Destiny 2

Bungie

While this entire Monument of Triumph finale was a bit of a Mad Max situation for Destiny 2 developers, now that the final update has launched, Bungie is racing to fix game-breaking balance issues. These are issues that would potentially not be able to be addressed in the future, given that Destiny 2 isn’t just not getting any new content, it’s losing all Bungie support entirely, despite the servers being left on indefinitely.

There’s a lot of talk about the “last” hotfix coming, and as such, there are only so many chances to fix the game’s biggest issues before the “forever meta” settles in, and some sort of PvE or PvP cheese dominates Destiny 2 until the end of time. So, these are the main issues being addressed in a patch today:

• Fixed an issue where the Hunter’s Lethal Current Aspect could activate multiple times on a single attack, causing one-shots in PvP.
• Fixed an issue causing the Pit of Heresy four-piece armor set bonus to loop, instantly igniting targets.
• Fixed an issue where Crossbow bolts could displace bosses if attached to an object that you can pick up and hold.
• Fixed an issue where artifact perks under certain conditions would ignore the "no duplicates" restriction.

The top two are PvP-specific, resulting in lots of one-shot, unavoidable deaths. The bottom two are PvE bugs that have allowed players to crush the hardest content in the game, the Crossbow bug allowing some bosses to be launched into the sun.

In an update this big, there are many, many other issues that need to be addressed, but the clock is literally ticking for Bungie, as their ability to patch the game in any meaningful way is ending, and the teams that might handle such a thing may fall victim to pending, widespread layoffs that will target Destiny 2 developers specifically, now that the game is receiving no support on any level.

I’ve been told a few things related to this from my sources, who asked not to be named on the condition of anonymity. One is that if there is something incredibly dire, it’s possible that someone(s) could be peeled off of Marathon temporarily to address it. But at that point, we’re talking seriously, technical-side, game-breaking stuff. We’re certainly not seeing any more nerf/buff patches or things like that. I’m not even sure the above issues would count in the future.

Second, I’ve also heard that there is actually a limit on how many hotfixes Bungie is even allowed to have post-release, down to a specific number, which has changed a few times. At one point, it was zero, meaning the update would have to launch flawlessly, with absolutely nothing able to be fixed after that. That would have meant those issues could have remained in place indefinitely, but post-launch hotfixes were eventually greenlit. I’m not 100% sure this is the very last one, but it might be. Again, barring any sort of total playability emergency.

Even if Destiny 2 content support is ending, it remains somewhat bizarre that “maintenance mode” for a sprawling game this size does not even involve any sort of team at all going forward, even a small one. This is something beyond maintenance mode and more like total abandonment, and everyone better hope these are the last comically overpowered strategies discovered in the game, as they’ll likely last forever. Good luck with that.

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