Destiny 2: Lightfall, the next big expansion for Bungie’s online looter shooter, is coming this Tuesday. The company has revealed a ton of exciting new changes in the recent TWAB, including tougher content, Crucible adjustments, and artifact perks, among others.
Things Get Harder from Here
If you think that Lightfall is going to be a walk in the park just like what Destiny 2 currently is, you are gravely mistaken. That’s because Bungie is making PvE content more difficult in the upcoming expansion.
First, Adept difficulty is going to be removed, so you’ll start with the Hero difficulty at the soft cap (1,750 Power). Once you’ve reached 1,800 Power level (aka Power Cap), you can then enter the Legend and Master difficulties.
Bungie is also implementing Power level disadvantages to provide a better challenge curve, meaning your current power will be reduced depending on the difficulty of the content. The values are as follows:
- Hero: -5 Power levels.
- Legend: -15 Power levels.
- Master: -20 Power levels.
- Grandmaster Nightfalls: -25 Power levels.
Based on the details above, Grandmaster Nightfalls are going to be very challenging to accomplish. Having your Power level decreased by 25 means that you'll deal much less damage to enemies while they do a lot of damage to you.
If there’s any consolation, Match Game is being removed in the next expansion. This means that instead of having to bring weapons with matching energy types just to burst enemy shields, you can now destroy them with any weapon of your choosing, albeit the shields take 50% less damage.
Because PvE content in Destiny 2 gets increasingly challenging, there is a promise of better rewards in Lightfall. For instance, completing a Nightfall in Master difficulty will earn you an Ascendant Shard, with a small chance of getting another one.
You can learn more about the adjustments to content difficulty here.
Competitive Crucible Changes
If you like fighting against other players in the Crucible, you’ll be happy to know that big changes are coming in Season 20.
When it comes to placements, if you were Adept or Ascendant in the previous season,
you can land on the Platinum division immediately after completing your initial placement series matches.
Another notable thing that you can expect in Season 20 is the “Notswap” modifier. When Notswap is enabled, your ability energy is removed every time you change your exotic armor during the match. This is available in the Competitive Division and Trials of Osiris.
Artifact Perks
The Seasonal Artifact system has been in Destiny 2 since the Season of the Undying was released on October 1, 2019. After more than three years, Bungie is implementing significant adjustments to its functionalities in the next expansion.
Artifact mods are now known as Artifact Perks. These are passives that buff certain aspects of your Guardian without having to slot them into your armor pieces. Once you’ve unlocked an Artifact Perk, its effect will automatically be applied.
There are 12 unlockable perks per character. You can reset the artifact an infinite number of times free of charge, allowing you to try out various perk combinations to find the ones that work best for your playstyle.
You can read all of the upcoming Artifact Perks on the official site.
So, which of the above changes are you most excited about?
Destiny 2: Lightfall will release for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC on February 28.
