Almost Every Destiny 2 Weapon Subtype Is Getting A Small Overhaul In A Mid-Season Update

Big changes are coming to Destiny 2 in Season 19, as developer Bungie outlined details this week on how destination materials will be scrapped in favor of a more simplified economy before next year's Lightfall expansion launches. On a more granular level, you can also expect plenty of fine-tuning in the weapons department, as just about every type of gun in the game has gone under the microscope to get an overhaul as part of a mid-season update arriving next week.

Some of these changes are small and likely won't be felt in regular PvE content, but for PvP players, they will be more significant. In its weekly blog, Bungie detailed these changes and some of the highlights include increasing the ease of use for high-impact auto rifles, making them feel better to shoot within their optimal ranges, and buffing their stability stats. Precision-frame auto rifles won't change much, but you can expect critical hit damage to increase slightly.

Bows will see reduced effectiveness for players who use the bow-swap kill strategy in PvP, and pulse Rifles will see adjustments to handling stats, damage fall-off, and slightly increased critical hit damage. High-impact scout rifles will now do reduced body and critical damage, and sidearm auto-aim fall-off distance has been increased by 30% across the board.

For submachine guns, Bungie has made a number of subtle changes to damage fall-off range, increased base damage for precision frame SMGs and reduced base damage for lightweight-frame SMGs. For energy weapons, expect more of a challenge in the handling direction of precision-rifle fusion rifles, more stability for trace rifles, and an emphasis on using sniper rifles for surprise kills in PvE engagements. Glaive shield damage resistance vs. other players has dropped from 75% to 50% and other damage factors remain unchanged. As for rocket Launchers, their blast radius has been slightly increased for this season.

Bungie also briefly mentioned a few other weapon-tuning ideas that it's experimenting with, which could be implemented next season. Special ammo linear fusion rifles will see an auto-aim reduction and flinch tuning in Season 19, and machine guns are being reworked to be a better weapon in PvP and less punishing to use for cannon fodder clears in PvE.

A few Exotic weapons will be tweaked as well, so expect changes to Jade Rabbit, Lord of Wolves, No Time to Explain, and Riskrunner next week.

For more on Destiny 2, you can check in to see where Xur is and which map Trials of Osiris will be played on this weekend.