Destiny 2 Update 2.80 Patch Notes (Lightfall Season 20)

COMPETITIVE QUALITY-OF-LIFE CHANGES COMING IN SEASON 20

• Placement Changes
  • You can now place in Platinum division after your initial placement series matches if you were Adept or Ascendant in the previous Season.
• Mode and Map Weighting
  • While we understand not everyone loves Rift and Showdown, we believe that those two modes stress Crucible players in different and important ways, and that a variety of kill and objective modes makes for a healthier ladder. However, we are lowering how common Rift and Showdown come up on in play. While RNG can give any sequence of maps and modes, we expect Survival to show up roughly 2/3 of the time, and Rift and Showdown to split the other 1/3.
    • We have also adjusted the individual map weightings for Showdown to eliminate maps the mode does not play well on.
  • Overall, we have increased the weight of Javelin-4, Endless Vale, and Altar of Flame in Competitive Division, and removed Disjunction and Cathedral of Dusk from the rotation entirely.
• As of the start of Season 20:
  • You can gild the Glorious title by reaching the Adept division as well as a number of other Crucible triumphs.

Exotic armor pieces can be just as critical to your PvP build as your weapons or subclass Aspects or Fragments. A popular move has always been to have a powerful neutral game Exotic on during PvP while your Super is building, then swap to a Super-enhancing Exotic once your Super is full, then swapping back to the neutral game Exotic. This tends to favor players who have higher end PCs (and can get in and out of menus faster), and we generally don’t want to encourage a bunch of menu gameplay during action. We also find it an uninteresting way to gain an advantage in PvP. With the prevalence of build swapping that can happen with loadouts, we thought we would squash this issue in high-end PvP.

• In Season 20, we are introducing the Notswap modifier to Trials of Osiris and Competitive Division.
• In activities with Notswap, if you change your Exotic armor during the match, all of your ability energy is removed, just like if you swapped your subclass.
• We will be monitoring gameplay and community discussion around this issue, but we are not currently planning on adding it to Gambit or other Crucible playlists.
• We are also not planning on adding it to any PvE modes — anywhere it might provide a meaningful advantage already has equipment locked.

EMBRACE THE PASSIVE ARTIFACT

The Seasonal Artifact has been with us for a while now, and we have adjusted its functionalities to better suit how you face some of the most challenging activities in Destiny 2 and to spice up the meta a bit each Season. We’re making several improvements to it in Lightfall, starting with the following:

• Artifact mods are now artifact perks.
  • These are passive and you don’t have to slot them into armor pieces. Once you unlock an artifact perk, it automatically applies to your Guardian.
• Twelve perks are unlockable per character.
  • You can reset the artifact at no cost any number of times.
• The anti-Champion weapons featured on the artifact can also be Overcharged in higher difficulty activities.
• To accommodate these changes, Artifice Armor has now has a unique mod slot that grants three additional points to a character stat of your choice.
  • This change is retroactive to all Artifice Armor.

But why tell you when we can show? Here’s what the Ascendant Scepter brings to the table for Season 20.

COLUMN 1

• Anti-Barrier Sidearms – Your equipped Sidearms fire shield-piercing rounds and stun Barrier Champions. Additionally, Sidearms are always Overcharged when that modifier is active.
• Anti-Barrier Pulse Rifles – Your equipped Pulse Rifles fire shield-piercing rounds and stun Barrier Champions. Additionally, Pulse Rifles are always Overcharged when that modifier is active.
• Overload Bows – Damage by fully drawn arrows from your equipped Bows disrupts combatants, stunning the target, delaying ability energy regeneration, and lowering combatant damage output. Strong against Overload Champions. Additionally, Bows are always Overcharged when that modifier is active.
• Unstoppable Scout Rifles – Aiming down the sights of a Scout Rifle for a short time loads a powerful explosive payload that stuns unshielded combatants. Strong against Unstoppable Champions. Additionally, Scout Rifles are always Overcharged when that modifier is active.
• Automatics Overload – Sustained fire from Auto Rifles and Submachine Guns disrupts combatants, stunning them, delaying ability energy regeneration, and lowering combatant damage output. Strong against Overload Champions. Additionally, Auto Rifles and Submachine Guns are always Overcharged when that modifier is active.

COLUMN 2

• Authorized Mods: Solar – The armor energy costs of all armor mods affecting your Solar weapons are significantly discounted.
• Authorized Mods: Strand – The armor energy costs of all armor mods affecting your Strand weapons are significantly discounted.
• Authorized Mods: Void – The armor energy costs of all armor mods affecting your Void weapons are significantly discounted.
• Authorized Mods: Grenades – The armor energy costs of all armor mods affecting your grenades are significantly discounted.
• Multi-Siphon Mods – Grants access to armor mods in your helmet that combine the effects of the Strand Siphon mod with the Solar Siphon Mod and the Void Siphon mods.

COLUMN 3

• Shatter Orbs – The first time you break a combatant’s shield, you create an Orb of Power if you break the shield with the matching damage type.
• Defiant Armory – Greatly improves the benefits provided by the Noble Deeds, Nanotech Tracer Rockets, Tex Balanced Stock, and Ambush Origin traits.
• Untangler – Destroying a Tangle with a Strand weapon suspends targets damaged by the explosion.
• Solar Surge – Collecting a Firesprite gives you Armor Charge.
• Volatile Flow – Picking up an Orb of Power grants your Void weapons Volatile Rounds.

COLUMN 4

• Bricks from Beyond – Defeating a powerful combatant with a Void weapon has a chance to generate Heavy ammo for you and your teammates.
• Flare Up – Firebolt Grenades apply more Scorch stacks. Damaging a combatant with a Firebolt Grenade spawns a Firesprite near them.
• Origin Hones – Weapons with the Noble Deeds, Nanotracing Rockets, Tex Balanced Stock, and Ambush Origin traits are always Overcharged when that modifier is active.
• Allied Unraveling – Rapid final blows with a Strand weapon grant your weapon Unraveling Rounds, with a longer duration near allies.
• Counterweave – When you or a member of your fireteam stuns or defeats a Champion, you gain energy for your least-charged Strand ability.

COLUMN 5

• Stranded Reach – Destroying a Tangle with a Strand weapon creates a larger and more damaging explosion.
• Rain of Firebolts – When you have Firebolt Grenades equipped, gain a second grenade charge.
• Void Weapons Channeling – You gain a temporary bonus to Void weapon damage after you defeat a target with a Void weapon while at least one of your Void abilities is fully charged. This damage bonus increases based on the number of fully charged Void abilities you have.
• Medieval Champion – Glaives you wield fire a powerful explosive payload that stuns unshielded combatants. Strong against Unstoppable Champions. Additionally, Glaives are always Overcharged when that modifier is active. Landing consecutive hits with a Sword disrupts combatants, stunning them, delaying ability energy regeneration, and lowering combatant damage output. Strong against Overload Champions. Additionally, Swords are always Overcharged when that modifier is active.
• Prismatic Transfer – When you cast your Super, each member of your fireteam with a subclass damage type different than yours gains a bonus to weapon damage.

NEW WAYS TO DEFEAT CHAMPIONS

In our “Buildcrafting Evolved” article, we stated that there will be new ways to counter Champions in Lightfall. After showcasing the Seasonal weapons you’ll use to do so, maybe we should also refresh that information and throw in one or two more details, right?

• You can use an Exotic with an anti-Champion intrinsic perk.
  • Eriana’s Vow, Divinity, or Leviathan’s Breath are three examples.
• You can use weapons that have an anti-Champion artifact perk.
• You can use the following subclass verb and status effects:
  • Barrier Champions: radiant, volatile rounds, and unraveling rounds.
  • Overload Champions: jolt, suppression, and slow.
  • Unstoppable Champions: ignite, blind, shatter, and suspend.
  • The verbs work no matter how they are triggered. Two examples:
    • If you are radiant because a Solar Hunter used an Acrobatic Dodge near you, you will shoot anti-Barrier rounds until radiant wears off.
    • If you use a weapon with the Chill Clip perk, the slow effect upon direct hits will stun Overload Champions. And the shatter upon a second hit will stun Unstoppables. While radiant, though, the same weapon would pierce a Barrier Champions, but not stun Overloads.
  • Exotics with an anti-Champion status effect won’t get the pierce effect when applying radiant.
    • One example: Ager’s Scepter will slow and stun an Overload Champion, but not pierce a Barrier one even if the player is radiant.
    • There’s an exception for weapons able to scorch, since ignitions require build-up in order to stun.

Destiny 2 Lightfall Pre-Load Time

Destiny 2 Lightfall pre-load will start at the following time.

• Part 1/3 Users: Rolling out now.
• 2/3 Users: Feb 26 – 5PM GMT
• 3/3 Users: Feb 27 – 5AM GMT
• Installable date: Feb 27 – 5PM GMT