Destiny 2 Season of Defiance Brings Updates to Crafting, Difficulty, and PvP

Lightfall might be the big ticket item coming to Destiny 2, but we would all be remiss to forget that it also launches with Season 20 content, the beginning of the year-long narrative and activity gauntlet before The Final Shape. In the latest State of the Game blog post by Destiny 2 Game Director Joe Blackburn, we saw a ton of changes and new content coming later this month in Season of Defiance.

Changes We Can Expect During Lightfall

Changes are coming across the game at both Lightfall release and in the months and Seasons after. At the core of these updates is making Destiny 2 more rewarding and challenging. For instance, enemies in the Vanguard Ops playlist — and likely activities unique to Lightfall and more legacy-focused — will be getting their power adjusted, so they don’t melt as quickly as they currently do.

Speaking of Vanguard Ops, several changes will come there, as well as to the Crucible. Season 16 and 19 Battlegrounds will be available in the playlist, and the Mars Heist Battleground will be added to the Season 20 Nightfall Rotation. No Strike Scoring just yet, but we can hope for the future.

PvP is getting some much-needed love in the form of two returning maps and a brand-new one over the Lightfall year. Bungie is also looking at addressing concerns about the connection and team quality in Crucible matches, and they’re looking to adjust and improve reward structures for their limited-time Crucible activities: Trials of Osiris and Iron Banner.

There will also be three new or returning modes to PvP. The attack and defend Countdown mode is coming back, as will two variants: Countdown Rush with respawns and Countdown Control with specific adjustments to many facets of Destiny 2 combat.

For the more loot-minded among us, crafting is also getting an overhaul. Hopefully, gone are the specialized currencies and endless grinding for specific weapon patterns. Among the improvements coming to crafting and investment are Deepsight weapons only appearing when you need them, the ability to give Deepsight borders to specific weapons, and adding Enhanced perks to dropped weapons from more “long-term” sources.

If you missed out on previous Exotic missions, there’s an activity rotator coming in Season 22 this summer that lets you play the Seasons 13, 16, and 19 missions Presage, Vox Obscura, and Operation: Seraph’s Shield. If they only added both Zero Hour and The Whisper to that list…

Lastly, Bungie wants Destiny 2 to be an even more social experience, so they’re making text chat an opt-out rather than an opt-in feature. They’re also adding both a Fireteam Finder in-game Looking for Group.

Commendations are a new system as well, where Guardians can, well, commend their fellows by tagging them as “Perceptive” and “Knowledgeable” in raid and dungeon content or “Pacesetter” and “Saint’s Favorite” in Trials. The hope here is more positive interaction between Guardians based on what other players have said about them.

The blog post goes into much more detail about all of these updates, but we’ve covered the basics about everything here. For more on Destiny 2 content, past and present, check out our guides hub. Make sure you’re ready for Lightfall with these 9 tips.