over 1 year ago - Sam - Direct link
This week at Bungie, we have a lot to talk about.  

Ahoy, Guardians! Do we have things to talk about this week or what? Tuesday brought us a ton of information, and today we get to talk a little bit more about what is happening in the current Season! Between Arc 3.0, Season of Plunder, King’s Fall, the Epic Games Store, and free week, I guess we should get into the details now. Hold on t' yer Ghosts, Guarrrrrdian, we've got some mysterious relics t' find!

Season of Plunder and Arc 3.0   

Season of Plunder is here, and we love seeing all the clips and memories being made as you and your lovely band of crewmates—Mithrax, Spider, Drifter, and Eido—scour the high space-seas to find mysterious relics before Eramis does.   
Season of Plunder features a new weekly six-player matchmade mission called Ketchcrash, a new three-player matchmade activity called Expedition, new gear to loot, and new weapons to craft. The Delicate Tomb Exotic Fusion Rifle can be instantly unlocked with the Season Pass.  
Arc 3.0 is also live and free for all. With Void and Solar having their fun already, this is the third and last Light subclass to get a rework. Release the storm with electrifying grenades, beat up your enemies with new thunderous melee attacks, feel the speed with new buffs and abilities, and build your own fighting style around the Aspects and Fragments. 

King’s Fall is Coming 

 
The Taken King is back! On August 26 at 10 AM PDT, join your raid team to take on Oryx on the Dreadnaught once again. Because this is a raid that many of you are already somewhat familiar with, we will be changing up the World First race, similar to how we did with Vault of Glass. Here is what to expect:  
    • The raid will launch with Contest Mode enabled for 24 hours.  
    • You will need to be at 1560 Power to be at the cap for all of the encounters.   
    • Once you've cleared the raid with Contest Mode active, you'll have access to Challenge Mode and the Regicide Triumph. 
      • The first fireteam to complete all the challenges for the Regicide Triumph within 24 hours will be crowned the winner of the World First race once the team reviews their clear. 
    • The Challenge Mode activity enforces the Regicide Triumph requirements by wiping the team if you fail the success conditions during any encounter. 
    • To alleviate some pressure on our servers, there will be no bounty or weapon crafting progress for combatant kills below boss tier within the King’s Fall raid while Contest Mode is enabled

So now that we have the rules in place, let’s see what you’re competing for!  

Similar to Vault of Glass, the first team to both beat the raid in Challenge Mode and the collect the raid Triumph will be declared the World First race winners. To celebrate, all six members of the final fireteam will receive one of our World First title belts. We will be doing our usual verification process to make sure no shenanigans took place, so expect a delay between watching the boss go down on stream and us certifying the winner on Twitter. 

Here is a look at the belt! 


Even if you don’t think you can come in first, there are still awesome Bungie Rewards available for everyone to pursue. 

2022 King’s Fall Raid Ring 


Handcrafted in solid nickel-free sterling silver, this hefty statement ring features The Taken King’s fearsome visage, with texture continuing around the ring band, and antiquing to accentuate the sculpted detail. Engraved on the inner band is the Hive’s patriotic anthem: Long live the King. 
    • Sizes 6-15 will be offered  
    • Solid artisan sterling silver 
    • Nickel free 
    • Top details: 25mm x 17mm 
    • Unisex sizing 
This special Bungie Rewards offer is available only to players who complete King's Fall Raid by September 6, 2022 9:59 AM PT.  
Players who finish the raid during Season of Plunder will unlock exclusive raid-themed items for purchase through Bungie Rewards on the Bungie Store, such as the King’s Fall Raid Art Print and King’s Fall Raid Pin. 

Want to follow along with the World First race live?  

Tune into ProfessorBroman’s Destiny Raid Day Tailgate, starting at 9:30 AM PT on Friday August 26. Broman and Reck will break down the race for World First as the doors to King’s Fall open for the first time in years! 

Thank You, Guardians 

Earlier in the week, we shared a really neat recap of the community reacting to The Witch Queen’s launch. The Destiny community holds some of the most expressive, reactive, heartfelt, and wildly entertaining creators who just so happen to let us use their clips to make sweet videos like that one. If you haven’t seen it yet, you can do that here, but we just wanted to say thank you to the creators who let us use their clips to make this happen.  
Thank you, Guardians. 
    • Shezabubadino 
    • IFrostBolt 
    • Aztecross 
    • Professor Broman 
    • Raquay Zan 
    • Game Dame 
    • Fallout Plays 
    • Crays World 
    • BlackLiuKang 
    • Bodacious Steve 
    • Nettle Creates 
    • Ahnubyss 
    • AwestruckHippo 
    • Zoe 
    • InDeeDee 
    • AndyEdition 
    • Fancy 
    • Tsubane 
    • LegionarioGG 
    • Deus CL 
    • Flapix 
    • JSKeleton

Wait, What is Free? 

From August 23 until August 30, all the current Destiny 2 story campaigns—Shadowkeep, Beyond Light and The Witch Queen—and their associated quests and content will be temporarily playable, by all players, for free. It doesn’t matter if you play on Xbox, PlayStation, Stadia, or PC, you will have access to some of the best content Destiny 2 has to offer. To be 100% clear, this doesn’t mean all Destiny 2 content is available for free. To learn more, please read this article.  
Now is the best time to get your friends into Destiny, so go get your fireteam together. We cannot wait to see what you do first. 

Epic Games  

Happening now, in a crossover I secretly hoped for, you can now wear three of the coolest original Fortnite-inspired outfits in Destiny 2. Whether you want to play as a Warlock while wearing your Drift ornament, a Hunter while wearing an Oblivion ornament, or a Titan as Black Knight, you really can’t go wrong with any of them. As a celebration of Destiny 2 launching on the Epic Games Store, we have discounted these sets for the duration of Season 18. They will revert to the listed price starting next Season.  

While researching more I found some interesting information on the unofficial Fortnite Wiki! Drift has a “rift” like substance on him as well as an electric aurora, so honestly, it’s really a perfect fit for Warlocks this Season! Oblivion’s description only reads “Unending vengeance,” and I think that says exactly all it needs to for our Hunters. And Black Knight is one of the six Fort Knights, so for all you Titans, it really gives that call back to building and protecting the wall surrounding the City when it was first built.  
 
The celebration doesn’t end there! Link your EGS account to Bungie.net to redeem a Fortnite, and a Fall Guys inspired emblem on September 1.



Exotic Ornament Results 

And the winner isssssss! Arbalest! I totally thought this was going to be a much closer vote than it was, because Rat King is king, but I was oh so wrong and our sweet, sweet Arbalest came out ahead with almost 50% of the vote. Good job, Guardians, this was fun! 

Arbalest: 45.72%   Rat King: 27.26%   Sweet Business: 27.01%

PLAYER SUPPORT REPORT 

Our Flag Means Destiny.    [Sea shanties play softly in the background.] 
Season of the Plunder is live, our Player Support team (hopefully) has boba, and now it's their turn to share what issues are currently active and what they are tracking as the Season has started.  
Known Issues List  |  Help Forums  |  Bungie Help Twitter  

PHOTOSENSITIVITY TIPS 

As a part of our commitment to accessibility initiative that began in September 2021, Bungie’s accessibility team has created a new Photosensitivity Tips to Help With Potential Risks guide.  

Players who experience photosensitivity concerns when accessing Destiny content are encouraged to take a look to help identify and navigate potential risks and triggers.  

POINT-CONTACT CANNON BRACE DISABLE 

Due to an issue, the new Point-Contact Cannon Brace Exotic Titan gauntlets have been temporarily disabled. The gauntlets can still be acquired, but not equipped, during this time. 

LOOSE SBMM UPDATE CLARIFICATION 

With Update 6.2.0, Loose Skill-Based Match Making (more info here) was supposed to have been implemented into the Crucible’s Control playlist, however, we discovered that the default value has been changed, which enabled Cross Play. We were able to send out a fix with the new matchmaking settings that evening. We plan to continue looking over feedback surrounding Loose SBMM throughout the Season.  

TWITCH DROP EMBLEM CLARIFICATION 

We have seen reports of confusion about how to claim the Twitch Drop reward, the Starbirth emblem. 

To clarify an issue we’re investigating: the Partners Rewards page should only show the emblem, not the Claim button. The Claim button doesn't do anything and will be removed.    If the emblem shows up on your Partner Rewards page, then you own the emblem. It may take a while (seemingly, several hours) for it to appear in your in-game Collections due to a queue, but it will eventually appear under Flair > Emblems > General.    If the emblem doesn't show up on the Partner Rewards page, press the Refresh button beside "Missing Twitch Rewards." If it still doesn't appear, click this page and confirm that the emblem appears. If it does, then you qualified for it and just need to connect your Twitch account to your Bungie.net account. 

ACQUIRING UMBRAL ENERGY FROM THE SEASON PASS 

Players who own the Season 18 Season Pass can claim Umbral Energy from the Pass after they complete the following: 
    1. Complete the Salvage and Salvation mission in the H.E.L.M. 
    2. Speak to Spider in the Eliksni Quarter 
    3. Acquire and complete the Ahoy and Aweigh quest 
    4. Visit the Star Chart in the H.E.L.M. 
    5. Acquire the ‘Sails of the Shipstealer’ and Captain's Atlas quests 
    6. Claim the Umbral Energy from the Season Pass 

KNOWN ISSUES 

While we continue investigating various known issues, here is a list of the latest issues that were reported to us in our #Help forum: 
    • The Quicksilver Storm Exotic Auto Rifle has no weapon icon when equipped. 
    • Players moving too quickly through Seasonal intro mission are becoming blocked from progressing. This can be resolved by doubling back to trigger Spider’s voice lines. 
    • The Ahoy and Aweigh quest objective may not successfully progress on Ketchcrash activity completion. 
    • Players with a full quest inventory will be unable to successfully pick up the Captain's Atlas during the Seasonal intro. This can be resolved by clearing quest inventory space and acquiring it from the Postmaster. 
    • Players may be blocked from Seasonal progress if they return to orbit too quickly after completing the boss encounter of the Seasonal intro mission. This can be resolved by players completing the mission again without returning to orbit on another character. 
    • Plundered Umbral Energy cannot be claimed from the Season Pass until players complete the Season of Plunder introductory mission and reach the Star Chart vendor. 
    • The Cry Mutiny Heavy Grenade Launcher incorrectly appears in the Special Grenade Launcher section of Collections. 
    • Players who acquire the Under One Banner crew upgrade will not earn bonus Treasure Coordinates when in a fireteam of other players who own the Season of Plunder Season Pass. 
    • In Ketchcrash, the Security Optic health bar may disappear or display inaccurate health if damaged too quickly. 
    • The Vow of the Disciple raid does not successfully reset its completion at the weekly reset, preventing players from earning new rewards in the next week. 
    • The Lost at Sea emblem is unavailable to reacquire from player Collections. 
    • The Skeleton Key Mods Seasonal Triumph does not correctly progress when unlocking Artifact mods. 
    • The Take a Seat emote displays a dark outline on players when activated. 
    • The Form of Danger and Xûr Exotic quests don’t receive progress for completing playlist activities. 
    • The Master Ketchcrash weekly challenge doesn’t grant a Pinnacle reward. 
    • Players on the Epic Games Store platform will have low FPS when viewing certain cutscenes if their EGS Launcher version is out of date. 
    • The intro music for Gambit and Control aren’t syncing correctly. 
    • The Previous Season Pass Rewards page on Bungie.net hasn’t updated to show Season 17 Season Pass items to claim. 
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

Dungeons & Dancing 

 

Arrrrrr, Guardians! (How many times are we going to collectively say that this Season?) The Showcase held a ton of artwork from the community, and as always we are back this week with more MOTW and AOTW goodies for you. We cannot get enough of your creativity, so don’t forget to tag us on social media using #MOTW, #AOTW, or #Destiny2Art, or use our Creations page, so we can find you!

Ivan: This video is a love letter to Destiny dungeons. Many of us found (and lost) friends during encounters, had unforgettable emotions, and experienced true teamwork. Hopefully this #MOTW will remind you of your valiant victories and funny failures.    Movie of the Week: Dungeons & Guardians: Separate Ways - Destiny 2 


Bruno: Dance to the beat,  Wave your Motes together,  Come feel the heat,  Forever and forever  Listen and learn  It is time for Gambit,  now we are here with,  the Drifterdansen. 
Movie of the Week: Who’s a coward now, uh? 


Hippy: Comin’ in hot with a bonus video because this one was incredibly popular on socials and honestly? It’s making me a little thirsty. In the legitimate way, this time, not in the extravagantly obsessive fangirl way. You know what we call that? Growth.  
B-b-b-bonus Movie of the Week: The NEW Omolon Energy Drinks 

Season of Arrrrrrrrt 

  Sam: Something neat about the video game community is just how creative you all are within video games. If you are one of the Guardians using transmog to recreate movie stars, recording your Guardian’s origin story within the game, or building your Guardian in Sims 4 so you can see what they would act like without the Light, I'm talking about you (and maybe me with that last one). Today we have another mashup, with yet another crossover of Minecraft and the Witness.  

Art of the Week: The Witness in Minecraft
Hippy: Arrrrr you ready to get that pirate fantasy on the road (on the ship?)? I mean... I get it, who wouldn’t want to conquer foes as an epic space pirate? It’s a dream come true! With Season of Plunder now live, and Arc 3.0 in everyone’s hands, there is a lot of badassery going on in the world of Destiny. Because of that, we just had to break norms a little bit, so we’re going to be dropping a few of our favorite AOTW picks that capture what’s new in the land of pirates and Drifter singing sea shanties.  
Art of the Week: Arc day 

And now the bonus new Seasonal and subclass revamp art:  

Art of the Week: Box of shame 
Art of the Week: Drifter’s other job   
Art of the Week: And the crowns of old will find new heads 
Alright, Guardians, that was a lot of information. Please send us questions, comments, and even your favorite clips as you explore this Season. We 'ope ye all be 'avin' a jolly time scourin' the 'igh space seas, but we also want to leave as much for you to explore as possible. So, on that note, get back out there Guardians, we have some artifacts to recover!  
Stay crafty, Guardians! 
Sam