Bungie’s 30th Anniversary pack will give Destiny 2 players what they want: Exotic buffs

Destiny 2’s Bungie 30th Anniversary celebration is less than a month away, and Bungie is sharing patch note details. And in addition to the new dungeon, activities, weapons, Gjallarhorn, and whatever other surprises Bungie has in store for players, some fan-favorite Exotics will see major improvements.

Bungie has tired out some fans with a host of nerfs over the years, but Bungie’s latest blog post is mostly buffs. The most notable changes are to beloved Exotics like Whisper of the Worm and Sleeper Simulant. Sleeper is getting the smaller of the two buffs, with a 6% damage increase (alongside an additional 10% Linear Fusion Rifle damage increase) and an extra shot in the magazine.

Trials of osiris recovery and boost

Whisper of the Worm, which was once the go-to damage weapon in nearly all fights, is getting a significant rework. In addition to a 10% damage increase, the Whispered Breathing damage increase offered by the weapon’s Catalyst now activates 0.9 seconds faster — which is a much bigger deal than it seems. Hitting three successive headshots in a row will also refill the magazine by only using two shots from reserves — meaning you get one free bullet for being accurate with trials of osiris recoveries and boosts.

The blog also highlights a host of other great Exotic improvements:

• Leviathan’s Breath Catalyst will also give the Archer’s Tempo perk
• Malfeasance’s explosions will do 50% more damage
• DARCI will do 20% more damage and the Personal Assistant perk will be more reliable
• Cryosthesia 77K will get a complete rework and no longer drain players’ magazines
• Suros Regime’s Dual Mode Receiver version gets increased range and zoom
• Arbalest will intrinsically have anti-barrier
• Fighting Lion will reload much faster on a successful hit
• Dead Man’s Tale will see some recoil adjustments for controller users

While that’s all great news for Destiny fans, Bungie will also give out a few slight nerfs. Vex Mythoclast is getting its PvP wings clipped a little — mostly around it’s aim assist. Heir Apparent’s Catalyst is getting a bug fix, which should rein in its defensive capabilities. Lorentz Driver will no longer give bonus ability energy, and Traveler’s Chosen will offer reduced ability energy regeneration in PvP — Bungie community manager, dmg04, clarified on Twitter that this is preempting an ability regen change coming later.

Bungie is also making some significant weapon archetype changes. Slug shotguns will lose 10% damage in PvE, but pellet shotguns will gain 10% PvE damage. Caster swords now use less ammo for a heavy attack, and bows will deal 10% more damage against weak enemies. Fusion Rifles and Sidearms will also see an obscure bug fix, making them hitscan more reliably. And as we mentioned with Sleeper Simulant, all Linear Fusion Rifles will deal 10% increased damage. There are also some perk and mod adjustments coming.

Finally, the studio mentioned a few development points coming in the Witch Queen expansion. Bungie is looking to move Catalysts away from pure Orb or Power generation, and will finally have a solution in February 2022. There will also be a reason to use two weapons of the same element and stat type in Witch Queen, although Bungie isn’t telling why yet. All primary weapon Exotics will also get a tuning pass to make them more useful.

All of these changes, aside from those specifically teased for the upcoming expansion, will launch alongside the Bungie 30th Anniversary event on Dec. 7.