Destiny’s rewards are changing with next week’s Light increase, here’s how

Destiny developer Bungie will raise the game’s Light cap next week when it introduces the hard mode of Destiny: Rise of Iron’s raid, and with that increase will come a corresponding rise in the Light limit on rewards, the studio announced today.

The Heroic difficulty for Wrath of the Machine, the new raid, will go live next Tuesday, Oct. 18. The patch that brings in the new challenge, update 2.4.1, will be released at approximately 10 a.m. PT that day. In order give raid teams a fair shot at downloading the update and attacking Heroic mode, the new difficulty level won’t go live until 2 p.m. PT.

As previously announced, the patch will raise Destiny’s maximum Light level from 385 — which is what it has been since Rise of Iron launched three and a half weeks ago — to 400.

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Accordingly, the maximum Light on rewards from strike chests, Nightfall strikes, exotic engrams, Crucible matches, Trials of Osiris rounds and Iron Banner games will also go up to 400. Archon’s Forge events, legendary engrams and the Heroic SIVA strike playlist will provide rewards at up to 385 Light. Rewards from Rare engrams and the SIVA strike playlist will drop at up to 365 Light.

"For players forging their path through Wrath of the Machine, Trials of Osiris, and Iron Banner, these activities will now attempt to reward higher Light on average, compared to your current Light," said senior designer Victoria Dollbaum.

Dollbaum noted that the recommended Light level isn’t changing for any activities save the Nightfall, where it’s rising from 360 to 380. And with update 2.4.1, anybody who’s looking to get raid-ready "should find more paths and options available to them to reach the recommended Light." (The suggested level for Wrath of the Machine’s normal mode is 370 Light.)

Bungie is also tweaking the frequency of reward drops with update 2.4.1. Artifacts and ghost shells will be potential drops upon completing Archon’s Forge, and they’ll drop at up to 400 Light. Faction packages will be more likely to give you ghosts, and specifically, Crota’s Bane reputation packages will have a higher chance of dropping artifacts.

For more on Destiny: Rise of Iron, read our review.

Update (Oct. 18): Update 2.4.1 and the Heroic difficulty for Wrath of the Machine are now live, and Bungie posted the full patch notes on its website.

One interesting item in the patch notes is that Bungie may be preparing Destiny for the return of Festival of the Lost, last year's Halloween event. Today's update removes a bunch of items from 2015 events, including crumpled Festival of the Lost masks and rare-quality Sparrow Racing League horns. However, Guardians can now reclaim their masks from a new Holiday Collection, and the Sparrow Collection now offers legendary horns.