This Week In Destiny – 12/7/2023

This week in Destiny, we’re feeling festive. It’s that time of the year again, and the Dawning is right around the corner. So, pull out those oven mitts, prep the oven, and get ready to bake the tastiest treats, Guardians. Let’s jump into it!

Topics for this week:

• The Dawning preview
• Show us your baking skills
• Season of the Wish updates
• Fireteam Finder Beta is live
• Warlord’s Ruin Bungie Rewards

The Dawning Preview

The Dawning is back! Gather ingredients, bake some cookies with the Holiday Oven, and gift them to your favorite characters for sweet rewards. Eva Levante is waiting in the Tower for you.

Here are the key things you need to know about during the event:

Baking Cookies

Gather ingredients and Dawning Essence by defeating enemies and completing various activities and bounties. Once you have enough ingredients, you can combine them in Eva's Holiday Oven 2.1 to create yummy treats like Gjallardoodles, Classic Butter Cookies, and more. Eva's Holiday Oven 2.1 can be located in your Quests tab and is acquired from Eva Levante. You can gift these treats to characters across the system in exchange for rewards.

Upgrades

Purchase a variety of upgrades using Dawning Spirit, which you can get by completing Event Card Challenges, activating Boons of Friendship, and delivering baked treats. Upgrades will last for the duration of the event and provide:

• Bonus event rewards.
• The ability to earn Dawning weapons with additional perks from Eva.
• Increased power and utility for your Stasis snowballs.
• Weapon focusing that allows for targeted weapon drops.

Stasis Snowballs

This year, we updated the way snowballs are spawned. Eliminations using Dawning weapons or abilities will create a snowball spawn point where an enemy was defeated.

New Dawning Memento

We also have a new Memento this year: the Dawning Memento! Pick up the Winter Night quest from Eva Levante for your chance to earn the Dawning Memento reward. Additional Mementos can be acquired from opening A Gift in Return once the first Memento is acquired.

New Dawning Weapon: Albedo Wing

In addition, we have a new Glaive this year, the Albedo Wing! You can acquire this weapon from Event Challenges, weapon focusing, or Festive Engrams, which can be purchased using a Gift in Return and Dawning Spirit.

This is Destiny’s second hard-hitting Aggressive Glaive and can roll some of the new perks from this Season. This one includes the very new, very cool Beacon Rounds perk, which is otherwise only found on Rocket-Assisted Sidearms.

Dawning Weapon Perks

Included below is a roundup of the notable weapons perks that appear on this year's Dawning weapons. We’ve updated all the existing Dawning weapons with new perks, too.

• Deconstruct
  • Dealing sustained damage grants bonus damage against vehicles and constructs and partially refills the magazine. Damage with Primary ammo or against constructs provides additional progress.
  • Constructs include barricades, turrets, Stasis crystals, and other objects created in the field.
  • This perk description states that it partially refills the magazine, but we'd like to clarify that this pulls ammo from thin air, not reserves.
• Attrition Orbs
  • Dealing sustained damage creates an Orb of Power.
• Cold Steel
  • Powered Sword hits slow targets.
• Beacon Rounds
  • Final blows with this weapon grant your projectiles tracking. Dealing further damage extends the duration.
• Dawning Surprise – Origin Trait
  • Rapidly defeating targets awards a Dawning gift. Defeated powerful targets count as more than one.

Keep an eye out for Zephyr (the only Stasis Sword for now) with the Cold Steel trait. Also, note that the damage bonus from Deconstruct stacks with the Häkke Breach Armaments origin trait that you can select on Albedo Wing. This is alongside the Dawning Surprise origin trait that appears on all Dawning weapons.

Comfy, Cozy Dawning Beanie

There is no better way to get into a festive mood than by dressing the part, Guardians. So what better way to celebrate the season than with the cozy and stylish Bungie Rewards Dawning Beanie.

Not only does this beanie come with an embroidered Dawning logo, but you also have the option to change up your style on-the-fly with a removable pom. Starting December 12, the Dawning beanie will be available to purchase for all players who complete the Amateur Baker Event Challenge by June 3, 2024 at 9:59 AM PDT. Check out the Bungie Store for these and other Bungie Rewards.

Spread the holiday cheer Guardians!

The Great Dawning Bake Off

This year we want to do something extra special outside of the game. Welcome to The Great Dawning Bake Off! We want Guardians everywhere to make their best desserts and share them with the community through pictures and videos, so the spirit of the Dawning reaches every corner of the world.

You can go all in and make your own version of the Dawning cookies with a little help from abuelita Eva Levante, or you can try something different. A Vex tres leches Cake? Some tasty scones inspired by the Scorn? Gingerbread Cabal? A dessert that's unique to the region you live in? As long as you take inspiration from the Dawning, Season of the Wish, or Destiny 2, we’ll love it. Blow our minds with your culinary skills!

There’s only one week to make your best dessert, starting today. The winners will be chosen among those who submit their entries using the #DawningBakeOff hashtag. Their creations will be featured in the TWID, and they’ll all be awarded the Art of the Week or Movie of the Week emblem as well as the very special Draconis Tetrachroma emblem. Don't forget to include your BungieID in your submission so we can find you.

Season of the Wish Launch Updates

With the launch of Season of the Wish, we've seen a lot of great feedback and discussion that we’ve shared our thoughts on. Here are the highlights of each topic:

Blind Well

• One of our goals is to make sure players know from the start that there’s increased difficulty and new loot for this activity.
• It’s also not an activity players will have to do every week. They won’t need to return to the Blind Well until Week 6.
• We’ll have one Seasonable Challenge tied to the Blind Well later in the Season and one Heroic Blind Well completion requirement for the Seal.

Riven’s Lair and The Coil

• Our goal was for loot to be front and center, especially for players who go for a Platinum score.
• As this is only Week 1, just a reminder that different paths through The Coil will be rotating each week.
• From our early observations, the Shard economy is too unforgiving, and the team is looking to improve on this.

PvP Updates

• Control will be available as a selectable mode while Checkmate Control is active.
• We have no plans to turn Checkmate on across all of Crucible. Instead, we’re aiming for a midway point for ability cooldowns and weapon cooldowns that doesn’t result in specific weapons dominating.
• We are aware of some issues with Checkmate’s Special ammo implementation, and we’re trying various new approaches to improve the system.
• We will be regularly tuning Checkmate’s TTK (time-to-kill). Our target going forward is to keep optimal TTK consistent with the current Crucible sandbox.
• We will be looking to reduce body shot damage. The end result is an increase in the skill gap, where consistent head shots are rewarded with faster TTK.
• We are aware of the spawn issues in Countdown Rush on The Citadel and Multiplex. We’ll be temporarily disabling these maps in Competitive.

New Rocket Sidearm

• The new Sidearm archetype should give more opportunity to counteract Barrier Champions with this Season’s Artifact.

Check out the original post for the Destiny 2 team's complete launch update.

Fireteam Finder Updates

• Known issue: The auto-selected launch screen after summoning your fireteam to orbit isn’t respecting existing checkpoints.
• Our next beta will add additional options into title builder to help convey your lobby’s purpose.

Check out the original posts (1, 2, 3) for the Destiny 2 team’s update on the Fireteam Finder beta.

Vault from Orbit

• We have a fix for a bug allowing players to vault from an activity without the proper UI or full fireteam support. Due to positive reception for this bug, we plan to revert this fix in a January update.
• Our goal is to allow your full fireteam to be able to vault from anywhere in an update after The Final Shape.

Check out the original post for details on the vault from orbit bug.

Orb Cooldown Changes

• We’ve been monitoring feedback around Orb creation cooldowns and have a change going with our next update, currently targeted for next week.
• Equipping multiple copies of the armor mods Heavy Handed, Firepower, and Reaper now decreases their Orb creation cooldown.

Check out the original post for details on the orb cooldown changes.

Focusing Cost Changes

• We are reducing the focusing costs for ritual vendors in next week’s update.
• All Crucible, Gambit, and Vanguard Ops legacy focusing will cost 3 engrams.
• Unobtained Nightfall weapons will still cost 5 engrams.

Check out the original post for details on the focusing cost changes.

Fireteam Finder Beta Is Live

Thank you all for participating in the Raids Stress Test last week, Guardians. It was a successful event as we watched teams being formed and successfully clearing raids. An impressive 42% of all participants cleared their raids, with new fireteams only taking seven more minutes on average than pre-made fireteams. The test went so well that we were even able to turn on all activities for the last hour of the test. We gathered a lot of valuable data to help make the necessary tweaks and improvements.

Yesterday, we opened the Fireteam Finder Beta, with access to all activities! If you want to grab a fireteam for Warlord’s Ruin or maybe do a run through The Coil for some Seasonal weapons and armor, now is your chance. Remember to play nice, pay attention to the tags, and honor the oath.

There are two ways to access Fireteam Finder:   

• From the Director using the Roster tab.
• Using the Fireteam Finder access point found on every activity’s launch screen.

In both cases, you’ll be able to search for a fireteam or create a listing using a series of options to specify the group that you’re trying to build.

Warlord’s Ruin Vest and Pin

So, you’ve delved deep into Warlord’s Ruin in search of glory and some cool new weapons, maybe even the new Exotic Sidearm. And after a brief stint behind bars and a showdown with the soul of a long-dead, revenge-fueled Ahamkara, you’ve come out victorious. You deserve some rest... and a vest!

Players who complete Warlord's Ruin by June 3, 2024, at 9:59 AM PDT can purchase this sleek Warlord’s Ruin reversable vest and pin as part of Bungie Rewards. And for those who earn the Wrathbearer title in by June 3, 2024 at 9:59 AM PDT, you can also purchase the Wrathbearer title pin. Check out the Bungie Store for these and other Bungie Rewards.

Player Support Report

 Do wish dragons get candles on their birthday cake?

Known Issues List  |  Help Forums  |  Bungie Help Twitter

VAULT FROM ACTIVITY UPDATE

With the release of Update 7.3.0.1 on December 5, we deployed a fix for a bug that allowed players to vault from an activity without the proper UI or full fireteam support. We are planning on reverting this fix in a January update and allowing players to retain the current level of vault access. Our goal is to allow full fireteams to “vault from anywhere” in an update after The Final Shape launches.

FAQ FOR THE FINAL SHAPE DELAY

For those who have questions regarding their The Final Shape pre-order, related pre-order items, the Collector’s Edition, and more, please view our FAQ.

UPDATED TEXT CHAT FILTERING 

One of our core values is “creating worlds that inspire friendship,” which includes protecting players and encouraging positive teamwork. With this aim, we will begin implementing significant improvements to text-chat language filters in early December. Some things to note: 

1. To minimize unintended behavior, this will be the first step of a multiphase rollout. We will continually audit the filter’s performance and update its rules. 
2. Players can still toggle Allow Profanity on and off through the in-game social settings. However, in the initial rollout, some of these settings may be overridden by the new filters. This means some players may temporarily see terms that were previously hidden by their personal settings. We are working to resolve this in a future phase. 
3. The system will prioritize the thirteen languages and dialects officially supported by Destiny 2. Players chatting in non-supported languages may experience the system filtering out words that do not violate the Code of Conduct. We’re working on an FAQ with details about this and related questions. 
4. Initially, the system will automatically filter language but not affect any player accounts. However, while auditing the system’s performance, Bungie staff may manually act on behavior that violates our Code of Conduct.

Players who encounter unexpected filter behavior will be able to report it via a dedicated submission form in the near future. 

KNOWN ISSUES

While we continue investigating various known issues, here is a list of the latest issues that were reported to us in our :

• There is a Champion present in the Vanguard Ops version of the PsiOps Battleground: Cosmodrome.
• Players are unable to gain health from Devour while in an active Nova Warp Super.
• Players are not receiving chest rewards when completing PsiOps Battlegrounds in the Vanguard Ops playlist.
• Players that are on the Polysemy activity step of the Seasonal quest cannot launch or join the activity with players that have already completed it.
• The Gambit legacy armor chest piece costs Legendary Shards instead of Glimmer.
• Healing rifts can stop healing players after an overshield is applied.
• Some menu items in Fireteam Finder can sometimes appear blank.
• The Exotic catalyst quest for Dragon’s Breath is not progressing in Seasonal activities as expected.
• The Scorching Wish perk can cause players to deal continuous damage to themselves.
• Activity checkpoints are not always saved when returning to orbit in Fireteam Finder activities.
• Certain Triumphs in Warlord’s Ruin are giving out incorrect rewards. Players who have completed these Triumphs will be granted the appropriate rewards in a future update.
• Tier 4 runs of the Blind Well are granting less progress to the The City a Wish Built Seasonal Challenge than lower tiers.
• Some Fireteam Finder text is not visible in languages other than English.
• Gunsmith Engrams are not displayed in the engram tracker.

For a full list of emergent issues in Destiny 2, players can review our Known Issues article. Players who observe other issues should report them to our #Help forum.

Titan Way of Life

Enemy in close proximity? Punch it. Explosive enemy approaches? Punch it. Barrier Champion? Punch it. Big object that's part of a dungeon or raid mechanic? Punch it. Aerial boss that has very little health and it's flying over the cliff of a cursed castle? You say it, Titan.

Movie of the Week: Just When You Think You Got It...

Cute Little Baby Whim

Ahamkara are dangerous. They have their own agenda, and they can curse you forever... but look at this little, tiny, puppy! So cute. I wish I could hold it in my arms forever. I mean... Hold up. No, no, no, don't. Stop. Bad whim. Silly baby. Wait. No. Please.

 Artist of the Week: Lil Baby Whim, by The Edgeless Terror on Twitter/X

And there we have it for This Week in Destiny! We look forward to seeing your real-life holiday dessert skills on display. Meanwhile, spend some more time with our old pal, Riven; either gathering her eggs or completing runs in The Coil. You could also go deep into Warlord’s Ruin, and maybe even try to complete it solo for the title. Or if you prefer, you can just spread some fiery mayhem with Dragon’s Breath in order to unlock its catalyst. Whichever way you’re enjoying the new Season, have fun.

Thanks for hanging out with us!

Destiny 2 Community Team