Destiny 2 Activities are Getting More Difficult and Hopefully More Rewarding

Bungie can’t seem to help themselves, with another blog post detailing significant systems changes coming to the Lightfall expansion. This time, we got a detailed look at how Destiny 2 is getting more difficult across the board to accommodate our Guardians’ vastly increased Power after the Subclass 3.0 updates. There is a lot to go through, and while the exact numbers are a little too granular to cover, we’ll talk about the major bits.

Difficulty Changes Coming to Destiny 2 in Lightfall

On a base level, most high-level content will get a game-side difficulty increase thanks to a Power-level cap. Adept difficulty, the lowest increase, is disappearing entirely, so Nightfall and other adjustable challenges will start at Hero level at the Power threshold of 1770, 20 above the soft cap.

Legend and Master/Grandmaster difficulties will be 1830 and 1840, and the game will limit and downscale player power to compensate. In other words, Guardians will always be at least five Power levels beneath the activity threshold, with a massive 25 decrease in GMs.

One of the other major changes is the removal of Singes, where incoming and outgoing damage is increased across the board. In their place, we’ll get Surges and Threats. A Surge increases elemental damage by 25%, and a Threat increases damage taken by the same. Higher-difficulty activities will also have a rotating Overcharged weapon type that deals 25% more damage. Overcharges and Surges do not stack, however.

Combatants are also harder to stagger, so a headshot won’t immediately cause an enemy to reel, for instance. They also have more health.

For the core Vanguard Ops playlist, many adjustments are coming as well. The long-requested Strike Scoring system is returning, with higher scores giving more reputation at the end of an activity.

Both the Arms Dealer and Lake of Shadows Strikes have received a rework to reach parity with more recent content, and the Inverted Spire and Exodus Crash Strikes will be getting the same. Until they’re redone, they’ll be much less frequently chosen by the playlist. Lastly, the PsiOps and Heist Battlegrounds will be added to Vanguard Ops for more variety.

Additionally, Nightfall Strikes, Raids, Dungeons, Lost Sectors, Weekly Story Missions, and many other activities will receive the Surge, Threat, and Overcharge mechanics and the various Power limiting values where applicable. These updates will also make their way into the Lightfall year’s Seasonal Battlegrounds.

See Bungie’s official post if you want a full rundown of all the data. There will be a metric ton of other changes coming, including ability updates, PvP improvements, a crafting overhaul, and more. There was no mention of Gambit anywhere, which will make about two people in all of Destiny 2 sad, but even without changes to no one’s favorite mode, Lightfall is rewriting almost every core aspect of the game. For more coverage of Destiny 2, check out our hub for the game.