‘Destiny’ 2.0.1 Update Brings A Mix Of Good And Baffling Changes

Bungie released the Destiny 2.0.1 update on Tuesday with the promised nerfs to Shotgun and the appearance of Tess Everis selling emotes for real world cash. There was a surprising number of additional updates to the PlayStation and Xbox shooter and some are worth cheering about, while others may leave you scratching your head in bewilderment.

The Destiny 2.0.1 update did bring the long-expected Black Spindle nerf. The Exotic Sniper Rifle now starts at the expected 290 instead of 310 when dropped. There are also various issues fixed regarding ghosts, shaders, and emblems not showing up from pre-orders and The Taken King Collector’s Edition. There are many other problems fixed too from bounties not being rewarded correctly to Exotic Armor perks not behaving as expected.

Destiny Update 2.0.1 is ready for download. Fire up your console and see what’s new. https://t.co/qbaRqyleEs pic.twitter.com/vIXkhPU4OL

— Bungie (@Bungie) October 13, 2015

Let’s get to the big ticket items though.

The Good News

Let’s touch on the good news first, since it will brighten up any Destiny player’s day and especially those who run multiple characters. Lord Shaxx’s Crucible Quest will now unlock the weekly bounties for all characters after it is completed by one. This is truly one of the longest and most grueling quest chains in the game and was one of the six items I listed as needing fixing. Consider this one thankfully checked off the list.

Other Crucible-themed fixes include adjustments to the Weekly “Featured Matches” and “Making an Impact” bounties to count top 3 finishes in Rumble as a win. This was the case for other Rumble related bounties, so it is good to see the change come to the Weekly bounties as well.

I’m not likely to spend any real world money on emotes, but it is refreshing to see Bungie and Activision take an approach to find different ways to bring in money to potentially support free DLC content. Like any good drug dealer, Bungie also gave everyone 400 Silver (the new in-game currency) to buy at least one emote for free. “The Carlton” dance is undoubtedly the favorite so far, but it is sneakily priced at 500 Silver.

Year Two Exotic Armor owners will be able to re-roll the perks and stats via a new “Twist Fate” node. This will require a Glass Needle that can be purchased from Xur. It remains to be seen if this will be abused like re-forging was to a certain degree, but it’s nice to get a chance to correct a bad roll on a piece of armor players have been coveting.

Iron Banner received some welcome changes, which are detailed here, but the return of Trials of Osiris has some good news as well. Players will now be able to buy some gear directly from Brother Vance that was only previously available in the Lighthouse. Meanwhile, getting to the Lighthouse will feel more like an accomplishment thanks to a matchmaking priority change that tries to match up fireteams with the same record.

The Bad News

Bungie made some significant changes to the Destiny economy relating to Strange Coins and Weapon Parts. The ability to earn Strange Coins from Faction Rep packages has been reduced from five coins to four while the chance to earn them from completed bounties has been reduced by 50 percent.

The reduction of Strange Coins seems like an odd move at this point. I haven’t noticed Strange Coins being quite that plentiful, but my son said he earned around 50 over the past weekend. Perhaps Bungie has some numbers to back up more coins being given out than intended. At the same time, players have had more of a reason to spend Strange Coins with the introduction of Three of Coins as part of Xur’s wares every weekend. That’s where the pain comes in.

Weapon Parts are also being bafflingly reduced by 25 percent when dismantling Uncommon and Rare weapons. Since this is the only source of Weapon Parts and they are now being used up at blistering rates to Infuse and upgrade weapons, it is a confusing move. I had couple of hundred Weapon Parts at the launch of The Taken King and quickly burned through them for a single character. I still have to manage my weapon parts usage carefully as I try to upgrade my Legendaries. Meanwhile, my Armor Parts quickly recovered after I accidentally deleted a stack of several hundred (don’t ask).

Not Touched

Raid glitches were surprisingly not touched on despite a fix to the Blighted Light explosion when fighting Oryx and an increase in the number Mouldering Shards from the first chest of King’s Fall. I’ve not run very much of the new Raid yet, and have already experienced a number of glitches, particularly in the Oryx encounter. This included one last night that kept our spark runner from grabbing the spark while we had Oryx down to a sliver of health.

Nightfall Strikes were disappointingly not touched. As I mentioned in my six things to fix article, the time and effort to complete the most difficult version of the strike hasn’t been as rewarding for players since the launch of The Taken King.

Finally, the Vanguard Heroic Strike playlist did not get any additional Strikes added, so it is still the same number as before. At least Bungie added a counter to show how many more Legendary Marks players have left to earn.

Please go check the full list of changes with the Destiny 2.0.1 update on Bungie’s website. There are simply too many to list here without drawing the ire of my editors.

[Images via Bungie]