Destiny 2 Lightfall Tuning Preview: Weapon Buffs, Nerfs, and Exotic Changes Aplenty

The Destiny 2 Lightfall expansion is less than a month away, and Bungie is quickly ramping up the hype train with both trailers and extensive breakdowns of changes coming to the game. Detailed in the Season 20 Weapon Tuning Preview, we got a solid look at how combat in Destiny 2 will be shifting come February 28.

Destiny 2 Weapon Update Highlights

The Tuning Preview is separated into three parts: Legendary and Exotic weapon updates and Perk changes. There’s a lot to unpack, but there are some significant highlights from the post.

Legendary Weapon Updates

• Linear Fusions are getting nerfed. Legendary Heavy Linear Fusion Rifles have been the go-to damage subtype for more than a year, and Bungie is finally reining them in with a 15% flat damage nerf. This change does not apply to either Sleeper Simulant or Queenbreaker.
• Heavy Grenade Launchers are back. Heavy GLs got their damage to Champions, minibosses, bosses, and vehicles by 20%, and against minor enemies, they’re now 40% stronger. Their explosive radius and projectile collision were also improved. The only exception is the Parasite Exotic GL, as it’s already a monster. Once the PvE gold standard, Anarchy should also be getting a buff.
• Light Machine Guns are getting more in ammo reserves across the board, depending on the size of their hidden “Reserves” stat, for 20-50% more ammo.
• Shotguns and Kinetic weapons got more love. Shotgun reticles now dynamically resize to show their spread angle. Kinetic weapons, both Primary and Special, had their damage increased (except Stasis weapons), and there will be Kinetic weapon effects come Lightfall.

Exotic Weapon Changes

Many underused and older Exotics are getting buffs or Subclass 3.0 synergy come Lightfall. Here are the highlights there.

• Ruinous Effigy’s transmutation sphere pickup now suppresses targets.
• The Leviathan’s Breath Heavy Bow got a damage buff, can one-shot Supers in PvP, makes targets Volatile, and got a 30% damage buff against Champions.
• One Thousand Voices now instantly ignites enemies with the Ember of Ashes Solar 3.0 Fragment equipped (not accounting for other sources of Scorch).
• Two-Tailed Fox now applies both Scorch and Suppression, and its catalyst will apply Jolted, hinting at adding a third rocket to every shot.

Perk Changes

• Both Osmosis and Elemental Capacitor work with the new Strand subclass. Elemental Capacitor adds from 20-25 airborne effectiveness.
  Rewind Rounds will be usable on more than just Vault of Glass weapons
• Eager Edge received adjustments: its lunge distance was slightly reduced, but the airborne penalty was also lowered, and having the enhanced Perk now gives you more lunge distance, as it used to. The Perk also doesn’t deactivate if you’re going too fast and stops after a single swing.
• Blinding Grenades are now Disorienting Grenades, as they don’t do Arc damage and thus shouldn’t use an Arc 3.0 keyword.
• The Veist Stinger perk now only refills 25% of the magazine rather than the whole thing.

Destiny 2 will undoubtedly change quite a bit when Lightfall drops if these updates are anything to go by. Hopefully, these changes are all positive in practice, as they’re great in theory. We’ve covered plenty of content for the Witch Queen and its subsequent seasons, which you’ll find in our guides hub.

Featured image via Bungie.