Destiny 2: The Witch Queen Expansion Expansion Now Live

The Witch Queen expansion for Destiny 2 is here, and it brings tons of new content via a hefty patch. Some of the most notable features introduced in Update 4.0.0.1 are the Void subclass rework, major changes to Gambit and Nightfalls, and some new weapons. Season 16 or Season of the Risen is now underway as well.

If you get the season pass, you’ll be given the Grand Overture as soon as you log in. If you’re going the free route, you can unlock this Cabal Exotic machine gun by achieving rank 35. Unlike most machine guns in the game, the Grand Overture fires at a very slow rate (at 100 RPM) but it deals tons of damage, thanks to its Exotic perk, Wrath of the Colossus. This weapon’s innate heavy slug launcher charges up, then fires full auto when the trigger is held.

It is also worth noting that there are huge changes in terms of power and progression. The first is that the power floor, or the lowest possible power level, now starts at 1,350. Then, the soft cap is set at 1,500, the powerful cap at 1,550, and the hard cap at 1,560. Furthermore, the Seasonal Artifact is no longer capped at 12 unlocks, meaning, you can potentially unlock all 25 artifact mods during Season of the Risen.

Highlights

• All difficulties of Nightfall EXCEPT Grandmaster now feature the Acute Burn modifier. This burn increases player outgoing damage of the matching element by +25 percent and increases incoming damage from enemies by +50 percent. The burn element is set per strike
• All strike-specific modifiers like Sedia's Durance or Grashk's Bile have been removed
• Seasonal Modifiers are now used for Hero, Legend, and Master difficulty Nightfalls, instead of the Vanguard playlist. These modifiers rotate each week

• Added Freelance: Gambit activity node
• Increased medium Blocker (Phalanx) vitality from 500 to 1,000
• Added Stasis attack to the large Blocker (Knight)

• Combatants no longer drop ammo bricks by chance.
  • Ammo finder mods will still function.
• Ammo crates now spawn after clearing each front of combatants
  • Crates give both Heavy and Special ammo

• Players now drop half of their held Motes when defeated
• Players can be revived by other players two seconds earlier, and auto-respawn is delayed two seconds

• Six new permanent armor mods have been added to the game: Kinetic Siphon, Harmonic Siphon, and an equivalent mod for each of the four damage types
  • These mods can be socketed into your helmet mod sockets and allow your weapons to generate Orbs of Power (functionality that has been deprecated from weapons)
  • These mods are automatically unlocked for all players, and work with all weapons of the appropriate damage type

The full patch notes can be found on Destiny 2’s official website.