by theygamesDestiny 2 Legendary difficulty has just gotten significantly easier, according to recent updates from Bungie. The changes are in response to player feedback that suggested that the FPS game‘s move to make content more challenging for its Lightfall expansion went too far, making some activities feel extremely difficult or, in one case, nearly impossible when playing with a Destiny 2 fireteam.
“We’ve been keeping an eye on community feedback on overall difficulty since Lightfall’s launch, and we have some changes in today’s update and future updates that retune certain experiences,” says the blog post, which is part of development team’s weekly This Week at Bungie (TWAB) series. “In today’s update, we’ve reduced Legend and Master enemy HP scalars for non-boss units, which we felt were a little higher than we liked:
- Reduced the enemy HP scalar in all non-raid/dungeon Legend and Master activities by 10%.
- Reduced the co-op enemy HP scalar in Legendary Avalon by 33% in a full fireteam.”
These are welcome changes, as the game’s Legendary difficulty was frustrating to Destiny 2 Guardians of all skill sets, ranging from casuals to seasoned players.
It’s notable that Bungie specifically addressed the game’s Avalon Mission, part of the Destiny 2 Vexcalibur Exotic glaive quest, and its difficulty scaling. While many people thought that the base difficulty of the mission was challenging enough, others noted that when they played on Legendary difficulty with a full fireteam, the experience became quite the slog. Apparently, Bungie agrees, as it reduced the Legendary mission damage scalar by a whopping one-third.
Players who completed the game’s other activities on Legendary difficulty are sure to feel frustrated knowing that they could have saved themselves some pain and effort by waiting for Bungie to implement today’s hotfix. Regardless, the change is likely to improve the game’s overall health.
Often when Bungie makes decisions around things such as difficulty scaling, it does so by looking at not only player feedback on forums like Reddit but also at player data. Therefore, the changes may have not only been in response to vocal feedback but also to high numbers of people either quitting these activities when attempting them on Legendary difficulty or simply choosing not to play them in the first place.
These questions of difficulty impact player experiences regarding the game’s expansion, which has also received criticism for its perceived weak storyline and failure to answer questions about a mysterious object called The Veil in Destiny 2 Lightfall. Metacritic reviews for the expansion across platforms range between 66% and 70%.
The TWAB also notes that the game has adjusted its Destiny 2 Commendations once again. Bungie reduced Hawthorne’s weekly challenge Commendations target from 20 to 5, removing objectives that required players to give Commendations to earn Guardian Ranks 7, 8, and 9 and lessening the number of Commendations for Rank 7, 8, and 9 to 100, 250, and 500 respectively.
In the TWAB, senior design lead Chris Proctor also shared a preview of forthcoming weapon balancing changes. These changes will impact PvE primaries to make it easier to kill red bar enemies at Legendary and Heroic difficulty. Many players feel primaries have been weak overall for some time. The changes primarily impact auto rifles, pulse rifles, hand cannons, sidearms, and scout rifles.
The team will also adjust Aggressive Frame SMGs, fusion rifles, trace rifles, and sniper rifles. The Final Warning sidearm will no longer be able to track targets through barricades, and the team will also make adjustments to Tarrabah and Revision Zero.
Notably, Bungie will introduce reticle changes as of season 21. The TWAB offered a preview video of what to expect.
These forthcoming changes should impact numerous weapons, including several weapons on the Destiny 2 Lightfall Exotics list. Visit our guide to learn how to obtain the multiplayer game‘s best new weapons, as Destiny 2 season 20 is quickly approaching its halfway point.