Destiny 2 Patch Notes Preview Includes Trials, Raid Reward Changes

The release of Destiny 2's Season 11 is imminent, with less than a week left of the current Season of the Worthy. With the new season will come a livestream presentation that'll address what's coming next for Destiny 2 in Season 11 and the game's upcoming fourth year, as well as a new update to the game to make some changes. Bungie gave a preview of that patch in a weekly blog post, and while most of what it mentions has already been announced, a few tidbits should be welcome to players.

The developer dropped the info in its latest This Week at Bungie blog post, providing a portion of the patch notes for Update 2.9.0. Most interestingly, Bungie is tweaking Trials of Osiris to deal with some issues it saw in the Season of the Worthy. Trials pits players in intense multiplayer battles where the goal is to get a "flawless" run of winning seven matches in a row. Bungie tweaks Trials to get harder over time, so the closer you are to going flawless, the more likely you are to run into other players who are also closing in on a flawless run. But in this past season, some players would repeatedly reset their Trials tracking cards so they would be put back to the beginning of a run, and therefore have the easiest matchmaking, so that they could earn Trials tokens after each match, which could be used to purchase the activity's armor and weapons.

Update. 2.9.0 changes trials so that tokens will only drop at the 3-, 5-, and 7-win milestones, instead of after each match. That should discourage players from repeatedly resetting their cards so they can go after easier teams and stockpile tokens, and give less-skilled teams more of room to compete.

Bungie is also making Trials more rewarding even if you don't manage a flawless run every weekend. Trials will now award players with Masterwork materials for upgrading weapons and armor at 3, 5, and 7 wins. There's also a new weekly Trials bounty that will award players who complete it with the weekly reward they'd get for earning three wins on a card.

Overall, those changes should make Trials a little less harrowing for players who aren't as good, while further incentivizing it for players who want to brave it each weekend. Bungie is also looking to make a few of its old raids a little more rewarding, too, with a few new changes that'll make it easier to get a couple of the coolest but most frustrating-to-earn guns in the game.

Those guns are One Thousand Voices and Anarchy, Exotic weapons that can only be earned from the Last Wish and Scourge of the Past raids, respectively. Both guns have drop rates that are notoriously low, meaning some players run the raids over and over without earning them. Update 2.9.0 should put a stop to that, at least after a while. The chance of earning one of the guns from a successful raid completion now starts at 10%, and will increase to as high as a 50% chance once you've completed 20 runs. So if you're willing to put in the time, you should, finally, be able to get two of Destiny 2's rarest weapons.

Check out the full patch notes preview below.

Update 2.9.0 Patch Notes Preview

Eververse

• Legendary Armor Ornaments
  • As noted in a previous TWAB, we have shifted the Season 11 armor offering to be a gameplay reward for aspirational content.
  • The Season of Opulence “Intrepid” Ornament sets are returning to the storefront.
• Season Pass
  • Added an additional 2300 Bright Dust to the Season Pass.
• Bright Dust Purchases
  • Added a “Flair” section to feature Shaders and Spawn FX.
• Highly requested items from previous Seasons will once again be available.
  • We’re looking at you, Wishes of Sorrow.
• We will once again communicate Season 11 Silver-only items at the beginning of the Season.

Sandbox

• The Powerful Friends armor mod will no longer stack. If multiple copies of this mod are equipped, the mods will provide no bonus stats.
  • Developer Commentary:
    • Only Solar Seasonal mods are intended to stack. No part of Arc mods are intended to have stacking functionality.
    • Powerful Friends granted +20 to Mobility, which players could leverage to get three stat columns to the max of 100 points. The mod is not priced sufficiently to justify its benefits, and increasing its cost would have adverse effects on its primary benefit usage.
    • Season 11 introduces a new Arc mod, granting a similar stat bonus to Strength and will not stack.
• Enhanced Auto Rifle Loader, Enhance Fusion Rifle Loader, and Enhanced Bow Loader armor mods now have a chance to drop from pinnacle mod sources.

Raid Rewards

• The following raid Exotics now have increased drop chances
  • One Thousand Voices
  • Anarchy
  • Always on Time (Exotic Sparrow from secret chest in Scourge of the Past)
• Note: Drop chance begins at 10% and increases to a max of 50% over 20 clears

Trials Rewards

• Additional Masterwork material rewards now drop at 3, 5, and 7 Trials wins.
• Added a Trials weekly bounty which unlocks Trials Engrams on Saint-14.
  • The bounty reward will match the Win 3 Milestone reward of the week.
• Trials Tokens distribution has been rebalanced to focus on wins 3, 5, and 7 of a Trials Passage.
  • This includes repeat Passages.
• Trials Tokens are no longer awarded from match completions.
  • Tokens are now granted specifically through wins and bounties.
• Passage of Wealth now doubles the bonus Trials Tokens earned at 3, 5 and 7 Trials wins.