[GameSpot] - Destiny 2 Says Goodbye To Blue Engrams For Those Above The Soft Gear Cap

[343iBot 363]

Destiny 2 is parting ways with rare engrams as of today. Announced by developer Bungie in hotfix 6.3.0.5, players who have reached the soft gear cap in the game--currently 1530 power level--will no longer receive blue engrams. Instead, they'll receive the "equivalent Glimmer amount" as a drop.

If you jumped into Destiny 2 right after the patch and you're still seeing blue engrams, don't fret. The developer tweeted that this particular update is rolling out later in the day, and to keep an eye on the @BungieHelp account for updates. At the time of publication, the background maintenance for the game has been extended by four hours, and is expected to end later today, January 24, at 2 PM PT / 5 PM ET.

This change is one of many ahead of the release of Lightfall next month. The Gunsmith reputation gains are being bumped by 25% to compensate for the lack of blue engrams. In addition, Bungie has recently shared that the team is planning on nerfing Resilience, as part of a major overhaul to Destiny 2's mod system, as well as the introduction of loadouts.

For now, you can find the full patch notes of hotfix 6.3.0.5 below:

ACTIVITIES

SEASONAL

• Heist Battleground
  • Fixed an issue where Shadebinder Warlocks couldn’t shoot Stasis projectiles during their Super.
  • Legend difficulty now grants progression toward various Triumphs and Challenges.
• Year-5 Seasonal ritual activities now count toward ritual progress of all Season Pass Exotic catalyst quests.
• Fixed an issue where the Ritual of the Season Triumph progressed with Heavy Grenade Launchers instead of Pulse Rifles.

CRUCIBLE

• Rumble: Restored as a game mode and removed from the weekly rotation.
• Showdown: Fixed an issue where revives where not properly displayed on the scoreboard.

GAMBIT

• Increased reputation gains by over 50%.

GAMEPLAY AND INVESTMENT

ARMOR

• Citan's Ramparts:
  • Increased the cooldown of the Barricade ability while Citan's Ramparts are equipped by 70%.
  • Increased the amount of damage players deal to a Citan's Barricade by 25%.
  • Developer note: This change should decrease how often one sees a Citan's Barricade in PvP, as well as add more opportunities for effective counterplay.

WEAPONS

GENERAL

• Adjusted Deep Stone Crypt raid encounter rewards to favor Deepsight weapons that have not had their patterns fully unlocked.
  • Happy farming.
• Updated Deep Stone Crypt's Commemoration Machine Gun to properly allow Rapid Hit and High-Impact Reserves as crafting options, as well as Feeding Frenzy and Under Pressure.
  • This includes crafting support for the enhanced versions of these perks.
• Fixed an issue where Tripwire Canary was not displaying the correct draw time stat in the UI.

WEAPON ARCHETYPES

• Submachine Gun
  • General
    • Increased damage and aim assist falloff start at 0 range by ~30%.
    • Reduced damage and aim assist falloff start at 100 range by ~10%.
  • Adaptive
    • Increased critical hit multiplier from 1.44 to 1.5.
    • Crit damage goes from 16.2 to 16.9.
  • Precision
    • Increased Forensic Nightmare's zoom from 13 to 14.
• Pulse Rifle
  • General
    • Reduced aim assist falloff start at 100 range by ~10%.
    • Reduced damage falloff start at 100 range by ~5%.
    • Increased recoil by 20% on mouse and keyboard only
  • Lightweight
    • Reduced BXR-55 Battler zoom from 20 to 18.
• Sidearm
  • General
    • Reduced the Season 18 aim assist falloff distance buff from 30% to 20%.

AIRBORNE EFFECTIVENESS

• Primary weapons
  • Aim Assist
    • Reduced all additional primary weapon auto-aim (bullet bend) penalties by ~60% at 0 AE (i.e., reduced penalty from 1.2 degrees to 0.5 degrees) for both mouse and keyboard as well as controller.
    • Increased the precision angle (how far off target you can be and still have auto-aim help you land a headshot instead of a body shot) by 50% at 100 AE.
      • Changed the curve to be exponential, so you'll get more benefit at high AE for both mouse and keyboard and controller.
    • Removed all additional Primary weapon magnetism (reticle friction) penalties, and at 60 to 100 AE you get a magnetism bonus compared to pre-AE (0.5 degrees at 100 AE) for controller only.
  • Reduced accuracy penalty for all Primary weapons.
    • At 10 AE they're now as accurate as if they had an Icarus Grip mod slotted before Season 17. (Previously they reached this level of accuracy at 30 AE.)
    • Approximate reduction in penalty:
      • Hand Cannon, Sidearm: 60%.
      • Auto Rifle, Scout Rifle, Pulse Rifle, Submachine Gun: 20%.
      • Bow: 30%.
• Special weapons
  • Sniper Rifles and Slug Shotguns
    • Reduced base airborne accuracy penalty by 50%.
  • Pellet Shotguns
    • Fully removed airborne accuracy penalty.
    • Airborne spread angle penalty is still present.

EXOTICS

• Dead Messenger
  • Reduced splash damage against players from waves by 35%.
• Dead Man's Tale
  • Removed the damage penalty for 5 stacks of Cranial Spike.
  • Reduced hip fire and airborne aim assist cone angles by 25% on mouse and keyboard.
  • Reduced hip fire cone angle bonus scaling from 20% to 5%.
  • Reduced hip fire precision aim cone angle from 3 degrees to 0.8 degrees.
  • Reduced hip fire auto-aim falloff scalar from 1.5 to 1.1.

PERKS

• Reversal of Fortune now triggers on two misses within 6s.
• Fixed an issue where the Perfect Float perk could cause the Frenzy perk to activate prematurely.

ABILITIES

• Increased the base cooldown time of the following class abilities by ~20%:
  • Towering Barricade base cooldown increased from 40s to 48s.
  • Rally Barricade base cooldown increased from 32s to 38s.
  • Thruster base cooldown increased from 30s to 36s.
  • Marksman's Dodge base cooldown increased from 29s to 34s.
  • Gambler's Dodge base cooldown increased from 38s to 46s.
• Touch of Thunder - Storm Grenade:
  • Roaming Storm lightning strike damage reduced from 40 to 30.
  • Added a 0.24s delay on Roaming Storm creation after the primary grenade detonation.
  • Travel speed now begins at 1.5 meters/second and ramps up over 1.3s to a maximum speed of 3 meters/second.
    • It previously was a flat 3.5 meters/second at all times.
  • Tracking search range now increases in size over 2s after creation, rather than starting at full size.
• Removed weapon stability, incoming flinch, and Shotgun pellet spread angle penalties applied to the player while sliding.

POWER AND PROGRESSION

• Rare (blue) engrams no longer drop after reaching the soft gear cap. Equivalent Glimmer amount will be rewarded instead.
  • This update will be rolling out later today. Keep an eye out on @BungieHelp for when it's live.

VENDORS

• Gunsmith reputation gains increased by 25% to compensate for the lack of Rare engrams.

BOUNTIES AND PURSUITS

• The Exotic Catalyst Quest Boost now applies to all previous Season Pass Exotic weapon catalysts.
• Season of the Haunted’s gear Triumphs "Shape Opulent Weapons" and "Nightmares Take Shape" will now correctly track weapon shaping.
  • If you shaped one of these weapons and did not complete the objective for it, you can reshape the weapon with no changes (and thus no cost) to advance the objective.
• Step seven of the Revision Zero quest "The Hidden Shape" will now correctly track weapon shaping.
  • Like the aforementioned Triumph, you can reshape Revision Zero with no changes to advance this objective.
• Adjusted the pattern requirements of the “Report: Reverse-Lure" Exotic Glaive quest.
  • Recipe now only requires one portion of the required Wellspring weapons' pattern.
    • Additionally, the first daily drop of a Wellspring weapon will have Deepsight.
  • Once unlocked on a character, each class’s respective Exotic Glaive recipe will be available for purchase on the Evidence Board.
• Step four of The Witch Queen quest "Report: Relic-Data" now tracks weapon shaping.
  • The requirements for reshaping a weapon with enhanced perks have been temporarily removed.
  • Reshaping any weapon will complete this objective, regardless of whether the weapon has been upgraded with enhanced perks or not.
• Step six of The Witch Queen quest "Reshaping the Enigma" will now track weapon shaping.
  • Like the “Relic-Data” quest, the Enigma quest step has had the enhanced perks requirement temporarily removed.
  • Reshaping The Enigma will progress this step regardless of the existence of enhanced perks on the weapon.

UI & UX

• Fixed an issue where the Glorious Seal icon was inconsistent with other Seals.

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