Destiny 2 Releases Major Sandbox Update for May 2025

Destiny 2 releases Update 8.2.6 alongside the weekly update, adding in the Rite of the Nine activity while also making big changes to the game, including some exotic items. As expected, it’s been a big week for Destiny 2 fans as Bungie announced some huge news alongside the normal weekly reset.

Bungie previously announced that May 6 would feature a special livestream where the studio would talk about the future of Destiny 2. Sure enough, Bungie revealed a ton of new information, not just about the upcoming Destiny 2 expansion known as Edge of Fate, but the company also showcased a content roadmap for the next year. This confirmed the second Renegades expansion, major updates, and more news. However, May 6 wasn’t just about the long-term future, as the weekly Destiny 2 reset also brought with it a big sandbox update as well.

While Bungie had been previously teasing big Destiny 2 changes over the past few weeks, Update 8.2.6 has finally launched, giving fans a complete look at everything that has been tweaked. Weapons were a big focus for this sandbox update, with Hand Cannon, Auto Rifles, Shotguns, and Pulse Rifles seeing balancing changes to various stats. Exotic gear also saw a few buffs and nerfs as well, including the recently popular Radiant Dance Machines.

Outside of weapons and gear, Update 8.2.6 also made tweaks to certain class abilities, nerfing the new On the Prowl Hunter void aspect, while improving tracking on throwing knives. Numerous buigs were also addressed, finally making the Sunless Cell available within the Fireteam Finder, fixing a spawn issue with Special ammo crates in Trials of Osiris, fixing the Corrupted Puppeteer boss fight in Vesper’s Host, and more.

Outside of gameplay changes, Update 8.2.6 also arrived alongside the normal Tuesday reset of content and challenges. However, the Rite of the Nine finally launched in Destiny 2, a unique activity that essentially remixes dungeons like Ghosts of the Deep, Prophecy, and Spire of the Watcher, giving players multiple difficulty options to pick from and new gear to be earned for overcoming them.

Destiny 2 Update 8.2.6 Patch Notes

Crucible

Trials of Osiris

• Fixed an issue where the neutral Special ammo crates were spawning after 20s instead of after 30s on some maps.
• Reduced the time it takes to capture the zone from 20s to 15s.
• Added an action button to Flawless Trials Passages which will allow you to cycle your glow color.

Competitive

• Fixed an issue which could sometimes cause loss forgiveness to fail when a team of all solos matched against a trio or duo fireteam.

Raids and Dungeons

Sundered Doctrine

• Fixed an issue where timers were not visually functioning as intended with Finality’s Auger equipped.

Vesper’s Host

• Fixed an issue when facing the Corrupted Puppeteer where the nuclear core could not be deposited after the wipe mechanic starts.

Warlord’s Ruin

• Fixed an issue that could cause a soft-lock after dying in the maze.

Garden of Salvation, Vault of Glass, King’s Fall

• Fixed issue where raid banners could be placed at the last moment before starting an encounter and kept after the encounter began.

Gameplay and Investment

Legendary Weapons

Hand Cannons

Heavy Burst

• Increased ADS damage falloff scalar from 1.5x to 1.6x.

Adaptive – Judgement

• Magazine size increased from 9 to 11.
• Reload increased from 40 to 45.
• Handling increased from 42 to 55.

Submachine Guns

Adaptive

• Increased ADS damage falloff scalar from 1.4x to 1.5x.

Auto Rifles

High Impacts

• Increased base damage by 4%.
• Body shot goes from 23 to 24.
• Critical hit goes from 41.4 to 43.2.

Precision

• Increased base damage 3% and reduced the precision damage scalar slightly to offset this.
• Body shot goes from 19.4 to 20.
• Critical hit goes from 33.95 to 34.

Pulse Rifles

Legacy Frame

• The Legacy Frame intrinsic perk now reduces ADS damage falloff scalar by 0.1.
• This reduces Battler and Estoc’s ADS damage falloff scalars from 1.7 to 1.6, matching High Impact Pulse Rifles.
• Increased BxR Battler’s Airborne Effectiveness stat – 10 to 21.

Rapid Fires

• Increased base damage from 14.5 to 15.
• Increased precision damage from 27.6 to 27.8.

Shotguns

Heavy Burst Slug

Weapon perks

One Quiet Moment

• Now has two stacks, one that activates after 1s of being out of combat for 50% of the bonus, and the other at 2s.

Alacrity

• Now activates with partial effectiveness whenever a teammate dies. Reaches maximum effectiveness when two or more teammates are currently dead. Continues to activate when solo in PvE activities.

Note: Descriptions for both perks will be updated in a later release.

Exotic Weapons

Lord of Wolves

• Reduced hip fire damage in PvE by 30%.

Riskrunner

• Increased zoom from 13 to 14.

Truth

• Increased the amount of ammo picked up from ammo crates in Crucible from 1 to 2.

Two-Tailed Fox

• Increased the amount of ammo picked up from ammo crates in Crucible from 1 to 2.

Alethonym

• Creating a Special ammo brick now only costs 50% energy. This allows for creating two Special bricks back-to-back if the weapon has 100% energy.
• Reworded the Vestigial Alchemy trait description to be less confusing,

Finality’s Auger

• Increased the duration that a target is painted to match the duration of the turret.
• The environmental target marker now marks additional targets that enter the zone after its initial creation.
• Now grants an automatic reload from reserves after deploying a turret.
• Reduced the turret’s self-damage by 85%.
• Increased the turret’s damage by 10%.

Exotic Armor

Hunter

Radiant Dance Machines

• Reduced the amount of energy refunded for defeats against players when you do not have full class ability energy from 33% to 20% to align it with the upper tier of the Strategist perk.
• Reduced the bonuses granted to primary weapons when hip firing.
  • Aligned the hip fire bonuses to range and accuracy with the values granted by the Hip Fire Grip perk, instead of the Legacy Frame intrinsic perk.
    • Reduced accuracy bonus for standard weapons by 60%.
    • Reduced aim assist falloff distance bonus by 60%.
    • Further reduced the accuracy bonus for specific Exotic weapons by an additional 25%.
      • Developer note: based on the feedback we have gotten from mouse and keyboard (MnK) players using The Last Word with Radiant Dance Machines (RDM), we are looking into tuning the MnK-specific penalties down a bit in a future patch to make the weapon more usable on that input without requiring an Exotic.

Titan

Lion Rampants

• Added the accuracy and range hip fire bonuses from RDMs to Lion Rampant for Primary ammo weapons only. These hip fire benefits are always active, not just when airborne.
• The AE bonus is now always active, not just when you are hip firing while airborne.
• The string will be updated to reflect the new functionality in a future patch.

Khepri’s Horn

• Fixed an issue where Ignitions caused by the waves of Solar energy would not stun Unstoppable Champions.

Warlock

Lunafaction Boots

• Added the accuracy and range hip fire bonuses from RDMs to Lunafaction Boots for Primary ammo weapons only. These hip fire benefits are always active, not just when in a rift.
• Decreased the range bonus granted by the Empowering Rift by 50% in PvP only to reduce occurrences of extremely long-range kills with short range weapons like Fusions and Slug Shotguns
• The string will be updated to reflect the new functionality in a future patch.

Armor Customization

Hunter

• Fixed an issue where the Antique Filigree Ornament caused the Hunter’s arms to not cast a shadow.
• Fixed an issue where the Spacewalk Cloak top cloth clips through lower parts.

Warlock

• Fixed an issue where the front cloth on the Hermetic Robes Ornament clips through the character’s legs.
• Fixed an issue where the front cloth on the Plaguebreaker Robes Ornament clips through the character’s legs.

Titan

• Fixed an issue where Stoicism’s Ornament Heart’s Pledge does not display its hanging cloth when equipped or previewed on body types 2.
  • More info about how we will allow both looks on this Ornament here.

Abilities

Crucible Only

Prismatic Super Regen

• Reduced Super cooldown penalty from 10% to 5%.

Scatter Grenade

Reduced scatter grenade damage vs. players by 15%.

Hunter

On the Prowl (Void Aspect)

• Reduced PvP prey-finding range from 45m to 25m.
• Reduced PvP hunt time from infinite to 15 seconds.
• Reduced prey-finding cooldown from 0.5s to 0.1s (PvP and PvE).
• Ability energy is now granted instantly instead of over time.

Withering Blade (Stasis and Prismatic melee)

• Increased tracking strength by 20%.
• Increased damage by 10%.

All Throwing Knife melees

• Fixed an issue where throwing knives were not tracking correctly.
  • Tracking should be much more consistent now.
  • That said, you still need to aim – don’t blame us if you miss on your own…

Lightweight Knife (Solar melee)

• Increased tracking shape size by 10%.
• Increased tracking strength by 20%.

Fan of Knives (Solar and Prismatic melee)

• Increase tracking shape size by 15%.

Warlock

Incinerator Snap (Solar Melee)

• Fixed an issue where cancelling the melee animation would propel and warp the character while airborne.

Lightning Surge (Arc Aspect)

• Slightly increased the follow-up-melee suppression time after Lightning Surge to match Shoulder Charge and other similar abilities.
• Lightning Surge now deals more guaranteed damage but less random damage vs. Players.

Combatants

• Fixed an issue where Taken Phalanx enemies would always hold their shields up.
  • Regular Taken Phalanxes no longer hold their shields in front. Taken Phalanxes and Dire Taken Phalanxes shake and contort.
    • It’s tough holding shields up for that long.

Fireteam Finder

• Fixed an issue where the Sunless Cell Grandmaster Nightfall did not appear in Fireteam Finder.

General

• Adjusted damage indicator to help alleviate potential photosensitivity issues.

Destiny 2

Released

August 28, 2017

ESRB

T For TEEN for Blood, Language, and Violence

Engine

Tiger Engine