Highlights
- Destiny 2's Season 23 will introduce major changes to auto rifles, including a 10% increase in PvE damage on red-bar enemies.
- There are hints that auto rifles may soon have access to Special or Heavy ammo, potentially changing their impact and slot in the game.
- It is speculated that Season 23 may introduce a new auto rifle archetype that uses Special or Heavy ammo, or that underwhelming guns like Cerberus+1 will receive a rework with a different ammo type.
Destiny 2's Season of the Witch is still going strong even after the story finale thanks to the revamped Festival of the Lost event, and Season 23 is going to launch in just a bit over a month. With Season 23 paving the way for The Final Shape in Destiny 2, players can not only expect a main quest and narrative that ties into the big events of Year 6, but also plenty of major changes to the game's systems, weapons, and Exotics. There are several planned tweaks Bungie is making with the final season of the Lightfall era, but a recent post about fine-tuning weapons in Season 23 teases a big auto rifle change.
Auto rifles have been in a good spot for a while now, to the point that Destiny 2's Ammit AR2 had to be nerfed due to how good it was in the Crucible, but still, Bungie is upping the PvE damage on red-bar enemies by 10%. This makes sense because it allows players to use auto rifles more reliably even in endgame content, something that is not always feasible outside of add-clearing roles. However, what is likely to turn some heads is the hint that this weapon type might get Special ammo soon.
Why Destiny 2's Auto Rifles Getting Special or Heavy Ammo is a Big Deal
This week's Dev Insights post about weapons in Season 23 discussed all the changes coming for every gun family, breaking them down and explaining why they are needed now and what players can expect in the future. When it came to auto rifles, the post mentioned that they all use Primary ammo in Destiny 2, adding a note saying "for now," hinting at something that may be coming with Season 23 itself. This has a lot of potential, changing its impact based on what Bungie is planning on doing with the weapon archetype in future releases.
For example, Destiny 2's Season Pass weapon for Season 23 could be a Special or even Heavy ammo auto rifle, meaning it's just one Exotic switching its ammo type and possibly its slot to fit the theme of the season and to fill a different niche within the game. This is not the only option, however, and there's also the chance that Bungie is making a new auto rifle archetype that specifically uses Special or Heavy ammo, and then multiple weapons with that archetype will be made and released, be it Exotics or Legendaries.
There's also the chance that underwhelming guns like Destiny 2's Cerberus+1 will get a major rework, eventually gaining a different ammo type that matches their new capabilities and perks. This would make sense for auto rifles like Hard Light, where a potential buff would be to make it not only rotate between all the elements, but also make it so each element has its own iconic perks added to the gun, such as Incandescent for Solar or Headstone for Stasis. The trade-off would be that it's no longer a Primary ammo gun, but rather its ammo is more limited and it should be used with discretion.
Overall, while Bungie was just teasing something that may be coming with Season 23 in Destiny 2, or even much later than that, there are many possibilities for auto rifles using different ammo types. Even one-off Exotics using Special or Heavy ammo could later inspire a whole weapon archetype like them, although it does remain speculation at this point. Weapons like Eriana's Vow or Winterbite are unique precisely because of their perks and ammo switch-ups, and they've never had follow-up guns sharing those characteristics thus far. Still, players should keep an eye on Season 23's Exotic weapons, as those are the most likely candidates for this treatment.
Destiny 2 is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
