During a livestream on August 14, Bungie revealed several new details about the Destiny 2 armor customization changes coming in the Destiny 2: Shadowkeep DLC expansion, including new mod types, the energy system, and more. Bungie’s “armor 2.0” system will come into play once Shadowkeep launches on its October release date, but players who complete challenges in the current Destiny 2: Solstice of Heroes event will be able to get their first set of 2.0-type armor. Read this guide for a full breakdown of everything revealed in the Destiny 2 armor customization preview stream.
Destiny 2: Shadowkeep armor customization | Intellect, Discipline, and Strength
Armor 2.0 sees the return of the Intellect, Discipline, and Strength stats from the first Destiny. In keeping with Shadowkeep’s apparent new emphasis on MMO-like features, these stats bring the total number of stats players will be able to manage up to six, joining Destiny 2’s existing Mobility, Resilience, and Recovery stats. Here’s a breakdown of what each stat does:
- Intellect: Decreases the cooldown of your super ability
- Discipline: Decreases the cooldown time of your grenades
- Strength: Decreases the cooldown of your Super ability
- Mobility: Increases your movement speed and maximum jump height
- Resilience: Increases the amount of damage you can take before dying
- Recovery: Increases the speed at which you regain lost health
Each of these stats will have value ranges from 0 to 100, unlocked in 10-point-increment tiers. For example, if a player’s armor has 30 Strength, they will be in the third tier of that ability, giving them a melee ability cooldown of 1:22. If they have anywhere from 31 to 39 Strength, they will still be in that same tier, meaning they’ll still have the 1:22 cooldown. In order to gain a shorter cooldown, the player will have to increase their Strength to at least 40 points.
Except for class items, which have no stat values, each armor piece has values for every stat. These are displayed in horizontal bar graphs when hovering your cursor over a piece of armor.
Destiny 2: Shadowkeep armor customization | Armor mods and energy values
Every piece of armor in the armor 2.0 system has an energy type: Arc, Void, or Solar. This determines which type of mods you can equip on a piece of armor. For example, an armor with a Void energy type will allow only Void energy mods and mods with no specific energy type to be equipped.
Each armor piece also has a number from 1 to 10 associated with its energy type. The energy value number functions as a sort of budget for mods: Applying a particular mod will cost anywhere from 1 to 10 energy, so you’ll have to make sure you’re using that energy value efficiently to get the mods you want. The energy value number can be upgraded by spending a combination of glimmer, legendary shards, and one of the following materials: Enhancement Cores, Enhancement Prisms, and Ascendent Shards. This is also the system now used to Masterwork armor, as upgrading an armor’s energy value to 10 turns it into a Masterwork version of that armor piece. Masterworking an item adds +2 points to each of a player’s stats.
Mods are split into the general and armor-specific categories. Each armor piece shown in the livestream had one general mod slot and two armor-specific mod slots. General mods (which are mostly stat and resistance increases) can be equipped on any piece of armor (assuming they are compatible with that armor’s energy type), and armor-specific mods can only be equipped on specific pieces of armor (i.e. arm, leg, chest, head, class item). Each type of armor has particular mods associated with it, similar to Destiny 2’s previous perk roll system. For example, leg armors have most of the mobility and ammo scavenging mods, while chest armors have most of the ammo capacity and unflinching mods.
Mods in the armor 2.0 system are no longer consumable, so once you unlock a mod, you have access to it for good. This decision was made to increase the ability for players to experiment with different playstyles, as now you won’t lose a mod just because you didn’t like the way it worked with a particular build. It also allows for the same general mod to be freely equipped to each piece of armor. Perks from some general-type mods will stack when they’re applied to multiple armor types, so if a player equips a Discipline-enhancing mod to all five of their armor pieces, they’ll reduce their grenade cooldown time pretty significantly. You won’t be able to equip two of the same armor-specific mods, though, and the U.I. will let you know any time you’re about to try equipping a mod whose perk conflicts with one you’ve already equipped.
Destiny 2: Shadowkeep armor customization | Armor, mod, and material drops
Players will be able to unlock 2.0 versions of exotic gear they’ve already found in previous Destiny 2 content by going to their collections. These will have fixed stat rolls, but more 2.0 exotics can be found in engrams dropped out in the world. All Legendary armor in the game will drop as 2.0 armor, even from old, non-Shadowkeep activities.
Mods can be purchased from the Gunsmith (directly or via engrams), found in world engrams, or found in Iron Banner, Raid, and other special activity engrams. Mods from the pre-armor 2.0 system will remain in players’ inventories when Shadowkeep drops on October 1. These can still be applied to old armor, but they can also be dismantled for Mod Components, which can be used to purchase new Mods at the Gunsmith.
There will be multiple sources for the materials required to upgrade armors’ energy values. According to Bungie, these include the Nightfall, seasonal progression activities, and more. Bungie will reveal more details about these material sources at Gamescom later this month, but those on stream said the team doesn’t want acquiring materials to be “a famine,” so they’re trying to make sure players are able to get what they need quickly and have fun.
Destiny 2: Shadowkeep armor customization | Additional changes
There was a ton of additional information in the Destiny 2 Shadowkeep armor reveal that doesn’t fit neatly into any of the prior sections, so we’ve listed everything else briefly below:
- While Bungie said players can continue to use old armor in Shadowkeep, it’s not clear if these old armor pieces will receive the three new stats. This seems unlikely, either way.
- Players’ equipped sparrows and ghosts will now be displayed behind their character in the equipment menu, allowing others to see them when inspecting.
- The glimmer currency cap has been increased to 250,000.
- The bottom trees of the Void subclasses has been buffed. In addition to the Shadowshot Super now doing more damage (especially in PvP), the Hunter Nightstalker tree now contains the following perks, giving the subclass synergy between the Smoke Bomb and grenade abilities:
- Lockdown: Grenade effects last twice as long, allowing for strong territorial control and increased damage potential.
- Vanish in Smoke: Throw a Smoke Bomb from a distance, making you and nearby allies invisible and providing the Heart of the Pack buff. Heart of the Pack grants weapon haste and increases mobility, recovery, and resilience for you and nearby allies.
- Combat Precision: Damaging enemies with grenades grants melee ability energy. Making allies invisible grants grenade energy.
- Moebius Quiver: Fire Shadowshot multiple times in rapid succession. Shadowshot deals massive damage against tethered enemies. Defeating tethered enemies creates orbs of light and grands nearby allies the Heart of the Pack buff.
- Additionally, the Titan’s Ward of Dawn bubble super now grants Weapons of Light by default.
- Armor shaders and ornaments (including the newly introduced universal ornaments) are now displayed in a separate tab, accessed by pressing down on the directional pad when viewing a piece of armor.
- (Shaders are still consumable items.)
- Glows from the Solstice of Heroes event can still be applied to Solstice 2.0 armor.
- Mods inserted into armor pieces appear below that armor’s stats when hovering over them with your cursor.
- Holding down the left trigger when hovering over a piece of armor shows the full details of each Mod perk.
- The indicator above players’ heads now shows their class, not their level, next to their names.
For more on Destiny 2’s upcoming Shadowkeep expansion, head to our Destiny 2 hub. You can watch the full archived Bungie armor customization livestream below.
