This Week in Destiny 2 (05/23/2024) introduces a new pursuit system, the Pathfinder, as well as Increased Drop Rates, Abilities, and Armor Tuning.
Just before The Final Shape is launched, Destiny 2 will be offline for 24 hours, starting at 9 AM PST on June 3, 2024. (Check your local time here.) Bungie will post reminders about the downtime in the game and through their social media channels before it begins. All players will be able to pre-download The Final Shape during this period, regardless of their platform.
However, before that, Bungie has some news, updates, and preparations for The Final Shape in This Week in Destiny 2 (05/23/2024).
Top 10 Changes in This Week in Destiny 2 (05/23/2024)
Here are the 10 highlights from This Week in Destiny 2 (05/23/2024) until The Final Shape launches:
- ViDocs Released: Two ViDocs were announced to delve into The Final Shape, showcasing emotional scripts, surreal landscapes, and the Dread’s language.
- Season of the Wish Finale: The “Closer to the Heart” mission concludes Year 6 and serves as a bridge to The Final Shape.
- Twitch Rivals World First Race: The new raid’s World First race will be streamed via Twitch Rivals with exclusive Twitch Drops available for viewers.
- Increased Drop Rates for BRAVE Weapons: Drop rates for BRAVE weapons and Trophies of Bravery were increased, with double drop chances for limited-edition weapons starting May 28.
- Abilities and Armor Tuning: A two-part preview detailed changes to Light and Darkness subclasses and Exotic armor adjustments, including new Frost Armor and Artifice slots.
- Introducing Pathfinder: A new pursuit system consolidates bounties, patrols, and weekly challenges into a streamlined system accessible anytime, aiming to reduce barriers and enhance player agency.
- Quests Tab Updates: Quality-of-life updates include customizable default categories, organized quest tracking, and direct launch options for quests.
- Legendary Shards Reminder: Players are reminded to use their Legendary Shards before they are removed with the launch of The Final Shape.
- The Pantheon Bosses: The final bosses in The Pantheon, Riven and Nezarec, were revealed, along with a celebratory poster and a new 3D-enhanced metal poster collaboration with Displate.
- SteelSeries Collaboration: A new collection of gaming accessories inspired by The Final Shape themes, offering exclusive in-game cosmetics with purchases.
These updates and announcements increase the excitement as we near The highly anticipated Final Shape release.
Complete Notes for This Week in Destiny 2 (05/23/2024)
Below, you will find the complete information about upcoming changes to Destiny 2, or you can read the official post here.
CONFRONTING OBLIVION IN OUR FIRST VIDOC
Less than two weeks until The Final Shape is here, Guardians! We want to make the wait easier for you, so how about we share two amazing ViDocs with you all? In our first one, live this very morning, we talk about emotional scripts, the surreal landscapes we’ll visit, and believe it or not, how you could learn the language used by the Dread if you really want to.
The second ViDoc will be live tomorrow at 9 AM PT with more insights delivered directly by the Destiny 2 dev team.
A HUNTER GOES INTO THE TRAVELER…
Remember when Crow crossed the portal that was opened as part of our bargain with Riven during the events of Season of the Wish? That really wasn’t the end. On Tuesday, we launched Closer to the Heart, the mission that closes Year 6 of Destiny 2 and unlocks a mind-blowing cinematic that serves as a bridge between Season of the Wish and The Final Shape. So, let this serve as a reminder: go play it if you haven’t already. Osiris will give you the mission if you visit the HELM.
And for those of you who have completed it, do you want to shed a tear again?
FOLLOW THE WORLD FIRST RACE ON TWITCH RIVALS
In This Week in Destiny 2 (05/23/2024), the new raid coming with The Final Shape will take the fight to the Witness and prevent its calamitous plans to end the world as we know it. The stakes are at their highest, and fireteams across the globe will compete and test their might to be the first group that completes the raid to take home the coveted World First belt.
We wanted to celebrate such an occasion properly, so in partnership with Twitch Rivals, we’ll have a World First race broadcast covering some of the streamers participating in the race, with commentary conducted by returning host Professor Broman and Reck1568.
If you are a creator looking to be part of the event, sign-ups begin today and will be open until June 3 at 5 PM PT. Registered and approved creators will be provided with the following exclusive Twitch Drops while the World First race is taking place:
Stand in Salvation Emblem: Watch at least 2 hours of any Destiny 2 streamer.
Active between 9:30 AM PT on June 7 and 9:30 AM PT on June 9.
Roots Remain Emblem: Watch at least 2 hours of Destiny 2 Twitch Rivals stream or any participating Twitch Rivals creator.
Active between 9:30 AM PT on June 7 and 9:30 AM PT on June 9.
Global Twitch Badge:
Ghost Chat Badge: Watch 15 minutes of The Final Shape raid.
GET YOUR PRETTY GUNS
Earlier this week, we increased the drop rates for BRAVE weapons and Trophies of Bravery as well as increased the reputation gains with Shaxx. These increases will remain until Destiny 2: Into the Light ends on June 3.
We know you are swimming in loot now and we want to up the ante one more time before the limited-edition versions of the BRAVE weapons are no longer available. Starting on May 28 at 10 AM PT, we will be doubling the drop chance of limited-edition versions of BRAVE weapons. So that, combined with the increases we made to weapon and token drops, will give you a lot of opportunities to grab a few more pretty guns with pretty rolls.
Happy hunting, Guardians!
ABILITIES AND ARMOR TUNING
As we did last week with weapons, this week we had a two-part abilities and Exotic armor tuning preview for you all. The first part was published on Wednesday and focused on how Light and Darkness subclasses are changing. We went over a lot of impactful changes, like Stasis getting the new Frost Armor, and some Supers getting an adjustment or two.
The second part was focused on armor tuning. Some Exotics will now have the Frost Armor as part of their set, while some oldies like Sixth Coyote and Ursa Furiosa learned some new tricks. And let’s not forget about the option to include an Artifice slot on all Exotic pieces. You can find all the information here.
After you’re done reading this In This Week in Destiny 2 (05/23/2024), we recommend you take some time to read those articles. They will help you jump into The Final Shape with the best possible understanding of how the sandbox will work.
INTRODUCING PATHFINDER
The World Systems Team has a very important update to share, one we have teased in the past. Let’s talk about Pathfinder.
WHAT IS PATHFINDER?
Pathfinder is a brand-new pursuit system we’re introducing in Destiny 2 that consolidates bounties, patrols, and weekly vendor challenges into one streamlined system you can access anytime, anywhere, via the Director. Different Pathfinders can be accessed from relevant screens of the Director by selecting the Pathfinder node or using a hotkey for quick and easy access to the system.
When you open a Pathfinder, you will be presented with 20 objectives divided into 5 tiers, leading to every Guardians favorite thing: big shiny loot. To reach said loot you must complete objectives and claim them to form a path from the left-most tier to the right. While you can progress through all objectives on a Pathfinder without restriction, you will need to claim at least one objective in each tier before you can claim an objective in the following tier. Every time you claim an objective you will receive rewards, progressing your path towards the final reward and opening new potential paths. Building a path to the final reward allows you to claim it, and claiming the final reward opens a new opportunity: resetting your Pathfinder.
Resetting your Pathfinder costs Glimmer, but it will give you a new set of objectives to complete and a new final reward to pursue. These new cards are built using a mixture of authorial control and procedural generation, so once you start resetting, your cards will diverge from those of other Guardians. As long as you still have the Glimmer to do so, you can continue to reset Pathfinder cards after claiming final rewards as many times as you’d like each week, but the value of the final reward will diminish with resets of your card, to a point. However, with every weekly reset the value of final rewards will also reset, your objective progress will be lost, and every Guardian will start the week with the same, fresh card.
WHERE IS PATHFINDER?
The Final Shape will launch with two Pathfinders: one available to all Guardians that replaces the bounty systems and Weekly Challenges for our core ritual activities and one that you will unlock in The Pale Heart as part of the expansion’s campaign.
The Rituals Pathfinder provides you with a set of objectives that span all our ritual activities: Vanguard Strikes, Nightfalls, Onslaught, Gambit, and Crucible. Some of these objectives can be completed in any of these activities, while others will require you to dive into a specific ritual or mode. An update later in the year of The Final Shape will make it even easier to get to these ritual screens while you are in their activities as well as make it easier to access the Rituals Pathfinder.
While we don’t want to reveal too much about the new destination, you can expect the kinds of objectives on The Pale Heart Pathfinder to roughly align with what you’d expect to see from destination bounties, with the addition of some new location-based objectives called Field Assignments. When Field Assignments are featured on your Pathfinder, you can expect to see them marked directly on the destination map, where you can track them to take advantage of our waypoint system to help navigate to their location.
WHY IS PATHFINDER?
When we set out to build Pathfinder, we had four core goals. The first goal was consolidation. Destiny 2 is an enormous game that has evolved constantly over the last decade. Many pursuit systems have been added to the game over time, and these systems are accessed in a myriad of different ways that make it difficult for Guardians—experienced or not—to understand what they can be doing at any given point in time. We set out to build one system that has the capability of aligning all of these into one cohesive UI you can always access from wherever you are.
Our second goal was to give players more agency. Bounty systems in Destiny 2 typically let Guardians pick from a handful of fixed bounties that reset each day and provide repeatable bounties for those who wish to further engage with the system. These limited choices result in a system that feels prescriptive about how you should play, instead of putting you in control. We want Guardians to feel ownership over their engagement with these systems, with the ability to chart a course that matches the goals of their play session.
With that in mind, our third goal was making decisions matter a bit more. Our existing pursuit systems consist largely of disconnected, individual objectives that have no effect on each other. In many cases, a Guardian’s decisions regarding these objectives are limited to doing (or not doing) a particular objective or spending Glimmer to reroll repeatable bounties they don’t like. Pathfinder’s path-based system incentivizes Guardians to complete objectives that may otherwise be out of their comfort zone to achieve a more direct path to their final reward. It also allows Guardians to forge a more elongated path around objectives that don’t call out to them. As their options diminish closer to the final reward, Guardians will be challenged to engage with a particular activity, mode, or playstyle to acquire more rewards.
And finally, our fourth goal was to reduce barriers because, let’s face it, much of our time as Guardians is spent zipping between destinations to prepare to play the game. Flying to the Tower, flying to the H.E.L.M., flying to Europa… it all takes time that we could be spending fending off the Witness and thwarting its universe-threatening plan to enact The Final Shape. With Pathfinder, you already have your objectives, and they’re always progressing as you play, whether they are locked or unlocked. There’s no need to visit a vendor or use the Destiny app to grab bounties, no need to balance your inventory of quests and bounties, and no need to travel to vendors to claim your reward for a Weekly Challenge.
ABOUT DESTINATION PATHFINDER
The rewards are designed to encourage completing many paths over many objectives in each Pathfinder. If you want to maximize your weekly rewards, your best bet is to plan your optimal path!
REWARDS
| Objective Reward | Path | 25 Vendor Reputation 4000 XP |
|---|---|---|
| Path Completion Reward | 1st Path | [Redacted] Exotic Powerful Tier 3 engram (The Pale Heart gear) 1 Rank of vendor reputation 25,000 XP |
| Path Completion Reward | 2nd Path | [Redacted] Exotic The Pale Heart engram (Focusable) 375 vendor reputation 25,000 XP |
| Path Completion Rewards (1 through 3) | 3rd Path | The Pale Heart engram (Focusable) 375 vendor reputation 25,000 XP |
| Path Completion Rewards (1 through 3) | Repeatable | World Legendary engram 150 Vendor Reputation 4000 XP |
OBJECTIVES
| Category | Description | Example Objectives |
|---|---|---|
| Calibrations | Directly replace bounties. Most common objective category on The Pale Heart Pathfinder. | In The Pale Heart, defeat combatants of a certain faction. In The Pale Heart, defeat combatants using weapons that match your subclass damage type. |
| Field Assignments | Players must go to locations in The Pale Heart and complete a custom encounter that only appears while the objective is active. This is the second-most common objective category on The Pale Heart Pathfinder. | In The Pale Heart, travel to [REDACTED] and claim a reward for defeating [REDACTED]. In The Pale Heart, travel to [REDACTED] and complete the [REDACTED] event. |
| Ventures | Destination-focused activities and objetives Only two per The Pale Heart Pathfinder. Only appear in the tier before the final reward. | In The Pale Heart, progress through the [REDACTED] activity and loot the chests. Completing the [REDACTED] objective grants additional progress. |
ABOUT RITUALS PATHFINDER
Now let’s talk about ritual activities. Crucible, Gambit, and Vanguard vendor bounties will be replaced by a unified Rituals Pathfinder. A single instance of Pathfinder will contain objectives specific to each ritual activity as well as generic objectives that can be completed in any of the three ritual activities.
Additionally, on weeks when there is an active reputation booster, the first three instances of Pathfinder will contain more objectives associated that ritual activity. So, if the Crucible reputation booster is active, Pathfinder will contain more Crucible-specific objectives until after the third reset.
Completing an objective node awards experience, like individual bounty completion. Completing a path is designed to be akin to completing a weekly vendor bounty challenge. i.e., completion rewards include Prime Engrams, Bright Dust, and experience.
However, where vendor challenges are limited to three per week per character, Pathfinder progress is shared across all characters and is infinitely repeatable. Due to these differences, the reward amounts have been redistributed accordingly.
- FIRST THREE COMPLETIONS:
- Prime Engram
- Enhancement Prism
- 150 Bright Dust
- 25000 XP
- NEXT SEVEN COMPLETIONS:
- Enhancement Prism
- 150 Bright Dust
- 4000 XP
- SUBSEQUENT COMPLETIONS:
- Enhancement Core
- 30 Bright Dust
- 4000 XP
We hope you now have a better understanding of what Pathfinder is and how it will change how you play ritual activities and explore the new destination. We can’t wait for you all to experience it in just a few days! And as always, feel free to give us your feedback when you have tried it.
UPDATING THE QUESTS TAB
We have already shed some light on the UI and UX changes coming with The Final Shape, particularly how the on-screen information channels have been updated to show buffs, debuffs, and weapon perks in a more organized way. Let’s talk about some other quality-of-life updates we have introduced in the Quests tab.
Starting on June 4, players will be able to set any quest category on the left column as the default when you enter the Quests tab. At the same time, all milestones will now show up on the Quests tab, although they will not count against the total amount of quests and bounties that a player can hold in their inventory and will still be able to hold up to 63 in total.
For players who want to keep everything more organized, we have also updated the Quests tab so that tracking quests in individual categories will now bring them to the front of the sort order in the Quests tab. And last but not least, if you hover over a quest in the Quests tab, it will let you know when you can launch it directly from the details screen, so now it’s more straightforward to get from checking it to playing it.
These changes to the Quests tab are not the only quality-of-life changes we’ve made to our menus. We have also integrated reputation boosts into the ritual activities nodes at the top of the Director screen, so when those are active throughout an Episode , players will get that information at a glance.
And speaking of ritual activities, we have also redesigned the Private Match screen for both Crucible and Gambit, to allow for greater ease of use and more customizable options that will give players some rewards. We hope you like them!
USE YOUR LEGENDARY SHARDS!
Remember when we told you Legendary Shards would go away for good at the end of Season of the Wish? Guess what… that’s less than two weeks away. It’s time to put those shards to good use because you won’t be able to use them once The Final Shape has launched. Our recommendations? Buy raid banners for a lifetime or exchange them for some resources at Rahool’s—but please use them before it’s too late.
THE FINAL PANTHEON BOSSES ARE HERE
This week, we released the final bosses in The Pantheon. We started with four of our greatest enemies, and this week we have to face an eight. It’s nothing Guardians can’t achieve, of course. We have some intel to share to facilitate your task. Read carefully.
DEFENDERS OF THE CITY
You are tasked with the elimination of the following two targets:
– RIVEN OF A THOUSAND VOICES –
CLASSIFICATION
- Ahamkara, aka “wish dragon”
- Summoned Spirit, temporarily
- Reef-born, in captivity
- Blood of Oryx and Taken, temporarily
HAZARDS
- Reality manipulation: paracausal wishes, metaphysical bleeds, and Ascendant atrophy
- Highly intelligent, constantly attempting to entrap prey
- Blistering Soulfire
- Tentacle quakes
- Axion Dart
- Corrosion in close proximity
- Riven’s Gaze
INTEL
- Riven is an Ahamkara, known colloquially as “wish dragons.” She wasoriginally believed to be the last living Ahamkara until a clutch of her eggs was discovered within the Confluence of the Dreaming City. Ahamkara feed off the gulf between reality and desire by granting wishes to unsuspecting prey. Then they twist those wishes into devious schemes to satiate their hunger and boredom alike.
- Long ago, Ahamkara were hunted to near extinction by the Vanguard during the Great Hunt.
- Once the Dreaming City opened, Guardians stormed it to chase down Uldren Sov and assaulted the Keep of Voices to slay Riven. But they themselves caught within her schemes. By inadvertently wishing to save the Dreaming City, the heroic fireteam found themselves executing Riven’s Last Wish and pulling the Dreaming City into a cursed cycle of Taken corruption that remains to this day.
- Years after her death, Riven was reconstituted in spiritual form by the Awoken Techeuns of Reef in a bid to use her wish magic to follow the Witness into the Traveler and stop The Final Shape. In return, Riven struck a bargain with the Guardians to find and return the hidden eggs that held her progeny. Both parties held to their word, leading to a renewed future for the Ahamkara and one final opportunity to strike at the Witness.
OF NOTE
- It is speculated by Cryptarchy scholars of the Reef that the Wall of Wishes Mara Sov constructed to protect the Dreaming City from Riven’s harmful schemes still retains unknown sequences. If so, the Queen has locked these behind her own personal ciphers.
- It was recently learned that Riven had a mate, named Taranis, who was responsible for cloistering away her last clutch of eggs to protect them. Taranis did this by granting his own wish. In the process, he sacrificed his own life to ensure the continuation of his progeny and the safety of his love’s last remnants.
- Riven was found by Uldren Sov (reborn as Crow) and brought to his sister, Mara Sov, Queen of the Reef. They used Riven’s power to construct the Dreaming City, a hidden bastion of Awoken power in the Reef. Many years passed, during which the Dreaming City was breached by Oryx, Riven became Taken, and the Dreaming City was opened to Guardians due to the actions of the maddened Uldren Sov.
– NEZAREC, FINAL GOD OF PAIN –
CLASSIFICATION
- Disciple of the Witness
- Dread
- Prime Tormentor
- Resonant
- Unknown origin species
- Other names: (The) Purest Light, Darkest Hour, Whispering Nightmare
HAZARDS
- Induced nightmares and haunts
- Tormentor Plating
- Nightmare scythe
- Nezarec’s Hatred
- Overwhelming Energy
- Null Paroxysm
- Suppression
- Abyssal Cleave
- Psionic Entropy
INTEL
- Created from Rhulk’s blueprint, Nezarec was the first Tormentor from which all others owe their lineage. Nezarec relishes in sowing fear and pain, feeding off the terror of sentient beings. He can induce nightmares across entire worlds.
- Nezarec—in possession of the Veil—lead the Black Fleet as it assaulted Earth during the Collapse but was betrayed and killed by Savathûn. She separated, cursed, and entombed his Lunar Pyramid within the Moon and stole away the Veil. Guardians uncovered the Lunar Pyramid when the Vanguard mobilized to assault the Scarlet Keep, and they uncovered the Veil when they made contact with Neomuna on Neptune.
- For centuries, Nezarec remained buried. Then his disembodied head, held aboard the Witness’s Pyramid, was struck by a terraforming beam fired by the Traveler. It revitalized him as it reshaped the Pyramid, where an undaunted fireteam cut him down once more.
- Much that is known about Nezarec is derived from anecdotal experiences, engaged fireteam raids, and a tome recovered from the Golden Age that was entitled “Of Hated Nezarec.”
OF NOTE
- An old Psion Exotic relic known colloquially as “Nezarec’s Sin” has long found its home among Warlock operatives. The helmet has known many owners throughout the years, all of whom have perished under mysterious circumstances, been rendered comatose, or have since relinquished their possession of the helm to another owner. This helm is currently believed to be in possession of the Guardian, [NAME REDACTED], a hero of few words.
- Mithrax, Kell of House Light, is currently afflicted with Nezarec’s curse despite Nezarec being destroyed. This occurred when the Kell led an effort to recover Nezarec’s scattered remains. He wants todistill Nexarec’s essence into a mentally revivifying elixir while siphoning the corruptive elements into himself. Attempts to dispel or cure this curse are ongoing. CHA-319 was assigned to monitor it and report back any changes.
- Legends from the Dark Age speak of Lightbearers and non-bearers alike suffering night terrors when the Moon is at perigee. The legends detail rituals with the nearly extinct Earth-plant lavender, long thought to hold protective, calming, and cleansing properties. Furthermore, there are later legends detailing victims of these night terrors smelling lavender after waking, as if the nightmare mocked their attempts at protection. This led to a subsequent switch to a myriad of other panaceas.
THE FINAL SHAPE 24-HOUR DOWNTIME
Just before The Final Shape launches, Destiny 2 will be brought offline for 24 hours starting at 9 AM PST on June 3, 2024. (Check your local time here.) Players will be reminded of the downtime in the game and via our social media channels before it begins, and all players will be able to pre-download The Final Shape during this time, no matter what platform. Be advised that it will be a large file to download and install.
When the game is brought back online and The Final Shape has launched, we expect there will be sign-in queues during the first hours and during peak play times at different places in the world. Keep an eye on @BungieHelp and @Destiny2Team for more information. And don’t forget to do everything you need to do before Season of the Wish closes on June 3!
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