Destiny 2's Season 22 is ushering in a new wave of exotic armor adjustments for players to experiment with. As always, the primary goal of these changes is to offer enhancements and spruce-ups to the exotics players don't typically choose. While some of these alterations just tweak a single effect or bonus, other Exotic armor pieces have been rebuilt from the ground up.
Exotic armor is some of the rarest and most distinctive gear available in Destiny 2. Discerned by its telltale yellow background and engram, each Exotic armor piece is unique, offering a specific feature or bonus. These can sometimes be as unassuming as passively adding another melee charge or as intricate as requiring players to pull off particular maneuvers to trigger effects. These Exotic armor pieces and their perks often form the backbone of a Guardian's build, and any changes to the Exotic can lead to a ripple effect that affects how players should play to make the best use of the item.
What Exotics Are Changing in Season 22?
Bungie has reworked Exotic armor and weapons many times throughout Destiny 2 history. However, the developer has been doing it more steadily over the last few expansions. As the live service game continues on, and new weapons or abilities are added, effects that were once powerful dwindle in comparison to more recent additions. This phenomenon is known as power-creep and is no stranger to any live service title or MMO.
Thankfully, Bungie recognizes this issue and periodically retools Exotic gear to align with the game's current arsenal. In addition, this investigation and retooling of underperforming Exotics can sometimes reveal opportunities to fix bugs too. Here's how the Exotic armor landscape will shake up in Season 22:
Hunters
- Knucklehead Radar: The Foetracer Exotic helmet had its original functionality stripped and migrated to this piece. Knucklehead Radar also retains all of its existing benefits. The Exotic now marks foes, causes players to do more damage to marked enemies low on health, makes radar visible while aiming down weapon sights, improves the quality of radar, and generally boosts airborne effectiveness with any weapon.
- Foetracer: Bungie noted that it took inspiration from a previous Seasonal Artifact Mod, Monochromatic Maestro, to redesign this Exotic. Damaging enemies with an ability offers a damage buff to any weapon of the same element. On top of this, the helmet helps players who rely on subclass-specific collectibles like Ionic Traces, Stasis Crystals, or Firesprites, as it generates one with every ability or subclass-matching elemental kill.
- Lucky Raspberry: Bungie noted that previous versions of this Exotic proved unreliable. The end effect is still the same, improving Arc Bolt grenade charge time, but now done by rewarding grenade energy via Jolts and Ionic Trace pickups instead of whenever the grenade chains lightning to another target.
- Renewal Grasps: Renewal Grasps finally had its Duskfield grenade cooldown reverted to what it had been before a prior nerf. Previously, equipping Renewal Grasps pushed the Duskfield grenade cooldown to 152 seconds from 62 seconds. That change has been undone, and the Exotic still offers a larger Duskfield AOE, protection for allies in the AOE, and reduced damage from enemies inside the AOE.
Titans
- Icefall Mantle: The original effect of this Exotic swapped the Titan's Barricade to an overshield and emitted a slowing burst whenever the ability triggered. A new feature has been added that increases Stasis weapon damage after rapid Stasis kills, with class ability activation propelling players to the maximum bonus tier.
- Doom Fang Pauldron: This exotic now additionally rewards Void weapon damage bonuses for rapid Void kills, with a Void melee kill instantly giving the highest tier bonus. This is in addition to its original effect, offering Super energy for Void melee kills and increasing the efficacy of the Sentinel Shield Super.
- Path of the Burning Steps: After receiving a touch-up in Season 21, Bungie is tweaking Path of Burning Steps further. The alteration ensures Solar Grenade kills instantly offers the top-tier Solar weapon damage bonus. The Exotic offers a Solar weapon damage bonus for rapid Solar kills, making the user more resilient against the Stasis Freeze effect.
- Eternal Warrior: This piece was also recently tweaked in Season 21, and a further alteration increases the duration of the Arc weapon damage bonus after the Fist of Havoc Super ends. It has increased to 30 seconds from the prior 10 seconds. The Exotic provides an increasing Arc weapon damage bonus for rapid Arc kills, an overshield on Fists of Havoc activation, and the top-tier Arc weapon damage bonus when the Super ends.
- ACD/0 Feedback Fence: This Exotic used to gain charges whenever a melee struck the wearer; additional incoming melee attacks reduced damage taken and caused an explosion. ACD/0 now provides armor charge from melee damage, protecting against melee damage and emitting a Jolting burst of Arc energy when receiving melee hits.
- Hallowfire Heart: Hallowfire Heart wowed players alongside Season of the Haunted' s Solar focus, with its increased ability charge for a Titan's Solar subclass in addition to further increases while a Super is active and a boost to airborne effectiveness. It has been retooled to really make Sunspots shine and appear more frequently. The additional ability charge bonuses while in Super remain.
Warlocks
- Astrocyte Verse: This Exotic initially allowed Warlocks to Blink over greater distances and more often. It also allowed for faster weapon engagement when exiting Blink, left radar visible, and provided an airborne effectiveness boost. Two additional functions have been added to the helmet: Blink causes nearby foes to become volatile, and Dark Blink no longer depletes Super energy when the Nova Warp Super is active.
- Geomag Stabilizers: While Geomag Stabilizers used to be one of the best Arc Warlock Exotics because it allowed players to infinitely generate Super energy from sprinting, previous changes retooled the Exotic to extend Chaos Reach's length via damaging enemies with the Super. Additional functionality will make it so that collecting an ionic trace provides Super energy.
- Wings of Sacred Dawn: As long Warlocks use the Dawnblade Super, this exotic allows players to float midair after aiming down a weapon's sights. It increases airborne accuracy, airborne effectiveness, offers damage resistance and reduces flinching when taking damage in the air. Guardians could also land rapid weapon hits to extend the floating effect. A new feature ensures automatic Solar weapon reloads whenever defeating an enemy while aiming down a weapon's sights.
- Winter's Guile: Winter's Guile offered increased melee damage whenever a Warlock defeated foes with a melee attack. This was inopportune for Stasis Warlocks, as their powered melee ability is a ranged projectile that causes the Freeze effect but little else. A new effect causes foes frozen by the Penumbral Blast melee to Shatter without player intervention following a brief delay.
Destiny 2 is available on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.