Highlights

  • Sunset weapons returning in Destiny 2 with updated perks will make all weapons potentially viable in endgame content.
  • Destiny 2's new Power Level adjustments will allow teammates to boost each other's Power Level within activities.
  • Reversing weapon sunsetting in Destiny 2 aims to improve the new player experience and offer more buildcrafting opportunities.

Sometime throughout The Final Shape DLC, weapons that were previously powercrept, or “sunset,” will be coming back to Destiny 2. Ultimately, the good to come from Destiny 2 reversing weapon sunsetting arguably outweighs the bad, though there are still some valid concerns to be had.

This is all happening because Destiny 2 will be adjusting how the players’ Power Levels function in The Final Shape DLC. In this new era of Destiny 2, players who are using weapons and armor that aren’t at the max Power Level can have their Power Level boosted by other teammates within an activity. This comes as an ongoing effort from Destiny 2 to improve the new player experience, specifically by removing some of the entry barriers of endgame content.

Destiny 2 Guardians fighting in Midtown during Onslaught
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Destiny 2 Reversing Weapon Sunsetting is for the Greater Good

Pros:

  • Sunset weapons will be available from new sources for both new and longtime players to acquire
  • Sunset weapons will receive updated perk pools, notably including Origin perks
  • Any weapon in Destiny 2 will potentially be viable in endgame content

Cons:

  • Reintroducing previously sunset weapons with updated perks will devalue any original sunset weapons that longtime players have collected
  • Reintroducing previously sunset weapons naturally means that old weapons will be recycled

Destiny 2 is Bringing Old Guns Back with a Twist

One of the biggest advantages coming out of Destiny 2 reversing weapon sunsetting is that when these familiar weapons return, they will have updated perk pools. When Destiny 2 first launched, weapon perk rolls were static instead of random, so there was little to no incentive for players to grind for multiple drops of a single weapon, because the weapon would always be the same. In the handful of years since then, Destiny 2 has introduced several new layers of RNG that affect weapons, such as randomized perks, randomized attachments, Origin perks, and stat Masterworks, all of which incentivize players to grind for god roll weapons in Destiny 2.

“Sunset” or Legacy items are weapons in Destiny 2 that have restrictions on their Power Level, static perk rolls, or both.

However, sunset weapons receiving updated perk pools will be a bittersweet change. On the one hand, most of the perks and attachments on these weapons are generally outdated or have already been discontinued since they no longer fit in the game’s current sandbox. On the other hand, updating all of these old weapons will likely lead to another controversy in Destiny 2, similar to the controversy over the Brave Arsenal weapons that were recently introduced in the Into The Light update.

Destiny 2’s Sunset Weapons are Brave Arsenal Weapons All Over Again

The Brave Arsenal weapons in Destiny 2 are updated versions of existing weapons, with new perk rolls and appearances. Most of the original versions of these weapons were only obtainable from endgame PvE or competitive PvP game modes.

So, with the Brave Arsenal counterparts of these weapons having updated perks and being easier to obtain, they debatably undermine the original versions of these weapons. In the same sense, when weapons that were previously sunset return to the game with randomized and updated perk rolls, these will inevitably replace most—if not all—of the original sunset weapons that longtime players have managed to collect.

Players can retrieve certain sunset weapons that they have previously obtained from their collections, should they choose to utilize the original sunset weapons instead of their updated version.

Ultimately, reversing weapon sunsetting this late into the game’s lifecycle was always going to be met with some criticism from the game’s community, but overall it will be a step in the right direction for improving the new player experience in Destiny 2. Not to mention, it will also open up new buildcrafting opportunities by making a significant amount of weapons once again viable in endgame content, even if it means recycling old weapons.