Primary, Special, and Heavy
One of the biggest changes coming to Destiny 2 is the new weapon slot system. It’s being deployed a week ahead of the September 4th release of the Forsaken expansion through the Destiny 2 2.0 update. So we have a week to get accustomed to the new slots before our new arsenal arrives in grand fashion.
To understand the benefits of the new weapon system, we have to travel back to before the release of Destiny 1. In a Bungie ViDoc leading up to the game’s release, primary weapons were described as the reliable everyday weapon. They are easy to wield, do consistent damage, and have deep ammo reserves. The special weapons were designed to be the tactical option. Shotguns for up close, sniper rifles for distance, and fusion rifles for mid-range. Unlike primaries, specials also have elemental properties which will help remove combatant shields much faster. Heavy weapons are the big-hitters, designed to inflict the most amount of damage over the shortest period of time. They are your expressions of power.
You may have already picked up on what the new Destiny 2 weapon system was hoping to maintain, and why the new system is the perfection of that system. Special weapons in Destiny 1 were wearing 2 hats. Tactical and elemental. Destiny 2 was hoping to separate elemental properties from your tactical choice. They just chose the wrong side of the spectrum. They chose to double up on primary weapons, splitting them into kinetic and energy. Then they grouped special weapons in with heavy weapons to form the new power weapon slot. This allowed you the “freedom” of having a primary weapon for consistent damage, while allowing you to deliver consistent elemental damage when needed. However this crowded the power slot, and made you have less choice over which of your powerful weapons you wanted to use. The changes made to the weapon slots for the launch of Destiny 2 was one of the largest criticisms the game faced.
No Longer a Slip of The Tongue
The new weapon system includes moving shotguns, sniper rifles, and fusion rifles into the Kinetic/Energy weapon pools. This means that you can once again equip a shotgun in your energy slot, and still carry a rocket launcher in your power slot. I have a full breakdown of how the new slots in a recent video, but for reference, here are a few visuals I threw together to better illustrate the changes.
In simple terms, they’re improving both weapon systems from Destiny 1 and 2, by making the slots completely separate from ammo types, and having ammo matched to weapon types instead. The slots will remain kinetic, energy, and power, but now we have the return of some terms from Destiny 1 that veteran players like myself can’t help but continue to use.
The ammo types are now primary (white ammo bricks), special (green), and heavy (purple). The only exception is power and heavy, those are still locked-in to each other, but now you would say something like “I need some heavy ammo for my power weapon” and it won’t be a slip of the tongue. Otherwise, a shotgun will now take special (green) ammo bricks regardless of it being in the kinetic or energy slots. The new bow & arrow is considered primary, so it will always take primary (white) bricks, even if it’s in the energy slot.
This also means that current weapons will see some shuffling after the update lands. A good example is with “Hawnthorne’s Field-Forged Shotgun”. This weapon is currently assigned to the power weapon slot, because shotguns are currently power weapons. After 2.0, “Hawthorne’s” will be a kinetic special weapon. This means that it will fall in your kinetic pool of weapons and require green ammo bricks. The question remains whether or not this was a good move to make.
Tactical Versatility
Needing to remove an enemy’s shield isn’t the same as them being far away. Obviously. You could have a shielded knight in your face, yet your option for removing its shield is to pull out your sniper. This is clearly not an optimal situation, and illustrates how Destiny 1’s weapon system wasn’t the best, it just simply allowed for greater expressions of power, so it feels superior to Destiny 2’s system. Having 2 primary weapons mans you have less potential DPS, so you feel weaker. However maximum potential DPS isn’t important when you’re dealing with a fast-paced action shooter that throws you into several different tactical situations within a short window of time.
The weapon system coming in 2.0 separates your tactical and elemental considerations in the most elegant way possible with a 3-slot weapon system. You can choose a kinetic shotgun, placed to clear tougher enemies, and maintain something like an energy hand cannon, which will help remove shields without feeling like you’re wasting ammo that isn’t needed.
The potential for the new system makes you want to dream up possible loadouts (especially during daily commutes). One that I’m anxious to try is a kinetic shotgun, elemental bow, and rocket launcher. The bow looks incredible, and the shotgun feels like it would be a good safeguard in the case where enemies sneak up on you. The good news is that the new weapon system will be playable as of August 28th, a week before Forsaken’s launch.
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