Destiny 2: Shadowkeep – Auto Rifle, Scout Rifle, and Exotic Buffs Revealed

Along with revealing its post-launch roadmap for the expansion, Bungie also outlined the many weapon updates coming with Destiny 2: Shadowkeep. The majority are PvE buffs, especially for archetypes left by the wayside like auto rifles and scout rifles. However, the upcoming sandbox update makes one very important change to precision damage.

That is, precision damage on minor, red bar enemies. These enemies will no longer take more precision damage than other foes (currently, the modifier is twice 2x that of higher rank enemies). Precision damage is still dealt but it now depends on the weapon’s damage itself rather than the weapon damage and modifier.

To adjust this, weapons like handcannons and machine guns have had their damage against minor enemies buffed by 30 percent and 25 percent. Other weapons like auto rifles receive a 25 to 30 percent damage increase depending on enemy type while scout rifles receive a 18 to 36 percent damage depending on enemy type. As for Exotics, older weapons like Sweet Business and Sunshot are getting magazine increases while Graviton Lance gets a PvE damage increase.

Check out some of the changes below. The full patch notes will drop around the expansion’s release on October 1st so stay tuned.

Combatants – General

• Minor enemies (Rank-and-File) no longer take more precision damage than other enemies.
• These enemies previously took twice as much damage to their precision hit locations than enemies of higher ranks.
• You will still deal precision damage, but this is now entirely dependent on the weapon, as it is for higher ranked enemies.

Weapon Changes – General

• Weapon mods are now treated as reusable unlocks instead of consumables. Any mods you have in your inventory will be converted to unlocks
• This gives players the opportunity to play with different mods more frequently
• If the only copy of a mod you have is already in a gun, you will need to reacquire one to unlock it

Auto Rifles

PvE damage increased between +30% and +25% depending on combatant rank

Bows

• PvE damage increased by +31% against minor enemies, and +26% against major enemies
• Fixed an issue where bow draw times were displayed incorrectly in the inspection screen

Hand Cannons

• PvE damage against minor enemies increased by 30%
• Lightweight and Adaptive hand cannons use a new firing animation while aiming down sights
• This change was made to increase weapon accuracy when firing these weapons as fast as possible
  Ex: Currently, players can shoot faster than the recoil animation of 140/150 archetypes – so while the handcannon looks to have fully reset from recoil, the following projectile will be shot as if the weapon was still in a recoiled state.
• Reduced the effect the range stat has on damage range falloff (effective range) for this weapon archetype

Machine Guns

• PvE damage against minor enemies increased by 25%
• Increased the effects of damage range falloff on this weapon archetype

Pulse Rifles

• PvE damage against minor enemies increased by 28%
• Increased the effects of damage range falloff on this weapon archetype.
• Archetype specific damage changes (impacts both PvE and PvP gameplay)
• Rapid-Fire Pulse Rifles now deal 14/23.8 base/precision damage (Previously 13/21.4)
• High Impact Pulse Rifles now deal 21/33.6 base/precision damage (Previously 20/32)

Scout Rifles

PvE damage increased between +36% and +18% depending on combatant rank

Sidearms

PvE damage increased to minor and major combatants by 16%

Sniper Rifles

• PvE damage increased by +47% against minor enemies, +20% for others
• Exotic sniper rifle perk damage bonuses have been modified to compensate for this change and they will not receive the full benefits as a result

Submachineguns

PvE damage increased by 22.5% against minor/major combatants

Aggressive Frame

• Removed the intrinsic effect of “Deals bonus damage at close range.”
• This bonus was 10%, but was unintentionally always active
• The bonus damage has been moved to the base damage for 750 RPM Submachineguns, resulting in no damage change
• As a result, Tarrabah and The Huckleberry gain 10% damage in both PvE and PvP

Exotics

Sweet Business

• Increased magazine size from 100 to 150.
• Increased PvE damage by 15%.
• High Caliber rounds have been replaced with Armor Piercing rounds.
• Damage changed to 15/21.2 base/precision (Previously 13.21/21.14)
• This weapon no longer requires you to be firing when you pick up ammo to have it automatically reload.

Graviton Lance

PvE damage increased by 30%

Sunshot

Increased magazine size to 12

Vigilance Wing

PvE damage increased by 25%

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