The latest Destiny 2 update is the big February update, bringing Nightfall Strike Scoring, emblem variants, aura changes, and a number of small quality of life fixes. Players can now see their fireteam members on the map. Damage reduction in Supers granted by Masterwork armor has been increased. Certain destination emblem variants will now track the number of scannable objects the player has found. Each of these changes show that Bungie has their ear to the ground listening for player feedback and working on implementing solutions. The armor Masterwork update in particular shows their flexibility and willingness to change new features after they are released, tweaking them until they provide the best player experience. Here are the Destiny 2 update 1.1.3 patch notes.
Destiny Update 1.1.3 – The one about Nightfall Strike Scoring.
Nightfall Strike Scoring
- Both normal and Prestige Nightfall now have scoring
- Enemy kills and orb generation will accrue points
- Highest set scores will display on each Nightfall’s respective emblem
- Scores above a target value will enable the Nightfall Aura and a fireteam Vanguard Token bonus
- Total team score will be displayed at the end of the Nightfall in the PGCR
Nightfall Challenge Cards
- The Prestige Nightfall challenge card allows players to select modifiers for the Prestige Nightfall that affect gameplay and score multipliers
- Players can select active Elemental modifiers to boost outgoing and incoming damage
- Players can opt into using a power handicap that will lower their character power level in the Prestige Nightfall but raise the score multiplier
- Extinguish is always on when applying the Nightfall Challenge Card. If the full fireteam wipes in a respawning restricted area, the fireteam will be returned to orbit
- Cards cannot be modified once the activity has been launched
- These cards will drop for DLC owners in the normal or Prestige Nightfall
- The fireteam leader’s card is applied to the entire fireteam when launching the Prestige Nightfall
Emblem Variants
Crucible Emblems
- Victorious Veteran tracks your lifetime Crucible kills and how many of each class you’ve defeated
- Victorious Veteran has six variants: the first three variants are class specific, the last three are unlocked after defeating 1000 of that class in PVP
- This emblem can be purchased from Shaxx after opening 10 faction packages
Destination Emblems
- Lost Sector Emblems have been changed into Destination Emblems that track Lost Sectors Found, Region Chests Opened, and Ghost Scans Discovered
- Note: Mercury only tracks Lost Sectors and Region Chests
- Each Destination Emblem has four variants in addition to the default emblem
- Each variant has a chance to drop from chests in the destination
- For players who did not have the respective Lost Sector emblems, they may purchase the new destination emblems from the respective vendors after opening 10 faction packages
Nightfall Emblems
- New Nightfall Emblems exist for each individual Nightfall strike and track your high score in that strike
- Each Nightfall Emblem has 3 variants in addition to the default emblem, these variants have a chance to drop when you hit a certain score tier and complete the Nightfall
Auras
- Raid Emblem “Glory To The Emperor” tracks total Leviathan clears on Prestige difficulty and unlocks the orange Prestige Raid Aura if you’ve completed a Prestige difficulty raid activity in the last 14 days
- Trials Emblem “You Are Worthy” tracks number of flawless tickets and unlocks the blue Trials Aura if you’ve gone flawless in the last 14 days
- Nightfall Emblems awarded from completing each Nightfall strike track your high score in the respective Nightfall and unlock an aura if your high score in that strike is higher than a global target score
General
- Opt-in Text Chat for PC is now available in Social Spaces and Public Areas
- Fireteam members now appear on Destination Map
- Damage Reduction granted by Armor Masterworks while a Super ability is active has been increased from 3% to 5% per armor piece
- Fixed an issue where Ammo Masterworks could decrease the maximum ammo capacity of a weapon
- Fixed an issue where some players would have irretrievable items within the Postmaster
- The Eater of Worlds Raid Lair will now grant Faction Tokens during Faction Rallies events
- The Seeker of Brilliance and Seeker of Opulence perks on the Contender Ghost Shell may now trigger during the Crossing encounter of the Eater of Worlds Raid Lair
- Fixed an issue in Trials of the Nine where players could receive erroneous losses if the opposing team left before match start
- Fixed an issue where players could encounter BAT errors when joining a Mercury Adventure
- Fixed an issue where players were placed facing the wrong direction after dunking an item during public events
- Fixed an issue where the Phoenix Dive Warlock Ability could be used to get out of the intended playspace
- Helm of Saint-14 no longer affects allies when guarding with the Sentinel Shield Super
- The Insurmountable Skullfort Titan Exotic now properly has three stat points
- Projectiles from the Colony Exotic Grenade Launcher properly track enemies on PC when frame rate is set higher than 30 FPS
This update changes the Nightfall Strike to a scoring based mode instead of the time limit based challenge that it has been since Destiny 2’s launch. It also introduces the first version of Nightfall challenge cards, though additional revisions of this feature will be coming later. It also brings about the long-awaited ability to see fireteam members on the map, something players have been clamoring for.
Bungie recently revised their roadmap for the next few months, pushing some features out further and adding in Rumble to new Crucible weekly playlists coming at the end of March. Looking at this roadmap, we’re able to get a sense of what Bungie is looking to implement over the next month. Expansion 2 is launching in May, so it’s likely we’ll at least begin to get teases for that content during March, with full reveals to take place during April.
What other changes and updates would you like to see come to Destiny 2?
[Source: Bungie]
