Changes coming to Gambit in Destiny 2: The Witch Queen

Bungie has released the last This Week At Bungie before The Witch Queen releases next week, and it was entirely focused on Gambit. Gambit has been a point of contention for players of Destiny 2, and while most everyone agrees the concept is interesting, its execution fails to meet the mark. Luckily, Bungie has made some pretty significant tweaks to the game mode. Here are all of the changes coming to Gambit in Destiny 2: The Witch Queen.

Bungie has acknowledged that Gambit no longer meets the original goals for it. So they decided to take a step back and look at what they could do to realign the game mode to where it needed to be. They have outlined the upcoming changes into five categories: Core Activity, Ammo Economy, Primeval Tuning, Invasions, and Rewards.

Core Activity

These are the changes made to make the game more enjoyable and easier all-around while enhancing teamwork. There are also slight tweaks to Blockers and the Bank to change up some things.

General changes

• Freelance nodes have been added, working the same way they work with Iron banner or Trials of Osiris.
• Encounters will rotate through a curated selection that changes with each season.
• Respawn points have been added to all Fronts, meaning you won't spawn far away from sections of maps where enemies could cycle in or out. 
• Players will now always drop half the Motes they were carrying when defeated compared to all. However, these Motes are dropped and can be picked up by anyone, including allies and invaders.
• Players can now be revived by their teammates two seconds earlier, with auto-respawn being delayed by two seconds. 
• All elemental shields now have increased resistance to non-matching elemental damage types. 
• A Rules of Gambit node has been added to the launch screen, and numerous Gambit-specific hints have been added to the load screen.  

Blockers, Draining, and the Bank

• The 10 Mote Phalanx Blocker had its health boosted a bit to make them tougher. 
• The 15 Mote Knight Blocker now has a Stasis attack. 
• Mote drain from multiple Blockers will continue even if the opposing team is in Primeval phase. 
• The Mote drain is now paused if a player is near the bank and attacking the Blockers.

Related: Eternity and Vostok are returning as Crucible maps in Destiny 2 The Witch Queen

Ammo Economy

The goal of these changes is to create a more predictable and equal pattern for how Special and Heavy ammo is distributed among all players.

• Now a chest containing a small amount of Special and Heavy ammo will spawn in the middle of the Front after you complete it. It can be looted once by each player and times out 20 seconds after the initial interaction.
• Killing a high-value target will spawn one normal Heavy ammo brick for each player. 
• Ammo chests with Special and Heavy ammo will spawn in one of the Fronts every 60 seconds during the Primeval fight.
• Now only a limited amount of Special and Heavy ammo bricks will spawn from normal enemies, but only if you have finder mods equipped.  

Primeval Tuning

Bungie wanted the Primeval Boss fight to feel bigger and longer. They never believed that the current fight lasted long enough and wanted it to be about more than just burning through the boss's health without the enemy team getting a chance to set up a counter-attack. They hope these changes will achieve this.

• Primeval health and Slayer stack bonus have returned. It will still be easier to slay a Primeval after killing three Envoy's but trying to kill it before then will prove much more difficult.
• Envoys will now spawn out in the Fronts instead of the bank area. This makes the Bank area much less hectic.
• Envoys have reduced health but are no longer affected by Slayer stacks. They also are equipped with varied elemental shields. 
• Now Envoys will put an invulnerability shield on Primeval, and they must be killed before the shield will drop. 
• Envoys respawn at 30 percent of the Primeval damage done, which increases by 10 percent each respawn. Envoys will stop spawning after the fifth respawn.
• The Primeval Servitor boss has been removed since it doesnt work with the new mechanics. He Malfeasance quest will now begin n the first Primeval kill.

These changes will lead to faster Mote gathering times, however, the Primeval fight is now longer. Players can expect the matches to remain the same length now.

Related: Changes coming to Destiny 2’s economy in The Witch Queen

Invasions

Invaders currently can decide the game for their team. Bungie is making changes to still allow invaders to delay the other team and turn the tides, but they will no longer be able to decide the outcome simply because they are skilled.

• The level advantage is now disabled for invader PvP, as it has been since Beyond Light. 
• One of the Mote phase invasions has been removed. Invasions now only trigger at 40 and 80 Mote thresholds. 
• Teams can now no longer save up invasions. 
• The invader no longer can see how many Motes each player is carrying, and player nameplates will fade out when the invader is aiming down their sights. 
• Invader kills will now heal the Primeval for exactly 27 percent every time, instead of a varied amount. 

Rewards

Some changes are coming to rewards and Gambit is getting comprehensive engram focusing options, just as Trials of Osiris has.

•  You can focus the Gambit engram into either Gambit Armor or Gambit Weapons for the price of 10,000 Glimmer and 50 Legendary Shards. 
• Gambit Weapons obtainable from engrams include: Crowd Pleaser, Bottom Dollar, Trinary System, Borrowed Time, and Servant Leader. 
• Brand new Gambit weaponswill be drop-only for a single Season, after which they will be made available for focusing. 
• Bygones, Trust, and Bad Omens have been removed from the vendor. 
• There is a chance for a Gambit memento or older Gambit shaders to drop at the end of each match. 
• Primeval Servitor cosmetic drops can now drop at the end of any match since the Primeval Servitor has been removed, as well as The Furtive Shell Ghost Shell. 

So there you have it, those are all of the changes coming to Gambit in Destiny 2; The Witch Queen. It is clear that Bungie has heard the cries of the community and has placed an entirely reworked Gambit into their laps, with promises to watch it closely and tweak it as needed.

For more Destiny guides, check out Who is Immaru in Destiny 2 Witch Queen? right here on Pro Game Guides.