This Week in Destiny detailed a number of things coming in Destiny 2: The Final Shape. These include Fireteam power, new details on the contest mode raid, and among the most interesting, confirming Sunsetting will be sunset itself.
Earlier this year Bungie revealed a new mechanic called Fireteam Power. Basically, players will be boosted to 5 power levels below the highest level player when doing specific content. Since this sidesteps certain mechanics, Bungie confirmed they’re removing power limits on legacy gear, effectively removing sunsetting completely.
Bungie unfortunately notes they have no way to recover dismantled gear, but assured players “most or all” of these will return will new perks, origin traits, and more.
While Fireteam Power might make players hopeful Destiny 2: The Final Shape‘s upcoming raid, which releases a couple days after the expansion, it will not be enabled on contest mode. However, it was confirmed the effective cap will be 1965.
Finishing the campaign on Legendary will reward a “full set” of gear at 1960, so it shouldn’t be too bad of a grind. Especially with the powerful cap reaching 1990, and the hard cap being 2000.
Further details on the aforementioned content, and more can be found below.
HOW POWER WORKS IN DESTINY 2: THE FINAL SHAPE
Fireteam Power was announced at the Destiny 2 Showcase 2023, but we’ve got a lot more coming with The Final Shape when it comes to improving how Power works in Destiny 2.
We’ve revisited our Power systems and overhauled our UI to make Power more intuitive and approachable than ever before. You’ll find a whole bunch of changes detailed below, all made with the following goals in mind:
- Power offers a meaningful progression that rewards players with a real sense of getting stronger.
- Destiny 2 is a game you can always play with your friends, regardless of your Power level.
- Lower the barrier to entry for Destiny 2’s story content.
- Power should be intuitive and understandable, both for experienced and new players alike.
FIRETEAM POWER
In The Final Shape, playing with friends will be easier than ever, no matter if you play every day, haven’t played in years, or are trying Destiny 2 for the first time.
The player with the highest Power level in the fireteam will become the Power Leader, and all other players in the fireteam will be brought up to five Power below the Power Leader (if their Power isn’t already higher). Fireteam Power only affects activity difficulty, and your unadjusted Power level will still determine the Power of your rewards.
Being a Power Leader will also give you a boost to any commendations earned at the end of the activity.
Your Power level will now be displayed next to the Activity Power Cap, right by the launch button, so you can easily determine how difficult the activity will feel.
When your Power is increased by Fireteam Power, your adjusted Power will take its place. Here, soyuz_bng is the Power Leader, and is boosting rook_bng to 1995 Power (five below soyuz_bng’s Power of 2000).
With Fireteam Power, friends should always be able to play together, regardless of Power level.
REMOVING POWER LIMITS FROM LEGACY GEAR
One problem we encountered when designing Fireteam Power was Power limits found on older gear items. You might have noticed as you read about Fireteam Power that the Adjusted Power shared by the Power Leader would sidestep the caps on old Power limited items, making it possible to ignore them. After thoroughly considering the problem space, we came to the decision to remove Power limits from all items starting in The Final Shape.
Always being able to play with your friends was a huge goal for us. As we close out the Light and Darkness saga, we want to rally all Guardians (active, returning, and new) to help fight the Witness, and there is no better way to play Destiny than with your fireteam. As we pursued this goal, it became apparent that Power limits were fundamentally incompatible with Fireteam Power.
We understand that many old Power limited items have been dismantled by this point, and we regret that we have no recovery mechanism for these. Going forward, we intend to reintroduce sources for most or all of these, updated to modern Destiny sandbox standards with added properties such as Origin Traits and buildcrafting perks (as we have started to do with the BRAVE arsenal in Destiny 2: Into the Light).
POWER BANDS
We’re improving Power Bands to further lower the barrier to entry. In The Final Shape, the Soft Cap will only require 40 Power to reach (down from the usual 150).
This change should allow New Lights enough time to get familiar with the core of Destiny’s Gear Power system before stepping into the broader game without holding them back. You can also easily achieve the Soft Cap by playing through either difficulty of The Final Shape campaign. If you complete the campaign on Legendary difficulty, you’ll be rewarded with an entire gear set at 1960 Power (+20 into the Powerful band), giving you a great head start towards being raid-ready for Contest mode (1965 Power)!
The resulting Power Bands in The Final Shape will be:
- Power Floor: 1900
- Soft Cap: 1940
- Powerful Cap: 1990
- Hard Cap/Pinnacle Cap: 2000
ACTIVITY POWER
Beginning with The Final Shape, the Power level of activities will become much easier to understand. We’re also making it so players can enjoy Destiny 2’s story and free-roam content at any level.
Activities will be divided into two categories: Power Disabled and Power Enabled.
Power Disabled activities play the same for everyone, no matter their Power level. Anyone at any level can jump right in and experience them to the fullest. As such, increasing your Power won’t change the difficulty you experience, and you can’t over-level the enemies in these activities. Power Disabled activities include campaigns (both Normal and Legendary difficulties), Seasonal story missions, free-roam destinations, Crucible, and some legacy content.
Power Enabled activities, by comparison, are where you grow stronger by improving your Power. These each have an Activity Power Cap, or a Power level at which you will have achieved maximum effectiveness. We’ve improved our UI to show you exactly what these Activity Power Caps are and if you’ve achieved them. Enemies will have a set feel for how tough they are even at the cap, but you will notice yourself getting stronger as your Power level grows. Power Enabled activities include Vanguard playlists, Nightfalls, Seasonal activities, Exotic Mission Rotators, Trials of Osiris, raids, and dungeons.
Every Power Enabled activity falls into one of five difficulty tiers or one unique mode:
Difficulty Tier Activity Power Cap Example Activities Standard 1945 Vanguard Ops, Seasonal activities, Exotic missions, raids, and dungeons Advanced
(Previously Hero)1995 Nightfalls Expert
(Previously Legend)2005 Nightfalls, Lost Sectors, Seasonal activities, Exotic missions Master 2010 Nightfalls, Lost Sectors, raids, and dungeons Grandmaster 2020 Nightfalls Contest Mode 1965 Raid during the first 48 hours It’s worth calling out that gameplay tuning in our existing high-difficulty content remains unchanged with these updates, and we are continuing to experiment with new activities that evolve in difficulty throughout the run (such as in Deep Dives, Coil, and Onslaught). We look forward to continuing to explore ways to make difficult activities engaging and rewarding to conquer, while making your ongoing Power climb feel meaningful and important.
ARTIFACT BONUS POWER
The way you earn Bonus Power from the Seasonal Artifact is staying the same at its core, but we’ve rebalanced it to better offer a meaningful and rewarding progression given other upcoming changes.
With the additional time offered by each Episode, we’ve increased the number of weeks with Seasonal Challenges and they will also be receiving a buff to their XP rewards. Given this, we needed to make some adjustments to the XP requirements for Artifact Bonus Power levels. Our goals for the rebalance were that actively engaged players could attain similar Artifact levels achieved by the end of an Episode and that Artifact Power remains a rewarding pursuit throughout.
ACCOUNT-WIDE POWER
Titan, Hunter, Warlock. Most of us play primarily just one, but what if it didn’t have to be so hard to walk in a different class’s
shoesGreaves/Strides/Boots? We’re also lowering the barrier to entry to play multiple classes by introducing Account-Wide Power.Starting in The Final Shape, the gear rewards you earn on any character will drop with a Power level relative to the highest Power character on your account. Level up the Power of your Hunter, and when you switch over to your Titan or Warlock, the gear rewards you earn will be around your Hunter’s level. The exact Power of rewards will still depend on the source, but the Power you earn on one character will positively influence rewards you find on your other characters!
Because cross-character Power progression is now intrinsic to the game, Power Boosts are no longer offered for sale. Campaign Skips will still be available for alt characters. These changes aim to make switching between characters and classes easier than ever before, so try something new and put on that Mark/Cloak/Bond for the first time!
REWARD POWER
Finally, we’re making some improvements to the Power of rewards.
For some time now, select activities (such as ritual playlists) have had a chance of dropping a Powerful reward with +1 Power for players between the Soft Cap and the Powerful Cap. In The Final Shape, we’re extending this beyond those select activities to just about every reward source in Destiny 2! This change will help players gradually reach the Powerful Cap no matter what activities they choose to play, so you aren’t limited to just the weekly available Powerful rewards.
Additionally, we are improving the Power of rewards you purchase from vendors and Collections. All items purchased from vendors will now drop no lower than 3 below your highest possible Power, and items reacquired from Collections will be 5 below (instead of all the way down at the Power Floor).
This week in Destiny
