One long-forgotten Destiny 2 Exotic weapon is getting a rework with Episode Heresy

Nicholas Taifalos

Nicholas Taifalos

Guess that Exotic weapon buff!

Bungie is gearing up for Feb. 7's Episode: Heresy in a big way, announcing several Destiny 2 system updates. Yesterday we got a deep dive into the Crucible and Trials of Osiris updates, but today was all about weapons.

Particularly, Bungie addressed changes to the weapon sandbox and a myriad of adjustments to Exotic weapons — including one classic Heavy weapon that hasn't seen action since the Red War.

D.A.R.C.I. back on the menu with huge Heresy buff

When was the last time you looked down the scope of D.A.R.C.I.? (Screenshot by esports.gg)
When was the last time you looked down the scope of D.A.R.C.I.? (Screenshot by esports.gg)

Bungie unveiled the weapon sandbox updates in their Jan. 23 weekly blog post. It's one of several posts touching on mass changes coming to Destiny 2 with Episode: Heresy on Feb. 7.

It was all about weapons today with several adjustments coming for full archetypes such as scout rifle and auto rifle buffs. But, all eyes were on the Exotic weapon changes — with D.A.R.C.I. the highlight of the lot.

D.A.R.C.I. has been given a full rework with a new catalyst perk, Networked Targeting. Landing hits with Personal Assistant active will now grant you and allies a damage buff to non-Exotic sniper rifles.

Think of it like Gjallarhorn but for snipers; all other snipers get a stacking buff to flinch, target acquisition, handling, and precision damage when the D.A.R.C.I. user lands shots. D.A.R.C.I. also benefits from this buff, with it receiving a bonus 15% boost once five stacks of Networked Targeting are reached.

The heavy sniper rifle, after a small amount of use back when Destiny 2 launched, has been completely absent from the game as it couldn't compete with alternate selections in the sandbox. Several Legendary special sniper rifles made the weapon obsolete, with it only seen when players needed a tool to work out how far away an enemy was in PvP.

Now, it'll be a great addition to a fireteam rocking Legendary sniper rifles. It's also a bit of a hint of what may come with Heresy — we already encounter a few raid or dungeon bosses at ranges where snipers are needed. Perhaps having a D.A.R.C.I. user will become a norm in Episode: Heresy?

There are plenty more changes revealed by Bungie in today's TWID blog, including some Exotic armor tuning and an explanation of how content will be fed to users in the new season. We've summarized the weapon changes below, but if you want the full briefing, check out the blog post here.

All weapon changes coming with Destiny 2's Episode: Heresy

General

Mass weapon changes are coming for Destiny 2. (Image via Bungie)
Mass weapon changes are coming for Destiny 2. (Image via Bungie)
  • Scout Rifles
    • 15% damage buff vs. minors.
    • 30% damage buff vs. majors.
  • Auto Rifles
    • 10% damage buff vs. minors and majors.
  • SMGs
    • 5% damage buff vs. minors.
    • Magazine size increased by 10-15% (as per update 8.1.5.3).
  • Trace Rifles
    • 20% damage buff vs. minors.
  • Linear Fusion Rifles
    • 10% damage buff vs. all combatants.
  • Glaives
    • Significantly increased aim assist, aim magnetism, and damage falloff ranges across the board for all glaives.
    • Improved glaive projectile hit registration.
    • Increased the baseline effects at all stat values for:
      • Handling speeds, including shield ready speed and draw and stow speed.
      • Magazine size.
      • Projectile speed.
      • Reload speed.
    • Final hit of the melee combo deals double damage. This hit also inflicts much more flinch on PvE combatants.
  • Aggressive Frame Fusion Rifles
    • Aggressive Frame Fusion Rifles now fire three bursts of four pellets in increasingly wide spreads.
    • Increased minimum damage when fully outside of damage falloff range from 45% to 65%.
    • Increased range falloff start by 4m relative to normal Fusions.
    • Increased range falloff end by 3m relative to other Fusions.
    • Increased damage versus minors and majors by 15% relative to normal Fusions.
  • Support Frame Auto Rifles
    • Range now increases how far away you can heal another Guardian.
  • Rocket-Assisted Frame Sidearms
    • Reduced PvE detonation damage by 45%.
    • Increased PvE impact damage by 100%.
    • Reduced Aim Assist falloff and maximum distance by 8m.
    • Reduced magnetism falloff and maximum distance by 8m.
    • Reduced damage by 30% vs boss, vehicle, and miniboss targets.
      • Buried Bloodline's body shot damage is unaffected, critical hit damage is buffed by 8%.
    • The range stat was vestigial to the weapon subfamily, so we've removed it.
      • Range masterworks and enhanced intrinsics will be replaced with something more appropriate.

Exotic

21 Exotic weapons are getting adjusted in Episode: Heresy. (Image via Tiermaker. Remix by esports.gg)
21 Exotic weapons are getting adjusted in Episode: Heresy. (Image via Tiermaker. Remix by esports.gg)
  • Centrifuse
    • Increased mag size to 45.
  • Cloudstrike
    • Added behavior to Stormbringer perk:
      • Rapid precision hits create a lightning storm at the point of impact and grants a stack of Bolt Charge.
    • Added behavior to Mortal Polarity perk:
      • Precision final blows generate a lightning bolt at the target's location and grants a moderate amount of Bolt Charge.
  • D.A.R.C.I.
    • Added a new catalyst perk — Networked Targeting:
      • Hits with Personal Assistant active grant you and nearby allies improved overall weapon performance and precision damage with non-Exotic Sniper Rifles.
        • Improves recoil, flinch, target acquisition, handling and precision damage.
        • Stacks up to five times; D.A.R.C.I also gets this buff itself.
    • D.A.R.C.I user also gets +15% damage after granting five stacks to a teammate.
  • Dead Messenger, Hard Light, Borealis
    • The Fundamentals:
      • New effect: Grants a 30% damage buff (10% in PvP) to this weapon for 10 seconds when you apply or receive an elemental keyword that matches the currently selected damage type of this weapon.
    • Borealis only: Increased Stability by 20 and Aim Assist by 10 to permanently grant it the Void element bonus that it will no longer have access to.
  • Delicate Tomb
    • Increased the chance to make an Ionic Trace from minor combatants from 4% to 10%.
    • Increased the PvE damage bonus on the Tempest Cascade shot from 30% to 100%.
    • Removed the timer from Tempest Cascade. Lasts until fired.
  • Edge of Action/Concurrence/Intent
    • Special shot is no longer tied to Glaive energy.
      • Now triggered on six weapon hits to allow the special reload.
        • Increments off both shots and melee hits.
      • Edge of Concurrence
        • Effects of Jolting Feedback trait added to intrinsic perk.
      • Edge of Action
        • Effects of Destabilizing Rounds trait added to intrinsic perk.
      • Edge of Intent
        • Effects of Incandescent trait added to intrinsic perk.
        • Added Cure pulse to special shot impact.
        • Healing Turret no longer targets allies at full health.
          • Allies need some damage done to their shields to be eligible targets.
  • Legend of Acrius
    • Reduced spread angle by 33%.
    • Increased maximum projectile range from 12 to 18 meters.
  • Lorentz Driver
    • Picking up a bounty tag now grants one ammo to the mag.
    • Triggering Lagrangian Sight by picking up a bounty tag adds six ammo to the mag, the first time you trigger it.
      • Returns to adding one ammo per tag on extensions while the buff remains active.
  • Lord of Wolves
    • Increased range, reduced base damage.
    • Removed accuracy penalties from standard fire mode.
    • Release the Wolves now triggers on hip fire instead of special reload:
      • Fires full auto.
      • Greatly increased damage and rate of fire.
      • Reduced accuracy and range.
    • Catalyst:
      • Reload Speed and Stability boosts are now built in.
      • When Release the Wolves is active, dealing damage to targets scorches them.
      • When ADS, defeating targets spreads scorch to nearby combatants.
  • Quicksilver Storm
    • Reduced shots required to trigger a rocket by 17%.
  • The Fourth Horseman
    • Reduced the rate of fire slightly to give more control over wasting shots.
    • Loads ammo from reserves to the magazine per kill.
  • The Queenbreaker
    • Players can special reload at any time to swap between scopes.
    • Marksman Sights retains the previous behavior of firing a single shot that chains to nearby targets and blinds them.
      • The range of the chain has increased from eight to 10 meters to make chaining easier.
    • Combat Sights now alters the weapon to fire a three-round burst at a charge time of 533. Sustained damage on a target decreases the charge time of the weapon down to 300 charge time (with no loss to damage), useful for quickly dealing damage to bosses or other high health targets.
    • The scope that you select in the inspection screen will determine which scope is active by default when spawning into an activity.
  • The Colony
    • Increased detonation damage by 40%.
    • Increased number of bots spawned by one for all enemy tiers except players:
      • Player: One
      • Minor: 1->2
      • Elite/Major: 2->3
      • Champion/Miniboss/Boss: 5->6
  • Thunderlord
    • Added behavior to Reign Havoc perk:
      • Final blows with this weapon generate lighting strikes from above. Lightning strikes grant a stack of Bolt Charge. Strong against Overload Champions.
  • Telesto
    • Harbinger's Pulse:
      • Now only refills Telesto's ammo from reserves (instead of Telesto and your Kinetic slot weapon).
      • Now triggers with any Void final blow.
      • Final blow requirement increased from two to three, however Telesto final blows count double (in other words, will trigger from two Telesto final blows, one Telesto final blow plus one other Void final blow, or three other Void final blows).
      • Multikill timer increased from two to 4.5 seconds.
    • Catalyst
      • New perk: Harbinger Seethe
        • After three activations of Harbinger's Pulse, special reload the weapon to cause a rain of Telesto projectiles on your next direct hit.
  • Vexcalibur
    • Triggering 'Perpetual Loophole' (by scoring a melee kill while your overshield is active) now also fills your Glaive energy to full.
    • Slightly increased Void Overshield trickle-on rate to nearby allies and yourself when guarding.
    • Increased the potency of Vexcalibur’s innate advantages against the Vex.
      • Vexcalibur's secret damage bonus when striking with its projectiles against a certain enemy faction has been increased from 10% to 25% to match Wish-Ender and Malfeasance.
      • Vexcalibur now briefly disorients non-boss Vex with its melee attack.
  • Wardcliff Coil
    • New intrinsic effect:
      • Grants one stack of Bolt Charge to all nearby allies for every two rockets fired (four stacks per trigger pull).

That's all for now! For more Destiny 2 news and coverage stay tuned to esports.gg.