Build crafting in "Destiny 2" can be a complex beast, especially after this year's major reworking of subclasses. While simply equipping exotic armor that complements elements of your chosen subclass can go a long way, the real depth lies in fleshing out your setup with armor mods. The Coldsnap grenade in the Abilities submenu has a 2 minute cooldown; Shadebinder with Osmiomancy Gloves, Glacial Harvest aspect, Firepower, Elemental Charge, With a basic Charged with Light mod setup with Elemental Shards, you will literally never run out of frozen 'nades.

The problem with that depth, at least until now, is that you had to actually own the mods needed for the best versions of each build. If you've been playing since launch, as I have, this is probably not a problem. I have 18 different builds of Warlock alone and have had a great time. But for new players, the process of getting combat mods has been a historic pain. Players can only get mods from a vendor in a tower called Ada-1, who randomly selects four per day from a pool of hundreds to sell. If the desired loadout depends on a particular mod, it can take months before it is available; according to Destiny Insights, for example, Ada last stocked "Bountiful Wells" (a very useful elemental well mod) on November 2022 It was on November 15, 2022. It was the fifth time she sold it.

Fortunately, as announced last night in a tweet from the Destiny 2 account, today everything changes.

As for what "standard" means in this case, Bungie clarified that it applies to all mods except those unlocked by raids and seasonal artifacts. This makes sense since these two mods can be acquired through different means. Raid mods can drop from raid chests and apply effects specific to that raid. And seasonal artifact mods are part of each season's level-up cycle and are unlocked by earning XP.

It is important to note here that all combat style mods are unlocked. This includes mods such as Charged with Light, Elemental Well, and Warmind Cell. Whatever the build, there is always a way to incorporate these to make it better. In short, these changes instantly unlock the most advanced aspects of Destiny 2's build crafting for everyone, regardless of their playing history.

Currently, there is no information on weapon mods--although this pool is much smaller and much easier to acquire. It is also not clear exactly what the "big changes coming to buildcraft in Lightfall" will actually be. We do know that there will be an in-game loadout system, which will hopefully take some of the pressure off the API that struggled in previous seasons. How flexible that system will be, and what other changes are planned regarding build crafting, will no doubt be explained in the next This Week at Bungie post.

I think the line "We want to give everyone a chance to enjoy all mods as they are" (emphasis added) may be quite on target. Warmind Cells in particular seems like a confusing legacy system that really doesn't make sense in the current game. In fact, they were originally a deprecated design, to be attached to specific armor slots. But that never happened: the sunset was cancelled and the thematic combat style armor slots were replaced with universal ones because they were originally too restrictive and confusing.

Instead, there is now a whole category of mods that only work when combined with certain guns - the Seventh Seraph and Ikeros weapons. In the current season, these two weapons have been restored, but Warmind Cells remained untouched. I suspect that the Buildcraft update will be a hard look at how impenetrable these mods are to new players.

Bungie announced in a tweet thread that they have a few other changes planned to ease the pain for players. First, starting next week, the focus cost of weapons will be lowered. This is a way to turn rewards earned from vendor rank-ups into specific guns, perfect for chasing god rolls. The downside is that it's an expensive gamble. Last week's Iron Banner charged 100 Legendary Shards for each weapon. If you have 22,000 shards like I do, that's not a problem, but for many it's an exorbitant price.

Starting next week, however, the prices of the Trial of Osiris, Iron Banner, Crucible, and Gambit Focus will be reduced to 25 Legendary Shards and 50 for the Adept weapon. This feels like half of a good change. While it is good that prices are going down, the game still needs a better source for acquiring them. Currently, they flow in at a slow rate for everything, but those who need to farm them quickly will have a hard time.

There is also a note that the next update will make the power cap and structure of the Grandmaster's Nightfall more approachable. This detail was teased in Thursday's TWaB, but one can infer much from the fact that this season Bungie is experimenting more with combat modifiers that limit power levels, regardless of actual power levels. The new season activity Heist Battlegrounds includes a modifier that locks enemies 5 points above their current power, which is largely regarded as a way to make the new elements feel more challenging and exciting. Frankly, the power level grind is my least favorite part of each season, so it feels good to see more sensible balancing while still maintaining a challenging spirit.

We are just over a month away from Lightfall, which will bring both an in-game loadout and a new Guardian Rank system designed to guide players more naturally through the complexities of the game. With the addition of new in-game LFG tools planned for later this year, there is no doubt that there will be significant changes in the coming months. In the coming weeks, some of these systems will be described in more detail.