Bungie reassess Destiny 2’s primary weapon damage after player backlash

Destiny 2’s suite of primary weapons has long been the subject of much debate, with certain weapon types such as submachine guns having a long-standing dominion over others in PvE while others are left behind. This divide only became more pronounced when Lightfall introduced a universal increase in difficulty, making the majority of primary weapons feel irrelevant to critical community members.

Fortunately, Bungie has been quick on the trigger to launch some much-needed buffs. In today’s This Week At Bungie blog, the developer detailed hefty damage buffs that will be going live for almost all primary weapons in the upcoming midseason update.

“We wanted to see how the PvE sandbox shook out after the release of Lightfall, not necessarily to see if primary weapons needed a buff, but more to see how much we should buff them,” Bungie said. It’s fair to imagine the sandbox team already knew that primary weapons would ship weak with the new spike in difficulty but didn’t want to overtune them and immediately invalidate the more challenging PvE experience.

“In Heroic and Legendary content, you should be more likely to one-shot red-bar enemies depending on your weapon type, and even in GMs, we have shaved how many shots it takes and time it takes to kill for the below weapons against red and orange bar enemies,” the devs continued. “We do not believe we are done with tuning weapon damage in PvE, this is merely a starting point, and we will revisit it in the coming Seasons to make sure everything has a place in the sandbox.”

With submachine guns and bows already proving to be “benchmarks” for usable primary weapons in PvE, the primary weapon damage buffs in question instead focus on the remaining weapon types in the arsenal.

• Auto rifles got the biggest buff at a 25 percent damage increase, mostly due to the “steep competition” they face from submachine guns.
• Pulse rifles and hand cannons are getting a 20 percent damage increase, with Bungie noting how both weapon types have been “considered weaker in harder PvE content for some time.”
• Sidearms are also receiving the 20 percent buff, putting them more neatly into the “high risk, high reward” category when competing with submachine guns.
• Scout rifles are receiving the lowest buff at just a 10 percent damage increase, with Bungie noting it needs to be “careful” due to the long-range and safe engagements that the weapon type provides.

While not a part of the midseason patch aimed at primary weapons, Bungie also noted that sniper rifles will be getting a similar look at their PvE effectiveness when season 21 launches, receiving a 10 percent damage buff of their own.

Community reactions to the patch details are already looking positive, with comments in the TWAB’s associated Reddit thread full of optimism for how these buffs will improve the feel of Destiny 2’s higher difficulty content.

“Some welcome buffs to hand cannons, pulses and autos,” reads one comment by u/Bellyfeel. “Was needed,” with one reply then jokingly adding “I disagree. I was enjoying going through several reloads in order to down a single red bar enemy.”

The excitement around the potential return of hand cannons to PvE relevancy was a sentiment shared across the board, but not every player is sure that the listed 20 percent damage buff will be enough in the long term. When u/Manos0404 questioned “hand cannons usable in pve?” in one comment, other players seemed hesitant to reply with a definitive yes.

“We’ll see,” replied u/Draculagged. “They need to one-shot red bars up to and including Vandals and I’m not sure 20 percent will be enough.” It was an opinion echoed by others, who also pointed to the Shadowkeep-era nerf of hand cannon critical damage as a persistent issue that keeps the weapon type from returning to its former glory.

But with Bungie mentioning that this tuning pass on primary weapons is only the beginning and making it clear that future updates are planned until primary weapons are left feeling healthy in the PvE sandbox, this round of buffs not fully hitting the mark isn’t the end of the world. What it will do is dethrone SMGs from being the only weapon of choice for the majority of players, providing a much-needed shakeup to a stale meta.

All of these changes are going to be packed into Destiny 2’s midseason update for Lightfall, so players won’t have to wait long to get their hands on the improvements and see if they live up to expectations.