Destiny 2: Season of the Splicer adds Transmog, The Vault of Glass, and more

Written by: Samantha Wise

May 11, 2021

Updated on May 11, 2021

Lead Game DeveloperSamantha Wise

Samantha Wise è una sviluppatrice di giochi dedicata e una giocatrice appassionata con una solida esperienza nel design e nello sviluppo di giochi. È nell'industria del gaming da oltre sei anni, specializzandosi nella creazione di esperienze immersive e narrazioni interattive. Samantha è conosciuta per il suo approccio innovativo alla meccanica di gioco e per il suo impegno nel favorire una comunità di supporto per giocatori di ogni provenienza. Nel tempo libero, trasmette le sue sessioni di gioco su varie piattaforme e scrive sulle ultime tendenze nel mondo del gaming.

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Expertises: Game Development, Unity and Unreal Engine, C# and C++ Programming, Interactive Storytelling, Esports and Streaming

Take a look at Destiny 2’s latest patch notes

Destiny 2: Season of the Splicer is here, and with it, Bungie added a host of new features to its flagship looter.

Season of the Splicer adds the long-awaited Transmog system (also called Armor Synthesis), which lets fans change the looks of their Guardian’s armor without altering their stats. Also part of Splicer, fans will delve back into Destiny’s original raid, the Vault of Glass, later this month.

This season sees the return of Mithrax, the Kell of Light, a Fallen commander that Destiny fans have helped out several times since Destiny 2’s launch. Mithrax and his crew will help Guardians defeat the Vex, as the time-traveling robots have locked the Last City in a cycle of endless night.

Players will battle through some new activities, wielding new weapons. Here’s a breakdown of the most notable features in Season of the Splicer.

For a full list of patch notes, scroll down.

New and old guns

Here’s a taste of the new arsenal in Destiny 2’s Season of the SplicerImage: Bungie

Bungie boasts “over 30 new and reprised Legendary weapons” in Season of the Splicer. Some of these weapons will just be reprises of familiar Destiny 2 weapons, and some make a return from the original Destiny. Notably, players will get to use some of the fan favorite weapons from the Vault of Glass — like the infamous Fatebringer hand cannon — as well as old Vanguard weapons like Hung Jury.

Bungie will also add new weapons specifically made for Season of the Splicer, which have a kind of techno-vibe to their aesthetic. This includes at least one new Exotic, the Stasis powered sidearm Cryosthesia 77k.

Vault of Glass returns

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One of the activities coming to Destiny 2 this season is the Vault of Glass, the first raid in the Destiny franchise. Not only does it come with the familiar weapons — as mentioned above — it should look and play like the VoG players remember. Bungie has been explicit about wanting to keep the Vault of Glass familiar and authentic while also adding some upgrades for new fans.

New and old fans can venture back into the heart of Venus on May 22.

Transmog is finally here

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Season of the Splicer will reintroduce players to Ada-1, first added to Destiny 2 in Season of the Forge in 2018. Ada-1 will help players Transmog their gear, the process of changing a piece of armor’s look without altering its stats. Players will have to go through a complex process of earning new materials just to change their armor appearance. Bungie will also limit players on how often Guardians can Transmog each season, a decision that already has fans upset.

Seasonal activities

A look at the new Override activityImage: Bungie

While Vault of Glass and Transmog are some of the most exciting things coming this season, they’re not actually part of Season of the Splicer. Season pass owners will be able to embark on a new, matchmade six-player activity called Override. There will also be a weekly Pinnacle mission called Expunge, where players can work to defeat the Vex.

These activities will net players some new weapons and armor, but Bungie hasn’t revealed much about either.

Solstice of Heroes returns

The Solstice of Heroes armor for 2020Image: Bungie

Season of the Splicer will also host the fourth annual Solstice of Heroes, Bungie’s usual Summer celebration. Solstice normally marks the end of a year for Destiny 2, leading players right into a major expansion like Forsaken or Beyond Light. But because of Bungie’s decision to delay Destiny 2: The Witch Queen to early 2022, Splicer is the second of three seasons this year.

It’s unclear how much this shift will impact the activity, which will likely still see Guardians gallivanting around the world and upgrading fancy armor.

Below, you’ll find Bungie’s complete list of patch notes for Destiny 2: Season of the Splicer.

ACTIVITIES

GENERAL

• Four Lost Sectors have been added to the daily rotation of Legend or Master difficulty Lost Sectors!
• Fixed case-by-case issues with unresponsive or clumping combatants across various activities.
• Fixed an issue that could prevent AI enemies from firing in some 6-player activities when there are a lot of enemies alive in the area.

CRUCIBLE

• 6v6 Crucible activities have an updated intro experience.
• You can now cycle through your teammates to view metrics associated with the activity you’re entering.
• Momentum Control and Team Scorched have returned and will be available as part of the weekly playlist rotation.
• Adjusted The Dead Cliff’s spawn points so that players are no longer placed on the edge of the cliff on match start.
• Fixed defeat audio sound for teammate defeats in private matches and in Showdown.
• Disabled mercy rule in private matches.
• Players can now join a private match in progress at any time, regardless of team scores or time remaining.
• Fixed inaccessible Heavy ammo placements on Distant Shore, Bannerfall, Widow’s Court, and Altar of Flame.

GAMBIT

• Fixed a rare issue that could result in fronts not rotating due to a single living enemy hiding at a previously cleared front on the other side of the map.
• Fixed an incorrect wave progression on Legion’s Folly (Vex).
• Fixed an issue where a Scorn Abomination could become friendly and start attacking other Scorn.
• Fixed an issue where dropped motes would disappear immediately if the opposing team summoned their primeval.
• Fixed an issue where combatants in the Deep Six Gambit map would sometimes fail to move around or take cover.
• Fixed an issue that was allowing Warlock players to exploit Blink related abilities to remain on the opposing side during invasions in Gambit.

NEW LIGHT CAMPAIGN

• Improved the explanations in some tutorial messages.
• Tutorial messages will no longer pop up to distract players during Crucible and Gambit matches.
• Fixed an issue where players could abandon the ‘A Spark of Hope’ quest and not be able to recover it from the Quest Archive vendor in the Tower.

DESTINATION PATROL

The Moon:

• Fixed an issue where some quest enemies in Moon free roam would immediately respawn after being defeated.
• Fixed an issue where the Hive Rune could be missing from one of the stones from a chest puzzle on the Moon.
• Fixed an issue where some of the chest puzzles on the Moon weren’t appearing.

Cosmodrome:

• Shaw Han now offers repeatable Cosmodrome bounties.
• Fixed an issue where players could get stuck behind the boss portal in the Veles Labyrinth Lost Sector.
• The Hive under the helicopters in the Divide will now always be that Ogre who first killed you back in 2014.
• All forgotten dead Ghosts left around the Cosmodrome have been removed and properly laid to rest.
• The Grottos now has player containment volumes around its water boundaries.

Dreaming City:

• Fixed an issue where filling up your quest/bounty slots could result in players losing an ‘A Small Gift’ pursuit awarded to them.

STRIKES

Fallen S.A.B.E.R.:

• During the first encounter inside Rasputin’s bunker, the death volume inside the bottomless pits has been lowered to give players a chance to recover.
• Sped up the transition from orbit briefing dialog to the gameplay by a few seconds.
• Fixed an issue where dialog lines from the previous area’s public events could play during the Warsat encounter.
• Player’s Ghosts now immediately revive when the strike ends.
• The first fireteam member to enter the Warsat area should now reliably see the Warsat falling – be careful!

The Devil’s Lair:

• Removed some objects that could be interacted with but had no effect.
• Fixed an issue where players could get stuck in the air during the Sepiks Prime boss fight when using Thundercrash.
• Fixed an issue where Sepiks Prime was taking more damage than intended.

Inverted Spire:

• As the boss fight progresses to lower layers, any player’s Ghost left above will now spawn on the current layer.

Warden of Nothing:

• Fixed an issue where the number of champions killed was not always being tracked correctly.
• Fixed an issue where some Cabal champions were missing from the arena fight in the ruins of the old Prison of Elders.

The Corrupted:

• Fixed an issue where players could get stuck behind in the Ogre room if other members of the fireteam ran too far ahead of them.

The Disgraced:

• Fixed an issue where players who had completed the New Light campaign would always hear the New Light dialogue during the strike instead of the normal dialogue.
• Fixed issues where players could get locked out of the boss room and joining players could spawn in too far behind their fireteam.

Proving Grounds:

• Fixed an issue where the strike name was written as Proving Ground.

PUBLIC EVENTS

Stop the Ether Ritual:

• Fixed an issue where the UI wouldn’t always display that you had engaged with the public event.

Hive Ritual:

• Fixed an issue where players would engage with the public event simply by being in the same area on the Moon.

RAIDS

Deep Stone Crypt:

• Fixed an issue where players could hop off Sparrows to reset the fire in the basement of the Crypt Security encounter.
• Fixed an issue where players can avoid having the Rally Banner removed after starting the final encounter.
• Fixed an exploit where players can complete the Atraks-1 challenge mode by having players sucked out of the airlock.
• Fixed an issue where players were able to trigger a quarantine in the Crypt Security encounter by using a finisher on combatants.

Garden of Salvation:

• Fixed an issue where some music would fail to play while on the Divinity quest.

The Last Wish:

• Fixed an issue where Riven could start the wipe cast 20 seconds faster if she went to a certain side.

DUNGEONS

Pit of Heresy:

• Fixed an issue that allowed the carry-object to be duplicated when dunking.

UI/UX

• Removed display cap on Player Waypoint Season Rank. Waypoint will now show player’s actual Season Rank when it’s above 999.
• Season Rank now shows up in player nameplate tooltips.
• Gilded Title gilding count displays on in-game player waypoints.
• Fixed an issue where some non-Gildable Seals were displaying with Gilding UI.
• Fixed an issue where the sound effect when gilding a title would not sync with animation.
• Moved fireteam privacy button in roster layout.
• Reduced dismantle time and improved dismantle efficiency on some older Fizzled items and currencies.
• Tooltips for items in Triumphs tab no longer display ‘Triumph’ for all types found within Record tab.
• Lore, Metric, etc. are all appropriately named.
• Several changes to Nav Mode:
• Separated Bounties from Quests in Nav Mode.
• All Bounties now appear in Nav Mode. They can no longer be Tracked as a result.
• Category switching on keyboard and mouse can now be controlled with the scroll wheel.
• Tracked Triumph now appears in its own Nav Mode category.
• H.E.L.M. now appears in the Director Destinations tab (moved from the Tower map) and has its own map.
• Legends added to the Director Destinations tab.
• Shortcut between HUD quest step notifications and quest details screen added for keyboard and mouse users.
• Updated loading hints regarding anti-Champion modifications.
• Appearance Customization has been added to the Vanity screen (below the Character screen).
• Players are now able to fully customize their armors shaders and ornaments from this screen.
• Players are also now able to unlock the appearances of any armor they have obtained using Clas Specific or MTX Tokens (Synthweave Bolts or Synthweave Template).
• Players are now able to apply shaders to all their armor at once via the Overview tab.
• Players are now able to preview shaders/ornaments on multiple pieces at once within the Appearance Customization screen.

GAMEPLAY AND INVESTMENT

ARMOR

• In Season of the Hunt, many armor mods were deprecated as a result of the change to the energy types of all weapon-focused armor mods being changed to Any Energy Type. The pre-Armor 2.0 version of these perks have also been deprecated.
• The Mindvault ornament can now be equipped on the Year-1 version of the Insurmountable Skullfort.
• Fixed an issue that was resulting in feminine character models utilizing masculine character model hands during certain cinematic scenes (e.g., gear and character preview screens) which was resulting in the hands visibly clipping through the gear wrap bits.
• Telesto will no longer incorrectly trigger the Death Throes perk of the Verity’s Brow Exotic.
• Khepri’s Sting will no longer grant Truesight when affected by another Guardian’s smoke bomb invisibility.
• Felwinter’s Helm will no longer cause 2020 Solstice armor glows to default to Void, regardless of the player’s current subclass.
• The Heavy Handed mod will now correctly work with the Shiver Strike melee.
• The Assassin’s Cowl, Severance Enclosure, and Felwinter’s Helm Exotics now trigger their effects on Stasis-powered melee takedowns.
• Severance Enclosure and Felwinter’s Helm now create their effects at the location of the enemy defeated by a powered melee, instead of originating at the player’s location.
• Added a full suite of Trace Rifle-focused armor mods to the game.
• Removed the Infusion Caps from all Legendary armor pieces issued or reissued in Season of the Worthy or later.
• Armor sets issued in Season of the Worthy and Season of Arrivals have had their Legacy armor mod socket replaced with a Combat Style armor mod socket.

WEAPONS

• Removed the Infusion Caps from all Legendary weapons issued or reissued in Season of the Worthy or later.

Weapon Archetypes

Nerfs:

• Aggressive (120 rpm) Hand Cannons now have damage and aim assist falloff distance reduced by between 2 and 4 meters based on range stat.
• This roughly halves the range buff they received in Beyond Light.
• Vortex Frame Sword full energy Heavy attack ammo cost increased from 4 to 6.
• Removed chip damage from Swords.

Buffs:

• Increased Precision (450 rpm) Auto Rifle damage per bullet from 17 to 18.
• Added a rare Linear Fusion Rifle and Breech Grenade Launcher to the world loot pool.
• Increased Linear Fusion Rifle precision damage by 15%, and increased reserve ammo by 20%.
• Increased damage falloff start distance for Fusion Rifles, no effect on 100 range stat, +2m on 0 range stat.

Perks

Nerfs:

• Quickdraw Handling bonus is now removed after 1s after switching to this weapon, or on aiming down sights.
• Replaced Quickdraw with Surplus on new and existing drops of Felwinter’s Lie and Astral Horizon.
• Frenzy bonus damage reduced from +20% to +15%.
• Reservoir Burst now increases magazine size in addition to its other effects, reduced full battery bonus damage from 33% to 25%.

Buffs:

• Subsistence no longer reduces reserve ammunition and Submachine Guns now receive the same ammo fraction per takedown that Auto Rifles do.
• High-Impact Reserves and Under Pressure are now active as long as their conditions are met (used to trigger on projectile fire).
• Unrelenting now more easily triggers in PvE (immediate trigger on orange bars) and heals 20% more.
• Sympathetic Arsenal now grants +20 reload in addition to its primary effect.
• Dragonfly now works on Heavy Shanks and Servitors, and occurs even faster than after the Season of the Chosen change.
• Hipfire Grip gains +1 degrees precision hip fire angle threshold, +1.2x reticule stickiness falloff distance (increase from the Season of Arrivals buff).
• Iron Grip, Iron Gaze, Iron Reach secondary stat penalty reduced from -40 to –30.
• Osmosis and Elemental Capacitor now works when playing a Stasis subclass.
• Elemental Capacitor with a Stasis subclass grants +recoil direction and reduces ADS move speed penalty.
• No Distractions trigger time reduced from 1.5s to 1s and flinch reduction increased from 30% to 35%.
• Celerity now always grants +20 handling and +20 reload in addition to the triggered effect.
• Bottomless Grief now always grants +30 magazine stat in addition to the triggered effect.

Mods

• Adept Mag and Adept Targeting secondary stat penalty reduced from -20 to -15, fixed Adept Mag not granting reserves when applied to a Sword.
• Adept Counterbalance has increased recoil direction benefit.

Exotics

• Mida Multitool catalyst perk changed from Outlaw to No Distractions.
• Hawkmoon has increased priority of Paracausal Charge and Paracausal Shot buff text (this was sometimes dropping off the bottom of the list).
• The Lament has reduced damage of revved Heavy attack by ~16%.
• Bastion chip damage removed and instead intrinsically staggers Unstoppable Champions. Increased spread angle by 13%.
• Ticuu’s Divination is now acquirable through the Monument to Lost Lights kiosk in the Tower.

Bug fixes

• Surrounded perk buff will no longer linger when using Surrounded Spec mod.
• Fixed an issue where Symmetry was able to cause damage to friendly teammates in Crucible using its alternate-fire mode.
• Fixed an issue where precision Hand Cannons would show down arrow on magazine stat when applying a Backup Mag mod.
• Fixed an issue where magazine size would always display a green increase arrow even when the magazine decreases on Temporal Clause.
• Fixed an issue where thresh would trigger a generic buff SFX on each kill, even if Super energy is full.
• Fixed and issue where Cloudstrike could trigger the lightning storm even if shooting invulnerable targets.
• Fixed an issue where Bad Juju’s emissive color was white instead of its normal green.
• Fixed an issue where Summoner Auto Rifle’s emissive color was white instead of its normal orange.
• Fixed an issue where Seventh Seraph Shotgun ornament had artifacting near the bolt.
• Fixed an issue where Adored Sniper Rifle was using Beyond Light Watermark instead of Season of the Hunt Watermark.
• Fixed and issue where MIDA Multi-Tool had animation popping in first person when coming out of a sprint.
• Fixed an issue where Adept Mag did not work on Sola’s Scar.

POWER AND PROGRESSION

• The Infusion Cap for weapons and armor has risen 10 points. All sources will now offer upgrades up to 1260, Powerful sources up to 1310, and Pinnacle sources will go to 1320.

BOUNTIES AND PURSUITS

• The Exo Stranger has a new Stasis Aspect quest available.
• Requires Beyond Light ownership, campaign completion, and acquisition of all prior Stasis Aspects from the Stranger.
• Fixed an issue where Step 2 of the Born in Darkness Part 2 quest unintentionally changed to only require using Stasis abilities against 30 combatants instead of the original 60. The objective has been returned to the original value. Players who have not yet completed this quest step will have to use Stasis abilities against 60 combatants.
• Weapon-focused bounties now cycle on a weekly rotation instead of random.
• Fixed an issue where Eris Morn’s post-campaign Memories quests weren’t showing on her map marker.
• Fixed an issue where the reward chest had no waypoint, making it easy to miss.
• Zavala, Shaxx, and Drifter have new daily and repeatable stasis bounties available.
• Gambit daily bounty and all three repeatable bounties require Stasis subclass acquisition.

ABILITIES, ASPECTS, AND FRAGMENTS

• Fixed a bug that was making the Hunter Arcstrider’s Way of the Warrior Combat Flow perk behave inconsistently.

Colorblind Support

• Stasis abilities now have colorblind support:
• Enemy Crystals
• Enemy Squall
• Enemy Duskfield
• Enemy Bleak Watcher
• Player highlighting in Crucible now has colorblind support.

Hunters:

• The freeze detonation from Silence & Squall has been reduced from 12m to 8.5m in radius.
• Enemy Squall now has a red ring to define its area as it approaches.

Titans:

• Shiver Strike melee energy is now refunded when Glacial Quake ends.
• Fixed an issue in which players can trigger Whisper of Torment by standing in an opponent’s Barricade.

Warlocks:

Shadebinder

• Bleak Watcher Aspect now grants two fragment slots.

Chaos Reach

• Fixed an issue with Chaos Reach Super that was allowing it to penetrate some thin walls or objects enough to damage and kill opponents on the other side.

COMBATANTS

• Reduced the health of the Fallen Dropship turrets.

STAT TRACKERS

• Added stat trackers for each Seal that can be gilded, tracking how many times the Seal has been gilded.

SEASONAL CHALLENGES

• The Well-Rested tooltip has been updated to direct players to Seasonal Challenges rather than Weekly Bounties.
• Added a Past header category for Seasonal Challenges, and moved any Season of the Chosen Seasonal Challenges with weapon, reputation, or lore rewards to the Season of the Chosen category under the Past.
• All other Season of the Chosen Seasonal Challenges are no longer available.
• Added a new XP reward size for Seasonal Challenges.

SHADERS

• Shaders are now unlockable items and no longer consumed upon application.
• Shaders no longer exist within the Inventory and can now be found within Collections.
• Any shader that has been unlocked in Collections can be applied to weapons or armor for the cost of 500 Glimmer.
• Existing shaders held in player Inventories, Vaults, and at the Postmaster have been removed.

SEASON PASS

• Updated tooltip to inform players purchasing Season Pass ranks at rank 99, does NOT provide progress past rank 100.
• Seasonal armor will no longer drop from the Season Pass.
• Seasonal armor is now available exclusively through Seasonal activities and Seasonal Rank bonuses.

Updated Season Pass Rank Rewards:

Free:

• Rank 5 – 25 Legendary Shards
• Rank 10 – 25 Legendary Shards
• Rank 15 – 5 Enhancement Cores
• Rank 20 – Exotic Engram
• Rank 25 – Legendary Engram

Premium:

• Rank 14 – 25 Legendary Shards
• Rank 15 – 5 Enhancement Cores
• Rank 17 – 10,000 Glimmer
• Rank 24 – Legendary Engram
• Rank 27 – 5 Enhancement Cores
• Rank 34 – 3 Upgrade Modules
• Rank 37 – 10,000 Glimmer
• Rank 44 – 25 Legendary Shards
• Rank 47 – 3 Upgrade Modules
• Rank 54 – Exotic Engram
• Rank 57 – 5 Enhancement Cores

VALOR, INFAMY, AND GLORY

• Glory, Valor, and Infamy reputations have had their internal systems rebuilt to a unified implementation. In-game, players should expect minimal perceived changes.
• Unified Glory, Valor, and Infamy rank reputation tracking.
• Before Forsaken, Glory and Valor had only Major ranks (Guardian, Brave, etc.).
• After Forsaken, Glory and Valor gained sub-ranks (Brave I, II, III) alongside Infamy. However, all the historical tracking (Lifetime Ranks) and quest usage still used the original Major ranks.
• Now, the sub-ranks are now referred to simply as Ranks, and all usage has been converted to use them where appropriate. (I.e., all lifetime values and quest targets have been multiplied by three.)
• Glory playlists no longer block Valor win streaks from declining.
• The Valor badge now appears on the Trials launch screen.
• Infamy win streak bonus is now linear (+35 points per win).
• Glory win streak bonus is now linear (+20 points per win).
• Valor and Glory gains and rewards are now blocked by the PvP Banhammer.
• You are now no longer able to reset Valor or Infamy if you have a full stack of Ascendant Shards.
• Infamy rank reward Bygones is now available without restriction.
• Infamy rank reward Distant Relation is available if it has never been acquired before.
• Ada-1 has returned to the Tower with a variety of new offerings.
• Once the Seasonal introductory quest is completed, players can visit Ada-1 to pick up Armor Synthesis Bounties to earn materials for up to 10 Armor Synthesis per class per Season.
• Banshee-44 no longer offers Armor mods and will instead offer a selection of Weapon mods which will rotate daily.
• When Xur’s inventory includes an Exotic armor piece with a perk effect that depends on the use of a particular ability, that armor piece should more reliably come with a higher stat value in the stat that governs the cooldown of that ability.

FOCUSED UMBRAL ENGRAMS AND PRISMATIC RECASTER

• Focused Umbral Engrams now auto-decrypt when obtained via the Prismatic Recaster.
• The visual states for Focusing options on the Prismatic Recaster have been streamlined to reduce visual clutter and confusion.

PLATFORMS AND SYSTEMS

• Added motion blur, chromatic aberration, and film grain settings options to Xbox One and PS4.

GENERAL

• Fixed a bug that was preventing Sparrow cleanup when the rider exited the game unexpectedly.
• Fixed an issue causing gear in the Destiny Content Vault to erroneously drop from strike-unique loot lists.
• Sparrows no longer time out after seven seconds and can now stay in the world semi-indefinitely.
• Just please be respectful where you park them.
• Players can now easily filter the offerings in the Eververse Storefront Archive tab.
• Offerings have increased to 200+ items in the Archive.
• Store tab now displays a sheen when Bright Engrams are available for decrypting.