

Number of Pieces / Perk Name	Perk Effect
2 Piece / Photogalvantic	Receiving healing temporarily grants your Solar weapons increased flinch resistance, handling, and reload speed.
4 Piece / Cauterize	Rapid Solar final blows heal you.

Use the Solstice Forge in the Event Home to unlock the armor and glows. Once unlocked, both the glow and non-glow versions are available as ornament options.

You can claim the armor using Solstice Alloy, which can be acquired by completing Solstice Scorched matches in Crucible Ops, or in other Ops activities in the Portal that have Solstice modifiers active.

Event Home Reward Track

The Event Home features a reward track with a variety of rewards, including:

• Flutter By Holochip
• Tier 3 Holofoil of each Solstice weapon
• Unique Shader
• Ship
• Sparrow
• Ghost
• Solstice Weapon Engrams
• More!

And it’s all free! Take on the Daily and Weekly Challenges to earn Event XP and progress the track.

Solstice Scorched Crucible Ops

Head over to Crucible Ops to play Solstice Scorched, and burn up the area with a blaze of fiery explosions.

Solstice Event Twitch Drop

Gift a sub to a participating Destiny 2 live stream to earn the Gracious Gloss emblem.

The Portal: Fireteam Ops Matchmade GM Difficulty

You wanted it, you got it. The Power to access is 360, but base combatant power is 400, so good luck! The selected challenges, boons, and banes will rotate daily. Locked Loadout and Limited Revives are on, and you can only be revived by teammates.

Next week, the Portal will receive an update in the form of the Accelerator: score multiplier, which slightly increases the challenge multiplier, making it easier to attain higher reward scores.

Here is an updated calendar of what Season: Reclamation will offer to all players:

• August 5th - August 19th
  • Solstice event
  • Matchmaking opens for Grandmaster Fireteam Ops
• Week of September 2nd
  • Heavy Metal event returns
• September 9th
  • Ash & Iron Major Update
  • Dungeon content (more details to come!)

Security Update

Earlier this week a ban wave was issued to fireteams found to be cheating during The Desert Perpetual’s Contest Mode. Players who benefited from those cheating in their fireteam were also included. In addition the associated post-game carnage reports were removed from the API.

Bungie Store Solstice Savings

Solstice Savings run from August 5th 10 AM PT to August 19th 9:59 AM PT. There are discounts on several items, and enjoy $7.77 Flat Rate Shipping during the sale. (See the Original TWID for the full list of items, and restrictions.)

Bungie Rewards Retiring Soon!

Bungie Rewards from the year of The Final Shape will be expiring in a few weeks! Players have until August 19th at 11:59 PM PT to purchase them! Full list on Bungie Rewards.

Player Support Report

Fortunate Star Bow Update

Due to the Fortunate Star bow displaying as a Precision Bow, but being built to be a Lightweight Frame, it is not currently receiving the intrinsic benefits of either a Lightweight or a Precision frame. All versions will be updated to correctly receive the Lightweight benefits in Update 9.0.0.6

Known Issues List

• Scorched Crucible matches are not progressing the first step of the Celebrating Solstice quest. Players can progress this step successfully by completing the alternate PvE activity objective.
• The baseline level of mobility for all players is lower than intended.
• Due to an issue where Dead Messenger can output more damage than intended in PvP, it has been disabled within those activities.
• Tier 5 armor pieces are not saving mod information to loadouts.
• The Body Counting daily challenge in the Portal is not progressing faster with Guardian kills as intended.
• The Fortunate Star bow is dropping with an unenhanced version of the Eye of the Storm perk at higher weapon tiers.
• Players who have already hit maximum Seasonal power are not receiving bonus reward drops from Portal activities.
• The Lighthouse chest rewards are sometimes giving lower gear tier rewards than intended.
• Trials of Osiris medals are not counting toward Skill of One Gilding Triumph.
• In Trials of Osiris, Special ammo meter progress is not retaining between rounds.
• The Trials Spreadshot Hand Cannon has an incorrect stat package.
• Vigilance Wing is not granting increased recovery when Last Stand is active.
• PC players using Intel Ultra Core processors are experiencing a high rate of game crashes.

MOTW: War Song of The Bladed Path

(MoSadie’s note: I usually don’t include the MOTW, but this one is too cool to not include! It’s a Destiny 2-inspired composition made for a thesis project that was then performed by a 52-person orchestra. Check out the video description for the imagined lore of the piece!)

Read the full Bungie.net post
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