In a beefy update detailing Bungie's plans for the future, assistant game director Joe Blackburn acknowledged that there were "a few clear-cut misses" in changes introduced to the game with the launch of the Destiny 2: Beyond Light expansion and Season of the Hunt—in particular, that the reward pool is too small, and that players can grow frustrated seeing others wielding weapons that can no longer be obtained.
To address these issues, Blackburn committed to three general promises, which collectively come together to mean "more guns." (More guns!)
- With each season in Year 4, Destiny 2 will grow the overall Power ecosystem for weapons.
- With very few exceptions, all weapons you can take to the Power cap should still be earnable in game.
- Future annual releases will contain more new weapons to collect than Beyond Light or Shadowkeep.
"Season 13 is the first chance for us to prove our commitment to growing the overall Power ecosystem with each release in Year 4," Blackburn said. "We want to make sure that, with each new season, there are more weapons to take with you to tackle that Nightfall Ordeal or Master Bunker E15 than there were before."
To help accomplish that, Bungie will add six new legendary weapons in season 13—two each for Strikes, Gambit, and Crucible—and a trio of unique weapons to Nightfall Strikes called The Palindrome, The Swarm, and Shadow Price. Adept versions of all three will be available by completing Grandmaster Nightfalls.
The season 13 weapon pool will include all weapons from seasons 11 and 12 as world drops, while season 10 weapons will be accessible "through a more prescriptive source": Instead of being rewarded via legendary engrams, weapons that are about to expire will be available from the Gunsmith.
"This is all part of our larger commitment to making sure that players can always earn anything they might need to take on challenging activities. That said, this will require a few exceptions and some updates to the live game," Blackburn explained. Those exceptions will include keeping holiday weapons like the Braytech Werewolf locked to their specific events,
Other things to look forward to in 2021 include DDoS protection for console players and a pair of new Strikes in season 13, the introduction of the transmog system in season 14 (you can see a couple of screens of that system in action above), the return of the Vault of Glass raid, expanded legendary and master Lost Sector rotation with three new pieces of exotic armor to earn, and—finally—crossplay.
"2020 has been a hard year for so many folks out there, and I hope that Beyond Light has been able to be a bright spot over the past couple of weeks. Playing Destiny 2 alongside you helps keep us going.," Blackburn said. "We’re going to keep our ears and eyes open for more feedback as we continue towards 2021."
