Destiny 2 Season of the Witch update 7.2.0.1 patch notes: Activity changes, vendor updates, and more

Playlist activities are important in live services games like Destiny 2. In the Season of the Witch update 7.2.0.1, Bungie will be making some important changes to the existing playlist activities in the game while adding two brand-new activities to the mix. Seasonal activities differ a bit from the playlist activities in that the latter continues to stay in the game irrespective of the season or the expansion, whereas the former are vaulted once a fresh expansion goes live.

Over the past few seasons, Bungie has been talking about bringing some important changes to the playlist activities. Not just that, they've also been wanting to address some of the vendors in-game. Having said that, here's a quick rundown of all the activity adjustments along with the vendor adjustments in Destiny 2 Season of the Witch update 7.2.0.1.

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All Destiny 2 Season of the Witch activity changes in update 7.2.0.1

Bungie mentioned quite elaborately in their official notes all the changes coming to Destiny 2 Season of the Witch in the update 7.2.0.1. These changes, once implemented, will improve the overall quality of life in-game, allowing players to easily navigate through and launch activities or make purchases. These modifications are as follows:

Activities

• Relive the past. Ikora offers a Timeline Reflections quest to help new and lapsed players get caught up on major story beats by replaying three key moments: Cayde’s Fate from Forsaken, Communing with Stasis from Beyond Light, and the Lucent Hive from The Witch Queen. Includes new cinematics and rewards for new players to quickly get up to speed before The Final Shape.
• Ritual rank-ups now happen immediately on receiving a reputation instead of the next time you go to orbit.
• Weekly ritual Director challenges have been updated, removing the requirement to play three instances of a specific ritual to obtain rewards. Challenges now allow completion of any ritual activity (Crucible, Vanguard, or Gambit) to progress the challenge in sets of three to earn up to a max of three Exotic engrams. Surge matching has been removed as a requirement for Vanguard completions to progress the weekly challenge
• Ritual Vendor Challenges for completing 8 bounties on Vanguard, Crucible, or Gambit vendors have had their rewards updated to reward pinnacles
• Ritual-specific Engrams will now drop more often, allowing players more choice on what rewards they get through focusing.
• Ritual weapons will now be focusable during the first season they are available.

Destiny 2 Crucible

Apart from the fresh Multiplex map, Destiny 2 PvP mode will be getting some new adjustments that will make this mode much more enjoyable and rewarding for those who love to engage in combat against the Vanguard.

General changes

• Added Fireteam Matchmaking to CBMM (Connection-Based Matchmaking) playlists.
• Fixed a cinematic issue for Crucible maps Meltdown and Cathedral of Dusk.
• Revised playlist tooltips to remove redundant information.
• Fixed out-of-bounds issues on Crucible maps Meltdown and Radiant Cliffs.
• Fixed an issue with textures on Crucible map Bannerfall.

Competitive

• Competitive 3v3 placement series challenge progress is now synced across characters.
• Fixed an issue where the placement series challenge would not grant a reward.

Rift

• Fixed an issue that caused Spark dunks to count as more than one dunk.

Scorched

• Fixed an issue where certain subclasses could use their air move abilities.

Zone Control

• Fixed an issue where the bonus reputation icon did not display while Crucible reputation booster is active.

Iron Banner

• Daily Iron Banner challenges have been split into 2 series in Destiny 2. Each series has 4 challenges rolled out daily over the week.
• Series 1: Players complete Iron Banner matches (with no restrictions) to earn Iron Banner Rank bonus multipliers.
• Series 2: Players earn points in Iron Banner as a Seasonal subclass to earn Pinnacle rewards.

Rumble

• Matches no longer reward twice as much Crucible reputation as other Crucible modes when specific conditions are met.

Iron Banner Fortress

• Added mode-specific voice-over to Iron Banner Fortress.

Loose SBMM (Skill-Based Matchmaking)

• Altered parameters to improve search times and match quality for players at either end of the skill spectrum or for those playing in low-population regions or times.

Lobby Balancing

• Corrected an issue where highly skilled players could be misallocated across teams.

Clash and Control

• Changed Iron Banner Clash and Control map weighting to match that of the core Clash and Control playlists.

Destiny 2 Vanguard Ops

• Fixed an issue where the bonus reputation modifier icon did not display for Nightfall activities.

Destiny 2 Gambit

• Added FBMM (Fireteam-Based Matchmaking) and removed Freelance node.
• Updated the Gold Coins gilding Triumph progress string to reflect the change from wins to matches played.

Neomuna

• In the campaign mission Downfall in Destiny 2, improved the physics in gravlifts and removed the ability drain.
• Added Nimbus vendor rep as a reward to event chests that were previously only awarding Glimmer.

Dungeons

Ghosts of the Deep

• Fixed some quarantine volumes that were causing players to get a “joining allies” message while the Emerge encounter was in progress.
• Fixed an issue where the final boss of the dungeon was teleporting more than intended during the damage phase in Destiny 2.

Raids

Root of Nightmares

• Fixed an issue where players were unable to purchase the Shotgun because the raid weapon vendor was incorrectly checking for available inventory space.

Guardian Ranks

• Updated the objective Pinnacle Rewards in Guardian Rank 8 to reflect the updated weekly challenges to complete bounties for Drifter, Shaxx, and Zavala in Destiny 2.
• Players can now see their rank-up buffs displayed in their Guardian's character sheet.
• Fixed an issue in which the Guardian Rank 4 objective Glimmer was continuing to show progress after completing it.
• Loadouts + 4 message will now display the correct description.
• Fixed an issue in which some of the system unlock messages for Guardian Ranks did not have a proper icon.
• Players now will get credit for completing the Kingsfall raid in a higher difficulty without having completed the regular difficulty.

UI/UX

• The Inspection screen and Eververse Preview screens now support playing audio for Exotic weapons, Sparrows, ships, Ghosts, and other items that may have custom ambient audio.
• Timeline
• To help new players understand the fundamentals, Destiny Calls, and Witness Backstory cinematics can be played directly from the first page of the Timeline (upper-right corner of the Director).
• To help new players learn the game, added a QR Code that opens the New Player Guide on Bungie.net.
• Fixed an issue preventing the player from crouching in the Exotic mission Operation: Seraph's Shield.
• Fixed an issue where some quest step objectives would display as incomplete even if they were completed.
• Fixed an issue where Commendations were incorrectly greyed out as already given in some activities.
• Corrected an issue that prevented the visual effects from displaying for The Witch Queen expansion node on the Timeline.
• The Eververse Recommendations tile on the Featured page of Eververse will no longer inform players that they lack inventory space.
• Fixed a text display issue in the Russian language version of the Season Pass description page.
• Featured Quests
• Added a new tab to Quest Log that helps players focus on completing key quest lines.
• Players can now launch into many quest activities or to quest locations directly from the Quest Details screen.
• Players can prioritize the quests that appear in Featured Quest categories by tracking them in the Quest Log.
• A number of activities were pushing a New Adventures Available announcement to the HUD when they became available, either through progression or after the daily reset. We've reworked this system to reduce the frequency of that particular announcement's appearance and, moving forward, enable us to more readily provide specific announcements starting with a New Legend Lost Sector Available announcement when new Legend or Master Lost Sectors become available.
• Fixed an issue that caused certain background details and colors to not be visible on some destination maps when navigating between Director tabs.
• Fixed an issue with the Memorialized emblem in which it didn't slot raid and dungeon trackers.
• Fixed an issue in which the Total Triumph Score was not accurate.
• Players can now interact with past Seasonal Artifact Lore tabs.
• Fixed an issue in which the Commendation Score, Guardian name, and icon were not visible in some instances in the Commendations screen within the Journey screen.

Vendors

Special Deliveries Kiosk

Promotional rewards that were previously claimable from Amanda Holliday and Master Rahool will now be delivered to and claimable at the Special Deliveries Kiosk in The Tower, starting with the Destiny 2 Season of the Witch. It is located between Master Rahool and Banshee-44.

Examples of items moving include Prime Drops, Secret Stash rewards, pre-order items, and Annual Pass/Collector’s Edition rewards, among others. Apart from this major addition, here are all the other changes that will be going live in Destiny 2 Season of the Witch.

• Fixed an issue where preorder rewards for Forsaken and Lightfall were not delivered to Shaw Han.
• Non-Seasonal vendor engrams are once again cleared at the end of each Season in Destiny 2. Seasonal vendor engrams remain for the entire year.
• Focused engram previews now show items at the same power they focus at.
• For engram focusing that requires a specific yearly expansion to utilize (Exotic decryption on Rahool, for example), the warning message telling you about the entitlement requirement (if you don't have it) should come before any other warning message on the decryption item.
• Focusable Exotic engrams on Rahool now have previews that show all armor pieces your class could receive from that engram or what pieces you need to acquire before you can focus it!
• Previews for Legendary armor focusing now show custom armor perks if the armor has one.
• Updated Light 3.0 ability tooltip error message in subclass screen to indicate if meditation is necessary.
• The Talk to Shaxx objective message is no longer triggered (that Shaxx interaction was previously removed).
• Fixed an issue where Ikora was saying an incorrect line for purchasing a Fragment if a player hasn’t unlocked Aspects for that subclass.
• Stasis acquisition on the Exo Stranger has been converted to the new vendor subclass system. Quest rewards that were previously granted Stasis currency have had their rewards changed.
• A Destiny 2 engram tracker can now be recovered from the Sonar Station (in addition to other vendors, such as the War Table) once deleted.

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That concludes our foray into Destiny 2 Season of the Witch update 7.2.0.1.