New Destiny patch shakes up exotic weapons and armor upgrades, balancing

Destiny’s latest patch, released today, makes significant changes to a slew of exotic weapons in preparation for next week’s release of The Dark Below expansion, the company announced today.

“Exotic Weapons are designed to look, feel, and sound overpowered,” reads the patch post. “At the same time, they are not supposed to break the balance of the game. We hope these weapons challenge the way players think about their loadouts. Exotics will be a constant work in-progress!”

And so, among the biggest changes, exotic armor and weapons don’t need Ascendant materials to upgrade as of this patch. Exotic Gear will require an Exotic Shard, however, which are obtained by dismantling unwanted exotics or by purchasing them from Xur for seven Strange Coins.

In addition, several exotic weapons have been rebalanced, receiving anything from increased reload speed and magazine size to stability to decreases in range. Rebalanced exotics include the Thorn, Bad Juju, Hard Light, Suros Regime, Monte Carlo, MIDA Multi-Tool, Hawkmoon, Red Death, Plan C, Pocket Infinity, Vex Mythoclast, Invective, Ice Breaker, Patience and Time, Super Good Advice, and the Truth.

The full breakdown of the changes made to these weapons—among other updates, fixes, and repairs—can be found on Bungie’s patch post.

The Dark Below, Destiny’s first DLC expansion, launches on PS4, Xbox One, PS3, and Xbox 360 December 9.

Source: Bungie

New Destiny patch shakes up exotic weapons and armor upgrades, balancing