Destiny 2 and The Taken King Release Date: Weapons Changes and More

Jul 17, 2015 02:07 PM EDT

A very lengthy memo was posted on the Bungie website this morning from Sandbox Designer Jon Weisnewski about a Destiny 2.0 update.  Weisnewski took the time to thank the community who play the Destiny video game for their feedback, and addressed several issues.  This is what is known about the Destiny 2.0 Release Date and what changes will be made with the weapons. 

According to Gotta Be Mobile, these changes that Bungie wants to put with Destiny 2.0 will change a lot of what fans have become familiar with.  The purpose of these changes is to better balance gameplay, but the end result could be a player backlash.  What is interesting is how Bungie does not want to bring out these upgrades a little at a time in order to satisfy some of its fans, but Destiny 2.0 will bring them about all at once. 

Polygon states that the "across-the-board changes are happening to auto-rifles, hand cannons, shotguns, pulse rifles, fusion rifles, and rocket launchers in great detail".  For example, the Auto Rifle is getting more damage and a damage boost against enemies that aren't player controlled.  It has also been made so shooting close doesn't do as much damage as being a bit further away. 

There will also be a base increase in the damage of Scout Rifles, not to mention an increase in the magazine size and a reduction with its accuracy.   Pulse Rifles can do 2.5 percent less base damage than before, and it decreased stability with repeated shots and increased the amount of shots you can take with the weapon's standard magazine. 

As for shotguns, the shot accuracy is reduced 30 percent, precision damage reduced by 10 percent, and reduced damage against non-player enemies by 10 percent.  Also affected are Fusion Rifles, Sniper Rifles, and Rocket Launchers. 

Then there comes the changes to the more exotic weapons such as Hardlight, getting an increase in stability, as well as Necrochasms.  There will also be "tweaks" on such popular special weapons like The Last Word, Thorn, Hawkmoon, Ice Breaker, Black Hammer, Lord of Wolves, and Gjallarhorn. 

According to Weisnewski, "we reduced the base stats value of a few target stats across various weapon types".  Brand new weapons will have less stability when starting out, but players will have the option to mode these weapons to make up for this.  The big uproar could come from the changes in Destiny 2.0 is that players will have to create a powerhouse weapon with a meaningful trade-off, something that they were not able to do before. 

Just so readers can be clear, Destiny 2.0 is not related to Destiny 2, a sequel to the game which is reportedly still in development, according to Cinema Blend.  You should expect to see Destiny 2.0 released with the next major expansion, The Taken King, which is expected to have its release date on September 15th, which was recently announced at E3 2015.  For those that want more details about the weapons changes, check out the official memo from Jon Weisnewsi at the Bungie site