Season 5: Season of the Forge has officially begun in Destiny 2, and with it has come a new game update. That update, 2.1.0, brings some of the changes developer Bungie has been promising, with some other notes that players did not know were coming until the patch went live.

While many suspected that Bungie would take this opportunity to nerf some of the best new exotics in Destiny 2 from the Forsaken expansion, the list of nerfs was virtually non-existent. For the most part, any changes to exotics were actually buffs  (like Prometheus Lens getting a 10% increase to its damage) or fixes which made Ophidian Aspect and Lunafaction Boots exotics stronger. The exotics that did get a bit of a nerf or a fix that negatively impacted their power were Ursa Furiosa, Hard Light, and Ace of Spades—but, overall even those nerfs shouldn't affect them too much.

The one weapon that did get a nerf was the Ikelos shotgun, whose Trench Barrel perk (melee hits activate bonus damage for a short period) now only lasts for the first three shots. The Ikelos shotgun was easily one of the best guns in Destiny 2 for taking out strong enemies and boss DPS, but this nerf will certainly drop the weapon's big damage potential. The good news, though, is that the Trench Barrel perk is going to be available on more weapons in Season 5.

As mentioned previously by Bungie, this update delivers the changes to the new Spectral Blades Nightstalker super, as well as the promised changes to Gambit that make bounties a bit easier and more rewarding and the change to the Primeval catch-up mechanic.

black armory vendor with weapon

There was also a pass at many weapon archetypes in the game, although none of them should cause a huge swing in the meta and what players are currently using. For example, high-impact scout rifles got a 1.87% damage buff to ensure that they can also 3-shot headshot players, while submachine guns received a little more range and machine guns received a bump to their accuracy. The full patch notes can be seen on Bungie's website, with many of the other changes being small fixes and quality-of-life changes.

While Season 5 has officially started, the bulk of the content coming in the Season of the Forge, which is known as Black Armory in Destiny 2's Annual Pass, doesn't come to the game until next week. However, players can start earning some Black Armory weapons in the game right now.

Destiny 2: Black Armory releases December 4, 2018 for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.

Source: Bungie