Bungie Announces Some ‘Destiny 2’ Exotics Getting A Makeover While Others Aren’t
The Exotic weapons in Destiny 2 are one of many sore spots Bungie hopes to address in one of the upcoming updates to the online shooter. Bungie confirmed Thursday that most of the weapons are receiving some sort of touchup while only a handful will remain untouched.
Bungie is currently targeting updating Exotic weapons as part of the 1.1.4 update scheduled to be released on March 27, according to the Destiny 2 development roadmap. This is a “stretch goal,” however, which means it could slip to the 1.2.0 update in May unless the studio elects to do an interim release in April.
There are currently 25 Exotic weapons in Destiny 2 and most of them will be getting an update of some sort that will either increase its power or utility, per Bungie. Some, like the Graviton Lance, will receive major overhauls while others will get a bump in one stat or the other.
While most Exotics will be updated, the following weapons will not be touched:
- Merciless
- Telesto
- Wardcliff Coil
- MIDA Multi-Tool
- Colony
- Legend of Acrius
- Vigilance Wing (will benefit from general Pulse Rifle tweaks)
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Graviton Lance
As for what is being touched, senior designer Jon Weisnewski used the Graviton Lance as an example of the goals Bungie has for this Exotic gear tuning pass. These goals include adding/increasing player Power spikes, focusing on low-usage items, and pushing the weapon’s identity even further to the forefront.
The Graviton Lance Pulse Round looks and sounds like one of the coolest weapons in the game with a small explosion on kills. Unfortunately, the recoil on the weapon is incredibly high, most of the damage only occurs with the third-round of a burst, and the explosion is difficult to manage because the body of the enemy goes flying off.
The Exotic tuning update will change the Pulse Rifle from a three-round burst to a two-round burst with the second round doing high damage with no drop-off. Bungie is also reducing the recoil and buffing it with some additional aim assist. Finally, the explosion on kills will be larger, does more damage, and will send some void projectiles out to seek additional targets.
This overhaul of the Graviton Lance gives it a slight edge over other Pulse Rifles, per Weisnewski. The senior designer also recently shared on Twitter that a recent PVP playtest featured “insane gunfights between Skyburner and Graviton.”
