What you need to know
- Destiny 2's new midseason patch arrived recently, bringing a variety of bug fixes and significant weapon buffs to the game.
- Unfortunately, the update also introduce a large number of new bugs and glitches that are affecting everything from player subclasses to audio, loot drops, triumphs, and more.
- Several mods and a popular Terminal Overload farm have also either been broken or stealth nerfed.
Update 4/19/23 at 3:41 p.m. PT / 6:41 p.m. ET: Bungie took to the official Destiny 2 Team Twitter account to clarify some things about the update and share additional patch notes. We've embedded the full thread below.
Morning, Guardians! We missed some patch notes this week.Here's an update 🧵1. When Ashes to Assets and Hands On are equipped, players will only receive Super energy from one of the mods, not both. https://t.co/1ClvP72d7lApril 19, 2023
Our original story is below.
Destiny 2's highly anticipated midseason patch rolled out yesterday, with the highlight of the update being some significant PvE buffs to a variety of Legendary and Exotic primary weapons. Notably, these adjustments have had an immediate (and significant) positive impact on how using these weapons in the endgame feels. Some fixes for well-known gameplay issues were included, too, including a glitch that could cause the Scission encounter in the Root of Nightmares raid to soft-lock and a rare, but frustrating crash that could occur in The Arms Dealer strike.
Unfortunately though, the patch also shipped with a variety of bugs, as well as some potential stealth nerfs to fan-favorite farms and options for Destiny 2 builds. Below, I've listed every issue and stealth nerf I've caught wind of, all of which have been taken from multiple player reports on Twitter, Reddit, and other social media platforms.
- The Firepower mod doesn't spawn Orbs of Power like it's supposed to, and there are reports of inconsistent spawns with the Reaper mod as well.
- The Ashes to Assets helmet mod has either been stealth nerfed or is broken.
- The Thread of Generation Strand Fragment has either been stealth nerfed or is broken.
- Grenade-related mods no longer seem to work with Strand's Grapple Grenade.
- Firesprites aren't spawning properly.
- Radiant-buffed weapons aren't stunning Barrier Champions like they're supposed to.
- Many players have been unable to collect ammo from raid banners.
- Players are experiencing disconnects and crashes while playing the King's Fall raid.
- Defiant Battlegrounds chests may not give loot when opened.
- Raid encounter loot isn't being awarded to players properly (drops will either not occur or go to the Postmaster after several minutes).
- The Terminal Overload exploit that allowed players to open chests multiple times has seemingly been stealth fixed.
- Many players have reported severe audio issues that cause the game to sound horribly loud and distorted.
- Some have somehow earned Guardian Games-specific triumphs even though the event hasn't begun yet.
- There are several reports of gilded titles being lost or reset.
- Players cannot finish the Retribution quest and obtain Amanda Holliday's ship if they already got it by resetting their War Table rank. The War Table was supposed to drop a Ghost Shell instead.
- The Guardian Games statue in The Tower incorrectly states that Hunters, not Warlocks, won last year's competition.
While some of these bugs are fairly minor, several of them are severe and have a significant impact on player builds. For example, the inability to spawn Orbs of Power with Firepower and Reaper have made it much harder for players to engage with Destiny 2's new Armor Charge mod system, and the bugged/stealth nerfed version of Thread of Generation makes Strand builds feel much worse than they did before the patch. The audio glitches also make playing the game insufferable for anyone affected, forcing players to completely mute it.
Overall, it's a bummer that one of the best Destiny 2 patches since the Lightfall expansion's launch on paper has turned out to be a bit of a disaster. It's the latest in a series of frustrating technical issues in Bungie's looter shooter, from the servers going down for emergency maintenance to frequent API downtime and multiple instances of increased login queues, error codes, and mid-game disconnects. Hopefully the developers are able to get things fixed soon, and can clarify whether or not certain changes are intentional or the result of a glitch.
Destiny 2: Lightfall is available now on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One consoles, Windows PCs, and PlayStation systems. In it, you'll take the fight to Emperor Calus, gain access to Strand subclasses and their unique abilities, and more.
