Guardians may have thoughtĀ thatĀ they were privy to everythingĀ The Final ShapeĀ expansion brought toĀ Destiny 2, but it appears Bungie still has a few surprisesĀ up its sleeve.Ā The studio announced that a slate of updates was in store for one of the title’s two PvP events, Iron Banner. While Bungie isn’t rebuilding the mode, some notable alterations will change how players earn loot and interact with Iron BannerĀ altogether.
Iron Banner is one of two PvP events in Destiny 2, alongside the Trials of Osiris. While Iron Banner has seen several iterations and sizable changes, it’s generally the less sweaty of the two, pitting larger teams against each other and not directly penalizing losing. Though the mode has undergone years of evolution, the previous status quo was that Iron Banner lasted for one week two to three times a season, overriding Trials of Osiris’ typical weekend schedule. That’s not quite the case anymore, as the mode will stick around for longer in addition to a few other alterations.
How is Iron Banner changing?
The biggest change for IronĀ Banner is that the event will now last for two weeks instead of one. Bungie revealed this news in a June 27Ā This Week in DestinyĀ communication, saying, “To begin with, Iron Banner will now be a two-week event and the main PvP focus for that time.” This updated timetable is no doubt to give more players the opportunity to engage with the event, given that Episodes have a longer run time than Seasons previously did.
Each week of Iron Banner will focus on a specific iteration of the mode, with no options to change to a different Iron Banner game type. Bungie is putting the focus on one game type at a time as a direct response to Iron Banner’s performance and reception during Lightfall. Bungie said, “In Season 23, we experimented with a system that enabled players to select from either Control or the rotating game mode (Fortress, Eruption, or Tribute) whenever Iron Banner was active. Players being able to choose which game mode they wanted to play was nice to have, but it was a departure from how we had previously handled the modes, and splitting the player base in half had a negative effect on both matchmaking times and match quality.” For the inaugural Iron Banner in The Final Shape, the first week will feature Control, and the second week will feature Tribute.
As is typical for a new expansion, Bungie is adding a few new weapons to the Iron Banner pool. The Crimil’s Dagger hand cannon will see a reworked return alongside the newcomer void fusion rifle Claws of the Wolf. Thankfully, after the Tusk of the Boar grenade launcher, Bungie is adjusting the ease of earning Iron Banner weapons. The studio noted, “Wins now guarantee a random Iron Banner weapon while also having a very high chance to award an Iron Banner engram on top of that. As for defeats, both weapon drops and engrams have a higher drop rate, too.”
Players will still have to earn the weapons through Saladin’s reputation track first, but once available, Iron Banner weapons should appear more frequently. As always, Bungie will monitor the response to these changes. But for now, players have a two-week Iron Banner extravaganza on their hands.
