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Big changes are coming to raid rewards in next ‘Destiny 2’ update

Destiny 2 – Official Live Action Trailer – New Legends Will Rise
Destiny 2 has come under criticism from dedicated players for its poor endgame and lack of incentive to keep completing its Leviathan raid week after week, but on January 30, Bungie is making changes to the rewards system that should make defeating Emperor Calus even more satisfying.

With the next update, any raid armor you acquire through drops will come with special Leviathan bonus perks — these are statistical advantages that will only apply when you’re in the raid. They’ll act much like other mods you can equip on your weapons and armor, but you’ll be able to swap them out at any time and reuse them for one Calus Token. All raid mods are Legendary, so you have nothing to lose if you choose to equip them all the time.

These raid perks will give bonuses to broad categories rather than specific abilities. The “Emperor’s Blaze” hunter cloak mod will give solar abilities a damage boost, while another will automatically recharge your grenade when you activate a super ability.

Destiny 2 still has a problem with rewarding players appropriately for their efforts, but other changes coming to raids should help fix that. You’re now guaranteed to get a piece of raid gear when you clear any encounter, and there is a chance for any raid encounter to drop an exotic gear piece that you can use without decrypting it at the Tower. If you’re running the Prestige version of the raid, you’ll now get both Prestige and normal drops, as well. Raid gear you happen to be missing can also be purchased at the raid vendor for Calus Tokens and legendary shards, and the pieces available will change each week. In order to purchase Prestige-level gear this way, you must have completed the Prestige raid that week.

Armor Masterworks were previously announced for the update, and we now have a little more information on what they’ll do. Each Masterwork will give you a stackable 3-percent damage resistance boost when using a super, and they can be reworked into a different “stat package” for a Masterwork core and legendary shards. Additionally, if you don’t like the look of your weapons or armor, Bungie is considering implementing a system to allow the re-use of shaders, possibly through “collections” or copies.

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Gabe Gurwin
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Gabe Gurwin has been playing games since 1997, beginning with the N64 and the Super Nintendo. He began his journalism career…
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