Highlights

  • Bungie is addressing player complaints in Destiny 2's Crucible mode by overhauling the Checkmate modifier and moving it to the Labs section for testing and feedback.
  • Primary weapons and special ammo are receiving significant changes, including adjusted time to kill rates and special ammo availability.
  • Ability cooldown is also being reduced slightly, with these changes expected to launch with the January 9 weekly reset.

Bungie teases upcoming changes to Destiny 2's Crucible modifier Checkmate being overhauled and placed back into the Labs node, while primary weapons and special ammo also receive big changes. As a live-service title, constant updates and changes are nothing new for players, as Bungie's popular shooter traditionally received smaller tweaks between the larger updates at the beginning and in the middle of its seasons. In fact, Bungie has already started to tease an upcoming mid-season Destiny 2 patch that includes a highly anticipated fix to a frustrating Restoration bug.

The Crucible has been a pain point for many players in the community for a while, with a lack of meaningful updates and new content for the past few years. Thankfully, Crucible fortunes have seemingly shifted after Game Director Joe Blackburn announced the creation of a dedicated PvP Strike Team in 2023, tasked with fixing and keeping the mode updated. With the promise of new content on the horizon, the Destiny 2 PvP Strike team has been keeping busy with new updates, and even tweaking things that aren't working, like removing the new Iron Banner Tribute mode after poor player reception. On a similar note, it seems Bungie is again responding to fans who are less than enthused by a newer game mode.

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In a thread on Twitter, Bungie laid out more plans to fix Checkmate for Destiny 2 players after less than favorable feedback. Starting with the Weekly Reset for January 9, Bungie is moving Checkmate back to the Labs section of the Crucible, a location the studio uses to essentially test new ideas and gather feedback from players. A modified version of 3v3 Clash will be replacing Checkmate at this week's reset, inspired by the original Destiny's Skirmish mode. The big reason for removing it from the normal rotation is due to the amount of tweaks being made, ranging from primary weapon time to kill, ability cooldowns, as well as special ammunition availability.

What is Changing with Checkmate?

Bungie is planning a more comprehensive patch notes release alongside the Weekly Reset, but the thread did highlight a few of the bigger changes being made to Checkmate. Primary weapon Time To Kill rates are being adjusted similarly to Hand Cannons in the base sandbox, and players will now be starting matches with two kills worth of special ammo. Special Ammo credit for assists and death is getting an increase as well as the availability of ammo crates, though to prevent snowballing, Bungie is reducing the amount of special ammo gained.

Finally, Bungie has confirmed that the uptime of abilities are being reduced, going from 30% to just 15% and melee damage is getting a boost so that kills only take 2 hits. While Destiny 2's Checkmate modifier intentionally places the focus on weapon combat, Bungie admitted that the current level of colldowns made some abilities feel impractical to use in Checkmate, so these changes should alleviate that issue.

While Checkmate is getting some big changes, fans have been pushing Bungie to outright remove another frustrating modifier from the base game. Recently, Destiny 2 players have been rallying against Togetherness, a modifier which limits player healing unless they stay close with their teammates. Many players feel it adds an unnecessary level of challenge, which can make some PvE activities even more frustrating and less fun. Others indicated that they're unlikely to even participate in an activity if they see the Togetherness modifier active. Thankfully, Bungie has heard the feedback and is also preparing to remove the modifier from The Coil, at the very least.