Destiny 2: Season of Dawn is now underway

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Destiny 2: Season of Dawn, bringing us the return of Osiris and the resurrection of Saint-14, is now live, and that means we've got some patch notes to look at. A lot of patch notes.

First, though, a recap: Saint-14, who we discovered dead during our excursion into the Infinite Forest in the Curse of Osiris expansion, is now feeling better thanks to some time-manipulation shenanigans on the part of Osiris, who will hopefully be a little more interesting and engaged this time around. This is all actually a time-twisting counter-campaign in response to an effort by Cabal Psion Flayers, who are trying to mess with the timeline in order to change the outcome of the Red War. Got all that?

Seasonal highlights, announced during a livestream last week, include a new "Charge With Light" mechanic that grants special abilities to seasonal mods, and a new finisher "playlist" that will randomly select from a group of up to nine whenever a killing stroke lands. There's also a new Sundial activity for season pass owners that will pit teams of six Guardians against hordes of Cabal enemies in past-and-future alternate timelines, with changing mixes of champions and bosses. The horde mode sounds fairly straightforward, but the randomized blend of elements from different timelines could be a fun playground to run around in.

And you can finally ride your Sparrow on Mercury, which is long overdue but also, let's be honest, a bit like driving between stores on opposite sides of a parking lot: Silly and not really as much of a time-saver as you might think, but sometimes you just can't be bothered to hoof it.

The patch notes seem to be about what was expected: The long-awaited Thundercrash buff, increasing base damage from 2700 to 3200, is finally in place, and linear fusion rifle precision damage has been increased by 20 percent as well—except for Sleeper Simulant, which used to be a great weapon and now, well, is not. Stacking restrictions have been removed from many armor mods, and similar mods can now be stacked for an improved effect, albeit with diminishing returns—you'll get less relative benefit than you would from two different mods.

There are also a number of adjustments made to different Guardian classes, mainly but not exclusively Solar, and some Steam-specific additions: Steam and Switch controllers are now supported through Steam input, Steam Link and Remote Play will now work with supported controllers, and Text Chat lobbies will now try to recover when Steam Servers come back online.

The dawning of the Season of Dawn will bring free seasonal rank rewards, a new seasonal artifact and unlockable armor set, and a new story campaign for all Destiny 2 players. Season pass owners will also get:

Instantly unlock the Exotic Scout Rifle, Symmetry
Play the new 6-player activity: The Sundial
Exotic Quests, Seasonal Armor Sets, and Ornaments
New Triumphs, Bounties, and Seasonal Lore Books
Exotic Emote, Ghost, Ornament, and Finisher
Additional Season Pass rewards to unlock

For the detailed rundown of everything that's changed, have a look at the Destiny 2 Update 2.7.0 patch notes. A more big-picture look at what's happening in the Season of Dawn can be had at bungie.net.

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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.