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Many of the weapons in Destiny 2 are about to get boosts to their effectiveness, thanks to changes Bungie is making with the release of its Shadowkeep expansion on October 1. The developer has continually detailed changes that are coming with Shadowkeep, and while there won’t be a Weapons 2.0 system similar to upcoming armor changes, we are about to see buffs that will make many weapons much more viable throughout the game.
Bungie explained the weapon changes in its weekly This Week at Bungie blog post, along with detailing its content calendar for Shadowkeep and the Season of the Undying. It seems just about every gun in the game is getting some love. Several Exotic weapons are getting alterations to make them more effective and increase their magazines, and some weapon archetypes are getting buffed to make them stronger in a variety of situations. Most of the buffs are for the PvE side of the game, but a few things will also make certain guns better for competitive play in the Crucible as well.
One of the biggest changes alters how weapon mods work. Right now, weapon mods you get in Destiny 2 are consumable, single-use items that you can attach to guns to give them a variety of additional perks. If you want to change mods, however, you lose the ones you’ve already got equipped, so you need to constantly add more to your collection and save a stockpile.
Starting in Shadowkeep, mods you own will be treated as unlocks rather than consumables, meaning once you own a mod, you’ll own it forever and can add it to any gun at any time. Bungie writes that “this gives players the opportunity to play with different mods more frequently.” If you have a mod in your inventory when Shadowkeep is released, it’ll automatically be converted to an unlock. That doesn’t count for any mods currently equipped on your guns, though–they have to be in your inventory. So if you only have one of a certain mod and you’ve slapped it on a weapon, you’ll need to reacquire the mod in order for it to switch to an unlock.
A lot of the other changes are more granular, like Sweet Business getting its magazine increased to 150 rounds, Crimson getting a big damage buff, and Tarrabah and The Huckleberry hitting 10% harder in all situations. Here’s the complete list of every weapon change that’ll come with Shadowkeep when it launches on October 1.
Destiny 2 Shadowkeep Weapon Changes
General
- Weapon mods are now treated as reusable unlocks instead of consumables. Any mods you have in your inventory will be converted to unlocks
- This gives players the opportunity to play with different mods more frequently
- If the only copy of a mod you have is already in a gun, you will need to reacquire one to unlock it
- Auto Rifles
- PvE damage increased between +30% and +25% depending on combatant rank
- Bows
- PvE damage increased by +31% against minor enemies, and +26% against major enemies
- Fixed an issue where bow draw times were displayed incorrectly in the inspection screen
- Hand Cannons
- PvE damage against minor enemies increased by 30%
- Lightweight and Adaptive hand cannons use a new firing animation while aiming down sights
- This change was made to increase weapon accuracy when firing these weapons as fast as possible
- Ex: Currently, players can shoot faster than the recoil animation of 140/150 archetypes – so while the handcannon looks to have fully reset from recoil, the following projectile will be shot as if the weapon was still in a recoiled state.
- Reduced the effect the range stat has on damage range falloff (effective range) for this weapon archetype
- Machine Guns
- PvE damage against minor enemies increased by 25%
- Increased the effects of damage range falloff on this weapon archetype
- Pulse Rifles
- PvE damage against minor enemies increased by 28%
- Increased the effects of damage range falloff on this weapon archetype.
- Archetype specific damage changes (impacts both PvE and PvP gameplay)
- Rapid-Fire Pulse Rifles now deal 14/23.8 base/precision damage (Previously 13/21.4)
- High Impact Pulse Rifles now deal 21/33.6 base/precision damage (Previously 20/32)
- Scout Rifles
- PvE damage increased between +36% and +18% depending on combatant rank
- Sidearms
- PvE damage increased to minor and major combatants by 16%
- Sniper Rifles
- PvE damage increased by +47% against minor enemies, +20% for others
- Exotic sniper rifle perk damage bonuses have been modified to compensate for this change and they will not receive the full benefits as a result
- PvE damage increased by +47% against minor enemies, +20% for others
- Submachineguns
- PvE damage increased by 22.5% against minor/major combatants
- Aggressive Frame
- Removed the intrinsic effect of “Deals bonus damage at close range.”
- This bonus was 10%, but was unintentionally always active
- The bonus damage has been moved to the base damage for 750 RPM Submachineguns, resulting in no damage change
- As a result, Tarrabah and The Huckleberry gain 10% damage in both PvE and PvP
Exotics
- Sweet Business
- Increased magazine size from 100 to 150.
- Increased PvE damage by 15%.
- High Caliber rounds have been replaced with Armor Piercing rounds.
- Damage changed to 15/21.2 base/precision (Previously 13.21/21.14)
- This weapon no longer requires you to be firing when you pick up ammo to have it automatically reload.
- Graviton Lance
- PvE damage increased by 30%
- Sunshot
- Increased magazine size to 12
- Vigilance Wing
- PvE damage increased by 25%
- Crimson
- Damage changed to 19/30.5 base/precision (Previously 13.76/24.75)
- Fixed an issue that was causing this weapon to deal higher flinch than intended
- Merciless
- Fixed the missing aim assist stat for this weapon
- Ace of Spades
- Memento Mori’s damage bonus is now affected by range falloff
- Lumina
- Noble Rounds should apply their buff to allies more reliably now
- The Colony
- “Serve the Colony” now functions as Auto Loading Holster does
Perks
- Subsistence
- Reduced the impact of this perk on total reserves
- Ricochet Rounds
- Removed the hidden bonus to damage falloff
- Swashbuckler
- Perk now activates when getting a kill with Ball Lightning
- Grave Robber
- Perk now activates when getting a kill with ranged melee abilities (ie: Ball Lightning, Explosive Knife)
- One-Two Punch
- Reduced the effectiveness of stacking One-Two Punch and Cross Counter (Liar’s Handshake)
- Ex: Players won’t be able to defeat Riven in less than three seconds after Shadowkeep launches using the combo of One-Two Punch and Liar’s Handshake, but we know many of you will try other builds … and potentially even succeed.
Combatants
- Minor enemies (Rank-and-File) no longer take more precision damage than other enemies.
- These enemies previously took twice as much damage to their precision hit locations than enemies of higher ranks.
- You will still deal precision damage, but this is now entirely dependent on the weapon, as it is for higher ranked enemies.
