All Destiny 2 Season 21 weapon changes, explained

Destiny 2, Season 21, Season of the Deep starts on May 23, 2023, and brings a whole horde of new content and changes. This includes some tweaks to weapons—something I've been excited about since Lightfall was released in February. Here are all the Destiny 2 Season 21 weapon changes explained.

Destiny 2 Season 21 weapon changes - overview

The changes to weapons in Season of the Deep not only adjust hip-fire reticles for Hand Cannons, Trace Rifles, and more but also bring revisions to Exotics like Sweet Business and Thunderlord. Certain Exotics will receive custom reticles.

Full auto melee is being added, allowing players to toggle a setting to make melee attacks automatic, including fist, charged melee, roaming Super melee, Glaive, and Sword, much like the full auto firing setting.

Related: Everything we know about Destiny 2 Season of the Deep

It will also be much easier to view your gear in the character menu and in the Eververse preview with an overhaul to the Inspection screen. Now, you'll be able to rotate your weapons to look more closely at them, much like you already can with armor and Sparrows. Support for ambient VFX is also coming, and the depth-of-field blur is being canned. As someone with impaired vision, this is music to my ears (or eyes, rather).

Check out all of the Destiny 2 Exotic armor changes in Season 21 here.

All Exotic weapon changes in Destiny 2 Season 21

Several Exotic weapons are receiving tweaks in Season of the Deep, including both buffs and nerfs. The following Exotics are being changed:

• Eyes of Tomorrow—Refunds one ammo when killing four targets with a missile volley.
• Graviton Lance—RPM is increased from 257 to 300, with rebalanced damage per shot:
  • Body first shot damage increased from 9.5 to 19
  • Crit first shot damage increased from 15.7 to 31.4.
  • Body second shot damage decreased from 35.6 to 25.6.
  • Crit second shot damage decreased from 58.7 to 42.3.
• Jade Rabbit—Three crits in quick succession refund three ammo. Text will now inform the player when Fate of All Fools increased body shot damage is active.
• The Manticore—Catalyst's damage resistance has been increased from tier three to tier four, and the catalyst perk now partially refills the magazine when active. Movement speed during hang time is also increased.
• Lumina—Noble Rounds cap increased from five to six.
• Heartshadow—Damage increased while invisible activates after 0.25s instead of one second, though the weapon is weakened upon dealing dame while this is active.
• Worldline Zero—Sprinting Heavy attack can be chained into itself once.
  • Sword guard energy cost reduced from 100% to 50%.
  • Damage increased by 8.3% from individual sprinting heavy attacks.
• Sweet Business—Fires explosive rounds every 20 shots.
• Legend of Acrius—Total ammo increased from 12 to 16, and maximum projectile distance increased from 9m to 12m.
• Tommy's Matchbook—Catalyst now adds sustained fire scorches your target while overheated. Every five shots applies 14 (+7 with the Embers of Ashes Fragment) scorch stacks.
• No Time to Explain—The drone now works with anti-barrier and the catalyst's Feeding Frenzy.
• Skyburner's Oath—Increased scorch stacks from three to five and (five to 10 with the Embers of Ashes Fragment).
• Salvation's Grip—Now has two firing modes. Charged shot creates Stasis crystals (where the number of crystals is no longer dependent on charge time), and the uncharged shot is a normal Grenade Launcher shot with increased damage to Stasis crystals and frozen opponents. There's also a new perk that reloads the magazine when you break at least three crystals with the uncharged shot.
• Bad Juju—Recoil pattern changed to mirror other Pulse Rifles.
• Fighting Lion—Fixed a bug that allowed it to deal more damage to red bar enemies.
• Thunderlord—Fixed a bug that caused it to count crits against a Divinity bubble as two instead of one.
• Winterbite—Impact damage redistributed to detonation damage.

All reticle changes in Destiny 2 Season of the Deep

Destiny 2 Season 21 hip-fire reticle changes

For now, Fusion Rifles, Hand Cannons, Side Arms, and Trace Rifles are getting their hip-fire reticles reworked so that they can still be seen at high FOV settings. The aim is to stop their reticles from being so static and blocking an area of your screen. Bungie has stated that this change will eventually roll out to other weapon types. Shotguns are also receiving similar treatment, with hip-fire reticles matching the pellet spread, no matter what your FOV setting is.

Fusion Rifles will show a charge meter under the reticle, so it's much more clear when the weapon is fully charged with energy and ready to be unloaded. Similarly, Swords will show the current Sword guard energy under the reticle.

Destiny 2 Season 21 aim down sights reticle changes

Shayura's Wrath's reticle is being replaced with something more akin to the hip-fire reticle, allowing it to scale with auto-aim and accuracy. Bungie has stated that this is an experimental change and is something they want to get "into your hands and see how it feels" before rolling it out across more weapons.

Related: All new Strand Aspects in Destiny 2 Season of the Deep

The Legendary SMG will now have an aim-down-sights reticle that changes color when an enemy is targeted and "reacts to the weapon's accuracy and auto-aim state."

Custom Exotic reticles in Destiny 2 Season of the Deep

The following Exotic weapons are receiving changes to their reticles:

• Devil's Ruin—Charge meter added.
• Salvation's Grip—Charge meter added.
• Grand Overture—Charge meter added.
• Quicksilver Storm—Perk counter displays pips for grenade count.
• Ace of Spades—Perk counter displays pips for Memento Mori shot count.
• Lumina—Perk counter displays pips for Noble Rounds shot count.
• Traveler's Chosen—Perk counter displays pips for Gathering Light stacks.
• The Manticore—Perk progress meter displays perk buildup.
• Hawkmoon—"Perk active" appears when the Exotic perk is enabled.
• Ager's Scepter—"Perk active" appears when the Exotic perk is enabled.
• Tarrabah—"Perk active" appears when the Exotic perk is enabled.
• Touch of Malice—"Perk active" appears when the Exotic perk is enabled.
• Cryosthesia 77k—"Perk active" appears when the Exotic perk is enabled.
• Trinity Ghoul—"Perk active" appears when the Exotic perk is enabled.
• Vex Mythoclast—Charge meter and perk counter added.

Weapon archetype changes in Destiny 2 Season 21

The following weapon types are receiving tweaks to their archetype in Season of the Deep:

SMGs

• Aggressive Submachine Guns—Reduced base damage from 15 to 14 and increased precision hit multiplier from 1.45 to 1.5.
• The Immortal—Reduced base range value by 10.

Sniper Rifles

• Increased PvE damage by 10% (except Izanagi's Burden's Honed Edge perk).

Scout Rifles

• Long Arm—Removed Exotics damage bonus vs. minors.

Weapon perk changes in Destiny 2 Season 21

The following weapon perks are being tweaked in Destiny 2 Season of the Deep:

• Fragile Focus—Bonus lasts until shield pop, returning when shield regenerates 100%.
• Thresh—Increased energy to Glaive projectile kills.
• Demolitionist—Increased energy to Glaive projectile kills.
• Pugilist—Increased energy to Glaive projectile kills.
• Reconstruction—Base perk is now four seconds. Enhanced perk is 3.5 seconds
• Shoot to Loot—Picks up Orbs of Power on direct hits.

For more information on Destiny 2, check out Who is Sloane in Destiny 2? on Pro Game Guides.