Bungie details a big ol' bunch of nerfs coming to Destiny 2 in the next season

(Image credit: Bungie)

The latest This Week at Bungie update doesn't reveal the name of Destiny 2's next season, I'm sorry to say, but it does offer a look at some of the changes coming to weapons when it begins in March. It doesn't sound like the adjustments will be as dramatic as the recently-announced overhaul of swords, but various archetypes will undergo "finer tuning" for the advent of the new season, impacting damage values, range, and even aspects like reload cancelling.

Sniper rifles, grenade launchers, shotguns, fusion rifles, and auto rifles will all be tweaked to varying degrees in the new season. The PvE damage boost that Sniper Rifles were given in Shadowkeep is being taken away, as it was "giving them too much of a leg-up on their closer range counterparts." Grenade launchers are also being toned down somewhat, while "oddities" in the aim-assist for shotguns and fusion rifles that could actually cause unexpected misses will be eliminated.

Auto rifles are being adjusted with the goal of making them a little more effective in the Crucible, although the changes will have an impact on PvE as well. "The nature of the way Destiny is played tends to have Semi-Auto based weaponry be more effective in general and so we’re compensating for that with these tweaks," Bungie explained. "These are fairly modest changes intended to give Auto Rifles more of a chance in an open fight without attempting to drag the TTK of the entire game down."

Some specific weapons are also being tweaked, most notably Izanagi's Burden: It will have its Outlaw trait replaced with No Distractions, while the animation speed of Honed Edge has also been changed so it will no longer be affected by the reload stat.

"Since the removal of auto-reload effects from Rally Barricade and Lunafaction Boots, as well as the introduction of a catalyst for Izanagi’s Burden, it’s seen a significant uptick in use," Bungie said. "Izanagi’s Burden solidified itself within the majority of endgame builds due to its excellent burst damage, sustained damage, ammo economy due to Special ammo, and safety due to being a Sniper Rifle. The Outlaw trait was swapped out for No Distractions to be more in-line with the fantasy of the weapon and to ensure the trait on the weapon would still work with Honed Edge."

Lord of Wolves is also being adjusted so that its accuracy will be "significantly" reduced when the Release the Wolves perk is active—"With this change, Release the Wolves should be used at extremely close ranges against large targets instead of just being a better version of the default behavior," Bungie said—while The Last Word, which "became quite dominant due to its extremely forgiving maximum time-to-kill," is being made a little harder to handle, so you'll actually have to put a little effort into your aim if you want to hit what you're shooting at.

The changes will go live at the start of the next season, whatever it ends up being called, but Bungie said that some of them are actually in preparation for a new, tougher "Grandmaster" difficulty for Nightfall Strikes that will be rolled out later in the season. Which is an interesting bit of news in itself, although details won't be shared for awhile yet.

Officially, the next season of Destiny 2 remains shrouded in mystery, but based on the efforts of some enterprising dataminers it will be called Season of the Worthy, and will start on March 9 (Update: Or maybe March 10, as a reader has pointed out that the 9th is a Monday, and new seasons normally begin with Tuesday resets)—and will also very likely bring back the hardcore PvP mode Trials of Osiris.

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Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.