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Season of the Deep teaser
"Season of the Deep is less than two weeks away, and we've got more to reveal today. Deputy Commander Sloane has returned. Something big is lurking in the depths, and... that’s all we can say for now. Enjoy the Season of the Deep teaser trailer below and get ready to dive in on May 23."
"And we’re not kidding when we say we’re going under the sea…here’s a glimpse of one of the places you’ll be headed in Season of the Deep"
(Part 2)
Season of the Deep weapons and armor
"Introducing the Last Rite Scout Rifle! This one is a bit special because it’s a Tex Mechanica Kinetic Aggressive Scout Rifle. We don’t want to spoil too much, but here are the ornaments we have coming up for this baby."
"This week we want to give you a quick preview of the ornament sets that will be available as part of the Season 21 Season Pass. Get ready to have plenty of options for under-the-sea themed tea parties. "
(Part 3)
New dungeon release date
"Well, get your Guardians ready for the next adventure, the new [Redacted] dungeon opens at 10AM Pacific, on Friday, May 26."
(Part 4)
Eververse changes
"Eververse is getting an update in Season 21that showcases items recommended just for you. In addition to continuing to highlight specific items and bundles, the Eververse Featured page will also have a shortcut to view certain recommended items that you don't own and might find are a great fit for your character."
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Ritual Reputations
[...] For Season 16, expect increased Vanguard reputation on completion, activity streak amounts, Nightfall multipliers, and Nightfall completion quality bonuses. Vanguard reputation gain should be approximately twice as fast for most players, with the ability to optimize even faster by playing higher difficulty Nightfalls and utilizing the activity streak more.
[...] We have added a small amount of Trials Reputation at match-end for every round won in that match, which increases based on how many ticket wins a player has. At the top end, each round won awards 21 reputation (up to 105 extra reputation a match). This ideally speeds up Trials reputation gain by 50 percent or more for players who do not regularly reset their ticket in an attempt to go Flawless.
So, what about the things we aren’t changing yet? We are happy with the speed of Crucible reputation gain, though we may look at this again alongside Iron Banner vendor changes in the future. Gambit reputation gain was about 30 percent slower than desired, but with the Gambit revamp coming in The Witch Queen, we would like a full Season to analyze playstyles and patterns before making any changes.
We also are not currently making any changes to the activity streak system or the placement of the ritual weapon ornaments. [...]
Lastly, we know how annoying it is to not remember which reputation bonus is active by Thursday/Friday. Starting in The Witch Queen, when double ranks (or rewards) are active, those activities will have a modifier on the launch screen to remind you. Big things really do come in small packages.
(Part 2)
Vanguard Ops
As we discussed in an earlier TWAB, the Season 13 Battlegrounds activities have been added to the Vanguard Strikes playlist, and this playlist has been renamed Vanguard Ops.
As a reminder, the four new Battlegrounds coming with the new Season are:
► Behemoth - Nessus
► Oracle - Nessus
► Hailstone - Europa
► Foothold - Cosmodrome
The actual Battlegrounds activities are the direct-launch/no-champion version of the Battleground, as these match the length and difficulty of most of the Strikes in the playlist. Any bounties, quests, Triumphs, or challenges used to reference strikes now reference Vanguard Ops instead.
(Part 3)
Nightfalls
[...] One big outlier was the strike-specific modifiers with damage boosts and other effects that enhanced boss attacks. [...] We have removed these from Nightfalls starting at Hero. We also added a new style of burn called Acute – which will increase player damage taken from a specific element by 50 percent and increase player damage done by 25 percent. Most Nightfalls already had a 25 percent damage received modifier, so this will be an across-the-board increase of 25 percent in both directions for that element.
Secondly, we are moving the Seasonal Strike modifiers that we introduced in Season 15 from the Vanguard playlist to Nightfalls. These are unique buffs and boosts that aid you if you lean into the combat themes of the Season – for Season 16, they are themed to Glaive and Void usage. These rotate weekly, and appear on all Hero, Legend, and Master Nightfalls. We look forward to your feedback on these as we continue to iterate! Ah, and here's a quick preview of some sweet loot that you'll be able to earn from Nightfalls next season. Look familiar?
We have also been iterating on how we communicate the shields present in a strike (if Match Game is on). Like the Legend and Master Lost Sectors, all Nightfall activities now have a modifier that lists the shields used.
(Part 4)
Lost Sectors
When we introduced Legend and Master Lost Sectors in Beyond Light, we were forced to split the daily Legend and Master Lost Sector locations, since there was no way to select difficulty within the public bubble. Thanks to some fresh technology built for the upcoming The Witch Queen campaign, this limitation is now removed! There is now a single daily Lost Sector, which has both Legend and Master difficulties available at the same time, selectable at the entrance. Both difficulties give the same Exotic reward.
(Part 5)
Crucible
While we don’t have any specific changes to talk about with the Crucible or Iron Banner in this TWAB, we would like to address the longer respawn times we implemented in the 30th Anniversary patch, and then removed a few days ago. [...] When looking at both feedback and analytics and seeing little definitively positive, it was the obvious choice to revert Crucible respawns back to their original values.
(Part 6)
HDR
(Ric: The list of improvements and options added to HDR are too long to quote in full. For more information, I advice you visit the TWAB directly).
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Power Level
While The Witch Queen won’t feature a big overhaul to the ways in which you gain Power, we do have some general updates coming on launch day to get returning and new players up and ready for a fresh campaign.
First, let’s talk some definitions. Some of you may know these by heart, but we’re always excited to introduce New Lights and returning players to information like this:
► Floor - The lowest possible Power for a piece of gear; starting point for new characters.
► Soft cap - The point at which general drops stop being automatic upgrades; Powerful gear drops are now the best way to gain Power.
► Power cap - The point at which Powerful drops stop being upgrades; Pinnacle gear drops are now the only way to gain Power.
► Hard cap - Max possible Power from Pinnacle drops (ignoring Artifact Power).
Starting on February 22, the Power floor will be updated to 1350. Any player who signs in will be at appropriate Power levels to start the Witch Queen campaign, even if they’ve taken a recent break from the game.
Through general gameplay, players can reach the soft cap of 1500 by earning general gear through activity completions, chests, and more. This includes Rare and Legendary drops. Once reaching the soft cap, players will need to earn Powerful drops from vendor challenges and other objectives in the game. Once reaching the Power cap of 1550, the only upgrades that players will find are from endgame activities that offer Pinnacle rewards.
(Part 2)
Pinnacle and Powerful sources
There will be some adjustments to Pinnacle and Powerful sources, as these shifts yearly to focus on newer Seasonal content and fresh Destiny 2 expansion content offered with The Witch Queen. Keep an eye on tooltips as you start completing activities, as they’ll specifically note the different types of rewards that they offer. We have no doubts that our more eager players will create guides within a week of launch, but we hope that the Power climb is fairly easy to understand once you get your boots on the ground on February 22.
(Part 3)
Blue rewards
Beginning in The Witch Queen, blue (Rare) rewards will stop dropping from playlist activities (Crucible, Strikes, Gambit, etc.) once players have reached the soft cap. Players above the soft cap (1500 Power in The Witch Queen) will instead see a slightly increased chance at receiving Legendary rewards from these activities, or a small amount of Legendary Shards.
Blue weapons and armors will continue to drop from enemies and chests while playing Destiny 2, but we hope that this will reduce the need for players to manage their inventories and reduce the frequency of visits to the Postmaster when running playlist activities.
(Part 4)
Gunsmith Reputation
Banshee-44 is getting a new reputation system that matches the other vendors in the Tower, such as Zavala and Shaxx. This means we are removing some of the items that were previously associated with Gunsmith Reputation, namely Gunsmith Materials and Weapon Telemetries. Players will now earn Reputation Rank progress with Banshee-44 when dismantling Legendary and Exotic weapons and armor or by completing daily Gunsmith bounties.
Players will want to spend their Gunsmith Materials and Weapon Telemetries at Banshee-44 before February 22, 2022. Any materials that are not spent will be removed from inventory automatically.
(Part 5)
Mods & Mod Components
We will also be removing Mod Components from the game. Starting in The Witch Queen, weapon and armor mods sold by Banshee-44 and Ada-1 respectively will no longer require Mod Components to purchase and will instead cost 10,000 Glimmer each. Furthermore, as part of this update, we are increasing the number of mods available on each vendor at a single time from two to four.
Before we move on, it should be noted that all Ghost Mods that generated Weapon Telemetries will be removed, as they no longer serve a purpose.
(Part 6)
Vendor updates
As we have mentioned in the past, Master Rahool will be inheriting Spider’s material exchange duties in The Witch Queen. Exchange rates should match what you know from Spider (for now), but these services are being shifted to the Tower as the Tangled Shore will soon be off limits to Guardians.
In addition, Rahool will also be picking up some of the wares that Banshee-44 and Ada-1 once offered, specifically the sale of Enhancement Prisms and Ascendant Shards. Rahool will offer these materials at the same price as Banshee-44 and Ada-1 once sold them:
► Enhancement Prism: 10 Enhancement Cores, 25 Planetary Materials, 10,000 Glimmer
► Ascendant Shard: 10 Enhancement Prisms, 100 Planetary Materials, 50,000 Glimmer
As a final note before we move on to some Exotic news, Master Rahool will also be able to decrypt Umbral engrams, so players will not have to hop between the H.E.L.M. and the Tower to decrypt all of the engrams in their inventory. Focusing for individual Seasonal weapons and armor will live on Seasonal Vendors in the H.E.L.M. moving forward, so if you want to focus on a specific weapon from a given Season, you’ll still need to head to the H.E.L.M. for decryption.
(Part 7)
Hawkmoon & Dead Man’s Tale
As of February 22, 2022 the Harbinger and Presage Exotic missions will no longer be accessible. The team still wanted to preserve the ability for players to obtain random rolls of these weapons. Therefore, instead of adding these items to the Monument to Lost Lights, as we have done with most of our previous Exotics that no longer have sources, these two weapons will show up as part of Xur’s inventory each weekend.
Every week Xur will offer a unique roll for both Hawkmoon and Dead Man’s Tale, and will be purchasable to all players that own Beyond Light for the following materials:
► 1 Ascendant Shard, 1 Exotic Cipher, 125,000 Glimmer, 200 Legendary Shards
(Part 8)
Exotic Catalysts
The Hawkmoon, DMT, and Ager’s Scepter catalysts will be moved to the playlist activity (Strikes, Crucible, Gambit) completions. In addition to these three, we have also added the ability for three catalysts that have been absent from Destiny 2 to drop from playlist activities as well.
The full list:
► Hawkmoon
► Dead Man's Tale
► Ager's Scepter
► Outbreak Perfected
► Whisper of the Worm
► The Fourth Horseman
(Part 9)
Save the (Raid) date
Destiny 2: The Witch Queen [REDACTED] Raid
March 5, 2022
10:00 AM Pacific (18:00 UTC)
We’ll have additional details on Contest Mode, Bungie Rewards, and other need-to-know information closer to the date.
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Artifact mods
[...] One of the consistent pieces of feedback that we have been wanting to act on for a while involves the unlocking of Artifact mods. Starting in Season 16, players will no longer be limited to the number of Artifact mods they can unlock. This means that players could feasibly unlock all 25 Artifact mods by the end of the Season! While we have made some small adjustments to the amount of XP required to unlock Artifact mods 1-12, in general, the pace of unlocking these first twelve Artifact mods should be close to what we’ve seen in Season 15’s Artifact. For each unlock after the 12th, increased XP will be required for the next Artifact mod unlock, so the choice of which order to unlock mods still requires some decision-making. And if you change your mind? You can still reset your Artifact and make your picks again.
When it comes to the Artifact mods themselves, we are bringing back a few perennial favorite anti-Champion mods, including Anti-Barrier Scout Rifles and Bows, and have done some work to make disrupting an Overload champion (which can be done this Season with Auto-Rifles and SMGs) more reliable than in previous Seasons. We’ll also be highlighting the new Glaive weapon archetype coming in The Witch Queen through a variety of Artifact mods (including an option to make your Glaive the solution to Unstoppable Champions) and have a few new Artifact mods that will enhance some of the new weapon perks.
(Part 2)
Armor Masterworking
To take a little bit of pressure off your vault space, we are also making some adjustments to the way Masterwork armors work. Starting with the launch of The Witch Queen, you can change the energy type of a fully-Masterworked piece of armor for a much-reduced cost.
A fully Masterworked piece of Legendary armor can be changed to another energy type for the cost of 10,000 Glimmer and one Upgrade Module, while a fully Masterworked piece of Exotic armor can be changed to another energy type for the cost of 20,000 Glimmer and one Upgrade Module. The costs for changing a piece of armor’s energy type before it is fully Masterworked remain unchanged.
(Part 3)
Orbs of power
Closing out, we are also making a change to the way Guardians create Orbs of Power with weapons. Elements of the new weapon crafting system will encourage you to use many different weapons and ask you to burn hard-earned Masterwork materials on a weapon that you may only be using for a few hours, just to generate Orbs. That … seemed like a tall order. This, combined with our desire to act on consistent feedback that players want to be able to generate Orbs of Power with Exotic weapons that do not yet have catalysts, led us to the implementation we’ll be using in The Witch Queen and beyond.
Orb generation on weapon multikills will no longer be a function of a weapon’s Masterwork status but will instead be provided by a suite of armor mods, which are unlocked automatically for all players and which plug into the Helmet Armor Mod socket. Each such mod will apply the Orb-generation effect to all weapons you have equipped of a particular damage type, so a single mod will cover multiple weapons in your arsenal if they share a damage type (this also applies to a weapon that changes damage types, like Hard Light, or a Kinetic weapon with Osmosis). We will continue to create exciting Exotic catalysts over the next few Seasons, but in the meantime, you will be able to generate orbs with Cloudstrike, Thorn, Thunderlord, Tarrabah, and any other weapon in the game.
(Part 4)
30th Anniversary content
“Will they or won’t they?” has been a major question surrounding the 30th Anniversary event. We have game shows, we have a weird sarcastic horse made of stardust and puns, and we have a dungeon that will make you laugh and scream at the same time. Because so many have been loving the new activities, a common concern is that Dares of Eternity and other eventful goodies will be disappearing as we say goodbye to Season 15.
Fret not, young horse whisperer, because 30th Anniversary content (both free and paid) will not be placed in the Destiny Content Vault with the launch of The Witch Queen. We’ll have another update about this later this year but expect to enjoy The Xur-led adventures through 2022.