Ghost Of Tsushima Iki Island Expansion Guide – Monkey Sanctuary Locations

Ghost of Tsushima‘s Iki Island expansion offers a new side-activity centered around freeing captured monkeys from the Mongols and then playing a flute mini-game. Below, we’ve compiled a guide on how to find them all.

Completing one Monkey Sanctuary earns you the Charm of Mashira’s Protection. This defense charm extends the window of your Perfect Parry and Perfect Dodge maneuvers upon healing yourself with Resolve, and completing subsequent Monkey Sanctuaries increases that window even more. However, when the charm is equipped, it’s worth noting that all healing costs one additional Resolve point.

For more about Ghost of Tsushima’s Iki Island expansion, be sure to read our full review. Otherwise, be sure to check out our other Iki Island guides and our guides for the first game.

East Of Raider’s Promontory Monkey Sanctuary

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The first Monkey Sanctuary you’re likely to encounter is east of Raider’s Promontory, located on the northeast side of Iki Island. You’ll see a group of Mongols guarding some cages; take them out and liberate your monkey friends!

Saruiwa Overlook Monkey Sanctuary

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This next Monkey Sanctuary is linked to the Saruiwa Overlook Mongol camp. You can find it southwest of Smuggler’s Wood atop a mountain beside a small house. However, you cannot interact with it until you liberate the nearby Saruiwa Overlook Mongol camp and free the monkeys trapped in cages scattered around the premises.

Saruiwa Mountain Monkey Sanctuary

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The last Monkey Sanctuary is located at the top of a mountain at Saruiwa, located at the southwestmost point of Iki Island. When you arrive at the foot of the mountain, look for a path leading up to an area with two monkey statues. Proceed up that way to enter a platforming route leading to the top of the mountain. Since you’re here, be sure to nab the hidden trophy “Monkey See”–we have a Monkey See Hidden Trophy guide that can help.

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Ghost of Tsushima Iki Island Expansion – Shinto Shrine Guide

Ghost of Tsushima‘s Iki Island expansion introduces more of the base game’s established activities for you to seek out. The platforming-focused Shinto Shrines return, but this time around, you’ll only have one new one to complete. Below, we detail the location of the Nakajima Shrine.

For more about Ghost of Tsushima’s Iki Island expansion, be sure to read our full review. Otherwise, be sure to check out our other Iki Island guides and our guides for the first game.

How To Find Nakajima Shrine

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You can find the Nakajima Shrine at the farthest southeastern point of Iki Island, on Nakajima Island. The shrine itself is relatively straightforward, consisting of climbing and platforming sections with a few grappling hook obstacles thrown in between.

When you take down that first branch with your grappling hook, be mindful of the small pit ahead that has a frog statue made of stone. Beside it is a Sakai Banner to collect, so jump down and grab it. Once you knock down a tree trunk to cross, make sure to check where it has landed between some rocks and vines; on the far side of the greenery is a chest that contains the Nature’s Rhythm bandana.

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Also worth noting: after you cross the first hole that you need to get low to step through, you’ll see a stairway leading up to what looks like a Pillar of Honor. Leaning up against it is the Masahira’s Bite Sword Kit. Be sure to collect it before continuing forward.

Otherwise, keep moving through the various obstacles, and you’ll be finished with Nakajima Shrine in no time.

Reward: Charm of Reflexive Sight

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As you might recall, reaching the end of a Shinto Shrine rewards you with a powerful charm accessory. When you finish up your business at the Nakajima Shrine, you’ll be rewarded with the Charm of Reflexive Sight. With it equipped, you can automatically aim your bow at an enemy who is about to see you instead of needing to aim manually at them in the heat of the moment. It’s a handy charm that can help more clumsy stealth players remain undetected.

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Ghost Of Tsushima Iki Island Guide – How To Solve The Blood-Stained Shrine And Unlock The Bloodborne Armor

Note: This article contains spoilers for the Blood-Stained Shrine on Iki Island. If you’d rather solve its puzzles yourself, read no further.

Hidden on Iki Island in the Ghost of Tsushima expansion content are three strange shrines adorned by huge statues. On your “Collections” menu, these are referred to as Wind Shrines, and each contains a riddle you’ll need to solve. If you’re a fan of other PlayStation exclusives, you should recognize what they’re referencing–three era-defining PlayStation 4 games. Those games are Bloodborne, God of War, and Shadow of the Colossus, and unlocking their riddles earns you cosmetic armors that were previously only available in Ghost of Tsushima’s Legends mode.

The Blood-Stained Shrine is the place you’ll find an homage to Yarnham and the Hunters of Old. Here’s where to find it and how to unlock its secrets. Don’t forget to check out our guides to find the Shrine of Ash and get the God of War armor, and to find the Shrine in Shadow and get the Shadow of the Colossus armor.

Note that to complete this shrine, you need to complete The Six Blades of Kojiro, a Mythic Tale back on Tsushima.

Where To Find The Blood-Stained Shrine

Look for the Blood-Stained Shrine near the west coast of Iki Island, on Gonoura Cape.
Look for the Blood-Stained Shrine near the west coast of Iki Island, on Gonoura Cape.

Head to the west side of Iki island, to Gonoura Cape. You’ll find the shrine near the coast, before you hit the Viper’s Den. Look for it on top of a rolling green hill.

How To Solve The Blood-Stained Shrine Riddle

When you enter the shrine, you’ll notice a lot of elements recalling Bloodborne and its setting of Yarnham. Specifically, the shrine is a reference to Eileen the Crow, one of the NPC Hunters you can find in the game, and you’ll find black feathers and loud crows all over the area.

The Blood-Stained Shrine contains a mural of the moon and is littered with crow feathers.
The Blood-Stained Shrine contains a mural of the moon and is littered with crow feathers.

Venture to the base of the statue and you’ll find a scroll with a poem giving you a hint about what you need to do in the shrine:

The first green of spring
sickens to black, decaying,
plagued by blood and beast.
Hunter, reject death’s allure.
Prepare to duel man’s frailty.

The poem is full of references to what happens in Bloodborne–it’s about a town plagued by blood and beasts, after all. But it also tells you what you need to do in the shrine. Specifically, it refers to the reader as Hunter, and tells you to “reject death’s allure.”

First, to embody the Hunter, you’ll need to wear the Kensei armor, which you can earn from the Mythic Tale The Six Blades of Kojiro. Next, you’ll need to “reject death’s allure.” Put another way, you need to stop yourself from dying–otherwise known as healing yourself. Make sure you have some Resolve banked and inflict some injury on Jin by jumping off one of the high rocks that wall the shrine. Land in front of the statue and then heal yourself by pressing down on the D-Pad.

Deck yourself out like you're headed to the Hunt with the Yarnham Vestments cosmetic for the Kensei Armor.

That’ll trigger a cutscene, and when you finish, you’ll earn two Bloodborne-themed items: the Yarnham Helm and the Yarnham Vestments, which is a cosmetic for the Kensei Armor made to look like Eileen the Crow.

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Ghost Of Tsushima Iki Island Guide – How To Solve The Shrine in Shadow And Unlock The Shadow Of The Colossus Armor

Note: This article contains spoilers for the Shrine in Shadow on Iki Island. If you’d rather solve its puzzles yourself, read no further.

Ghost of Tsushima‘s new Iki Island expansion includes three major Easter eggs referencing other major PlayStation-exclusive games: Shadow of the Colossus, Bloodborne, and God of War. To locate these Easter eggs and unlock some of the coolest rewards in the game, you need to locate Iki Island’s three Wind Shrines and solve their riddles. Each packs a cosmetic armor set previously only available in the Legends mode. To unlock the Shadow of the Colossus armor hidden on Iki, you’ll need to track down the Shrine in Shadow.

Here’s everything you need to know to find the Shrine in Shadow and solve its riddle to unlock your Shadow of the Colossus armor customization. Don’t forget to check out our guides to find the Shrine of Ash and get the God of War armor, and the Blood-Stained Shrine for the Bloodborne armor.

Note that to complete this shrine, you’ll need the Ghost Armor.

Where To Find The Shrine In Shadow

Look for the Shrine in Shadow near the southern coast of Iki Island.
Look for the Shrine in Shadow near the southern coast of Iki Island.

Head to the southern coast of Iki Island, almost dead center in the middle of the map, to find the Shrine In Shadow. It’s situated up in the cliffs of Buddha’s Footprints and can be tough to reach. Approach it from the east side and try to find a spot marked with a mat and a candle where you can jump across to reach the shrine’s entrance. Be careful, though–one of the handholds will break free, and you’ll need to catch the one below it to keep yourself from a painful fall to the rocks below.

How To Solve The Shrine In Shadow Riddle

Once you enter the shrine, you’ll quickly see its references to Shadow of the Colossus. The mark painted on the base of the statue at the shrine’s center is also the mark that adorns that games’ colossi, marking where you can stab them and inflict damage. The base of the statue is also covered in fur pelts, mimicking the fur of the colossi that protagonist Wander uses to climb the huge beasts in order to destroy them.

The shrine is marked with the symbol you'd find on a colossus, the sword protagonist Wander uses to slay them, and the inky darkness that bleeds from their wounds.
The shrine is marked with the symbol you’d find on a colossus, the sword protagonist Wander uses to slay them, and the inky darkness that bleeds from their wounds.

In the center of the shrine is a scroll containing a poem that recalls Shadow of the Colossus’s story, while also giving you hints about how to solve the shrine:

Stone knows no season,
Nor the colossus that was
felled to save one soul.
Wanderer, come like through mist,
a ghost casting no shadow.

The last two lines of the poem contain the clues, addressing you as Wanderer and telling you to “come like through mist, a ghost casting no shadow.”

Since the poem tells you to act like a ghost, you might have already guessed that you’ll need to wear the Ghost Armor to complete the puzzle. The second part is a little more confusing, where you’re told to “come like through mist.” While there’s a song for your flute that will change the weather to create mist, that’s not what the riddle is looking for.

The Armor of the Colossus is a cosmetic applied to the Ghost armor.

Instead, stand in the middle of the shrine wearing the Ghost Armor and throw a smoke bomb to fulfill the requirements of the poem. That’ll trigger a cutscene, and you’ll receive your Shadow of the Colossus-themed rewards: the Mask of the Colossus and the Armor of the Colossus, a cosmetic for the Ghost Armor.

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Ghost Of Tsushima Iki Island Guide – How To Solve The Shrine Of Ash And Unlock The God Of War Armor

Note: This article contains spoilers for the Shrine of Ash on Iki Island. If you’d rather solve its puzzles yourself, read no further.

Scattered across Iki Island in Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut are three Wind Shrines that contain some of the coolest cosmetic rewards in the game. Each reward is themed on a major PlayStation exclusive game, and each lets you do a little cosplay in Tsushima as you fight the Mongols. However, to unlock the three armor sets, you’ll have to find the three shrines–and solve some confusing riddles along the way.

The Shrine of Ash contains an armor set themed on 2018’s God of War. Here’s what you need to know to find the shrine and get the Spartan armor hidden within. Don’t forget to check out our guides to find the Shrine in Shadow and get the Shadow of the Colossus armor, and the Blood-Stained Shrine for the Bloodborne armor.

Note that to complete this shrine, you’ll need the Sakai Clan Armor.

How To Find The Shrine Of Ash

Head to the eastern coast of Iki, east of Tatsu's Ladder and north of Yahata Forest, to find the shrine.
Head to the eastern coast of Iki, east of Tatsu’s Ladder and north of Yahata Forest, to find the shrine.

You’ll find the Shrine of Ash near the eastern coast of Iki Island, just south of the river delta near Tatsu’s Ladder. Look for the shrine set into a hill, which you can approach from the west to find stairs leading down. It’s marked by white birch trees, which make it stand out from the surrounding forest.

How To Solve The Shrine Of Ash Riddle

Fans of God of War will immediately pick up on why the aforementioned birch trees are important to this shrine. To the left of the statue, you’ll see one of the birch trees marked with a handprint. In God of War, that handprint belonged to Freya, Kratos’s wife and the mother of Atreus, Kratos’s son. Also buried in the birch tree is an axe, recalling both Kratos’s actions at the start of the game to chop down those special trees, and the Leviathan axe that is his central weapon in the game. This one’s quite a bit simpler, however.

That's not the Leviathan axe in the Shrine of Ash, unfortunately.
That’s not the Leviathan axe in the Shrine of Ash, unfortunately.

In the center of the shrine is a scroll with a poem that recalls the story of God of War and gives you the clues you need to unlock the shrine:

In fall, a tree fruits
which grows from seed to sapling,
a stranger and son.
Boy, honor your father’s fight.
Show him the strength of your blade.”

The meaningful parts of the poem for our purposes are the last two lines. They tell you to “honor your father’s fight” and “show him the strength of your blade.” Those are the clues we need to solve the Shrine of Ash.

Each shrine is solved by wearing a specific set of armor and performing a specific action. For this one, you’ll need the Sakai Clan Armor found during Act 2 of Ghost of Tsushima. That armor belonged to Jin’s father, Kasumasa Sakai, and he was wearing it when he died fighting raiders on Iki–so to “honor your father’s fight,” you’ll need to wear his armor.

Next, the poem says to “show him the strength of your blade.” This one is pretty simple, actually–just swipe to the right on your controller’s touchpad to draw your sword while standing in the shrine.

The God of War armor is a cosmetic you can unlock for the Sakai Clan armor, complete with Kratos-themed helmet and face mask.

If you’ve got the Sakai armor on, you’ll trigger a cutscene and earn your rewards: the Helm of War, Spartan face mask, and Ghost of Sparta cosmetic for the Sakai Clan Armor.

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Splitgate Gets Ranked 2v2 Mode

Splitgate now has a second competitive mode: Ranked 2v2. So if you only want to play ranked with your friends but can’t pull together a full team for Ranked 4v4 or Ranked 3v3 Takedown, you now have the option of playing competitively with a single partner.

The update that added Ranked 2v2 also improved server capacity and implemented, according to developer 1047 Games, “minor bug fixes.”

This is wonderful news, given that the Splitgate beta just hit 10 million downloads. If you’re one of those 10 million, it’s now a bit easier to squeeze into the servers and get into a match. And if you haven’t yet downloaded the game, you should change that–you need to play Splitgate.

There’s no word on when Splitgate’s beta will end as it has been extended indefinitely. In a press release, 1047 Games said that it realizes that it cannot throw more server capacity at the game; instead, more complex fixes are needed to improve scalability issues.

1047 Games teased that it has more news concerning Splitgate that will be revealed at Gamescom on August 25. The developer is also currently working on Xbox Series X|S and PS5 upgrades for Splitgate.

Splitgate is available for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PS5, PS4, and PC.

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Iconic Anime Neon Genesis Evangelion Coming To Blu-ray With An Ultimate Edition Set

Blu-ray has been the dominant movie format for well over a decade, but iconic mecha anime Neon Genesis Evangelion hasn’t taken advantage of the format–until now. Thanks to distributor GKids, Neon Genesis Evangelion is getting a massive Blu-ray release and you can pre-order it right now (via Polygon).

Neon Genesis Evangelion Ultimate Edition is limited to 5,000 units and is available to pre-order through the GKids store for $279, a price available only for pre-orders. If you pick it up after December 7, it’ll cost you an even-more-eye-watering $349. The set includes the original 26-episode anime series and two follow-up films, Evangelion: Death (True)² and The End of Evangelion. Notably, the Rebuild of Evangelion quadrilogy is not part of this edition.

Now Playing: Netflix’s Neon Genesis Evangelion Is Missing Key Components – GS News Update

The Ultimate Edition includes not one but two sets of English dub and sub tracks–the “Classic’ ones from the original release and the “Official” ones used in the Netflix release. Like the Netflix release, GKids says that the original ending theme, “Fly Me To The Moon,” will not be included in this release.

Aside from the show itself, the set features over seven hours of bonus features, a 156-page artbook with a glossary of EVAs and Angels, a show timeline, and a bunch of posters and promotional artwork; 11 double-sided artboards featuring art from the show’s Japanese LaserDisc release; a resin paperweight created for this edition based on Sachiel from the show’s debut episode; and a NERV ID card with lanyard. The whole thing comes in a “premium-quality rigid-board shoulder box featuring artwork never before released in North America.”

The Ultimate Edition set releases this December.

Destiny 2 Season 15 Will Nerf Anarchy And Xenophage, Buff Some Other Exotics

Destiny 2’s upcoming Season 15 is ushering in a bunch of big changes to gameplay, including an array of balance updates to its weapons. Alongside these tweaks, Bungie is rolling out overhauls to a handful of Exotics–including nerfs to a couple of fan favorites.

The biggest nerf is coming to the Anarchy grenade launcher, a weapon that’s been a permanent part of many players’ raid loadouts. While Bungie wants to keep the gun powerful, the studio has tweaked it so that it can’t be as good for both boss damage and clearing minor enemies. Total ammunition is being dropped from 26 to 16 shots, while its boss damage is getting cut by 30%.

The Anarchy Exotic Grenade Launcher.
The Anarchy Exotic Grenade Launcher.

Anarchy’s not the only raid favorite to get a bit of a nerf. Bungie’s also rolling out changes to tone down Xenophage, the extremely popular Exotic machine gun. However, these tweaks are in response to Bungie’s planned buff to all machine guns, and they are designed to keep Xenophage close to its current effectiveness. Xenophage’s rate of fire will be cut from 120 rounds-per-minute to 90 RPM, and it won’t receive as much of the machine gun buff as other machine guns. Bungie states that its damage-per-second will be lower, but its burst and sustained damage will be improved.

Vex Mythoclast, an Exotic Fusion Rifle with a full-auto mode, is receiving the biggest buff of the Exotics, with a massive 40% damage boost in PvE. It’s also getting improvements to range, stability, rate of fire, and charge time (when in Linear Fusion Rifle mode). In addition, its catalyst will grant stability and damage after a kill, and you no longer sacrifice overcharge stacks when you stow the gun if it’s in automatic fire mode.

While these are the three biggest changes, Bungie’s also implemented a tweaks to a handful of other Exotics. Among others, Bastion will get a PvE buff and PvP nerf, Jötunn’s charge time will be reduced, and Fighting Lion will be slightly nerfed. You can read all of the changes at the bottom of this article.

All of these Exotic changes will arrive on August 24 with the launch of Season 15. We don’t know what the season’s story will cover yet, but we do know that it’ll bring Legendary Stasis weapons among other weapons changes. We’ll find out more during Bungie’s showcase event, where it’ll also talk about the The Witch Queen expansion.

Destiny 2 Season 15 Exotic Changes

Anarchy

  • Reduced total reserve+magazine ammunition from 26 to 16.
  • Reduced damage by 30% vs bosses (Champions are not bosses).

Xenophage

  • Reduced rate of fire from 120 to 90 RPM.
  • Receives less of the Machine Gun PvE damage buff.

Fighting Lion

  • Fighting Lion reserve ammo increased from “a lot” to “infinite.”
  • Receives the same changes as other breech Grenade Launchers.
  • Reduced base reload stat to 0 (breech Grenade Launchers with 0 reload stat reload very, very slowly).
  • Now increases reload speed to its previous level on damaging multiple enemies with one grenade.
  • We’ll be keeping an eye on this, but believe it’s in a good place with this change (and note that we’re not going to over-nerf an Exotic with its own subreddit).
  • You shouldn’t be manually reloading Fighting Lion anyway.

Vex Mythoclast

  • PVE damage bonus increased by ~40%.
  • Range stat increased to be near-best in class for high impact Auto Rifles.
  • Increased stability stat.
  • Reworked catalyst to grant stability and damage after a kill.
  • Increased rate of fire from 360 to 390.
  • Reduced Linear Fusion Rifle mode charge time from 820 to 533 (same as standard Linear Fusion Rifles).
  • No longer loses overcharge stacks on stow except when in Linear Fusion Rifle mode.

Merciless

  • Updated perk to account for fewer shots per burst (should build up charge rate at the same amount per burst as before).
  • Reduced the damage penalty for increasing charge rate by 40%.

Jötunn

  • Reduced charge time from 0.82s to 0.78s (i.e. charges 0.04s faster).
  • Slightly reduced damage per shot.

Bastion

  • Reduced damage by 15% (can now not quite kill a Guardian with one shot in the three-shot burst it fires).
  • Increased spread angle by 10%.
  • Increased PvE damage by 25% (so overall around a 10% increase in PvE).

Sweet Business

  • Now refills magazine on picking up Special/Heavy ammo instead of Primary.

Perks

  • Firing Line
    • Reduced damage bonus to +20% precision damage for all supported weapon archetypes (was highly variable depending on weapon type).
    • Will roll on some Sniper Rifles, Linear Fusion Rifles and Machine Guns, and maybe some other stuff in the future.
  • Certain damage perks only affected impact damage on explosive weapons, we’ve updated these specific perks to also increase detonation damage.
    • Kill Clip
    • Rampage
    • Adrenaline Junkie

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New Mandalorian Behind-The-Scenes Video Shows Mark Hamill Reprising His Star Wars Role

The Disney Gallery series, now into Season 2, gives us behind-the-scenes looks at Disney productions, with the current season focusing on The Mandalorian Season 2. Ahead of an upcoming installment titled “Making of the Season 2 Finale,” Disney has released a clip to prime us for the episode, featuring Mark Hamill himself.

The clip features Mark Hamill entering through the ship doors, lightsaber lit, cut with clips of Filoni talking.

One of the best parts of making Star Wars, says Lucasfilm Executive Creative Director Dave Filoni, is “standing on the side and watching somebody, again, I saw the child inside Jon [Favreau] that he experienced Star Wars, I saw that with Peyton [Reed, director of the Mandalorian Season 2 finale], you see your crew just staring at Mark, and you realize they’re remembering what it meant to them, and you realize that you’ve been a part of constructing something that’s giving that experience to people, this good feeling, and fundamentally Star Wars should deliver a good feeling, an uplifting feeling in you, your family, your kids, whatever.”

Disney Gallery: Star Wars: The Mandalorian – “Making of the Season 2 Finale” premieres on Disney+ on August 25. The Mandalorian Season 3 is about to start filming, and it won’t feature Benedict Cumberbatch as Thrawn, despite the internet’s best efforts. Much closer is another Mandalorian’s story, The Book of Boba Fett, which is scheduled to debut sometime in December 2021.

Destiny 2 Season 15 Adding New Legendary Stasis Guns For More Icy Kills

Over the past few seasons of content, one of the big focuses in Destiny 2 has been the addition of Stasis abilities and weapons to players’ arsenals. In the upcoming Season 15, Bungie is dramatically expanding the collection of Darkness-powered weapons with the addition of Stasis Legendary guns.

In its weekly update, the developer revealed how Stasis weapons will work when they roll out next week. You can expect a variety of different types, and while Stasis Power weapons will go in your Power weapon slot, all others will be in the Kinetic slot. This is because Bungie doesn’t want to clutter up the Energy Weapons slot any more, and because Stasis guns don’t inherently work differently than other weapons.

Salvation's Grip is an Exotic Stasis weapon that's already in the game. Stasis Legendaries are coming next week.
Salvation’s Grip is an Exotic Stasis weapon that’s already in the game. Stasis Legendaries are coming next week.

The core distinguishing feature of the Stasis arsenal is that the guns can have Stasis perks. These are weapons perks based on the same powers that you might be familiar with from the Stasis class abilities: Namely, slowing enemies down or freezing them completely. In the post, Bungie states that these perks can allow the player to sometimes land a kill shot on the enemy they have frozen or slowed.

Unfortunately, we don’t have any other details yet, such as what some of these weapons will look and feel like. However, we do know that Stasis weapons aren’t the only big change coming in the next season. Bungie is also rolling out a set of weapons tweaks that’ll make primary weapons have infinite ammo, buff fusion rifles, and tweak grenade launchers. It’s also nerfing some fan favorite Exotics. We don’t have long to wait to see all these changes for ourselves: Season 15 launches on August 24, the same day that Bungie is holding a showcase event to reveal more info about the upcoming season and The Witch Queen expansion.

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