Exotic handcannon The Last Word has almost arrived for Destiny 2: Forsaken players. Owning the Annual Pass is required beforehand, of course, but the weapon still looks fairly snazzy in its current incarnation. Check out Bungie’s latest trailer for the same below.

The Last Word seems to have maintained its bonus to accuracy when hip-fired, though its debatable whether the bonus damage still remains. Throughout the first Destiny’s life-cycle, The Last Word faced a number of nerfs to deter its dominance from the highest levels of play. It still dominated pretty strongly though, so we’ll see how it affects the current Crucible meta in Destiny 2.

What’s more interesting, however, is another Exotic handcannon teased at the end of the trailer. The familiar projectiles of the Thorn can be seen, and we seem to be getting it in Season of the Drifter (which starts in March). Granted, it’s likely to be exclusive to the Joker’s Wild DLC, so if you don’t own the Annual Pass, you’ll be missing out. Stay tuned for more details on The Last Word – its quest goes live later today.

Bungie announced during its most recent weekly update that Destiny 2 would undergo maintenance tomorrow, January 29th. This would mark the deployment of update 2.1.4, which contains a number of fixes. It also serves as the launch for the Exotic quest “The Draw”, which awards Destiny 2’s version of The Last Word upon completion. That is, to those who own the Annual Pass.

Maintenance will begin at 8 AM PST, and during this time, Companion features like third party apps and web tools will be unavailable. The game’s downtime starts at 8:45 AM PST, during which all players will be kicked from the game. The update will out at 9 AM PST, and downtime will end at 10 AM PST. Maintenance is expected to conclude by 11 AM PST, and you should see Companion features back online by that time.

Some of the other changes coming with update 2.1.4 include increased damage for Adaptive, Rapid-Fire, and High-Impact auto rifles. Rapid-Fire and Lightweight scout rifles are also getting a damage buff, particularly in PvE. Exotics like Legend of Acrius, Telesto, and Trace Rifles will see some tuning as well. Stay tuned for the patch notes when the update goes live tomorrow.

In other news, Crimson Days will be returning on February 12th with a chance to earn both old and new rewards.

There are a few other things to dissect though. Research firm like Cowen and Company believe that the split from Activision was due to the difference in vision over the game’s direction. Schreier notes that an annualized format of content release was a source of tension as well. Activision is also apparently looking to strengthen its own brands like Call of Duty, even if that means a short-term financial slump from losing Destiny.

"Those who have been in touch with reports over the years know that the situation between Bungie and Activision wasn’t quite so cut and dry."

Not that it matters to fans cheering at Activision’s removal from the equation. The Destiny subreddit wants to proclaim this as “Destiny Freedom Day”. Others have suddenly become more interested in purchasing Eververse items since Activision is not involved. Many believe that Bungie will finally have a chance to shine without an overbearing publisher looking over their shoulder.

Those who have been in touch with reports over the years know that the situation between Bungie and Activision was more than a little complicated. When the much-hyped 10 year deal was penned between both companies, Bungie agreed to deliver numerous Destiny titles and expansions in between those sequels under Activision’s label. Plans went for a toss when Destiny had been delayed from its original 2013 release date to early 2014. It then received another delay to September 2014.

Reports from Schreier and high-profile departures like writer Joseph Staten and composer Martin O’Donnell indicated that all was not well in development though. Once Destiny launched, it was a jumbled mess of plot points, shallow gameplay, fundamental design flaws and networking issues. Such issues were exacerbated with The Dark Below, Destiny’s first major DLC. It featured mission maps similar to the base game but backwards and a buggy as hell raid. Don’t even try to remind players about the process of re-leveling Exotics.

"Destiny had some bumps here and there but was at its peak going into the reveal of Destiny 2 in May 2017."

House of Wolves would improve things, especially for PvP since Trials of Osiris was introduced for hardcore competitive players to indulge in, but not by a huge margin. We eventually learned that the final product of Destiny was meant to encompass the base game, the first two DLC and The Taken King expansion. When Destiny was apparently rebooted in 2014, a spanner was thrown into plans and the additional content was sold off as separate DLC.

However, after The Taken King, Bungie seemed to be back on track. Festival of the Lost was neat. Sparrow Racing League was pretty cool. Crimson Days was lame but hey, new content, and the April 2017 update provided plenty of new, interesting things for PvE fans to engage with. For the most part, it seemed that Destiny was firing on all cylinders even if Bungie made many of us skeptical with its introduction of the Eververse.

Then we learned about Rise of Iron, Destiny’s next expansion, releasing in September 2016. Why was Rise of Iron releasing in September 2016?

According to Schreier, Destiny 2 was pushed back to 2017 because Bungie had rebooted development. Luke Smith was appointed director and the previous director left the company (but that fact would only be revealed later). As for Rise of Iron, it released to a middling reception. The Wrath of the Machine raid was praised but the story missions and overall content were criticized for regressing from The Taken King’s brilliance. The Festival of the Lost returned as a microtransaction-laden debacle but Bungie made good on things with The Dawning and Age of Triumph. Destiny had some bumps here and there but was at its peak going into the reveal of Destiny 2 in May 2017.

"Eventually, Schreier would report how Bungie renegotiated terms with Activision for Destiny 2. Its previous content cycle was thought to be too rigorous and producing so much content was deemed too difficult."

Bungie unveiled some controversial changes for the sequel but it’s a testament to the will of the community that things still looked pretty good. We heard about Lost Sectors, Adventures, World Quests, and tons more content to sink our eager teeth into. Destiny 2 would go on to become an incredible financial success at launch. Critics even lauded it for being an improvement over the first game.

However, as time passed, it was hounded by numerous issues concerning the end-game. Exotics were useless. The raid meant nothing and thus, hitting max Power level meant nothing. The Lost Sectors were rendered useless in the end-game simply because they gave lower level loot. PvP was a snooze-fest and encompassed team-shooting above all. A number of awesome looking cosmetics, previously earned through in-game activities like Strikes and the raid, were locked behind Eververse. Bungie’s decisions when it came to things like one-time use shaders, XP throttling, charging for Heroic Strikes, locking the base game’s raid behind the purchase of DLC and stingy seasonal events didn’t help matters.

Eventually, Schreier would report on how the developer renegotiated terms with Activision for Destiny 2. Its previous content cycle was thought to be too rigorous; producing so much content was deemed too difficult. So instead, Bungie would focus more on cosmetic content through the Eververse and Seasons. As more cosmetic items landed up on Tess Everis’s shelves over the months, it seemed like Schreier’s report had plenty of truth to it.

"Bungie’s track record when it comes to development has been less than stellar. It rebooted Destiny 1 and 2 before their subsequent launches."

Of course, there was still DLC like Curse of Osiris and Warmind. Activision-owned studios like High Moon Studios and Vicarious Visions were assisting Bungie with content as the latter spent 2018 trying to get back on the good side of its longtime fans. It talked more and more about catering to the hobbyist, changing up its weapon slot system and bringing back random rolls for weapons and armour. Masterworks, Exotic revamps, Nightfall Challenges, Bounties and much more were introduced before Forsaken to appease the hardcore player. Bungie even announced the Annual Pass, something that would provide a consistent stream of “end-game” content after Forsaken, as it seemingly moved towards away from more cinematic adventures towards a much deeper grind.

In September 2018, Forsaken launched and was met with praise from critics and hardcore fans. Sure, there was dissent about the heavy RNG-based nature of Bungie’s content (like earning Exotics) and it also didn’t help that some activities were time-gated. But Forsaken delivered a good story (by Destiny standards), a great raid and tons of new loot to collect. The majority of Forsaken was also accessible to all players. Gating content behind high Power requirements, boring quest grinds and baffling puzzles really didn’t stick out as major issues until Black Armory came around.

If you’ve been keeping track of the story thus far, you might have noticed a common theme: Bungie’s track record when it comes to development has been less than stellar. It rebooted Destiny 1 and 2 before their subsequent launches. Throughout the history of both games, Bungie would also prove to be completely out of touch with its community’s needs, taking months to fix long-standing issues.

"For all intents and purposes, Bungie going independent and being free to pursue its own development cycle for Destiny is good."

Only a major exodus of players following the launch of Destiny 2 and Curse of Osiris (not to mention the failure of events like Faction Rally, Iron Banner and The Dawning 2017) would motivate the developer to sit down and actually address concerns. Even now, Destiny 2 is still lacking on issues like competitive PvP matchmaking, endgame economy items like Enhancement Cores and not locking DLC content that players paid for behind ridiculous requirements. And yes, one-time user shaders, awesome cosmetics locked behind Eververse, time-gated content and heavy RNG are still problematic. Did we mention Trials of the Nine was removed before Forsaken and has yet to return?

For all intents and purposes, Bungie going independent and being free to pursue its own development cycle for Destiny is good. However, the enthusiasm for the developer’s approach doesn’t look all that different from when it split from Microsoft.

“Finally, we’d get to see the developer separated from the evil corporation and free to pursue its own vision!” “Finally, we’d get the very best that Bungie could deliver!” That wasn’t quite the case though, as evidenced by the barreling rollercoaster that is the Destiny franchise. I’m no fan of Activision (especially following their treatment of Call of Duty creators Vince Zampella and Jason West) but reading about the additional time and resources, not to mention the new deals it negotiated with Bungie, makes it look like a publisher tried to help rather than impede Destiny’s progress.

"But hey, if you’re a Destiny player, all of this should be very familiar. Destiny has offered experiences to a player base that simply can’t get enough of it."

What this split means for the future of Destiny 2 is still unknown. Cowen and Company believes that Destiny 3 is still coming in 2020. Rumours regarding its content and features along with a greater emphasis on RPG mechanics have been doing the rounds for a few months. Will the studio repeat the same mistakes as before? What’s the plan for content after the Annual Pass? Will we receive another expansion and another Annual Pass until Destiny 3 comes out? Will Bungie scrap the idea of sequels altogether? Will Destiny go free to play? What’s the plan for Eververse? How likely is it that Bungie announces Destiny 3’s exclusivity on the Epic Games Store for PC in the coming years? Will the core issues with leadership that caused Staten and O’Donnell to leave in the first place be fixed?

Blame Activision all you want but Bungie was and still is the company developing the series. How it addressed the issues that plagued both games at their respective launches is available for all to see. It’s currently fine with the stingy RNG for Exotics and Power level system that makes much of the loot irrelevant. It’s the company that said Black Armory’s Niobe Labs was for anyone that was “smart and brave enough to attempt it” in a now-deleted tweet after frustrated attempts by players. At least it went ahead and unlocked the last Forge when no one could figure out the solution.

If you’re a Destiny player, all of this should be very familiar. Destiny has offered experiences to a player base that simply can’t get enough. I should know, having been part of that player base for a few years. Even when the content didn’t quite measure up, I plunked down my own money and waited till launch to join the hype train. Destiny has been a franchise that’s provided some truly amazing moments while simultaneously making me question the numerous blunders that could have been avoided. Looking back, at the end of the day, maybe everyone just wants that same kind of experience without the fear of Activision mucking everything up.

"Can Bungie adhere to long-time fans and become successful in its own right? Can it attract even more players to its franchise in the coming years?"

For Bungie, the real test begins now. Without the big bad villainous publisher for people to deflect blame to when things go wrong, it will take the brunt of not delivering worthwhile content and financial failure. Will it sink or swim in the process? This is an industry that’s being defined more by games-as-a-service titles like Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 and Fortnite: Battle Royale. That’s not including beloved free to play games like Path of Exile or Warframe. Additional competition from blockbusters like Anthem and The Division 2 is also coming. Can Bungie adhere to long-time fans and achieve the potential that Destiny seemingly promised all those years ago? Can it attract even more players in the coming years?

It’s hard to say but unlike October 2007, this isn’t a Bungie that inspires confidence. It’s a Bungie that makes me cautious of investing time or money in their products. Here’s hoping for the future to change. As a member of the Bungie.net forums so aptly put it though: We’re finally going to see who was responsible for Destiny’s failings – Bungie or Activision.

It’s official: Bungie has split from Activision. The developer still owns the rights to its Destiny franchise and will pursue self-publishing for the foreseeable future. While it may not be under tons of pressure to follow the previously annual release of content, there’s still a very high possibility of Destiny 3 releasing soon.

This is according to research firm Cowen and Company, who predicted to investors in a recent note (as per GameSpot) that the sequel would arrive in 2020. The firm explained that despite the old deal between Bungie and Activision outlining a new game every two years, the duration jumped to three years. This probably caused the “growing divergence” between both companies’ visions for Destiny.

Cowen and Company also believes that both games didn’t produce the “recurring revenue stream” that Activision was seeking. Activision will now seemingly focus on franchises like Call of Duty. After all, providing more resources for franchises that it feels are living up to expectations is better than investing in those that aren’t, as per the firm. The firm also states that though Bungie likely paid a fee for Destiny’s publishing rights, it wouldn’t have been an “enormously significant” sum.

“Ultimately, we think this decision is probably for the best for Destiny as a franchise, as we think having two head cooks in the kitchen with somewhat divergent views created some issues with the development process and led the game down some blind alleys. Destiny was a worthwhile attempt by Activision to build another cornerstone franchise, one that just didn’t quite pan out as they had hoped (underlining once again the high difficulty of creating and managing a successful live service game business), in our view,” said Cowen.

Bungie still has content coming for Destiny 2. Annual Pass holders will receive The Last Word quest later this month and Joker’s Wild in March.

Before Bungie released Niobe Labs, part of Destiny 2: Black Armory, it made clear beforehand that unlocking it would be required for accessing the final Forge. What many community members didn’t anticipate is that the activity would take several hours to complete – some streamers went as long as an entire day without solving the puzzle-ridden activity. In response to feedback, Bungie has decided to unlock the Bergusia Forge at 2 PM PST today.

“While coming together as a community to solve puzzles can be fun, setting this puzzle up as a gate between you and new content that you want to play has not been an ideal experience. As such, we will be decoupling the puzzle from the final offering of the Black Armory. All Annual Pass owners will be able to experience the Bergusia Forge when the puzzle is solved or when the deadline expires – whichever happens first,” the developer said in a recent update.

Niobe Labs will still remain open for those who wish to test their mettle against it. Annual Pass owners will receive a Ghost and Emblem as proof for completing it. “We love trying new things with Destiny, but we’re also flexible enough to pivot when you point out room for improvement.”

Though Bungie clearly attempted something different with the activity, the decision to make it required for unlocking core content may have been the wrong route to take. With The Last Word quest coming on January 29th and the Bergusia Forge currently open, it remains to be seen if the developer can recover some goodwill among its community. Stay tuned for more details in the coming days.

Not quite a dungeon, but required to unlock the final Forge, Destiny 2: Black Armory’s Niobe Labs is now live. The location can be found in the European Dead Zone and contains a series of puzzles and bosses. Finishing the entire rigmarole will unlock the Bergusia Forge for all players. The race is currently on to see who can be the world’s first to do so.

Of course, it’s not quite that easy. Twitch streamers like Datto have been attempting Niobe Labs for over 12 hours now, and have yet to complete it. As such, forum members are complaining about Bungie time-gating content again to make it last longer.

Time will tell whether this approach to its Annual Pass content is good enough, or whether Bungie has to rethink a few things. After Black Armory, Destiny 2’s Annual Pass will bring Joker’s Wild in March and Penumbra in June to deliver more content. Expect some teases about the next expansion when E3 2019 rolls around as well. In the meantime, we’ll keep you updated on Niobe Labs and when the Bergusia Forge unlocks.

Niobe Labs is waiting to be discovered with a puzzle that needs solving.

Once completed by a fireteam, Bergusia, the final forge, will be unlocked for all.

Watch the best and brightest attempt the puzzle: https://t.co/mJFJ8U0M0U pic.twitter.com/2DWTSLNjEM

— Bungie (@Bungie) January 8, 2019

Destiny 2’s Black Armory may have been fairly insubstantial in its launch week, but a number of other Lost Forges (and a raid) have since been made available. Case in point, the Izanami Forge is now available for players to grind for more weaponry. And if that’s not enough, Bungie will have another piece of Black Armory content available on January 8th with Niobe Labs.

According to Bungie’s weekly update, Niobe Labs isn’t a dungeon, nor is it the last Forge. It’s actually an “event” that will lead to unlocking the last Forge, which should be interesting in its own right. Again, this isn’t something that will compete with The Shattered Throne, but it should hopefully offer more stuff for players to do.

Black Armory’s content schedule will continue into January with a new Exotic Quest. Dubbed “The Draw”, it will grant players The Last Word Exotic. This handcannon was rather infamous during the old days of Destiny for its fire rate and high damage in PvP. The quest will go live for Black Armory owners on January 29th.

Along with the Scourge of the Past raid, Bungie has added another new activity with Destiny 2: Forsaken- Black Armory. It’s the second Lost Forge, a.k.a. the Gofannon Forge, and this one seems more centered on the Fallen. Players will be traveling to Nessus this time around – check out the trailer below to see it for yourself.

Two new weapons – a Black Armory handcannon and sniper rifle – are teased as well, so there’s going to be loot to grind for. Sadly, it seems that Black Armory-specific gear can only be obtained in the raid, which has a Power level requirement of 640. At the very least, with Bungie lowering the Power requirement for all Lost Forge encounters, the Gofannon Forge should be easier to complete.

This isn’t all there is to do in Destiny 2 by a long shot. Even if you don’t own the Annual Pass, The Dawning will return tomorrow. It sees the return of Eva Levante, various quests to accrue ingredients and deliver baked goods to NPCs, and eventually earn a new heavy machine gun.

Bungie’s next raid – not Raid Lair – for Destiny 2 will be out later today. As part of the Black Armory DLC, Scourge of the Past will take players to the depths of The Last City, hunting for a vault at the behest of Ada-1. A new trailer has been released that hints at some of the things we’ll see. Don’t worry about too many overt spoilers though.

Perhaps one of the most noticeable things about the raid is how much Sparrow riding there is. Many Destiny fans have craved for Sparrows to be implemented into raids somehow – Scourge of the Past seems to finally address that demand. How it’s actually implemented remains to be seen though.

Scourge of the Past goes live at 9 AM PST today, and has a recommended Power level of 640. Those disheartened seeking the Volundr Forge to become stronger will be happy to learn that it’s been somewhat toned down in difficulty. Regardless, if you want to be world’s first in the raid, you’re gonna have to get on that grind.

It’s been a few days since Bungie released its newest “premium content release” for Destiny 2, namely Black Armory. It brings a new activity called Lost Forges, with the first one, the Volundr Forge, currently live, and the second, the Gofannon Forge, releasing tomorrow along with the raid. However, fans had found a few problems with the DLC’s rollout.

As it turns out, the Volundr Forge requires a higher than normal Power level to start. The encounter only scales in difficulty from there, ending at 630 Power level for the boss. Given how the game’s scaling was changed around Warmind’s release, this meant that even 600 Power level players were unable to complete the Forge. That is, unless they were highly coordinated and using powerful Exotics like Phoenix Protocol and Whisper of the Worm. So how do you raise your Power level to be able to complete the Forge? Why, by grinding old content.

Seeing this, Bungie has reacted fairly quickly, reducing the Power level requirement of all encounters in the Lost Forges by five. In a recent update, community manager Cozmo said, “It’s become clear that we made the initial Power requirements for the Lost Forges too high, keeping those sweet new rewards out of reach. Some players at 600 Power have been unable to dive in and beat the final boss without grinding for new Power first.

“We have just delivered a server-side update to reduce the Power requirements for all the encounters in the Lost Forges by five. We fully acknowledge that this is a small move, but it is the one that we can make today. This is not the full extent of the changes to the player experience that we are investigating, but it should give Guardians at 600 Power a better chance at completing the activity.”

Of course, there’s still the question of how players can more easily catch up to the current Power level requirements without grinding out all the old content. This especially applies to newer players who might have joined when Destiny 2 was made free for PC in November. Cozmo said, “This response doesn’t answer all of your questions.

“There are still many of you asking how you can catch up and acquire the Power you need to join the quests to recover these Lost Forges. The answers to those questions are coming. We have some existing plans and some new ideas in the pipeline. That conversation will continue tomorrow in ‘This Week At Bungie.'”

We’ll have to wait for more information, but at least Black Armory has become a little bit more accessible for those who purchased the Annual Pass.