Next DESTINY 2 Update Includes Masterwork Armor and Raid Reward Changes

It’s the end of the week so it’s time for a new Destiny 2 update from Bungie. After announcing that there would be some major changes to come, we are now getting our first glimpse as to what those changes will be.

These updates will be going into effect next week, so keep eye on it.

Iron Banner Event

The Season 2 Iron Banner event will start on Tuesday, January 30 and will end on Tuesday, February 6. There will be new items and weapons added to the engrams including a hand cannon, a scout rifle, a shotgun, new ornaments, a Sparrow, a Ghost, and a ship. There will also be a new emblem that will track how many lifetime rank ups players earn from the Iron Banner event.

If you missed out on the rewards from the last event, they may still drop in the new engrams. Players will not have to wait for a lucky engram drop; however, because they will be able to directly buy these new items from Lord Saladin. Players can also earn new ornaments by completing challenges.

The good news is that there will be no limits for how many Iron Banner engrams or tokens players can earn during the event.

Masterwork Armor

While we’ve been having fun crafting and earning Masterwork Weapons, new Masterwork Armor will be available next week.

Each armor piece grants 3% damage resistance while using a Super ability. If you have a full set of Masterwork Armor (presumably chest, gauntlets, and legs), then this stacks for a 15% damage reduction.
Masterwork Armor can be rework to a different stat (Heavy, Light, or Restorative) for 1 Masterwork core and 10 Legendary Shards.

As with the Masterwork Weapons, players will have a greater chance to get a Masterwork Armor by completing Raids and the Trials of the Nine.

Raid Rewards

Based on player feedback, rewards when completing Leviathan and Eater of Worlds are going to change.

Raid Armor Perks

According to Senior Designer Daniel Auchenpaugh, Raid armor will now drop with perks that will work on the Leviathan. These will be mods that can be selected on new pieces and owned Raid armor. These mods will also be reusable (but will cost 1 Calus Token to reequip) and will automatically be Legendary.

Double Drops

When clearing Prestige Raids, players will receive both Prestige and normal drops.

Raid Encounters

Anytime a player completes a Raid encounter they will always receive raid loot. In addition, every encounter has a chance to drop an exotic (not an exotic engram).

Raid Vendor

Throughout the week, if a player completes a raid encounter but misses out on an item they want, they can go to the Raid Vendor and purchase it for some Legendary shards and Calus tokens. If a player completes a Prestige encounter, then they will be able to purchase Prestige gear.

New Item: Exotic Raid Ghost

A new raid Ghost, “Contender’s Shell,” will have a chance to drop at the final encounter at either Leviathan or Eater of Worlds. This shell will come with some perks that will be active on the Leviathan such as:

Seeker of Brilliance
- Enables the chance for encounters to drop Bright Engrams from their loot pools.
Seeker of Opulence
- Raid exotics have a 50% chance to pull from a list of exotics that haven’t been collected yet.
Seeker of Glory
- Provides a tracker for the number of encounters players have defeated on the Leviathan.

Additional Patch Notes

In addition to the Masterwork Armor, Raid changes, and the Iron Banner event, other patch fixes included changes to the Prometheus Lens, Heroic strike completions, and Mercury challenges.

Bungie also addressed player feedback on the shader system. While many players have asked for some quality of life fixes for the shaders, Senior design Lead Tyson Green provided an explanation as to how they are trying to address that request. To summarize, they know that players want to be able to dismantle stacks of shaders, have the original Destiny Armor Shader mechanics, and not have shaders be limited by availability, but changes will not be soon, however they are looking into it.

For more information on Update 1.1.2 coming next week, check out the Bungie Patch Notes. Also, you can see the new Iron Banner weapon rewards in the Gallery.