Destiny 2 8.1.0 Patch Notes - Destiny 2 Guide - IGN (2025)

The 8.1.0 Patch for Destiny 2 has arrived, bringing with it several balance changes and fixes, weapon and armor tuning, and more!

This page acts as a comprehensive breakdown of the 8.1.0 Patch for Destiny 2, including a link to the full Patch Notes.

Activities

Crucible

• Reprised the map Solitude for the Control, Quickplay, and Competitive playlists (will return to Trials at a future date)
• Added several new UI features
  • Class icons on enemy health bars
  • "Assisted by..." message on the death screen
  • Added Tools of Destruction to the teammate tombstone icon
• Fixed an issue where matches would not end in mercy due to time elapsed, despite the delta in team score
• Adjusted join-in-progress rules so that matches have a better chance of back-filling
• Fixed an issue with our second version of the snake draft lobby balancer where fireteam members would sometimes be placed on separate teams; re-enabled the snake draft lobby balancer
• Fixed an issue where the weapons portion of Not Swap was sometimes active in playlists other than Trials and Competitive
• Fixed an issue where kills could sometimes drop an additional ammo brick for teammates
• Improved the placement match logic in Competitive to provide a smoother experience while finding your expected rank
• Improved the way points are awarded after Competitive matches to make the values line up more appropriately with expectations
• Fixed an issue where the placement series challenge could erroneously appear after completing the Competitive intro quest "Dividing the Ladder."
• Fixed an issue where players would sometimes be unable to claim their Trials rank rewards
• Post-game standard (non-Adept) weapon drops will now focus on the weekly weapon, instead of exclusively being the weekly weapons

Nightfall

• Nightfall activities on Expert difficulty or higher now feature combatants with Banes

Dungeons & Raids

• General
  • Fixed an issue where some dungeons had a shorter-than-intended amount of time in the activity after completion
• Shattered Throne
  • Fixed an issue where the second secret chest would occasionally not reward players
• Salvation's Edge
  • Fixed an issue where the Ignited Light Triumph was not tracking encounter challenges
• Vow of the Disciple
  • Fixed an issue where Rhulk could catapult himself off the encounter space

UI/UX

• Director
  • When a raid or dungeon is featured, an icon will appear in the destination's icon tray and the name of the raid or dungeon will appear in the destination's tooltip
  • Rituals Pathfinder have been divided into distinct Vanguard, Crucible, and Gambit Pathfinders
  • When you are in a Vanguard, Crucible, or Gambit activity or PGCR, opening the Director will take you directly to the appropriate ritual screen in the Director to select your next activity or access their Pathfinder system
    • This enables quickly opening the relevant rituals screen to easily access reputation, streaks, Pathfinder, and re-launch related activities
  • The activity launch overlay has been adjusted to divide skulls (activity modifiers) into four categories to better inform player buildcrafting
• HUD
  • Waypoints for dead allies now include an indicator of the faction, ability, or weapon that downed them to improve situational awareness
  • When you are downed in PvP activities, the death screen will now include some information about player assists that contributed to your death
• Fireteam Finder
  • Fireteam Finder entry point is now grayed out in launch overlay when current activity is unsupported
  • Fireteam Finder auto-selects your current activity when entering through launch overlay
  • Fireteam Finder auto-returns players back to start when Fireteam Privacy is set to closed
• Text Chat
  • Text chat profanity setting received an update to better reflect changes with our moderation service
  • Fixed text chat bug that was causing commands in certain languages to say that the command was unknown
• Voice Chat
  • Now correctly plays audio cue when swapping voice channels
• Roster
  • Fixed nameplate bug that would cause names with certain emojis to flicker
• Objective Tracking
  • No longer reset tracked records at the start of each Episode
  • Fixed an issue where the tracking icon would stick around after objective was completed

Gameplay & Investment

Exotic Armor

• Hunter
  • Lucky Pants
    • No longer requires the Hand Cannon to be matched to the Super damage type or Kinetic to receive the damage buff.
    • Out of Luck cooldown will only trigger if you reach seven stacks before swapping off the weapon or time expires.
    • Maximum damage has been decreased from 600% to 450%.
    • Now provides movement bonuses including increased slide distance and sprint speed when a Hand Cannon is equipped.
    • Airborne Effectiveness bonus is active whenever a Hand Cannon is equipped, not just when the Illegally Modded Holster buff is active
  • Raiju's Harness
    • Fully reworked behavior of its Exotic trait, Mobius Conduit, inspired by its lore tab.
      • Activating Gathering Storm calls down lightning on all nearby targets, jolting them while also amplifying allies.
      • Defeating Arc debuffed targets grants a small amount of Gathering Storm energy
  • Blight Ranger
    • Added the ability to cancel your Arc Staff Super while equipped, damaging and blinding nearby enemies and granting a Tier 4 Arc weapon damage boost.
      • Damage dealt by this effect scales based on the number of projectiles reflected prior to cancelling.
    • No longer creates Orbs of Power when reflecting projectiles with Arc Staff.
      • Reflecting projectiles now instead directly refunds Super energy, extending the duration of your Super
  • Young Ahamkara's Spine
    • Once again provides Tripmine Grenade energy for ability damage (changed from ability final blows).
      • Provides +33% grenade energy in PvE and +8% in PvP.
    • Celestial Nighthawk
      • Reduced Super damage against bosses by 5%.
    • Solipsism
      • Spirit of Synthoceps
        • Reduced the melee damage bonus provided when both Bionic Enhancements and Stylish Executioner are active by 50%

• Titan
  • Icefall Mantle
    • You now gain a stack of Frost Armor for rapid Stasis final blows.
    • Each time you gain a stack of Frost Armor you will heal for a small amount.
    • The unique class ability granted by Icefall Mantle now provides maximum stacks of Frost Armor, instead of its custom overshield.
      • It will provide additional stacks of Frost Armor if you have Whisper of Rime equipped.
      • You will also immediately heal for each stack that gets added.
      • It no longer prevents sprinting or jump abilities, and it now works when Thruster is equipped.
      • Class ability energy now begins to recharge immediately after using Icefall Mantle's class ability.
    • No longer provides bonus Stasis weapon damage.
    • Now requires a Stasis Super to be equipped to benefit from its Exotic effects
  • Cadmus Ridge Lancecap
    • Removed the Stasis weapon requirement. Now any final blows or rapid precision hits while behind a rally barricade (and with a Stasis Super equipped) will create a Diamond Lance near you.
    • Directly hitting any powerful combatant with a Diamond Lance will now create three Stasis crystals (previously only bosses and vehicles would create additional crystals)
  • Ursa Furiosa & Spirit of the Bear
    • Increased maximum Super energy gain for Unbreakable in PvE from 15% to 20%.
    • Fixed an issue where you were gaining more Super energy from Unbreakable in PvP than intended. Now provides a maximum of 10% per Unbreakable use
  • Cuirass of the Falling Star
    • Melee final blows while amplified now grant Super energy.
    • Reduced the damage bonus from Cuirass to Thundercrash from 2x to 1.55x.
      • When combined with the buff to Thundercrash base damage, this results in the same damage as it did previously.
    • Replaced the overshield after impact with damage resistance (50% in PvE and 10% in PvP)
  • Pyrogale Gauntlets
    • Increased damage of the super cyclone explosions by 10%
  • Peacekeepers
    • Dealing damage to combatants with an SMG increases SMG damage for a short time. Maximum of 20 stacks (100% bonus damage), lasts for 1s, each hit adds a stack and refreshes the timer
  • Mask of the Quiet One
    • With a Void Super equipped, rapid final blows and final blows while at critical health will now grant Devour
  • Hazardous Propulsion
    • Fixed an issue where destroying certain objects, such as Stasis crystals, was being counted as a final blow for loading Exodus rockets.
      • Final blows caused by shattering crystals created via the weapon perk Headstone will still have a chance to load rockets
  • Stoicism
    • Spirit of the Star Eater
      • Reduced the benefit granted Twilight Arsenal from 70% to 25%.
      • Reduced the benefit granted to Thundercrash from 70% to 50%.
    • Spirit of the Horn
      • Activating Thruster now leaves a ball of Solar energy behind, exploding and applying scorch to enemies caught in the blast.
    • Spirit of Alpha Lupi
      • Activating Thruster now heals you and nearby allies.
    • Spirit of Hoarfrost
      • Activating Thruster now creates a pair of Stasis crystals

• Warlock
  • Skull of Dire Ahamkara
    • Added "Weapon final blows while Devour is active grant Super energy," with more energy provided for defeating powerful combatants
  • Ballidorse Wrathweavers
    • Adjusted the perk to increase the shatter damage of targets frozen by Shadebinder Super projectiles.
      • This means even allies breaking enemies out can activate the perk as well.
    • Added "Granting Frost Armor to your allies with Frostpulse or Winter’s Wrath grants you Super energy,” with more energy provided for aiding multiple allies
  • Sanguine Alchemy
    • Now marks targets you damage while standing in a Rift. You deal 10% extra damage from any source against marked targets.
    • Now provides Surge x4 to weapons that match your Super damage
  • Verity's Brow & Spirit of Verity
    • Increased PvE grenade damage for the first stack of Death Throes from 20% to 40%. Each additional stack now provides +15% grenade damage, up to a max of +100% at five stacks.
      • PvP bonus damage is unchanged
  • Cenotaph Mask
    • The changes to the target marking have been reverted so that the applying player can once again see the marker
  • Osmiomancy Gloves
    • Reduced the increased seeker distance and speed by 50%
  • Speaker's Sight
    • Orb of Power generation has been reenabled in PvP, where it now requires six instances of healing against a damaged ally to create an Orb.
      • PvE behavior is unchanged
  • Promethium Spur
    • Fixed an issue where Promethium Spur would grant class ability energy without a Solar Super equipped
  • Essentialism
    • Spirit of the Star Eater
      • Reduced the benefit granted to Nova Bomb from 70% to 50%

Armor Mods

• The Emergency Reinforcements armor mod has been updated to no longer overwrite other sources of damage resistance
• Changed the order of Momentum Transfer and Impact Induction to group with the other mods they better align with when looking at Gauntlet mod inventory
• Fixed an issue where Font of Agility would display its perk description instead of its name in some tooltips
• Fixed an issue with all seven Siphon mods that caused them to generate extra Orbs of Power when swapping helmets
• Fixed an issue with the Harmonic Reserves armor mod where it would not reliably function while a Prismatic subclass was equipped

Weapons

• Weapon Archetypes
  • Auto Rifle, Scout Rifle, Pulse Rifle, Submachine Gun, Sidearm, Hand Cannon
    • Rebalanced how PvE damage is dealt to slightly prioritize critical hits.
      • Increased critical hit damage by between 5% and 7% depending on subfamily.
      • Decreased body shot damage by between 5% and 7% depending on subfamily
  • Pulse Rifle
    • Heavy Burst (includes Graviton Lance and Revision Zero's Heavy Burst)
      • Increased RPM from 300 to 324.
      • Decreased damage in PvE by 18% for Legendary weapons in this subfamily.
        • Graviton Lance and Revision Zero Heavy Burst mode reduced by 8%
  • Sniper Rifle
    • Reduced flinch received from enemy AI by 50%.
    • Reduced camera roll received from players by 10%.
    • Increased damage against:
      • Minors - 60%
      • Majors - 75%
      • Minibosses - 35%
      • Champions - 25%
  • Glaive
    • Corrected an issue where perks that change magazine size could sometimes display incorrect preview values
  • Shotgun
    • Increased minimum damage after falloff from 0% to 40% vs AI only
  • Rocket-Assisted Sidearm
    • Reduced reserve ammo by 25%
  • Trace Rifles
    • Increased base PvP ammo from 25 to 29
  • Machine Gun
    • High Impact
      • Increased critical hit damage by 4%
  • Heavy Ammo Grenade Launcher
    • General
      • Decreased damage from the detonation by 5% against combatants
    • Increased projectile impact damage correspondingly, globally.
    • In PvE, total damage is the same, just split differently between detonation and impact.
    • In PvP, Heavy GLs now deal approximately 7% and 26% more impact damage, depending on the Blast Radius stat
    • Rapid Fire
      • Increased impact and detonation damage by 7%

Abilities

• General
  • Void Overshield
    • Increased Void Overshield PvE damage resistance from 50% to 70%.
      • This increases maximum effective HP from 90 to 150.
    • Facet of Command/Echo of Domineering
      • Cooldown reduced from 11 seconds to 4 seconds.
    • Swarm Grenade
      • Swarm Grenade submunitions are now easier for players to shoot down.
      • Swarm Grenade submunitions can now chain detonate other submunitions when destroyed
• Titan
  • Towering Barricade, Rally Barricade
    • When a player is standing behind a barricade, the barricade now taunts combatants in front of the barricade.
    • Combatants in front of the barricade now shoot at the barricade instead of at the player behind the barricade.
    • Reduced non-boss combatant damage vs. barricades by 50%.
    • Increased combatant splash-damage reduction when standing behind the barricade from 20% to 60%.
    • Now grants moderate damage resistance vs. combatants during cast.
  • Unarmed Melee
    • Increased damage to players by 5%.
    • Increased damage against PvE combatants by 20%.
    • Increased stun multiplier.
  • Behemoth
    • Howl of the Storm
      • Howl of the Storm can now be used during the Glacial Quake Super.
    • Shiver Strike
      • Now attaches a Stasis explosive to the target on impact.
        • This detonation slows players and freezes combatants.
      • Now refunds 80% melee energy on whiff.
      • Increased energy recharge rate by 12.5%.
      • Immediately after landing a Shiver Strike attack, the attacker’s melee ability is now suppressed for 0.5s.
    • Diamond Lance
      • Thrown or slammed Diamond Lances will now shatter Stasis crystals.
      • Slamming a Diamond Lance will grant you and nearby allies two stacks of Frost Armor.
      • Changed the weapon tray HUD to display how many seconds are remaining before the Diamond Lance disappears, like a Tangle.
  • Sentinel
    • Unbreakable
      • Now taunts enemies in front of the shield.
      • Damage blocked by Unbreakable now generates grenade energy.
      • Increased max duration the shield can be held.
      • Forward movement speed now slows down briefly when the shield is shot.
      • Reduced Unbreakable’s throw attack damage vs. players by 20%.
      • Increased damage bleed through from players by 15%.
      • Fully charged Unbreakable attacks will now one-shot Barricades in PvP except when the Barricade is under the effects of Heart of Inmost Light.
    • Banner Shield
      • Now taunts enemies in front of the shield.
    • Twilight Arsenal
      • Thrown axe projectiles now more consistently track towards targets closer to the reticle.
      • Increased Twilight Arsenal’s axe relic weapon damage vs combatants by 23%.
  • Striker
    • Thundercrash
      • Increased base detonation damage by 33%.
    • Fist of Havok
      • Increased damage resistance from 51% to 58%.
      • Changed how the light attack works under the hood to improve consistency in hitting targets.
      • Slightly increased light attack lunge range and ability to target enemies vertically.
    • Thunderclap
      • Fully charged Thunderclap attacks will now one-shot barricades in PvP except when the barricade is under the effects of Heart of Inmost Light.
    • Knockout
      • Melee kills now cancel health and shield stun, in addition to healing, allowing you to immediately start regenerating.
  • Sunbreaker
    • Consecration
      • Scorch and slam waves now shatter Stasis crystals
• Hunter
  • Prismatic
    • Hailfire Spike Prismatic Grenade
      • Added projectile tracking and aim assist to increase consistency in hitting targets.
  • Arcstrider
    • Combination Blow
      • Rescaled healing from a flat 80 HP per kill to 100/80/60/40 per kill based on stack count.
      • No longer clears health and shield stun on kill.
      • Removed the 1.5 second internal cooldown on healing.
    • Disorienting Blow
      • Reduced cooldown from 90 seconds at T3/45 seconds at T10 to 80 seconds at T3 and 41 at T10.
        • Disorienting Blow now has the same cooldown and energy gains as Combination Blow.
  • Threadrunner
    • Threaded Specter
      • Increased detonation damage vs. combatants by 33%.
  • Gunslinger
    • Golden Gun – Marksman and Deadshot
      • Increased damage against base, elite, and miniboss combatants by 30%.
  • Nightstalker
    • Spectral Blades
      • Increased PvE damage by 20%.
      • Increased damage resistance from 47% to 58%
• Warlock
  • Stormcaller
    • Stormtrance
      • Increased damage resistance from 53% to 58%.
    • Chaos Reach
      • Increased damage resistance from 45% to 55%.
      • Fixed an issue where Chaos Reach would not Jolt at high framerates.
      • Fixed an issue where Chaos Reach would not go through Sentinel Shield’s guard or a Citan’s Barricade.
    • Lightning Surge
      • The Warlock casting Lightning Surge now has 50% damage resistance vs. Titan Barricades during the lunge.
      • Casting Lightning Surge now also makes you Amplified.
  • Voidwalker
    • Nova Warp
      • Increased PvE damage by 20%.
      • Increased damage resistance from 51% to 58%.
      • Now any Nova Warp detonation applies Volatile, regardless of charge duration

Full Patch Notes

If you wish to read the Patch Notes in full, you can do so via the official Bungie websites 8.1.0 Patch Notes blog post.