10 things to know about Destiny 2: Forsaken’s pre-patch

Destiny 2: Forsaken is only a week away. But today, Bungie released a massive patch to get the game ready for its upcoming expansion. This Forsaken pre-patch includes many of Destiny 2’s various quality of life changes, including the weapon slot changes the studio promised months ago. While no new weapons are dropping yet, players’ old weapons will be moved around, with shotguns, sniper rifles and fusion rifles headed out of the power slot.

This pre-patch adds even more to the game, with buffs to class abilities, exotics and changes to the overall direction. Players can also experience the new Gambit multiplayer mode, which will pit players against both the environment and other enemy guardians, in a free trial that begins on Sept. 1 as part of this patch. Bungie has also announced that some features, like the exotic vault, will be unavailable until Forsaken is released on Sept. 4.

Here are the 10 things you need to know about the Destiny 2: Forsaken pre-patch before you log in. For a complete list of changes, check out Bungie’s official patch notes.

The new weapon slot changes are here

Players can now customize their weapon loadout in a far more diverse way, making it one of the biggest changes to Destiny 2. Shotguns, fusion rifles and sniper rifles are moving from the power slot into the kinetic and energy slot. This changes the weapon economy considerably, but will also give players access to powerful weapons far more frequently.

It’s an exciting change that’s going to affect everything you do in Destiny from now on.

Bungie, High-Moon Studios/Activision

Your mods are moot

With the new weapon system comes a brand new mod system. Sadly, that means all of your existing mods are now garbage, and don’t work anymore. Starting on Sept. 4, every mod in every gun and armor piece — including your elemental mods — are pointless. Delete them, and hold onto their remains. Once Forsaken comes out, you should be able to turn the parts in for new mods.

Prison of Elders enemies are lurking in new locations

One of the more mysterious changes in this pre-patch is the addition of random Prison of Elders enemies — who were bosses from the first Destiny game — roaming the world. While they don’t technically do anything yet, they will start to drop rewards on Sept. 4. Plus, it should give you a new foe to take out with your brand new kinetic shotgun.

Xur is getting more mysterious

Speaking of mysteries, old tentacle-face is getting some changes. We don’t know much about how his inventory may change in Forsaken, but the hunt for Xur is back on. He’ll no longer have a shout out on the map to tell you his location. Players will have to find Xur themselves by playing the game, annoying as that may sound.

A few class exotics are getting buffed

It wouldn’t be a Destiny patch without some exotic updates, and these new ones are pretty dang exciting. Wormhusk Crown is getting nerfed — depending on how you look at it — to be a bit less annoying in PvP. But Celestial Nighthawk is getting a big buff in PvE, and now refunds some Super energy when you kill an enemy with Golden Gun. Skull of Dire Ahamkara refunds more energy for Warlocks and Transversive Steps will now reload your currently equipped weapons as well. For Titans, Helm of Saint-14 will now give an Overshield to players that leave the bubble and Mask of the Quiet One becomes even better when your health gets low.

Class skills are changing

Classes are getting some buffs in the pre-patch to make way for the exciting, new Supers coming up in Forsaken. Different grenade types will see significant buffs to their damage in this patch. Rally Barricade will now feed ammo directly into a player’s magazine while standing behind it — no need to crouch spam. Barricade and Rifts will also display timers to let players know how long they have left inside.

Another weapon balance pass has come

Finally, another weapon sandbox will emerge in this patch. Primary ammo type weapon are getting a few different changes that mostly relate to their precision damage. All precision damage shots will now do more damage, while body shots will do a little less. Special Ammo weapons are going to do less damage across the board since their ammo will be more plentiful. Finally, in the Heavy Ammo category, grenade launchers, linear fusion rifles and swords are all getting buffs ranging from more damage to more ammo.

Bungie, High-Moon Studios/Activision

The Director is getting an update

Planets are moving around, as strange as that sounds. In preparation for Forsaken, all of our activities will be moving around the Director. The Leviathan raid is now in Nessus’ orbit, and the Vanguard, Crucible and Gambit nodes are sitting comfortably at the bottom of the map. There should also be room for the two new destinations — the Tangled Shore and Dreaming City — on the right side of the director.

Trials of the Nine is on hiatus

Destiny 2’s flagship competitive PvP mode, Trials of Nine, will be on hiatus for all of season four. Dedicated PvP players will have to wait a few months before jumping back in and proving their worth. But in better news, the rest of Destiny 2’s PvP is getting a massive overhaul.

Destiny 2’s economy is changing

Tokens are gone as of the Destiny 2 pre-patch! Players will instead give flowers and other random odds and ends to the planetary vendors. Upgrading items and infusing them will take specific, planetary materials. This does mean you might have to spend more time seeing the sites and picking up random garbage off planets. Hey, anything beats farming for tokens.