Bungie is revamping Destiny 2’s armor system in Codename: Frontiers, chopping the variety of stats armor contains from six to a few and permitting gamers to pump their character stats to as a lot as double their earlier values.
The developer ran down the upcoming adjustments, launching in Summer season 2025 with Destiny 2’s Codename: Apollo growth, on its Episode: Revenant developer livestream and in a dedicated blog post. The principle takeaway is that armor shall be extra specialised beginning in Apollo; as a substitute of every piece of armor that includes factors in all six character stat classes, armor shall be extra specialised to deal with parts like your melee or grenade capacity. Bungie writes in its weblog submit that it is making an attempt to create extra conditions the place armor is a fascinating reward and enhancing build-crafting in order that gamers do not get only one set of armor they’re pleased with and ignore every other armor they obtain.
Stats and their distributions are an enormous a part of what Bungie’s altering within the new system. At present, every bit of armor will get factors in all six stat classes, and the totals of all items of armor in every class decide completely different advantages to gamers. For instance, the Self-discipline class determines how briskly your grenade recharges after you employ it–the extra factors your armor has in Self-discipline, the sooner the recharge, as much as a complete of 100.
Should you’re creating a selected character construct that focuses on grenades, you need armor with excessive Self-discipline. However the present scenario is that armor stat factors get distributed over all six classes, which implies you usually will get caught with wasted factors in classes you do not care about. Due to this distribution system, gamers usually wind up throwing out armor that could be considerably helpful, however has too many factors in a stat they’re ignoring on the expense of one thing else.
With the brand new armor system, every bit of armor will now have a “stat archetype,” which determines its main and secondary stat focuses–so basically, you will see armor that amps your melee stat as its main focus, with a secondary focus in your grenade stat. The third stat for the armor, Bungie writes, is a “free roll,” which sounds prefer it’ll be random. That ought to create extra conditions with “spiky” armor, or armor with a whole lot of factors particularly classes, which will be very helpful for build-crafting if you happen to’re targeted on a selected capacity or synergy between skills and weapons.
Stats themselves are additionally altering in two key methods. First, Bungie is disposing of the tier system that is presently in place. At present, whereas stats use a 100-point scale, the advantages you acquire solely accrue at each 10 factors. In different phrases, having 84 factors within the Energy stat will get you the Tier 8 profit, which kicks in at 80 factors; except you get to 90 factors, the subsequent tier, these different 4 factors confer no extra profit, and are sometimes wasted. With the brand new system, each level in a stat class counts, Bungie says, so you will not be losing factors if you happen to’re wanting the subsequent tier.
As a substitute of capping out at 100 factors, stat classes will now additionally go as much as 200 factors. Bungie says that the primary 100 factors will confer the prevailing benefit–speeding up a capability’s cooldown. However from 100 to 200 factors, you will get new skills. For example, each level above 100 in your grenade-focused stat may enhance your probability of getting a second grenade cost each time your grenade turns into obtainable, supplying you with a second grenade to throw with no ready.
Bungie continues to be within the means of figuring out how the stat system will work, so these concepts are topic to alter, however it appears like an opportunity for a second cost to your skills could be very probably what you will acquire for pushing your stats as much as 200. Bungie additionally talked about altering the names of the stats to be clearer–instead of Energy, the stat shall be referred to as Melee, and as a substitute of Self-discipline, it’s going to be Grenade. The weblog submit additionally suggests a brand new stat you might construct into that will increase the probabilities for particular ammo drops, which might additionally introduce important new adjustments to how gamers method build-crafting.
Stats aren’t the one factor that may change with Codename: Frontiers’ new armor system. Bungie additionally intends to lean into the thought of set bonuses, the place sporting a number of items of armor from the identical set confer particular advantages. Bungie stated you’ll be able to count on a smaller set bonus to be utilized when having two items of a set outfitted and a bigger bonus at 4 items equipped–leaving room to additionally equip a bit of Unique armor with out lacking out. Getting set bonuses for 2 armor items additionally signifies that gamers can combine and match the advantages from two completely different units of armor on the identical time.
Bungie offered just a few examples of doable set bonuses, though the system continues to be a piece in progress and topic to alter. A Tex Machina set would play into weapons that sport the Tex Machina in-game model, that are basically cowboy weapons, specializing in taking pictures from the hip. A two-piece bonus may see your motion pace and weapon dealing with elevated when hip-firing, whereas a four-piece bonus would possibly get you higher accuracy and vary when hip-firing Tex Machina weapons particularly.
Different examples Bungie talked about included an explosives-focused set offering sooner reloading for explosive weapons at two items and a lift to grenade harm after touchdown hits with explosive weapons at 4 items, or an aggression-focused set therapeutic you if you get kills with freshly reloaded weapons at two items, and making enemies weaker to short-range weapons like shotguns at 4 items.
Whereas the armor adjustments sound like they need to profit build-crafting fairly considerably, they’re additionally prone to have a significant impact on present armor that will not be a part of the brand new system.
“Outdated Legendary armor shall be modified as little as doable, however as a result of the change to stat mechanics and kinds are world adjustments, outdated armor items can have their stat varieties (however not their values) modified round,” Bungie writes. “When doable, these adjustments shall be to essentially the most related stat, however with some stats being essentially reworked this gained’t at all times be doable.”
That makes it sound like a whole lot of outdated armor will most likely be rendered out of date by the brand new system–something that occurred final time Bungie adjusted the armor system when it launched the streamlined Armor 2.0 with the Shadowkeep growth in 2019. If Armor 2.0 was any indication, all of the armor you have already got will not instantly change into nugatory, however it’ll rapidly get replaced by items from the brand new system.
Unique armor can be going to be affected by the change, which Bungie addressed in an FAQ part on the finish of the weblog submit.
“Updating the Unique armor pursuit is on our roadmap however gained’t be a part of the preliminary replace that’s specializing in Legendary armor,” Bungie writes. “So, to make it possible for Exotics and their build-defining perks stay a compelling choice, we’re understanding a design that may permit gamers to replace their Unique armor to deliver their stat bonuses in step with the adjustments to Legendary armor.
“The Unique class gadgets launched in The Ultimate Form are a particular case–even although Legendary class gadgets shall be gaining full random stats with this replace, we don’t want to add extra randomness to the Unique class merchandise chase. As a substitute, we shall be offering a technique for gamers to replace their present Unique class gadgets with extra stats of their selecting to deliver them in step with the stat contribution of the brand new Legendary class gadgets.”
Bungie stated that extra particulars on the system will change into obtainable as they’re nailed down by improvement. Within the meantime, although, it appears like gamers would possibly wish to begin studying to half with a few of their favourite gear as we method the launch of Codename: Apollo in Summer season 2025.