Destiny 2: Season of the Forge begins, new Black Armory details emerge

The Season of the Outlaw has come to a close, and the Season of the Forge is just beginning.

Bungie has released more details about its upcoming Black Armory DLC, as well as what we can expect in Season of the Forge. Justin Truman, the Production Director for Destiny 2, said that the aim was to produce "three full seasons of content that can last for an entire year" as opposed to focusing on individual DLC productions.

Endgame content is high on the agenda for the team behind Destiny 2: Forsaken, as they are keen to improve upon and add to the endgame regularly. The Forsaken Annual Pass was designed to keep players engaged with premium content beyond the likes of the Crucible or Gambit.

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Every season, the Power cap will be raised by 50, which will please Forsaken players who have already maxed out at 600. Black Armory is set to run from December to February, with the Season of the Drifter kicking off in March, and a not yet named season returning in June that will focus on Penumbra.

A new horde mode is coming with the Black Armory update, alongside the Volundr, Gofannon and Izanami Forges, as well as new Exotic quests and something called Crimson Days.

The Black Armory is a new faction in the franchise, focused on becoming the ultimate weapon crafters with a super cool aesthetic. We are introduced to Ada, the Exo who is the face of Black Armory and who holds many of its secrets in an attempt to keep them from the "prying eyes of the Vanguard".

Your Guardian will be tasked with finding some lost forges, reclaiming and reigniting them to create some fantastic new weapons and armour.

Matchmaking is set to improve during the Season of the Forge as you push back enemies and attempt to create new gear.

A new sniper rifle, fusion rifle and bow will be available from each of the forges that will rival the likes of Sleeper Stimulant and Wish-Ender. There will be five Exotics, four of which we've never seen before and one old favourite, along with some new perks and mods to enjoy.

Finally, there will be a new raid, Scourge of the Past, to put all that new Power and new gear to use. You'll drop straight into a city for the raid, giving raids a more modern and futuristic feel compared to the ancient style of The Last Wish.

Pinnacle weapons will soon be available to earn in Gambit and Vanguard strikes, and the Crucible is getting another beast called The Mountaintop.

Heavy machine guns are back in Destiny 2, with Thunderlord being the first to unlock. New standard weapons, Crucible content and Iron Banner challenges will be coming, and a new event called The Dawning will also begin shortly.

Destiny 2 2.1.0 patch notes

Supers

• Chaos Reach
• Fixed an issue in which having multiple Chaos Reach beams active at one time caused their visual effects to merge together
• Fixed an issue to allow Chaos Reach beams to penetrate friendly Banner Shields
• Fixed an issue in which Chaos Reach did not damage Taken Blights
• Note: Changes to Chaos Reach Cancellation will come with Destiny 2 Update 2.1.1, scheduled for 12/4/2018

Nova Warp

• Fixed an issue in which Nova Warp would sometimes fail to detonate on release.

Sentinel

• Fixed an issue in which Sentinel Shields and Banner Shields would lose energy when guarding near friendly detonations (most notably Thundercrash)

Spectral Blades

• Retuned the Spectral Blades Super to increase the reliability of melee attacks in PvP and to bolster the effectiveness of Super’s stealth capabilities
• More information here: This Week at Bungie – 11/08/2018
• Burning Maul
• Decreased camera shake and screen flash on hit in an attempt to alleviate feelings of motion sickness when using the Burning Maul Super

Thundercrash

• Adjusted camera during flight sequence in an attempt to alleviate feelings of motion sickness when using Thundercrash Super

Exotic Armor

• Fixed an issue in which Ophidian Aspect was not increasing the melee range on various Warlock charged melees (Igniting Touch, Ball Lightning, Entropic Pull, Devour, and Atomic Breach)
• Fixed an issue in which buffs granted by Lunafaction Boots would last for only 15 seconds inside Well of Radiance rather than the entire duration
• Fixed an issue on Ursa Furiosa so that Super gain from guarding is more consistent between PvE and PvP

Weapons

Warden’s Law

• Replaced perks on Warden's Law that did not function properly with the weapon's archetype
• Triple Tap replaced with Feeding Frenzy
• Fourth Time's the Charm replaced with Zen Moment
• Warden's Law now has bullet contrails
• Updated the intrinsic perk text on Warden's Law to distinguish it from Aggressive Burst Sidearms

High-Impact Scout Rifles

• High-Impact Scout Rifle damage increased by 1.87%
• Dev commentary: Previously it was possible to, at VERY high resilience levels, survive three headshots from a high impact scout rifle. This change will ensure that players at any resilience level will be defeated by three headshots.
• Note: A fix that will return High-Impact Scout Rifles to 150 RPM is planned for Destiny 2 Update 2.1.1, scheduled for 12/4/2018

Shotguns

• Rapid-Fire Frame on Shotguns now increases the reload of all Shotgun shells when empty instead of just the first shell
• Trench Barrel
• Trench Barrel perk now deactivates after three shots
• Trench Barrel description updated to reflect new behavior and also fix an error where it called out increased accuracy instead of increase reload speed

Submachine Guns

• Slightly increased range on Submachine Guns

Machine Guns

• Slightly increased accuracy on Machine Guns

Exotic Weapons

• Prometheus Lens
• Prometheus Lens damage increased by 10%

Hard Light

• Fixed an issue where Hard Light could overpenetrate an enemy Banner Shield

Ace of Spades

• Memento Mori reduced to five bullets, but can now be refreshed on reload without having to get rid of all the bonus damage bullets

General

• Fixed mantle animation for the Queenbreaker
• Fixed an issue where some particle effects were appearing in first-person view when using One Thousand Voices
• Fixed an issue where Bows would sometimes become invisible when equipped
• Polished the Blade Barrage animation for when the player is holding a Bow
• Buffed out a missed spot on the Refer-a-Friend Borealis ornament
• Fixed an issue that would delay the nocking of an arrow when the player picked up ammo while the Bow was both stowed and out of ammo
• Fixed an issue where the Headseeker perk would no longer function after being activated numerous times without dying
• Fixed an issue where the Ikelos Hand Cannon and Shotgun where displaying icons for Malfeasance and Chaperone in the obituary
• Polished Grenade Launcher strafing animations to remove up and down reticle veering
• Polished Grenade Launcher animations while jumping to prevent stocks from blocking the first-person camera
• Polished Sniper Rifle and Machine Gun animations while jumping to prevent stocks from blocking the first-person camera
• Fixed an animation issue that would occur when firing and walking with a Machine Gun
• Polished Tractor Cannon's sprint animation to feel more natural
• Fixed an issue where Swords dropped with mods intended for Rocket Launchers, and Rocket Launchers dropped with mods intended for Swords
• Rapid Hit now displays a status effect buff on activation
• Known issue: Sniper Rifle precision kills will stack the perk twice; this will be fixed in a later patch
• Updated Oathkeeper's Exotic perk to remove text for Bow charge speed
• Tireless Blade perk description updated to match actual behavior where ammo is returned on every other powered Sword kill
• Fixed an issue where the Momentum Transfer perk was not functioning properly

Crucible

Modes

• Mayhem will return as a 6v6 rotating playlist with scoring support for new Forsaken Supers
• Lockdown and Showdown will return as rotating playlists and have been added to Private

Matches

• Scorched and Team Scorched have been added to Private Matches
• New Shaxx lines, spread between Rumble, Lockdown, Showdown, and a few special medals
• Single round modes (Clash, Control, etc.) now end with a "Match Complete" countdown similar to those displayed at round complete in round-based modes
• Added new Crucible medals and associated Triumphs for Forsaken Supers, the Machine Gun weapon archetype, and the Lockdown game mode
• Added two new gold-tier medals—happy hunting!
• Fixed an issue where "The Cycle" medal was not being tracked properly
• Iron Banner now awards unique Iron Banner-themed medals with unique audio cues
• Iron Banner uses new unique Match Complete banners

Ranks

• Valor and Glory are now subdivided into three sub-ranks similar to Gambit
• Valor and Glory have NOT subdivided the Legend rank
• Valor does NOT require players to win at Legend

Shaxx

• Shaxx has a new rotation of items available for direct purchase.
• Players must earn Valor to collect these items
• A new set of Seasonal Items has been added to Shaxx's inventory
• Previous seasons' exclusive items have been removed
• A new pinnacle weapon quest has been added to Shaxx's inventory
• To allow players to make progress on any character, each step features account-wide objectives
• This quest requires two types of objectives to be completed: Reach a specific Rank and complete a specific Triumph; players can complete these objectives in any order
• Previous pinnacle weapon quests continue to be available on Shaxx

Gambit

Ranks

• Adjusted Infamy rank rewards to better match Valor and Glory. Subdivision rank ups will now always award Gambit Legendary gear

Bounties and Quests

• Infamy Rank Point rewards from all Gambit bounties have been doubled
• Many bounties have had their objectives retuned to take less time and be easier to complete
• Added a new daily bounty for killing Primeval envoys, and slotted it into the daily rotation
• Fixed an issue where the Malfeasance quest could be progressed in Crucible modes
• NOTE: Once S5 begins and Infamy is reset, you must play one Gambit match before redeeming any bounties. Players who turn in these bounties after Season of the Forge begins, but before playing a Gambit match, will not correctly receive points to their Infamy rank from these bounties.

Primeval Mechanics

• Catch-up mechanics have been adjusted to ensure that the leading team retains more of an advantage
• The trailing team will now receive a maximum of only one bonus stack of the Primeval Slayer buff (previously, they received up to three stacks depending on how far behind the trailing team was)
• The time before the bonus stack kicks in has been increased to 32 seconds, up from 22 seconds
• Primevals will hard ping less often, to reduce stunlock against highly coordinated teams

Matchmaking

• Further addressing error codes that could occur during matchmaking, leading to potential quitter penalties

Clans

• Last Wish raid bounties are now available to anyone who has access to the Last Wish raid.
• Does not require Clan Rank 4
• A new season of progression is available, with new perks to pursue
• Fixed an issue where the "Rainmaker" consumable didn’t provide showers of Glimmer from defeated enemies
• Fixed an issue where Public Defender Ghost perk wasn't properly applying to public events on Mars, the Tangled Shore, or the Dreaming City
• Fixed an issue where Nightfall unique rewards were dropping at the rate intended for non-Forsaken owners
• Fixed an issue where not picking up Prime Engrams could allow players to earn more than the Prime Attunement buff allows for, putting them in a deficit of further Prime Engrams for a time corresponding to the number of extra Prime Engrams received
• Fixed an issue where the title of Triumph "Steadfast" was "Meet Sloane on the moon Titan" (you must still meet Sloane on the moon Titan)
• Added missing Year 2 gunsmith weapons to Collections (not purchasable due to random rolls)
• Fixed an issue where the BrayTech RWP Mk. II Scout Rifle was not counting towards Collections for some players
• Unearned Season 4 gear is now hidden

PC

• Added new "Take Screenshot" keybind (defaults to the "Print Screen" key)
• Added new friend management commands
• /addfriend
• /removefriend
• Added new fireteam management commands
• /invite
• /join
• Note: The fireteam commands can target any player by providing the player's full BattleTag, allowing players to assemble fireteams without sending friend requests.

UI

• Adjusted item tooltips to fix an issue where perks or other information was cut off on the Character Screen
• Fixed an issue where the rank-up banner for Crucible and Gambit was not being appropriately displayed on 21:9 resolutions
• Fixed an issue where players were unable to return to orbit while the Results Screen was up at the end of an activity
• Localization
• Traditional Chinese
• Fixed an issue where some parts of the Traditional Chinese UI was not loading properly in-game

Misc

• Improved activity and destination load times on consoles
• Note: We are actively investigating load times for loading the player inventory screen, switching between UI tabs starting up the game, signing on, and selecting characters. See This Week at Bungie - 11/08/2018 for more details.
• HDR
• Fixed an issue where brightness was not adjusting properly for players

General

• Fixed an issue with missing Transmat FX on Amanda's exchange
• Fixed an issue with erroneous source strings on multiple Dawning and Crimson Days items
• Fixed an issue that caused several shaders to be unavailable for bulk exchange at Rahool
• Fixed an issue where some UI elements would not load properly if interacting with a vendor and launching into character inventory
• Fixed an issue where the Fortunate Projection was causing visual effects issues in third person
• Fixed an issue in which the IGR version of the "High and Mighty" bounty did not count wanted escapee kills
• Fixed an issue in which the IGR version of the "I'm Not Sorry, I'm Lost" bounty required too many points for completion
• Fixed an issue in which the IGR version of the "Through the Crucible" bounty required too few points for completion
• Fixed an issue that caused high amounts of Baboon errors in the Tower