Destiny 2 players are once again furious, this time at Bungie’s “band-aid” fix for a problematic weapon glitch that has seen high-level Elite and Boss monsters melt.
Hotfix 7.0.5.3, deployed during maintenance at Destiny 2’s weekly reset on May 9 this week, has resolved a number of pesky bugs that were affecting the playing experience, including quest progression issues and a number of unintended Nightfall changes.
But a major change to Destiny’s gameplay loop will prove a game-changer, especially for hardcore guardians chasing Grandmaster Nightfalls or the challenge of a solo clear; after swapping weapons in your inventory, guns will now have a two-second window where they cannot be fired—all in a bid to curb one broken interaction.
This change includes those switching loadouts via the Loadout Swap screen, even if a player’s alternate loadout uses identical weapons, and will affect all equipped guns regardless of whether its a primary, special, or heavy weapon.
The bugfix is primarily due to an issue with Pinpoint Slug intrinsic shotguns and the Fourth Horseman Exotic shotgun. In recent weeks, Destiny 2 players could pull out any Pinpoint Slug shotgun, then stow it away again, swap to the Fourth Horseman, and deal an obscene amount of damage thanks to the glitch.
This damage was further amplified by weapon buffs and enemy debuffs, such as a teammate’s Tractor Cannon or a Well of Radiance, resulting in some of Destiny 2’s toughest bosses dying in mere seconds.
Many had suggested Bungie apply the weapon firing delay to just the shotgun archetype, but it is believed other intrinsic weapon swapping may also inadvertently buff damage, and as such Bungie’s fix ensures the issue remains locked down.
The reception to the update has been mixed. While casual players will remain somewhat unaffected by the hotfix, those attempting solo dungeon or raid clears have essentially been left out to dry. A bulk of a guardian’s damage output previously relied on fast weapon switching and an arsenal of guns to be as efficient as possible. Now, adding two seconds after swapping weapons could all but kill a dungeon or raid clear.
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Popular Destiny streamer Gladd was highly critical of the patch after the information dropped. He stated the change is “one of the worst band-aid fixes [he] had ever seen in Destiny.” Other players echoed his sentiment, believing this update to be a death blow to the speedrunning and solo content portion of the community.
One player theorized the devs had discovered this issue extended beyond shotguns and the Fourth Horseman, prompting a “nuclear” response, but otherwise most acknowledged this to be a “preventative fix” that would only affect a small subset of the player base.
It is one of a number of bug fixes that have come to Destiny 2 in the last few weeks, with the constant build-up of issues seeing players call upon Bungie to push a “spring cleaning” patch to repair the game.
