This week ushered in the scheduled Destiny 2 mid-season update bringing changes to Exotic armor pieces such as Antaeus Wards and Young Ahamkara’s Spine, weapons, and fixes for several known bugs. However, players came across leaked previews of upcoming Exotic armor perk changes from Bungie’s API.
The Destiny 2 Team account tweeted that these were unintended previews and added that there are more changes on the way for all classes, which it will soon share with players. "While the descriptions of some of the Exotic armor were updated, they will still function as they did with the 7.2.5 update until [Season 23] begins," Bungie said. In the thread, it clarified that only the Young Ahamkara’s Spine and Antaeus Wards Exotics will function differently and match their updated descriptions since those were intentionally updated in the mid-season patch.
If you’re curious to know what the upcoming changes are, here’s a list of changes to Exotic armor pieces that have leaked, and these were compiled from Reddit and the Exotic perks descriptions under each armor piece on Light.gg:
- Synthoceps: When you're surrounded, gain increased melee and Super damage, as well as improved weapon handling and reload speed.
- Karnstein Armlets: Melee and finisher final blows instantly grant cure and provide restoration for a short duration.
- Mechaneer’s Tricksleeves: Increases Sidearm airborne effectiveness, ready speed, and reload speed. While you're critically wounded, swapping to a Sidearm reloads it and increases its damage. While this effect is active, Sidearm final blows reload the weapon and extend the effect's duration.
- ST0MP-EE5: Increases sprint speed and slide distance, and improves High Jump, Strafe Jump, and Triple Jump. Take less damage from combatants when airborne.
- Shards of Galanor: Throwing Knife final blows decrease the cooldown of your Super. Hits and final blows with Blade Barrage will return Super energy after the Super ends.
- Celestial Nighthawk: Precision final blows reduce the cooldown of your Super. Modifies Golden Gun to fire a single, high-damage shot. Targets eliminated by the shot give you Super energy and explode.
As for the changes themselves, they all seem great. It looks like ST0MP-EE5 will have their nerf reversed and granted some extra damage resistance to boot. Synthoceps get a neutral game buff that synergizes well with its Exotic trait, Biotic Enhancements, which activate when you’re surrounded anyway. Celestial Nighthawk and Shards of Galanor will get more Super energy from precision final blows and knife final blows, and that makes them stronger choices than before. Mechaneer’s Tricksleeves feels like the most interesting change of the bunch as it doubles down on making sidearms stronger while also giving them added ease of use.
