Highlights
- Destiny 2 Game Director Joe Blackburn's State of the Game blog post reveals exciting updates for Crucible fans, including a new Vex-Network inspired map called Multiplex and a brand new party-style mode called Relic.
- The Relic mode is a 6v6 activity where players use specialized weapons to earn points, including the Aegis from Vault of Glass, the Synaptic Spear from Season of the Risen, and the Scythe from Season of the Haunted.
- A new Crucible Labs playlist modifier called Checkmate will be introduced in Season 22, emphasizing primary weapons, increasing player health, lengthening ability cooldowns, and making special ammo earned through gameplay. Bungie hopes this will promote longer, skillful combat encounters.
In a new State of the Game blog post, Destiny 2 Game Director Joe Blackburn give fans welcome news regarding an incoming content infusion to the Crucible. Although Destiny 2 is a live service title that is always bringing in new seasonal content and making constant updates to the experience, fans have continually felt that some activities and game modes have been essentially left for dead. Both Gambit and the Crucible have been two areas of the game that Destiny 2 players have wanted Bungie to address in some way, at the very least with new types of content and maps.
With Bungie's August Showcase just a couple weeks away, where answers to both The Final Shape and Season 22 are set to be revealed, rumors and teases of potential ritual activity refreshes have started to appear online. In terms of the Crucible, players have gone over a year since the last map was added inside of Savathun's Throne World, without much other content to go on since. Thankfully, that all is getting ready to change as the Destiny 2 State of the Game blog for August 2023 has given fans a very clear outline of new content right around the corner.
Written by Destiny 2 Game Director Joe Blackburn, the latest State of the Game touches on all aspects of the game including ritual activities, content previews, behind the scenes talk, and more. However, Crucible fans got a large portion of the blog dedicated to them including the reveal that a new Vex-Network inspired map called Multiplex is coming to the Crucible in Season 22. Blackburn also went on to confirm that a brand new, party style mode, named Relic is also on the way in August which is a 6v6 activity where players use specialized weapons to earn points. Weapons include the Aegis from Vault of Glass, the Synaptic Spear from Season of the Risen, and the Scythe from Season of the Haunted. Players first charge the relics by using their normal loadout, and then using the relic to defeat opponents to earn a point.
Alongside the map and Relic mode, a new Destiny 2 modifier called Checkmate is going to be added into the Crucible Labs playlist starting in Season 22 Week 5 until it is removed during Week 10. The modifier puts an emphasis on primary weapons by increasing player health, lengthening ability cooldowns, and making special ammo earned through gameplay instead of on player death. Bungie is hoping this modifier leads to longer combat encounters that are more about skill and consistency rather than relying on Guardian powers.
The news should provide a bright spot to Crucible fans who have been frustrated by the lack of consistent content updates for this side of Destiny 2. Blackburn admitted that Bungie's current structure is more focused on overarching updates rather than specific content like map design. So when resources are used to develop new maps, there is a tradeoff that has to happen, typically taking team bandwidth away from other activities like story moments or the unique Destiny 2 exotic missions. Bringing back legacy maps also isn't as easy as it may seem as the content needs to be ported and tested to ensure that'll even work with Destiny 2's multiple game modes and newer play styles that continue to develop and change.
Destiny 2 is available for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
Source: Bungie
