Monument of Triumph is Live

Destiny 2: Monument of Triumph is now live and available to all players.

Over the past three weeks, our Activities, Sandbox, Rewards, RAD, and Commerce teams have shared deep dives into how many of the game's systems are changing with Monument of Triumph. The broad scope of this update sees the Director returning to navigate you among destinations updated with new loot, a sweeping overhaul of activity difficulty and rewards, new armor archetypes as well as new set bonus, 25 new Exotic weapon catalysts and perks for older catalysts, and increased vault space and loadout slots to hold your new prizes – plus, the return of Sparrow Racing League!

Here's an overview of what's new in Monument of Triumph, visit the link below each section to learn more:

• The Return of the Director
• Destination and Patrol Updates
• Distorted Destinations
• Overhauling the Portal
• Elevating Gambit
• Crucible Playlist Rotations
• Heavier and More Metallic
• The Return of Sparrow Racing League
• Weapon Tier Upgrading
• Exotic Weapon Catalysts
• Enhancing Weapon Crafting
• Weapon Sandbox Updates
• Artifacts and Anti-Champion
• Vendor Updates
• Attune Anywhere
• PvP Strike Team Update
• Pantheon & RAD Update
• Cosmetics, Bright Engrams, Bright Dust, and Expanded Exotic Armor Ornaments
• Abilities Preview
• Armor Preview
• Monument of Triumph Rewards
• Destiny 2: The Collection
• 9.7.0 Patch Notes

Guardians, welcome to Destiny 2: Monument of Triumph.

The Return of the Director

With the release of Monument of Triumph, we're putting the Director back at the center of your gameplay. It's your guide to the Destiny universe and the place to plan your adventures. It creates that feeling of wonder we all love. You see the Sol system before you, ready to be explored.

To bring the Director up to date, we've added Kepler and the Lawless Frontier to this space as well.

Destination and Patrol Updates

Destinations have always been a foundational part of Destiny, whether you touch down briefly for a Public Event, roam areas for patrols and secrets, or find various factions moving against each other. Our first steps as Guardians were in the Cosmodrome and beyond that we've spent over a decade patrolling the wilds of our Sol system to protect the Last City. With the return of the Director, we felt now was a better time than ever to thrust players back into these frontiers.

We've revitalized each pre-Edge of Fate destination's loot with new perks, tiered weapons for non-craftable pools, and set bonuses that reflect their themes and stories. For our destinations featuring crafted weapons, as outlined in the Monument of Triumph article, they will be receiving additional perks per column to make them feel up to modern sandbox Power standards. We're also introducing a new event... one with some added difficulty that appears during Distortions that only occur on certain Destinations.

Read more in our first Dev Insights article.

Distorted Destinations

Over the past few years, Destiny 2 has focused more attention on structured campaigns, exciting playlists, and challenging cooperative activities. This has led to Patrol mode feeling left behind; without strong rewards or a clear reason to return, many players have had little incentive to explore the wilds of Sol. To remind Guardians of the allure of wandering these worlds, we're introducing a new feature on seven destinations: Distortions.

Read more in our first Dev Insights article.

Overhauling the Portal

Since the release of The Edge of Fate, we've heard your feedback on the Portal loud and clear. Portal, the tab, is gone. However, we didn't want to remove quick access to Destiny playlists and content. While players can navigate the Director for numerous activities, we still wanted a "portal" of sorts to quickly find the content you want to play when you want it. We've refactored scoring, difficulty, and customization quite a bit to further address feedback around the system - more on that in a later section.

Portal activities, bonus engrams, bonus focuses, and the Seasonal Hub are still accessible. The portal ops categories are built into the director itself. In the Director screenshot above you'll see a row of familiar icons at the bottom of the screen. They are the doorway to Portal-like sub-screens, allowing you to still access and configure the activities you'd like to play.

You may have noticed in our Director preview that there are a few returning icons in that row at the bottom. Yes, Gambit will now have a Portal category updated with scoring, and raids and dungeons will have an easy access point on the front of the Director. Dungeon Ops will be retired, and this space will simply be a space to quickly find and play full raid and dungeon content.

Read more in our first Dev Insights article.

Elevating Gambit

For some time now, players have felt our core activity rotation has been lacking a very special PvEvP activity that was introduced in Forsaken. We agree. In Monument of Triumph, Gambit gets a clearer home in the Director through the Gambit Ops. Our focus is on better placement, stronger reward support, and a more legible reward structure, while keeping the core activity familiar for players who already know how Gambit works.

Integration into the Portal means Gambit Ops will have its own tiered reward pool with a new armor set, armor set bonus, and reprised weapons, as well as Bonus Drops and Bonus Focus.

Tiered rewards are driven by activity scoring, and for Gambit, score is driven by team progress through Gambit's major phases: banking motes, summoning the Primeval, and defeating the Primeval - with additional bonus score coming from Gambit Rank. Rewards are rooted in team effort rather than individual stat chasing, and a team that reaches the Primeval phase will earn S grade and Tier 5 gear, so getting to the final phase of the match is materially rewarded.

Read more in our first Dev Insights article.

Crucible Playlist Rotations

In Monument of Triumph, Crucible playlist offerings are moving to a more predictable cadence, and all PvP offerings are receiving loot refreshes to offer new weapons, armor sets, and cosmetics. First, let's start with our main PvP events: Iron Banner and Trials of Osiris:

• Iron Banner now returns every four weeks.
  • Control remains a constant offering and is replaced by Iron Banner Control during Iron Banner weeks, with one additional Iron Banner mode available each time Iron Banner is live.
• Trials of Osiris will continue to run every weekend* from Friday through Tuesday.
  • *Trials will not be available during Iron Banner weeks to help keep Guardians focused.

Trials is also undergoing changes to featured map and weapon rotations. Instead of a single curated featured map each weekend, the mode can now vary from week to week. Some weeks may feature a singular map, while others can feature up to three. Check back each Friday to see which arenas you'll be challenged on. Featured weapons are also moving away from a single weekly focus and now drop from a featured weapon pool instead.

Read more in our first Dev Insights article.

Heavier and More Metallic

Heavy Metal is back on a permanent rotation in the Crucible Ops with some fun updates!

If you've played Heavy Metal before, you know the fantasy: climb into a massive vehicle, roll onto the battlefield, and turn the other team into scrap. This time, there's a new option joining the lineup with the Cabal Behemoth, alongside the Drake and Brig.

We've also added a new vehicle selection screen so players can choose which vehicle they want to bring into a match before it begins. That means Heavy Metal is no longer just one fixed matchup and gives players more freedom in how they want to play.

Read more in our first Dev Insights article.

The Return of Sparrow Racing League

The long awaited and frequently requested Sparrow Racing League (SRL) is returning to Destiny 2! This isn't just SRL coming back as you remember it, though. We've brought the mode forward with a set of updates aimed at making races feel faster, livelier, and a bit more chaotic from lap to lap.

Ghost returns as your SRL announcer along with Shaxx. There's nothing more motivating than Shaxx screaming at you to push for first place after your opponent just took you on the inside of a turn on Mercury.

Skimmers are joining the fun, allowing you to choose between a Sparrow or a Skimmer before hopping into a three-lap race against five other players. Players won't have access to rail grinds or manual jumping as a Skimmer or be able to use destabilizers for rolls or flips as a Sparrow - in fact, we've done a ton of work under the hood to make sure that using either vehicle in SRL feels equally advantageous to players.

Read more in our first Dev Insights article.

Weapon Tier Upgrading

This is the Sandbox Team, here to talk about Weapon Tier Upgrading, a new system releasing with Monument of Triumph that will allow players to upgrade their weapons' gear tier for a cost to access additional enhanced perks and even the Gear Tier 5 cosmetics.

We wanted players to still feel as though lower tier drops can have value especially if you spike into the exact roll you want, with a want for higher tier gear to have an easier time getting that perfect roll due to multiperk. All weapons integrated into the Gear Tiering system will be eligible to undergo Tier Upgrading including those that have already dropped and are resting within your vault. In the weapon inspection screen, there will be a new weapon mod socket where you can apply a mod for a cost that will upgrade your weapon to the next applicable Gear Tier.

While this new upgrading path allows a player to unlock all of the enhanced perk benefits of Tier 5 Gear as well as access the unique Tier 5 cosmetics, it can't add perks to the columns of your weapon. Meaning, if you haven't quite found your god roll or you prefer a weapon with additional options in its column, you may still want to chase multiperk drops. To add a bit more value to Gear Tier 3 in lieu of it being mainly about unlocking multiperk today, we've shifted the unlock of Enhanced Mods to this Gear Tier for all weapons.

Read more in our second Dev Insights article.

Exotic Weapon Catalysts

With Monument of Triumph being the final release for Destiny 2, we didn't want to leave any Exotic behind when it came to catalysts. We also handpicked existing legendary perks that thematically tie in to each Exotic weapon's story or strength.

In total we have added:

• 25 catalysts to weapons that did not have one already.
• Nine perks added to existing catalysts that only had weapon stats as a bonus.

Read more in our second Dev Insights article.

Enhancing Weapon Crafting

With Monument of Triumph's update adding new Armor Set Bonuses to earn in our raid and destination content, we wanted those weapons to feel relevant again but not necessarily ask players to regrind them under Gear Tiering.

We know players have already put forth a lot of effort to unlock patterns throughout the game, so we wanted to treat them with some updates while giving players additional reason to finish up their patterns if they hadn't yet. As we investigated options, we concluded that we could update ALL crafted weapons to the power of gear tiering, but through a slightly different method involving the Crafting Table.

Upon logging in, any legendary crafted weapon that already exists will immediately be eligible for a version of Gear Tier Upgrading and any newly crafted Legendary weapon can be taken on the same upgrading journey.

Read more in our second Dev Insights article.

Weapon Sandbox Updates

Ammo System Changes

The ammo system has received buffs to underperforming weapons, nerfs to outliers, and several bug fixes and quality-of-life improvements.

Special Ammo Weapons

We took a baseline swing at making double Special slightly less viable for add clear. Outside of that role, this change is generally offset by the damage buffs previously given to non-Rocket Pulse Special ammo weapons. So, while it may require one more kill to earn a brick, it may also require less shots overall to kill targets.

Exotic Weapon Tuning

With Monument of Triumph we also have a wide assortment of Exotic weapon adjustments for you to enjoy.

Legendary Sandbox Tuning

Primary ammo weapons have struggled to keep up against combatants, especially in harder activities, so we've implemented some broad changes to help them feel better to use.

Legendary Perk Changes

In addition to the Legendary weapon archetype tuning, we've also made some changes to Legendary weapon perks. A few older damage perks felt like they were lagging behind, so we've buffed these perks in order to make them more competitive choices compared with more modern perks.

Read more in our second Dev Insights article.

Artifacts and Anti-Champion

With Monument of Triumph, we are reworking the Artifact items in multiple ways to better align them with a modern Destiny 2 and setting it up to withstand the test of time. This means streamlining the mod selection process, removing annoyances like the refunding dance, disabling the artifact in Competitive and Trials modes, and… finally… working in loadouts!

What this means is that we have trimmed the bloat on artifacts. Gone are the days of dedicated anti-Champion columns and needing to refund mods to select ones in earlier columns. This process has been simplified into three buckets that functionally perform just like the columns did before, but in a way that uses the visual language of our modern game and works in a more intuitive way. Now, when you want to switch out a mod in "column 4", you can just do that and substitute it out for whatever fits instead of needing to clear out later columns to be allowed to re-spec earlier ones.

On top of this, we have built anti-Champion capabilities directly into your guns, so you no longer must worry about your favorite guns not getting anti-Champion offerings in a season but more on that in a moment.

Read more in our second Dev Insights article.

Vendor Updates

With this release, many of your favorite vendors across the Tower are getting an update. Reputation Rank Reward tracks are returning to many of the vendors (Shaxx, Zavala, Saint-14, Xûr, Banshee-44 and even your ol' pal Drifter). We've also expanded their focusing options significantly, as well as some other vendor specific updates that we'll touch on below.

Focus Tiered Gear

Focusing for tiered gear is now available on many vendors across the Tower. This includes newly added gear, as well as gear from across the last several releases (for example, The Edge of Fate, Ash & Iron, Renegades). Weapons will be focusable at Tier 3 and Tier 4, depending on the player's Power level.

With the addition of upgradable weapons you can take any rolls you get from focusing and upgrade them to Tier 5, while activities will remain the best and most consistent source of natural Tier 5 weapons. However, because armor is not upgradable, Focusable Armor will go up to Tier 5.

Read more in our second Dev Insights article.

Attune Anywhere

Attunement now lives in your inventory, accessible anywhere, any time. No longer will you have to go to a specific vendor to attune what you want to earn from the activities you are playing. With the huge amount of new and updated weapons in this release, we wanted to make it seamless for you and your fireteam to have greater agency around farming for those god rolls than ever before.

Hanging out in orbit, or waiting for friends during a break between SRL races? Take some time to attune to your favorite weapons across various activity types.

Read more in our second Dev Insights article.

PvP Strike Team Update

Sandbox Tuning Review

In this section, we review some of the previously discussed sandbox tuning for weapons and armor that will directly impact Crucible (we will have more to talk about with abilities later in this article but as a sneak peek check out some of the changes we will be discussing, including some big ones to Invisibility).

Unified Crucible Ops

We have moved all the playlists into the Crucible Ops screen and deprecated the Legacy Crucible node. This will allow us to better focus the population and reduce instances of duplicate or overlapping playlists. As a note, for Control and Iron Banner Control (the only playlists in which skill is utilized for matchmaking), Outlier Protection has been set to automatically revert to Open Skill if queue times are taking too long.

New Modifier: Arena Collision

Arena Collision is a 4v4 game mode that hearkens back to the original arena style of sandbox with more methodical gameplay focused on weapons, map knowledge, and movement. Fight over the Heavy ammo crates to help you control the objective and enjoy greatly reduced penalties for hip firing and airborne gameplay.

Trials of Osiris and Map Rotations

We are going to be changing the way map selection works for Trials moving forward. Each weekend will have up to three maps on rotation, chosen using the below process:

• One map is randomly selected from each of the three pools below.
  • Pool 1: Burnout, Javelin-4, Endless Vale (33.33% chance, repeating of course, per map)
  • Pool 2: All Pool 1 maps, Altar of Flame, Pacifica, Cirrus Plaza, Eventide Labs, The Dead Cliffs, Meltdown, Solitude, Radiant Cliffs, Wormhaven (8.33% chance per map)
  • Pool 3: All Pool 1 and Pool 2 maps, all remaining maps except Convergence, Rusted Lands, Multiplex, Citadel, and Exodus Blue (3.23% chance per map)

Read more in our previous TWID article.

Pantheon & RAD Update

Monuments of Triumph will include a new set of Pantheon raid activities, shaped in the image of the original format but with upgrades and surprises featuring new bosses, new rewards, and new ways to play. We wanted to celebrate Destiny 2's bosses that veterans may remember and give returning Guardians an opportunity to experience them.

• At launch, two activities will be available, each with a unique lineup of bosses. The first Saturday after launch, a third activity will unlock which challenges players to take on the full gauntlet of bosses. The following Tuesday at reset weekly rotators begin featuring individual bosses.
• Guardians can earn a new amor set for each class, a suite of weapons reprised from the original activities with a unique origin trait and holofoil variants. Each multi-boss activity concludes with a vendor offering purchase of re-rolls for acquired items with Spoils of Conquest.
  • Reprise Pantheon encounters have a chance to reward ornaments for their original armor sets. For example, Calus may drop the armor ornaments related to the original base Leviathan Raid for Guardians who have not unlocked them.
• Completing a new set of Triumphs rewards emblems, exotic cosmetic items, and a new Title.
• All activities offer a new Adventure difficulty aimed at players looking for a lower stakes opportunity to learn, teach, and practice for success. This lifts the Power cap, allows infinite revives, and adds slack to the timing requirements for some mechanics - with the tradeoff of a limited pool of lower Tier rewards.

Read more in our previous TWID article.

Cosmetics, Bright Engrams, Bright Dust, and Expanded Exotic Armor Ornaments

When Renegades launched, we introduced Universal Exotic Ornaments and the Destiny Fashion community got to work making many exciting new fits for their Guardians. However, one question rose to the top of the feedback: "When can we put Legendary Ornaments on our Exotic Armor?!"

The answer is: in Monument of Triumph! We didn't stop at just Legendary Ornaments, however -- all qualities of Armor Ornament from Common to Legendary can now be applied to the currently equipped Exotic armor alongside Universal Exotic Ornaments. The same caveats that applied for Universal Exotic Ornaments will still apply for Expanded Ornaments:

• If the ornament is not specifically parented to the equipped Exotic armor, its visuals will be temporarily disabled in PvP content but will return upon exiting that content.
• Special visual cues or effects applied by ornaments that are not specifically parented to the equipped Exotic armor may not be visible.

Bright Engram Focusing

The upcoming release will change the way that Bright Engrams work with the addition of Bright Engram Focusing, housed in a new tab in the Eververse. A Focused Engram will award an unowned item of the Engram's category. For example, a Focused Ship Engram will provide an unowned Ship.

Read more in our previous TWID article

Abilities Preview

New Solar and Void Aspects

For too long, certain subclasses have lagged behind others in the number of Aspects available to them. Monument of Triumph will remedy that imbalance with three new Aspects, bringing every non-Prismatic subclass up to four.

• Titan Sunbreaker: Shieldburst
• Hunter Gunslinger: Crackshot
• Warlock Voidwalker: Soul Siphon

New Darkness Grenades

Stasis and Strand are near and dear to our hearts, and they deserve some love. We're adding two new grenades to the game with Monument of Triumph.

• Stasis Shatter Grenade
• Strand Slicewire Grenade

New Nightstalker Melee

Through countless battles, Nightstalkers have known Smoke Bomb as their only melee option. That's about to change.

• Hunter Nightstalker: Phantom Surge

Ability Reworks

We've reworked a few abilities to make them fit better in their kits or enhance them in general. Let's talk about the Hunter's Trapper's Ambush Aspect first.

• Hunter Nightstalker: Trapper's Ambush
• Titan Sentinel: Ward of Dawn
• Warlock Broodweaver: Mindspun Invocation: Threadling Grenade

Read more in our third Dev Insights article.

Armor Preview

Armor Archetypes

We think that the original six archetypes have fulfilled our goals admirably. However, certain builds require significantly more tools to get the stats they need. Since this doesn't usually limit the power of a build and instead primarily limits build variety, we plan on addressing this by adding six new armor archetypes.

Exotic Armor Stats

When we originally released Armor 3.0, we had longer-term plans to give Exotic armor a way to access higher tier behavior. Originally, we planned to give them a deterministic route for upgrading. However, we've ultimately realized that it was healthier for the game to take the most straightforward approach.

Moving forward, all Exotic armor will have Tier 5 stats and will have access to all tuning mods. This applies retroactively to all Armor 3.0 Exotics (other than Collections rolls) so if you don't want to trade your armor out for one of the new archetypes, you won't have to acquire them again.

Armor Set Bonuses

The current available list set bonuses – while often fun to buildcraft with – can sometimes feel like they provide very few options. Many builds, even for Guardians seeking something outside the standard setups, end up not having enough options to pick from – instead defaulting to a small number of two-piece set bonus combinations.

The solution is simple: as we've previously noted, we're refreshing a massive amount of gear across the game. That includes more set bonuses than we've previously made compressed into a single release. We don't expect these to fully replace the existing options (which will still be available to earn!), but you can look forward to a wide array of options. From elemental effects, ability synergies, and survivability to explosions, movement, and echoes of armor mods past – there's something for everyone.

Exotic Armor Balance Preview

Alongside the above ability and armor changes, we took some time to update a handful of Exotics from each class, spanning multiple years of Destiny 2 releases. Some have straightforward changes that lean into the fantasy while others are being reworked.

Read more in our third Dev Insights article.

Monument of Triumph Rewards

Monument of Triumph is jam-packed with rewards - some new, some old but unreleased, and some released but, until now, unobtainable. As the final live service update for Destiny 2, we want to hold nothing back.

Here's some highlights of what you can expect:

• Return of the previously limited-time Chatterwhite, Superblack, Gryphon, and All Star Vector Skimmer.
• 16 Armor Ornament sets.
• New universal helmet ornaments, including a new flaming helmet, the Einherjar Coronet.
• One of three earned Holochips in this release.The return of Exotic Faction Ornaments.
• Weapon Ornament for Turncoat, our new Reward Pass Exotic Hand Cannon.
• Fafnir and Heir Apparent Exotic Weapons.
• A selection of endlessly purchasable engrams containing:
  • Tiered weapons from the Lawless and Reclamation Seasons.
  • Tiered weapons from the Pinnacle Ops, Crucible, and Fireteam Ops playlists.
  • Tiered weapons from the Dawning, Festival of the Lost, and Guardian Games events.
  • Tiered weapons and armor from the Solstice event.

Read more in our previous TWID article.

Destiny 2: The Collection Trailer

Five expansions. Four content packs. Ten dungeons. Seven raids.

Destiny 2: The Collection is available now.

Read the Monument of Triumph Patch Notes

And finally, we come to our final patch notes article for Destiny 2. Well, that's a bit of a fib. We'll still have a few maintenance patches and smaller hotfixes after today... but this is our final major patch for Destiny 2.

It's been an incredible ride. Thousands of patch notes shipped. A ridiculous amount of bugs squashed (released AND unreleased). Hundreds of typos fixed after publish (our bad...). Countless hours in triage meetings looking to do what's best by our players. Years of overnight shifts in the BNOC (formerly DOC). All for you.

Read more (all 17,000+ words of it) in our Update 9.7.0 Patch Notes article.