Bungie’s latest Developer Insights blog tackles upcoming Exotic armor and abilities tuning that will go live in Season 22. Bungie said its primary goal for this balance pass is to “bolster underused Exotics,” and detailed which Exotics need further tuning. The developer also clarified that these upcoming changes are on top of the Exotics’ existing benefits unless specified. With that said, here are the 14 Destiny 2 Exotics getting upgraded in Season 22.
All Overhauled Season 22 Exotic armor
- Knucklehead Radar: This armor piece gets the functionality of the Foetracer Exotic helmet on top of its existing benefits.
- Foetracer: In Season 22, Foetracer will give a damage bonus to weapons after you damage enemies using an ability matching the energy type of their weapon. Moreover, if an enemy dies to the ability, you will spawn a collectible object matching the subclass — like Ionic Traces, Firesprites, Void Breeches, etc.
- Lucky Raspberry: Lucky Raspberry generates additional grenade energy whenever you damage a Jolted enemy with Arc Bolt lightning strikes. On top of that, Ionic Traces generated by killing those enemies will give even more grenade energy than usual. Additionally, Arc Bolt grenades will intrinsically stun Overload Champions without requiring them to be Jolted, making them more reliable against Overload enemies.
- Renewal Grasps: Bungie will undo the previous nerf to this Exotic, returning Duskfield grenades to their previous potency.
- Path of Burning Steps: This Exotic will get the highest tier Solar weapon damage bonus — the equivalent of four Weapon Surge mods — upon getting a grenade kill alongside its previous buff.
- Doom Fang Pauldron: This Exotic will get an escalating bonus to Void weapon damage upon getting rapid Void kills and a melee kill; players would immediately get the highest tier Void weapon damage bonus.
- Icefall Mantle: Icefall Mantle gives bonus Stasis weapon damage upon getting rapid Stasis kills. Also, “When you activate your class ability, you immediately gain the highest tier bonus.”
- Eternal Warrior: This Exotic will now get a 30-second bonus to Arc weapon damage after activating the Fists of Havoc Super, as opposed to 10 seconds.
- Hallowfire Heart: Hallowfire Heart has been under the shadow of Heart of Inmost Light for a long time. Bungie has “removed its base energy to Solar abilities and replaced it with a perk that will let you build more into Sunspots”. The intrinsic perk that greatly increases ability regeneration when a Super is full, is left as-is.
- Astrocyte Verse: This piece gains two new abilities. When players Blink and reappear, nearby enemies become Volatile. Also, using the Dark Blink ability while using Nova Warp will no longer consume Super energy.
- Geomag Stabilizers: This armor piece will grant more Super energy than usual upon collecting Ionic Traces.
- Wings of Sacred Dawn: This Exotic will reload Solar weapons from reserves when players get a kill with Solar weapons while aiming down sights. This change comes from Bungie’s desire to lean into the “orbital weapons platform” fantasy, which would allow players to stay in the air more.
- Winter’s Guile: The change to Winter’s Guile deals with the Stasis melee called Penumbral Blast. Enemies affected by Penumbral Blast will shatter after a short delay.
That’s all for Exotic armor changes arriving with Season 22. Bungie has said that Exotic tuning for Season 23 is already underway, and we can expect to hear more about that in Season 22. Additionally, the Developer Insights blog also discussed the Titan class nerf in PVP and Strand changes.
