Destiny 2 Patch Notes For Update 2.8.1: Pinnacle Changes And More

Bungie recently rolled out an update for Destiny 2 that--among many other fixes and the start of Guardian Games--offers more ways for players to reach the Pinnacle power level cap, which is 10 points higher than the soft-cap of 1010. Read on for the highlights from the update and the full patch notes.

Previous to update 2.8.1, players had to grind challenging tasks like achieving a high score on difficult Nightfalls or completing Master Nightmare Hunts, and many of those required a group of hardcore friends to accomplish consistently. Now, weekly events like Crucible, Strikes, and Gambit will all drop Pinnacle gear, which will make achieving that power cap far more likely for solo players.

The update also fixes many bugs and exploits, including the broken difficulty scaling of the Whisper of the Worm and Zero Hour activities, which are required to obtain the Outbreak Perfected Catalyst. There was some confusion about the change that the update would make to the Nova Bomb ability: Though the first set of patch notes stated that Nova Bomb would now consume a character's melee charge, this was apparently a typo. According to Bungie, the update should now prevent Nova Bomb from mistakenly using a melee charge.

This patch also coincides with the launch of the Guardian Games, an event where all Guardians can compete against one another to see what class can manage to overcome the rest. There's a series of daily class challenges to complete, and every challenge you conquer adds to your classes' total. The winner will be displayed in the Tower for the rest of the year. It also provides the opportunity to get the new Heir Apparent Exotic; our Guardian Games guide runs down how to obtain it and how the event works.

Full patch notes for the April 21 update below:

Combat

• Fixed an issue in which Ward of Dawn was not generating Orbs of Light .
• Fixed an issue in which Ward of Dawn could not be activated while holding a Sword.
• Fixed an issue in which casting Nova Bomb would consume your melee ability (Attunement of Hunger).

Emblems and Trackers

• The "Playin' the Odds" emblem earned through the Gambit intro quest is now always claimable from Collections.
• Players who have completed the Divinity mission, but did not correctly receive the Exotic Trace Rifle Divinity, will now have it unlocked and available to reacquire in their Collections.
• Players who have completed the Forsaken campaign will find The Lawless Frontier lore book entry "By Thy Tongue Be Damned" completed and available to claim.
• Emblem metrics added for emblem stat trackers that were present before 2.8.0, and display the same data as before.
  • Trackers added:
    • • Season 8 Season Pass Rank Earned
      • Season 9 Season Pass Rank Earned
      • Fractaline Donated
      • Kills as a Sentinel Titan
      • Kills as a Striker Titan
      • Kills as a Sunbreaker Titan
      • Kills as a Arcstrider Hunter
      • Kills as a Nightstalker Hunter
      • Kills as a Gunslinger Hunter
      • Kills as a Stormcaller Warlock
      • Kills as a Dawnblade Warlock
      • Kills as a Voidwalker Warlock
      • Gold Medals Earned
      • Longest Glory Win Streak
      • Total Valor Resets
      • Pit of Heresy Solo Flawless Completions
      • Kills of Final Bosses in Hive Escalation
      • Completed Nightmare Hunts on Master Difficulty
      • Medal Tracker - 7th Column
      • Medal Tracker - Annihilation
      • Medal Tracker - We Ran out of Medals
      • Medal Tracker - Ghost in the Night
      • Medal Tracker - This Crown is Mine
      • Medal Tracker - I Made This for You
      • Medal Tracker - Undefeated
      • Wins in Trials of the Nine
      • Flawless Tickets in Trials of the Nine
      • Kills in Crimson Doubles
      • Defeated Opponents When Under Effects of Iron Burden
      • Black Armory Forge Completions
      • Kills of Haunted Forest Terrors
      • Deepest Branch of Haunted Forest Cleared
      • Recipes Baked
      • Completed Branches of Verdant Forest
      • Number of Revelric Light Triggers During the Revelry
      • Completed Tier 3 Encounters During the Reckoning
      • Completions of Menagerie
      • Completions of Heroic Menagerie
      • Candy Collected

Rewards

Armor

• The Titan's Phoenix Cradle Exotic leg armor now correctly creates sunspots that have an extended duration and apply their benefits to allies when the Titan wearing the armor gets a weapon kill while standing in a sunspot.
• Fixed an issue where the Warlock's Felwinter's Helm Exotic would incorrectly trigger after swapping the item off and on again.
• Fixed an issue where some faction armors were not correctly allowing players to apply Faction Rally ornaments to them.
• Seasonal mod sockets have been added to all armors available from world drops. See this article for more details.
• Players who met the requirements, but were missing Prestige ornaments for the Eater of Worlds raid lair, will now have them unlocked and available for use.
• New players can still obtain Prestige ornaments from completing the Prestige (Heroic) Eater of Worlds raid lair along with the appropriate Leviathan boss challenges.
• Fixed an issue that could prevent Eater of Worlds Prestige ornaments from appearing in the ornament slot on appropriate raid gear.
• The Titan’s Aeon Safe Exotic gauntlets now lists the same melee trigger requirement on both its Tooltip and Details screens.
• The Mantle of Remembrance ornament for Hunters’ Exotic gauntlets Shinobu's Vow will now properly replace the item icon to reflect the change in appearance.
• The Diadem of Deceit Exotic ornament is now usable on the Year 1 version of the Warlock Exotic helm Crown of Tempests.
• The Nano Redux Exotic ornament is now usable on the Year 1 version of the Hunter Exotic chest armor Raiden Flux.
• The Huskcrushers Exotic ornament is now usable on the Year 1 version of the Titan Exotic leg armor Dunemarchers.
• The chest armor mod Large Arm Reserves now properly provides increased ammo reserves for Shotguns.

Economy

• Nightfall: The Ordeal Grandmaster difficulty now grants Season 10 Season Pass Exotic weapon catalyst quest progression.
• Crimson Day Sparrows now have the correct event watermark (was The Dawning).
• Duplicate individual emotes purchased separately from a bundle can now be opened.
• Universal ornaments being sold for Bright Dust in the Eververse store now properly display the text "Already Purchased on Account" when owned.
• Fixed an issue that caused the Warlock Season Pass universal chest ornament to erroneously cause an unreleased event’s universal ornament to also display as unlocked.
• Trials of Osiris Ghost Shell will now drop with Crucible-related perks.

Power and Progression

• Four weekly Powerful gear sources upgraded to Pinnacle (+1): Crucible, Strike, and Gambit challenges, and the weekly clan engram.
• Fixed an issue where the Trials vendor engram was not previewing rewards at the correct power level.

Weapons

• Fixed an issue with The Fourth Horseman where its Broadside perk would fail to replicate its effects over the network.
• Fixed an issue with Breech Loaded (Special ammo) Grenade Launchers that resulted in them having a significantly reduced blast radius.

World Systems

• Completing Warden of Nothing now counts for a Fallen boss kill for the weekly Strike bounty: Serve the Servitors.
• Fixed an issue causing Warden of Nothing to give double Champion Rewards.
• For the Wish-Ender Exotic quest, any players who were missing Uncharged Tokens after turning in their Awoken Talisman and then completing the "???" secret mission, will now find them in their Pursuits.
  • • If a player's Pursuits are full, they will find the Uncharged Tokens added once they've cleared some space and then returned to orbit or re-logged into Destiny 2.
• Dreaming City world chests are awarding Glimmer again.
• Fixed an issue where players could get blocked from obtaining the Essence from the Bad Juju mission The Other Side, preventing completion of the Bad Juju Exotic quest Spellbound.
  • • A player could get into a bad state if, before being on the quest themselves, they joined another player on the appropriate quest step, completed The Other Side mission, obtained the Essence, and then bound it to obtain Bad Juju.
    • Players in this bad state, who have obtained Bad Juju and completed The Other Side mission, but have not completed the Spellbound Exotic quest, will now be able to Bind Essence at the altar to complete it.
• Fixed an issue causing a crash when players attempted to turn in their Awoken Talisman to the statue of Sjur Eido in the Shattered Throne dungeon.

UI

• Made a change so that completed bounties now sort to the top of the bounty bucket, grouping them together.
• Friends listed in a player's roster should no longer show up as black nameplates with zero Power.

General

• Fixed an issue where the Champion Servitor's invulnerability beams were not appearing during Seraph Tower events.
• Fixed a string identifying for the four Seraph weapons to include the word "Source:" so players know where to obtain the weapons.
• Fixed an issue where the Rasputin bounty, The Lost Classics was not counting Classic Mix matches.
• Added the activity rejoin functionality in the Trials playlist.
• Fixed an issue where fully upgrading a destination bunker sometimes doesn't unlock the Warmind Security Triumph.
• The “Seasonal Triumphs Complete” field now increments when Triumphs are completed.
• Added Vex barriers to the Grove of Ulan-Tan Legendary Lost Sector.
• Fixed an issue in the Seraph Towers public event where Ana’s dialog would still call out towers being overwhelmed when the towers are down and Champions are present in the final phase.
• Fixed an issue with the Heavy Frame spawning away from its platform in The Quarry and Scavenger's Den Legendary Lost Sectors on EDZ.
• Fixed an issue affecting the difficulty scaling of several activities including Whisper of the Worm and Zero Hour missions.