Destiny 2‘s Season of Defiance has helped the Lightfall meta settle in, but that doesn’t mean Bungie is done tuning weapons. “We do not believe we are done with tuning weapon damage in PvE,” Bungie said in the March 30 This Week at Bungie blog post, but the team will take a much-needed pass at weapon balance soon.
The season 20 midseason update will bring core changes to weapon balance, touching on several archetypes, weapon types, and even giving juice to underpowered Exotic weapons. More changes will come with the release of season 21, but while that patch is still far-off, here’s when you can expect the midseason patch to land on the live servers.
Destiny 2 Season of Defiance midseason patch release date
An official tweet from the Destiny 2 team’s account on April 11 indicates the midseason patch is scheduled for the following week, so players can expect the new update to drop around April 18 or 20.
The deployment of the Season of Defiance midseason patch can also bring maintenance windows, which commonly take the game’s servers out for limited periods of time. The official Bungie Help Twitter page can contain more information about maintenance times, as well as full patch notes once the update drops.
As part of the major adjustments coming with the midseason update, players can expect different primary weapons to see some buffs. This is a response to how underpowered these can feel, especially with the push toward increased difficulty in Lightfall.
Auto rifles will see a whopping 25 percent buff to damage, which should help them perform better against the SMG’s long-lasting supremacy. “We don’t want Auto Rifles to defeat combatants faster than SMGs, as that would flip the script and invalidate the lower range options instead,” Bungie wrote, “but we did feel like we could close the gap substantially.”
Pulse rifles, hand cannons, and sidearms will also see an impressive bump in firepower with the midseason patch. These weapons will gain 20 percent more damage after mid-April. “Pulse Rifles should be in a more reasonable spot, Hand Cannons should feel like they pack more of a punch, and Sidearms should fall much better into the ‘high risk, high reward’ category,” the team wrote.
Scout Rifles will get the smallest bump out of the bunch, with just a 10-percent increase after the midseason patch.
Scouts are in a decent spot, and the team “needs to be careful” when tuning them to ensure the meta doesn’t turn into safe, long-range engagements. With the buffs to other types, however, scout rifles would need a buff to keep them competitive.
Players can also expect tuning to other special weapons and Exotics like Revision Zero and Cloudstrike, with more details coming in future TWAB blogs.
