Summary
Destiny 2has been plagued with various glitches over the years, but the current one involving seasonal artifacts providing excessive power bonuses in endgame activities might take the cake. Bungie’s usual response when dealing with bugs and glitches has been deactivating the malfunctioning equipment until the developers can work out a fix. The nature of this glitch and the particular involvement ofDestiny 2’s seasonal artifactsthat are paramount to the core gameplay makes it problematic to address with a simple deactivation, even with a Raid race looming on the horizon.
Seasonal artifacts are a core part ofDestiny 2’s current seasonal model, directly affecting moment-to-moment gameplay and offering players different build crafting options beyond the scope of the base game. Seasonal artifacts and the associated mods are refreshed each season, with new mods playing into the current seasonal narrative themes while providing unique benefits to players. Seasonal artifacts also serve as the primary source for entire weapon archetypes gaining anti-champion capabilities, further enhancing the diversity of loadouts in endgame activities. More importantly, seasonal artifacts also provide players with a stacking power bonus that increases defensive stats and damage output in aspirational endgame activities such as Grandmaster Nightfalls and Master Raids.
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With seasonal artifacts packing so much utility and power, the current bug allowing players to equip the previous season’s artifact to gain a power boost seems even more shocking. Cheese Forever, aDestiny 2YouTuber famous for discovering glitches and bugs, posted a video replicating the glitch with minimal effort. The YouTuber showcases in the video how the players only need to obtain the previous season’s artifact from the equipment tab and equip the older artifact to gain its power bonus while benefiting from the current seasonal artifact mods.
The glitch presents as a visual error in-game, showing the highest power level gained inDestiny 2’s ongoingSeason of the Witch. Cheese Forever clarifies that the bugged-out artifact provides the highest power levels achieved in the previous season despite the visual glitch, as evidenced by Cheese Forever surviving in Master Nightfalls. Several players have sounded off in the comment section, with many confirming the validity of the glitch while others joked about Bungie deactivating artifacts as a whole.
While many have taken the issue lightheartedly, others have expressed concern over the balancing issues this glitch might present in the upcoming World’s First Raid race.ReturningDestiny 2Raids require playersto complete both versions of the entire activity for the World’s First title, with Master versions being exceptionally more demanding thanks to tougher enemies and high damage output. With a glitch of this magnitude affecting such an important community-oriented event, players fear Bungie taking drastic measures to spare Crota from enduring a fate like Nezarec.
Destiny 2is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
