Destiny Weapon Tuning Takes Aim at Gjallarhorn, Thorn, and Other Exotics, Huge Changes for All Types

Bungie is prepping another major round of weapon tuning for Destiny, this time focusing in on a couple of things that the community has brought to their attention. These include nerfing some of the more powerful weapons, such as Gjallarhorn and Thorn, and making some base changes to each weapon type, to bring it in line with their overall purpose within Destiny. All of these changes are coming in the 2.0 update coming later this year.

To see the changes being made to specific exotic weapons click here. The general theme is taking the ultra-powerful weapons that everyone is using and nerfing them a little bit to bring them in line with other weapons of the same type. Check out the changes the base weapon types below:

Auto-Rifle – Increase base damage, start damage falloff closer to the player to emphasize its role as a close to medium range weapon, small reduction in base stability, landing shots at optimal range is unaffected, but repeated precision hits require more weapon control to land consistently, boost damage by 10% against AI combatants

Pulse Rifles – Reduce base damage of the medium RoF by about 2.5%, PVP: Bursts-to-kill (all precision hits) is 2 or 3, depending on victim’s Armor stat, small reduction in base stability, a burst should still land all shots at optimal range, but three precision hits will require more weapon control to land consistently, increase magazine size on for all base inventory stats

Scout Rifles – Increase base damage for medium to high Rate of Fire Scout Rifles, PVP: Does not affect TTK in PVP on a Guardian with full health, increase magazine size for all base inventory stats, reduce Final Accuracy when firing from hip, fast firing outside of ADS will be less accurate, boost damage by 5% against AI combatants

Hand Cannons – Start damage falloff closer to the player to limit long range lethality, small reduction in ADS accuracy, targeted at making long range snap-shooting less reliable, reduce final accuracy when firing from hip, fast firing from hip is less reliable, reduce magazine size for all base inventory stats, reduce base Optics (zoom) for all Hand Cannons, ADS now grants more width in favor of depth

Shotguns – Shotgun perks that enhance lethality at range should be less effective when combined with a high initial Range stat: Reduce Shot Package Accuracy buff by 30%, Rangefinder adds a 5% base Range increase on ADS (was 20%). Reduce Precision Damage multiplier on Shotguns by 10%, reduce damage against AI combatants by 10%

Fusion Rifles – Slow charging, high Impact Fusion Rifles have decreased Range values, makes it more difficult to max out Range for these weapons, projectile Speed for Fusion Rifles is slightly reduced, emphasizes the need to lead a targets outside medium range, improve Accuracy for short range Fusion Rifles, reduce Accuracy for long range Fusion Rifles

Sniper Rifles – Final Round on Sniper Rifles buffs precision damage only, not base damage, this change only affects this perk when combined with Sniper Rifles

Rocket Launchers – Slight increase in base Blast Radius. Grenades and Horseshoes proximity detonation reduced.