Destiny 2's weekly update for April 16th at a glance
This week's Bungie snapshot has us warming up for Guardians gameplay.
Spring is here, and the competition is heating up. The second annual Guardian Games will begin on April 21st, BST. The theme of the event remains the same, with various professions competing against each other in friendly matches to show off their combat skills. Last year, Titans pretty much ruled the event. Will Warlocks and Hunters be able to take the fight back from these giant iron fisted machines this year? Time will tell the answer.
If you're a first-timer or need a refresher on what Guardian games are all about, this article is a good starting point. In today's weekly post, we'll talk about some of the changes to this year's event. But before we do, let's take a look at the promotional clips.
Last year, we received a lot of feedback about calculating the composite score. You can read this posting to revisit it, but basically we're using a weighting of career-specific scores based on the percentage of the number of careers owned in the total player population. We do this so that hunters don't have a huge advantage because of the number of hunters. This year, we will not be doing any weighting. Everyone's score is calculated the same at the beginning. So how are the scores calculated this year?
Medals have the following values:
Bronze: 1 point
Silver: 2 points
Gold: 5 points
Platinum: 15 points
We're still taking into account the number of people in different professions, so this year, the profession that finishes 3rd on each day will get a permanent 10% score bonus.
We've tested out this year's new score-counting system using last year's data as well as a few other data sets, and so far it looks like this new system will provide a much more competitive Guardian gaming experience for everyone. We observed different professions winning the event in the end. Hunters may have an easier time winning early on due to their numerical advantage, but with the score bonus calculation, this race will be tight.
New Guardian Game List
Another new addition to this year's event is the Guardian Game Strike List. This is similar to the standard Vanguard Strike List, but with players of the same profession grouped together. This will better serve the laurel collection mechanic, where players can earn extra laurels as they collect laurels of the same profession spawned by other players.
Modifiers
This new playlist will have modifier affixes and add affixes based on the previous day's career rankings. Professions will receive the following bonuses based on the gold, silver, and bronze rankings earned:
Gold: Life, shield value, and recovery boosts. Kinetic weapons deal more damage.
Silver: Melee skills recharge faster. Guardians deal increased elemental damage. Heavy ammo drop rate increased.
Bronze: Grenades deal more damage and recharge faster. Guardian deals increased elemental damage.
There will also be mitigating affixes in order to give the leaders more of a challenge. Professions that win gold medals will receive two mitigating affixes, while those with silver medals will receive one mitigating affix. These modifier affixes will be based on the profession that is next in line on the podium.
Silver-medal professions will only have their mitigating affixes determined based on the profession that won the bronze medal. Gold medals, on the other hand, will be based on a combination of silver and bronze medal professions to determine the mitigating affix.
Basically, we want to make the Guardian Games Strike List a staple for players competing for podium rankings, as it will be the most effective way for players to earn laurels.
Medal Boxes
You'll get a medal box from Eva to store your medals until you visit the podium in the tower and deposit medals for your team. Once you've reached your medal box limit in certain categories, be sure to go ahead and store your medals first, otherwise any medals of the same kind you earn afterward will simply be lost. Depending on the type of medals submitted, players have a chance to receive an event package.
Competitor Cards
This year, we're adding a new way to earn points: competitor cards. You can redeem laurels by picking up these cards from Eva and activating a Competitor Card at all times. Completing objectives in Strike, Melting Pot Arena, and Wisdom will earn you a gold medal when you're done.
Of course, there is a special Platinum Contender card that allows players to complete objectives in Sunset, Survival and Trials. This will be the only way to earn a Platinum Medal. Completing a Platinum Medal gives you All-Star status and reaps special rewards in the next podium ceremony.
If you want to activate your All-Star status over the weekend, then you'll need to complete your Platinum Contender card before the reset on Saturday BST.
Podium Ceremony
Every weekend there will be a special ceremony for you to show off the dazzling effects on your career items determined by that week's career rankings.
Third place will receive a bronze-colored dazzle.
Second place will receive Silver Dazzle.
First place will receive gold-colored dazzle.
All-Stars will receive Platinum Dazzle.
We'll be celebrating the winning professions with a final week of closing ceremonies at the Tower from May 8 to May 11!
Rewards
As usual, this event will have new loot drops. At the start of the event, you'll receive a brand new profession item from Savala - a necessity for participating in the Guardian game. Your old profession items won't count for this event, though they still look cool. Super cool.
You can also get a new Exotic Fast Sparrow in this event, because every Guardian could use a good car well technically they're not cars, but you know what I mean. It's a pretty cool car blimp ship? Right. You can definitely drift in them.
Oh yeah, there's also a new logo and shader and legal successor (for those of you who didn't get one last year). And those of you who already own this exotic machine gun can now get a brand new Catalyst. If you want to play as the Ta'o Spirits Military Commander, this Catalyst will provide you with a thicker shield, allowing you to rampage across the battlefield like Kabal.
The Eternal Poem will also feature a host of new collectibles, such as a set of new generic skins. At the time of the release of Lingering Moment, we said we'd make future universal skin sets work better with the shaders. New technology has made it easier for us to accomplish this change, and this Guardian playset is a perfect example.
BUNGIE REWARDS
You'll get the glory and rewards next week, but Guardians can preview the Bungie rewards now. Players who have earned the Guardian Games Exotic Fast Sparrow unlock their redemption code to purchase the exclusive Guardian Games Jacket (which comes with three career patches).
Participate in the final week's Closing Ceremony at the Tower to unlock the purchase of a commemorative gold medallion for the winning profession. Don't want to wait? Silver Career Stamps are now available on the Bungie Store, and you can earn Gold Stamps by competing for them.
Bungie Rewards will feature a free logo commemorating the Guardians game. Complete the Guardian Games playlist strike during Guardian Games to unlock the free reward.
Guardians can now complete the final week of season challenges. As part of Bungie's rewards, you can receive a free Chase the Thrill logo after completing the Master of Everything achievement.
Future skins
Last month, we held a poll to determine which armor skins would be released at the Day of the Snake later this year. It was a fun showdown between dinosaurs and monsters, and we wanted to do the same thing with the weapon skins piece.
We have 12 skin candidates for you to choose from. You can choose 3 of them for weapons you'd like to see new skins for in the future. We'd like to get your feedback sooner rather than later, and the current plan is to finish the skins early next year.
Scarlet Romance
War Lion
Graviton Lance
Monarch Butterfly
Cold and Ruthless
Going to the Dangerous
Inciner Oath
Blazing Projectile
Candy Business
Titan Thirteen
Tribe Sitter
Vigilant Feathers
Click here to complete the questionnaire and vote!
Which weapon will ultimately win? We know there's a cult of war lions out there, and there are a lot of people who want a new skin for the Monarch Butterfly. We'll announce the results in a future installment of our weekly newsletter.
Shader Smash
Let's turn the mic over to the Player Support Specialists to bring us the latest information on issues and important information about the game.
Trial Grounds Sunset
Earlier this season, we clarified that players would need to purchase the Moment of Glory and Season Pass if they wanted to do the Trial Grounds Sunset. We've since changed the requirements so that the Proving Grounds Sunset now requires either the Moment of Light or the Chosen Season Pass to participate. Players do not need to have both to play this sunset.
We are working with our team to update our Chosen Season calendar and future calendars to reflect this change.
Guardian Game Known Issues
There are some specific issues and information we would like players to be aware of before logging into Guardian Game 2021:
Players must be wearing a Guardian Game Profession item in order to earn a Laurel and calculate Guardian Game Bounty progress.
Previous Guardian Game Profession Items (Cloak of Cunning Competition, Seal of Mighty Competition, and Armband of Wise Competition) do not generate Laurels or grant Guardian Game Bounty progress.
Professional items obtained from Savara are 1250 light levels instead of the 1300 light levels obtained from Eva.
Laurel crowns will not fall to the ground in the Wisdom or Melting Pot arenas, but will be awarded directly to the player as a reward.
Laurel crowns that are not picked up will not be sent to the player's Postmaster; they must be picked up to be counted.
If the medal box is full, the medals earned for completing the achievement are lost.
The steps to obtain laurels for the Legal Heir Exotic Quest only count the number of laurels picked up from the ground.
Players who have deposited a medal of a specific rarity in a high tower will not be able to deposit medals of that rarity earned in the high tower afterwards. Players will need to return to the track and then re-enter the High Tower to deposit these medals.
Some shaders incorrectly remove the flare from the Eternal Poetry Warlock Guardian Game Universal Skin Set.
We will continue to detect player reports in the Help forum on Bungie.net and keep updating our issue list articles. For more information, please visit our Guardian Games support page.
STEAM DATAGRAM RELAY
Over the past few weeks, we've expanded our SDR coverage on Steam, Xbox, and PlayStation consoles. This has resulted in an increased number of Beaver errors that players may encounter.
If players are experiencing additional errors or linking issues, please go to the #Help forum to post a report.
Disassembling Your Shaders
Starting in Season 14 (starting May 12), we will be redoing the shader system and changing the existing mechanics between shaders and armor. As a result, shaders will become permanently unlocked and all shaders in the player item bar will be removed. We encourage everyone to dismantle shaders for Ember and Legendary Shards before Season 14.
More information on the new shader system can be found below, "Reuniting Ada."
Weekly Known Issues
While we've been working on a variety of known issues, we've also received a series of issues on the #Help forums that have been reported back by players:
Completing the Heretic Abyss logo, "Scarlet Echoes," solo failed to track completion counts.
Players may fall under a fence and get stuck during a Trials Strike.
Hunter's Assassin's Hood and most Hunter's Cloaks occur through the mold.
To see a full list of Destiny 2's current known issues, you can see them within the Known Issues article. Players experiencing other issues should be sure to report them to the help forums.
Well Guardians, we look forward to a fair and exciting contest. Remember, as much as we enjoy poking fun at other professions and beating the crap out of each other in friendly competition, in the end we are still comrades on the same side. Win or lose, let's keep our enthusiasm and sportsmanship intact. So my fellow hunters, let's stay humble after winning the gold medal this year.