Let's talk about This Week at Bungie - September 17, 2020

Published September 17, 2020 9:30 PM, by Sam Chandler

We’re coming up on the last few weeks before Destiny 2: Beyond Light finally releases. As part of Bungie’s ongoing feeding of precious information into our mouths and brains, we’re taking a look at some changes coming to Ghosts in Beyond Light, as discussed in the latest TWAB.

This Week at Bungie – September 17, 2020

The biggest takeaway from This Week at Bungie this week is the changes coming to Ghosts with Beyond Light. Players will be pleased to hear Ghosts are no longer going to be used solely as a means to summon a Sparrow or swapped out for the planetary farming you require. Ghosts will now feature a slew of valuable mod slots and energy with which to use them.

Mina Jasinksi, a designer at Bungie, gave players an insight into what they can expect from their Nolan North friend when Beyond Light drops in November. Here are the SparkNotes-like bullet points:

• Ghost Shells will now have energy levels and access to mods with various energy costs instead of being pre-loaded with specific perks.
• This treatment has been applied to all Ghosts outside of the Generalist Shell, so you can use your favorite Ghost Shells, regardless of tier.
• A selection of mods will be available on all Ghost Shells by default, while the remaining ones will be obtainable via various gameplay sources. Information on where to find these mods can be learned from Collections.
• Ghost mods will be obtained from gameplay reward loops and will not be purchasable from Eververse.
• Ghosts now have four mod slots. Three are unlocked by default, and the fourth is unlocked by Masterworking the Ghost Shell.

Each Ghost will now feature four separate mod slots broken up into Experience, Tracking, Economic, and Activity. Players will need to Masterwork a Ghost in order to access the Activity mod slot.

Most of the old Ghost perks have been brought forward with some combining into a single mod. Take, for example, the destination-specific perks. These perks will now be “globally effective” meaning no longer switching out Ghosts if you’re taking a jaunt to the Moon after the EDZ. This change will be reflected in a higher energy cost.

Jasinksi was also quick to get in and settle any minds that were beginning to think of play-to-win possibilities:

You'll be able to select your favorite Ghost Shell based on appearance without any detriment to your experience. Whether you purchase a Ghost Shell from Eververse, earn it from the newest raid or pull an old favorite out of Collections, your Ghost will have access to all the same mods across your account.

The changes to Ghosts will certainly help players hone their builds even further. With this change, it looks like Destiny is finally rediscovering its RPG roots, especially after what we’ve seen in the Stasis subclass reveals (Warlock, Titan, and Hunter).

This Week at Bungie also draws attention to a memorial that will take place in-game. In honor of Matt Helsom, a friend of Bungie’s from Vicarious Visons who passed away last year, there will be a short quest on Mars for players to experience. Players will be able to find a message in the Director that will set them on their way.

There is also some news regarding Destiny 2 coming to Xbox Game Pass. On September 22 at 8:00 a.m. PT, Destiny 2 will make its way to Microsoft’s Netflix-like game service. For the first two hours, players from that service won’t be able to access Forsaken or Shadowkeep until Hotfix 2.9.2.1 goes live at 10:00 a.m. PT.

The Destiny 2 servers will be offline during this window anyway, so it’s not really going to affect many people for long.

Aside from a mention that Triple Infamy will be active next week, that about wraps up the critical information from This Week at Bungie for September 17. You can read all the other bits and piece on the blog and remember to swing by the Shacknews Destiny 2 guide, it’s where we keep our collection of god-roll Destiny 2 content.