Destiny 2 Update Adjusts Shotguns, Hand Cannons, And Dead Man’s Tale: Read The Patch Notes

The update Bungie has been teasing for a while now is now live in Destiny 2, bringing a bunch of balancing changes to weapons for the game’s player-vs.-player activities. Most notably, shotguns have been adjusted to be a little less instantly deadly, while major meta guns like certain hand cannons and the Dead Man’s Tale Exotic scout rifle have been nerfed to decrease their dominance.

Bungie dropped the patch notes for Update 3.2.1 on its website, running down a bunch of tweaks for weapon balance, as well as some other bug fixes. A lot of the changes to weapons we’d heard about previously–Bungie has talked in the past about how certain guns have been taking control of the Crucible this season, and that it wants to rework the entire class of secondary “special” weapons so that they’re great in specific circumstances, but can’t be relied upon as specific go-to guns that everyone has to carry. Those are guns that use tougher-to-find special ammo and include weapons like shotguns, fusion rifles, and sniper rifles.

In the patch notes, Bungie details how it has reworked shotguns in particular, making them a little less effective for one-hit kills up close. That change is meant to make shotguns less of a default weapon for most players, since slipping into close range and getting off one good shot is a major strategy in the Crucible right now, to the detriment of other special weapons. While shotguns will be less of a guaranteed one-hit kill going forward, they’ll be a little more viable from a few steps away, making the possibility of getting a two-shot kill a little higher. The idea here is that Bungie wants shotguns to still be the right gun to use in these close-range situations, while creating a disadvantage if you’re using them while out of position. Still, though, shotguns are hugely dominant in the Crucible, and the purpose of these changes is to make it possible to bring some other guns to the competition instead.

Also getting an adjustment are “Aggressive” hand cannons, or those that fire 120 rounds per minute. These hand cannons have been go-to weapons in the Crucible all season thanks to other balance changes, and Bungie is hoping some tweaks will make it so other weapons can also shine in PvP competition. Bungie reduced the damage multiplier on 120 hand cannons a bit so players won’t be able to land two-hit headshot kills as often, and also adjusted the guns’ capabilities at range so they won’t be quite so deadly from quite so far away.

Since it was released last season, the Exotic scout rifle Dead Man’s Tale has been a major force in the Crucible, showing up in most activities and devastating the competition most of the time. Bungie made adjustments to the gun so it won’t be as accurate or do as much damage firing from the hip as aiming down the sights, which should make the gun a little less powerful overall. We’ll have to wait and see if that renders Dead Man’s Tale inert in the Crucible, though, since its whole deal was being awesome when fired from the hip.

Most of the other adjustments in the patch are bug fixes, with Bungie addressing issues like players falling through certain platforms in this season’s Expunge missions, or certain armor ornaments not working correctly. You can read the full patch notes below.

Destiny 2 Update 3.2.1 Patch Notes

ACTIVITIES

Crucible

• Fixed an issue where the cinematic intro on the Radiant Cliffs map, in competitive modes, would show Guardians hovering in the air.
• Fixed an issue where Glory gain and loss amounts were not properly adjusted based on skill level.
• Fixed an issue that prevented the Dead Cliffs map from loading correctly in Glory playlists.
• Reduced damage of Trace Rifles in Momentum Control.

Expunge

• Styx
  • Fixed an issue where the Codestrider platform over the boss would fail to have collision in certain circumstances.
• Tartarus
  • Fixed an issue where a Codestrider platform would fail to have collision in certain circumstances.
  • Fixed an issue where defeating the boss before the second immunity phase would block mission completion.

Strikes

• Fallen S.A.B.E.R.
  • Fixed an issue where the lightning damage-over-time effect when exploring the vents in the boss room was missing from a specific location.
• The Arms Dealer
  • Fixed an issue in the Legion’s Anchor area where a Phalanx would sometimes teleport into the middle of the encounter area, after dunking the first carry object.
• The Inverted Spire
  • Fixed an issue where players who died in the drill area could have their Ghosts appear far back in the strike. The Ghosts now appear at set safe locations in the drill area.

Raids

• Vault of Glass
  • Fixed an issue where players could not display raid metrics on VoG emblems.
  • Fixed an issue where players were still able to purchase Vault Caches after unlocking everything from it.
  • Fixed an issue where the Atheon Cache required Warlocks to have the chest armor unlocked to obtain the head armor.
  • Fixed an issue where the Ahteon Cache required Titans to have the chest armor unlocked to obtain the class item.
  • Fixed an issue where players could get out of the environment at the beginning of the raid.
  • Fixed an issue where players could spawn in undesirable locations when joining in progress before the Oracles encounter.
  • Fixed an issue where bounties did not progress when killing combatants.
  • Fixed an issue where Grenade Launchers did lower than intended damage to Oracles.
  • Fixed an issue where the Aegis Relic would be removed if the player holding the relic left the activity in the middle of an encounter.
  • Fixed an issue where Atheon would not cast a Detain Bomb after attempting to stomp on a Guardians face during the damage phase.
  • Fixed an issue where the Aegis Relic Cleanse ability sometimes failed to remove darkness debuff from some players.
  • Fixed an issue where Atheon would become incredibly confused if Guardians put too many boxes on the dance floor.
  • Fixed an issue where damage phases could be elongated based on framerate settings.
  • Fixed an issue where players could live through a detain by simply doing their favorite dance.
• Deep Stone Crypt
  • Fixed an issue where some players would encounter crashes when entering airlocks.
  • Fixed an issue where players could use Sparrows to get out of the environment.
  • Fixed an issue where Ghosts would sometimes spawn in unreachable areas if a Guardian joined in progress, leading to unintentional wipes.
  • Fixed an issue where players could damage Taniks before starting the final encounter.

Dungeons

• Pit of Heresy
• Fixed an issue where Pit of Heresy emblems were not tracking solo Flawless completions.

UI/UX

Crucible Activity Intro

• Fixed a bug that may cause graphical corruption of the UI during the intro sequence.
• Fixed an issue where class icons may not appear properly.

Quest Tab

• Players who have not purchased the Season Pass for Season of the Splicer will now have the Splicer Gauntlet removed from their inventory when they reach the end of the Path of the Splicer I quest.
• Season of the Chosen weekly quests now appear in the Past section.
• The Hammer of Proving quest item should now appear in the Past section instead of the Seasonal section.
• Exotic quests related to Presage and Dead Man’s Tale now appear only in the Exotic section.

Director

• Fixed a bug in which players would see three Season of the Splicer quest icons on the H.E.L.M. node of the Director when they only had two Season of the Splicer quests active.
• Fixed an issue causing the incorrect message to display when a free player prevents a fireteam from launching into Override.

Bounties

• Fixed an issue where bounties from Ada-1 would sometimes show incorrect progress, which could appear in red.

GAMEPLAY

Armor

• Heavy Handed now correctly refunds energy when Shiver Strike is cast.
• Impulse Recycler now grants energy on kills from Getaway Artist’s Sentient Arc Soul.
• Boots of the Assembler’s Noble Seekers now correctly proc Benevolent Dawn for Blessing of the Sky.
• Reverted the Boots of the Assembler change to Rift recharge rate.
• Assassin’s Cowl no longer clips through most Hunter cloaks.
• Felwinter’s Helm will no longer change all Solstice armor glows to Stasis.
• Fixed an issue where glow-enabled armor items would not appropriately display their glow if plugged into another glow-enabled armor item.
• Created universal ornaments for previous Solstice of Heroes armor sets.
  • These ornaments will be available for players who obtained glows for that armor piece in 2018 and/or 2019.
  • They will be unlocked for all three classes.
  • Their glow color will change match the player’s subclass.
• Dawn Chorus can now be reset to its default shader after another shader has been applied.

Weapons

• Reissued remaining Moon (Lectern) and Dreaming City (world drops) weapons with new perk pools.

Weapon Archetypes

• Shotguns
  • Increased Aggressive Frame Shotgun cone angle from 4.0 to 4.25 degrees.
  • Reduced Shotgun damage falloff min by 2m.
  • Increased Shotgun damage falloff max by 2m.
• Aggressive (120 RPM) Hand Cannons
  • Reduced precision damage multiplier from 1.8 to 1.6, preventing a 10% damage bonus from allowing 2-tapping in PvP.
  • Reduced aim assist minimum falloff distance by 1-2m depending on the Range stat.
  • Reduced damage minimum falloff distance by 1m (this gives them a 1m advantage over other Hand Cannons).

Perks

• Pulse Monitor
  • Fixed an issue where the Handling bonus was not applying.
• Rewind Rounds
  • Fixed an issue where the perk would not trigger if the last shot in a magazine missed, or the player reloaded another weapon before firing the final shot.
• Reservoir Burst
  • Updated with the same consistency and speed fix as Dragonfly.

Exotics

• Dead Man’s Tale
  • Removed hipfire damage falloff scalar (was 1.8x to match zoom).
  • Reduced Aim Assist cone angle hip scalar from 1.5 to 1.2.
• Sleeper Simulant
  • Fixed an issue where Sleeper Simulant was benefiting less than other Linear Fusion Rifles from the Season 14 Linear Fusion Rifle precision damage buff.
• Vex Mythoclast
  • Updated intrinsic perk description to describe the functionality (was originally a reference to the Destiny 1 text).

General

• Fixed an issue causing Null Composure not to be Masterworked when pulled from Collections.
• Fixed an issue where Cryothesia 77k’s charged shot could misfire if fired near the end of the charge buff.
• Fixed an issue where feminine characters’ left hand was not attached to the Gridskipper Pulse Rifle.
• Fixed an issue where Vision of Confluence glows were not taking shader coloring when dyed.
• Fixed an issue where the Null Composure ornaments were not showing ammo state while in ADS.
• Temporarily removed Legendary weapons that did not have Masterwork slots from Banshee-44’s inventory.
  • Note: We’re planning a full fix for Season 15.

Abilities, Aspects, and Fragments

• Fixed a bug in which Slow duration from Withering Blade did not increase with Whisper of Durance Fragment equipped.
• Fixed a bug in which Stormcaller Warlocks were unable to use Ionic Blink while slowed by Stasis.
• Fixed a bug in which Diamond Lance could be generated by throwing a Glacier Grenade into a pile of Telesto projectiles.
• Fixed an issue where many abilities were not properly costing Sentinel Shield energy when guarding.
  • Celestial Fire
  • Withering Blade
  • Shiver Strike
  • Glacial Quake
  • Silence & Squall

INVESTMENT

Bounties and Pursuits

• Adjusted Cosmodrome, EDZ, Nessus, Moon, and Dreaming City Destination Public Event Bounties so Heroic public events contribute the most progress.
  • Eventful Moments
  • Public Works
  • Public Performance
  • Lunar Defender
  • Public Works
• Updated Seasonal Stasis Aspect Pursuits
  • Entropic Shards can now be destroyed by any Stasis damage, not just Salvation’s Grip.
  • This does NOT affect the original nine Entropic Shards hidden around Europa; those are much more hardy and still require the concussive power of a Heavy Grenade Launcher.
• Increased Armor Synthesis bounty purchase time on Ada-1 to prevent accidental bounty purchases.

Stat Trackers

• Fixed emblems to allow stat tracker categories matching how the emblem was rewarded.
• Fixed an issue causing the Expunge Fastest Completion stat tracker to update regardless of whether or not the run was faster than the currently recorded time. Those stat tracker values should now only update when a faster time is achieved.

Ghost Cosmetics

• Colossus Helmet Projection now displays properly.

PLATFORMS AND SYSTEMS

• PC
  • PC performance optimizations for AMD RX series GPUs.
  • Fixed a crash bug when launching on Intel Integrated Graphics systems.
• PlayStation
  • Fixed a bug where content verification would trigger Beagle errors on PlayStation 5 and require a reinstall.