Destiny 2’sLightfallexpansion not only promised a new campaign featuring Calus and the Witness, but also a ton of changes to the game. From now features like guardian ranks to quality-of-life changes such as in-game loadouts, Lightfall feels like the expansion that aspires to bringDestiny 2to the next level.
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While it’s still early intoLightfall, there are already several features that stand out as incredible in the new expansion. It will likely take several weeks or months for players to get used to the new style ofLightfall, but ultimately the following changes inDestiny 2are a welcome addition to the game. For those curious about further details, here are theLightfallrelease patch notes.
10The New Tower
The Tower has remained the same for what feels like a small eternity. It doesn’t really affect gameplay that much, but seeingthe Tower changeas the story of the game progresses and evolves is rewarding and creates a sense of immersion.
Those who haven’t gone to admire the new Tower inLightfallshould do so, and also find a nice little homage to Cayde-6 nearby where Zavala can be found. There’s now also a large tree and some of Caiatl’s Cabal guarding the Tower as well, and where the Traveler once remained, the sky is now dotted with vessels of humanity’s allies.
9Removal Of (Some) Crafting Materials
Weapon crafting, introduced inWitch Queen, was the one feature that experienced the most growing pains. The system was tweaked quite heavily throughout Year 5, but now, it has experienced one of its largest changes: the removal of Resonant Elements.
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Players will now need to use Enhancement Prismsand Legendary Shardsto craft their weapons, though Ascendant Alloys and Resonant Alloys will still remain as resources that crafting will require. Still, this simplification of the process is definitely welcome, given how grindy crafting and weapon leveling are.
8Armor Charge
Charged with Light and Elemental Wells have now been morphed into a single system: Armor Charge. Picking up Orbs of Power will grant the player Armor Charge, and in turn, some of the mods well-known from Wells and Charged with Light mods have been reworked to function with Armor Charge. Moreover, each subclass now has its own elemental pickup (such as Firesprite for Solar), which functions in conjunction with Armor Charge.
While there’s room for criticism and this system is still young, overall, putting these two systems together is healthier for the game in the long run and will hopefully simplify buildcrafting for all skill levels of players. The downside is that some mods and the stat bonuses they introduced have been done away with, which means players are forced to redo their whole builds.
7Subclass Options For Champion Stunning
Champions have never been particularly popular amongDestiny 2players, and Bungie must know this given how many Exotic weapons received intrinsic anti-champion perks in the last year. On top of this,the new subclass features from 3.0changes like Jolt, Volatile, Blinding, Ignition, Suppression, Slow, Shatter, Suspend, Unravel, and Radiant have additional champion stunning capabilities.
This table shows the rough outline of which subclass effects are strong against which champions:
Weak to Radiant, Unraveling, and Volatile.
Weak to Jolt, Suppression, and Slow.
Weak to Blinding, Ignition, Suspend, and Shatter.
6Adjusted Difficulty
It’s no surprise that with the introduction of 3.0 light subclasses in the last year most of the regular content, and even endgame PVE content, felt completely trivial to many players. While it made much of the content accessible, it also lessened the need for any serious buildcrafting, which is something Bungie wants to be a strong part of theDestiny 2experience.
Because of this, multiple changes were made to ensure that content feels engaging and challenging, from power level tweaks to even the infamous Resilience stat nerf, which will no longer provide a 40% damage negation at Tier 10. Although all of this might sound terrifying to players, in the long run, it will likely be healthy for the game as it allows content to remain fresh and engaging for a longer period of time.
5Guardian Ranks
Guardian ranks are an entirely new feature added toDestiny 2withLightfall, which carves a rough path for players to follow. This was created in hopes of answering the ever-important question of what a player should do next in the game, in which there’s just so much to do.
The rank screen tracks a few objectives that players can complete to advance their ranking. The same screen is also where Triumph seals and Commendations appear, the latter being another new feature that is included hand in hand with the Post Game Carnage Report discussed further below.
4New Seasonal Artifact Mod System
To further enhance buildcrafting, Bungie has done away with the need to slot in seasonal artifact mods into armor. Once seasonal artifact mods are unlocked from the artifact, they are active at all times for the player. Players can unlock up to 12 mods, and it’s possible to now reset the artifact for no cost, to further encourage testing different mods.
This is absolutely fantastic, as this means players won’t need to slot in individual champion mods and sacrifice parts of their build by removing “combat” mods. Given how much these mods have changed, too, it’s great that players can focus on getting acquainted with them rather than worrying about seasonal mods.
3Seasonal Weapon Focusing
Previously, it was a whole ordeal for players to get the loot they wanted from set activities. The biggest struggle formany endgame PVEfans was getting their hands on the right Nightfall weapon, but luckily, now this won’t be an issue as these weapons can be focused directly at vendors.
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Players will need a cipher and an engram of the activity to be able to focus the weapons. This should help streamline getting the loot that players want, without the need to desperately grind on a specific week, though it remains to be seen how these changes affect the economy of the resources required for focusing.
2Post Game Carnage Report And Commendations
Hand in hand with Commendations comes the Post Game Carnage Report. Here, players can see exactly the scoring for every activity they participate in, a feature that players have been asking for years in order to track their contribution.
Players can access two tabs on this screen: the actual Commendation page where they can applaud their teammates and the information on scores and kills. Commendations depend on the activity, and tougher activities will have more “serious” commendations such as Leadership. Needless to say, this is great not just for those who like to know stats after an activity, but also to thank their teammates.
1In-Game Loadouts
Loadouts are inDestiny 2, a change that desperately needed to be around a long time ago. Previously, players would need to usethird-party applications such as DIMto organize their loadouts, or just manually apply their armor and mods for every activity, which can create a lot of downtime for no reason.
Destiny 2’sloadout system is still in its early days but looks fantastic at first glance. Players are able to save and apply a set of loadouts from the character screen, as well as view mods and abilities they have for each loadout easily at one glance. This is probably one of the most anticipated features ofLightfall, and certainly a welcome one.
Destiny 2: Lightfallis available on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S.
