Destiny 2’s Season 15 update is shaping up to be one of the biggest in recent years. After teasing drastic weapon changes, Bungie has now detailed all the major buffs and nerfs to expect in the upcoming patch.
With seven years of experience on their hands, Bungie is now pulling the trigger on one of the more sizable updates in Destiny history.
In the first announcement, we learned of Bungie’s plans to overhaul every ability in the game. Then came news of more than a dozen Exotic changes and armor updates in the pipeline. Now, weapons are in the spotlight as the devs have detailed even more significant buffs and nerfs on the way.
There’s plenty to wrap your head around but we’ve got you covered with a full rundown of the biggest weapon changes locked in for Destiny 2 Season 15.
Stasis Legendary weapons arriving in Season 15
Before we get to any tweaks for preexisting guns, it’s worth noting an entirely new type of weapon is on the way. The Season 15 update marks the introduction of Legendary Stasis to the Destiny 2 arsenal.
All Stasis Power weapons will remain in the Power slot as you may expect. Though any other form of Stasis weaponry will be lumped into the Kinetic slot instead to balance things out.
As their unique bonuses, Stasis weapons will roll with slowing or freezing perks more often than not. Bungie is already well aware of potential concerns in this regard, ensuring these rolls won’t be “obnoxious to play against” in PVP.
Weapon changes in Destiny 2 Season 15
For seven years Guardians have grown accustomed to picking up ammo bricks from fallen enemies. When Season 15 arrives, there will be one less ammo type to worry about. All primary ammo weapons will soon have infinite ammo, meaning you’ll never run out.
Moreover, any perks associated with primary ammo have been adjusted accordingly. From Drop Mag to Inertia Override, many specific changes have been factored in.
- All Primary ammo weapons now have infinite ammo.
- Inertia Override has been adjusted to account for there being no Primary bricks.
- Drop Mag’s downside of reducing reserve ammo is now almost meaningless.
- Reworked to be +reload speed, -magazine size.
- Compact Arrow Shaft’s upside of increasing reserve ammo likewise.
- Reworked to be +reload, +handling.
- Updated some other perks that refer to reserves in a way that’s no longer accurate.
Grenade Launcher nerfs in Season 15
Up first for specific archetype changes, Grenade Launchers should be noticeably less effective in Season 15. After dominating the competitive meta for quite some time, these adjustments are geared specifically towards PVP.
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Reduced damage across the board aims to reduce their impact in multiplayer while maintaining their PVE power.
- Reduced blast radius by 0.4m, e.g. max blast radius decreased from 4.55m to 4.15m, min blast radius decreased from 3.80m to 3.40m.
- Reduced splash damage by 20, which reduces total damage for a direct hit from 220 to 200 (before taking spike or proximity grenades into account).
- Increased damage in PvE by 12% (because of the above splash damage change this results in a small overall buff to combined damage).
- Witherhoard is unaffected.
Major weapon buffs in Season 15
Four additional weapon archetypes were highlighted in the latest blog post, as Bungie revealed key changes on the way to Hand Cannons, Scout Rifles, Machine Guns, and Fusion Rifles.
For the first three, PVE damage buffs should see an increase in popularity. Machine Guns will deal more damage in general while Hand Cannons and Scouts will be more effective against minor foes in particular.
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In one of the more significant overhauls, Fusion Rifles are changing in a number of new ways. Some weapons will deal more damage with slower charge times, others will be more accurate from afar. While these changes aren’t intended as a “global buff,” they should make Fusions more viable moving forward.
- Increased PvE damage bonus such that all subfamilies have a 15% PvE bonus (previously high impact was 0%, precision and adaptive were 10% and rapid-fire was 12.5%).
- Pushed subfamilies further apart, adjusting charge time, shots fired per burst (was seven for all subfamilies) and damage (note that the “base” below means without battery perks, a charge time masterwork or the Adept Charge Time mod):
- High Impacts charge slower, and while still strong require more planning to use effectively.
- Base charge time increased from 0.86s to 1.0s.
- Shots per burst reduced from seven to five.
- Reduced total damage per burst.
- In playtesting, we’ve found that charging these in the open is super risky, but pre-charging around corners or otherwise in safety is very effective.
- With the reduced shots per burst, these are now less reliant on stability, so can stack a bit more range.
- Precisions and Adaptives are close to unchanged.
- Base charge time is unchanged.
- Shots per burst is unchanged at seven.
- Very slightly increased total damage per burst.
- In playtesting, we feel that these are very effective all-around, without stepping on the niches of High Impacts and Rapid Fires. (I’ll be keeping a good PLUG ONE.1 for PvP).
- Rapid Fires charge faster, allowing them to be used reactively against charging enemies, or aggressively when pushing forward.
- Base charge time decreased from 0.54s to 0.46s.
- Shots per burst increased from seven to nine.
- Increased total damage per burst.
- In playtesting, we’ve found that these are very effective against Shotgun-rushers. The combination of them needing to be closer, and you having a shorter charge time work well together, and if you have good enough timing, you can fire two bursts with a rapid fire before a high impact user finishes charging their first.
- With the increased shots per burst, these are now more reliant on stability, but with the increased damage they’re less reliant on range.
- High Impacts charge slower, and while still strong require more planning to use effectively.
- Parts of this work required adjusting several Fusion Rifle perks, and one mod:
- Backup Plan’s implementation was incompatible with the Fusion Rifle changes, and we felt like the perk could use a rework anyway.
- Removed +100 to charge time stat, adjusted charge time multiplier from 0.85 to 0.7, now scales damage by 0.8.
- Liquid Coils and Accelerated Coils needed a rework for similar reasons.
- Both converted to scale charge time and damage instead of modifying the charge time stat.
- The final effect is much the same as before, but these are now more robust, however they won’t visibly change the charge time stat in the inspection screen.
- The Adept Charge Time mod felt pointless, and we felt like it would still be balanced against other mods if it didn’t reduce damage.
- Changed functionality to scale charge time directly instead of changing the charge time stat, without adjusting the damage.
- Backup Plan’s implementation was incompatible with the Fusion Rifle changes, and we felt like the perk could use a rework anyway.
Significant Exotic changes in Season 15
Rounding out the list are eight Exotic weapons set to change in Season 15. From the recently added Vex Mythoclast to the fan-favorite Anarchy, Bungie is preparing for a drastically different meta moving forward.
- Read More: Destiny 2: Where is Xur this week?
Below is the full list of changes coming to Exotic weapons in the Season 15 update.
Anarchy Exotic Grenade Launcher
- Reduced total reserve+magazine ammunition from 26 to 16.
- Reduced damage by 30% vs bosses (Champions are not bosses).
Xenophage
- Reduced rate of fire from 120 to 90 RPM.
- Receives less of the Machine Gun PvE damage buff.
Fighting Lion
- Fighting Lion reserve ammo increased from “a lot” to “infinite.”
- Receives the same changes as other breech Grenade Launchers.
- Reduced base reload stat to 0 (breech Grenade Launchers with 0 reload stat reload very, very slowly).
- Now increases reload speed to its previous level on damaging multiple enemies with one grenade.
- We’ll be keeping an eye on this, but believe it’s in a good place with this change (and note that we’re not going to over-nerf an Exotic with its own subreddit).
- You shouldn’t be manually reloading Fighting Lion anyway.
Vex Mythoclast
- PVE damage bonus increased by ~40%.
- Range stat increased to be near-best in class for high impact Auto Rifles.
- Increased stability stat.
- Reworked catalyst to grant stability and damage after a kill.
- Increased rate of fire from 360 to 390.
- Reduced Linear Fusion Rifle mode charge time from 820 to 533 (same as standard Linear Fusion Rifles).
- No longer loses overcharge stacks on stow except when in Linear Fusion Rifle mode.
Merciless
- Updated perk to account for fewer shots per burst (should build up charge rate at the same amount per burst as before).
- Reduced the damage penalty for increasing charge rate by 40%.
Jötunn
- Reduced charge time from 0.82s to 0.78s (i.e. charges 0.04s faster).
- Slightly reduced damage per shot.
Bastion
- Reduced damage by 15% (can now not quite kill a Guardian with one shot in the three-shot burst it fires).
- Increased spread angle by 10%.
- Increased PvE damage by 25% (so overall around a 10% increase in PvE).
Sweet Business
- Now refills magazine on picking up Special/Heavy ammo instead of Primary.