Bungie confirms Airborne Effectiveness changes for Destiny 2 Season 19 

Airborne Effectiveness in Destiny 2 has been discussed ever since its release. Many community members have been vocal about the entirety of AE since certain weapons were incapable of landing headshots on static opponents. Typically, many players start experiencing this in both PvP and PvE.

In Bungie's most recent TWAB (This Week at Bungie), the company talked about the multiple changes they'll be implementing in the mid-season of Season 19. Thankfully for players, Airborne Effectiveness is one thing the developer has looked into.

---

Destiny 2 Airborne Effectiveness changes announced for a mid-season patch in Season of the Seraph

Bungie introduced the Airborne Effectiveness system in hopes of balancing weapons' Stability and Accuracy (more along the lines of Strand). However, the company also addressed that achieving its goals came at the cost of fun for the community. Hence, most of the upcoming changes involve reducing weapon types' penalties.

The upcoming changes in specific ammunition types are as follows:

1) Primary weapons

Aim Assist

• Reduced all additional Primary weapon auto-aim (bullet bend) penalties by ~60% at 0 AE for both mouse and keyboard (MnK) and controller.
• Increased the precision angle (how far off a head target you can be and still have auto-aim give you a headshot instead of a body shot) by 50% at 100 AE. Changed the curve to be exponential, so you'll get more benefit at high AE for MnK and controller.
• Removed all additional Primary weapon magnetism (reticle friction) penalties, and at 60-100 AE you get a magnetism bonus compared to pre-AE for controller only.

Reduced airborne accuracy penalty for all Destiny 2 Primary weapons, per weapon type:

• Hand Cannon, Sidearm: 60%
• Auto Rifle, Scout Rifle, Pulse Rifle, Submachine Gun: 20%
• Bow: 30%

2) Special weapons

• Sniper Rifles and Slug Shotguns: reduced base airborne accuracy penalty by 50%.
• Pellet Shotguns: fully removed airborne accuracy penalty.

3) Submachine Guns

Forensic Nightmare (Image via Destiny 2)

General

• Increased damage and aim assist falloff start at 0 range by ~30%.
• Reduced damage and aim assist falloff start at 100 range by ~6%.
• Increased critical hit multiplier from 1.44 to 1.5.
• Crit damage goes from 16.2 to 16.9.
• Increased Forensic Nightmare's zoom from 13 to 14.

To summarize, Destiny 2 primary weapons are supposed to feel a lot more rewarding while airborne. While many players are skeptical about the complete removal of AE penalties on Shotguns, it is safe to assume that Sniper Rifles will at least be able to land headshots on a standing target.