Destiny 2 update 1.1.3 is on track to arrive next Tuesday, and in this week's blog
post, Bungie addressed Nightfall Strike Scoring, the first version of the Prestige Nightfall Challenge Card, and emblem variants.
While emblems in
Destiny have mostly been a vanity collectible, Bungie is moving further into the direction of using them as a way to highlight achievements. They'll do so by including "more stats on emblems and making those emblems more available to players who want to display those stats."
For example, the Crucible emblems that advertise wins or KDA can now be obtained directly from Shaxx after 10 Crucible rep packages (if you don’t get one earlier). We’re also deploying a new emblem that advertises your Crucible kills, which are broken down by class so you can see who find themselves in your crosshairs most often.
Additionally, auras are being removed as standalone items and will now be displayed as emblems.
This means that existing Raid, Trials, and new Nightfall Emblems will provide the existing aura effects to players, and future emblems can also roll out new effects. These auras are conditional—for example, you still have to go Flawless or do a Prestige Clear to activate them. Some of these auras will also come with fireteam bonuses, so when they see that aura over you, they know who is giving them that benefit.
Lastly, Bungie is introducing variants to some emblems as a way to avoid all players looking the same while still allowing the achievement to be recognizable.
Variants are being introduced to allow visible achievement without losing the recognizable identity of the emblem. Some variants are unlocked via conditions—the new Crucible Kills Emblem unlocks some fun “class foe” variations after you down a thousand Guardians of that class. Others are drops from sources like destination chests or Nightfalls, and some of these might be quite rare.
A perfect example of this new system is the new Nightfall Emblems which are obtained by completing specific Nightfall Strikes. These items will display your highest personal score in that Nightfall, and in the future your clan's highest score as well. These emblems have variants which will drop from that specific Nightfall, but in some cases only above certain score thresholds. These emblems enable the purple Nightfall Aura as well as a fireteam bonus to Vanguard Token drops, but only if your personal high score is above a par-score that is predetermined based on internal playtests. This score will be adjusted based on the community's posted scores each time a Nightfall arrives.
Some examples of these new emblems can be seen below.
Destiny 2 Update 1.1.3 will arrive on Tuesday, Februrary 27. Maintenance is scheduled to begin at 8am PST and conclude at 10am PST.
The development roadmap of updates for
Destiny 2 through May 2018 can be seen
here.