Destiny 2’s controversial PvP Special ammo system to receive more changes

Bungie is making even more tweaks to Destiny 2‘s PvP Special ammo transmat system after another round of feedback from players revealed many were still quite confused about the many versions of the system in place, as well as a few imbalanced factors surrounding the use of certain weapons.

The Destiny 2 development team shared the new ammo update via a thread on X (formerly Twitter) on April 29 as a follow-up to the original deep dive into how the system was traveling a fortnight ago. As part of this latest update, which is slated to go live after the weekly reset on April 30, Bungie has refined the Special ammo transmat system into two variants instead of differing systems across each game mode.

Players will also receive less ammo per each transmat but the transmat meter will charge a little over twice as fast, meaning as long as players are contributing to objectives or landing final blows, they’ll still be getting Special ammo in their weapons. The second impending Destiny 2 balance change will remove the meter charge for ability kills, meaning final blows with melee abilities or grenades won’t add to the meter.

Bungie says this was to combat the swift rise in shotgun-melee combos the mode has seen since the transmat system arrived in February 2024. Bungie hopes the adjustment will “reduce the advantage the shotgun-melee combo has over other Special weapons for progressing the meter,” with many following up a shotgun blast with an empowered melee ability to feed ammo straight back into their shotgun.

While the shotgun-melee combo isn’t as prevalent as the Forerunner takeover we saw in Trials two weeks ago, it’s clear Bungie is also fed up with the overuse of the shotgun archetype and how it ties into Special ammo generation. For the most part, players have received the tweaks well and are glad the team is keeping updates coming.

The changes will arrive with tomorrow’s weekly reset, with Bungie planning on going in-depth into how the PvP sandbox is running later this week as part of the game’s weekly recap.

Once the changes land there, players will have around a week to get their hands on the tweaks before all the fresh PvP maps arrive in Destiny 2 on May 7.