Weapon Crafting In Destiny 2 Will Evolve Throughout The Year Of Lightfall

Beyond a new subclass of space magic that'll allow Guardians to manipulate the threads of life, Destiny 2's other driving gameplay core is its gunplay. For the Lightfall expansion and the year ahead, Bungie is looking to find the right balance between obtaining weapons and crafting them. One of these major changes will be a smaller pool of craftable weapons, while other weapons can be "enhanced" so that they can stand on equal footing with their customized brethren.

Game director Joe Blackburn explained in a new Bungie blog post that the studio's goal is to "create independent chases for both crafted and non-crafted weapons starting with Lightfall. Fewer total weapons will be craftable and more of the weapons with long-term sources will get value from random perk rolls. This will in turn allow non-crafted weapons to "stand toe-to-toe" with crafted weapons in Lightfall, and more non-crafted weapons--starting with new Raid Adepts this year--will have the ability to be enhanced.

Enhancing a weapon allows for these tools to be leveled up while gaining access to both enhanced perks and enhanced intrinsic properties. The catch here is that only the enhanced versions of the perks and Masterwork that are already on the version of the weapon you are enhancing will be available. With enough time and resources, a weapon with a random roll of perks can be enhanced to rival the full power of a crafted weapon.

Bungie is aiming to roll this new system out from Season of the Deep, which will come a few months after Lightfall launches alongside Season of Defiance. "Long term, we want to expand this functionality to most of our new non-crafted weapon drops, but there are some technical hurdles we need to solve first," Blackburn added.

Additionally, players will never see Deepsight on a weapon unless it is something they need to make pattern progress on, thus allowing red-border weapon drops to feel more valuable. A mechanism to activate Deepsight on any craftable weapon that a player doesn't have the pattern for, is also being targeted for a Season of the Deep launch.

Destiny 2 has a large number of other weapon tweaks in the crosshairs once Lightfall goes live. Bungie has been rolling out details over the last couple of weeks, including linear fusion rifles getting a big nerf, and revamped heavy weapons will arrive alongside several new deadly Lightfall Exotics.