Destiny 2 Season 21 Release Date and Details - Destiny 2 Guide - IGN (2024)

Season 21 of Destiny 2, also known as Season of the Deep, is fast approaching, and will bring three new Strand Aspects, ability tuning changes, tweaks to the economy and much more!

This page acts as a comprehensive breakdown of all we know about Destiny 2's Season of the Deep, including its release date and overall contents.

Looking for something specific? Click one of the links below to jump to...

• Season of the Deep Release Date
• New Strand Aspects
• Super Tuning Updates
• Strand Tuning Updates
• Statis Tuning Updates
• Economy Changes
• Exotic Armor Focusing and Decryption
• Raid Triumphs
• Trials of Osiris Introductory Quest Update
• Full Season Details

Season of the Deep Release Date

Season 21 (Season of the Deep) is set for release on May 23rd, 2023, at 10AM PT.

Season of the Deep Contents

For a full breakdown of all the ability tuning updates as part of Season 21, check out the official Bungie websites Abilities blog post. The highlights of this post are listed below.

New Strand Aspects

Hunter Aspect: Threaded Specter

• Activate your class ability to leave behind a decoy woven from Strand matter that draws the attention of nearby combatants.
• After taking significant damage or when combatants approach, the decoy detonates, dealing damage and releasing Threadlings that seek out and attack nearby foes.

Titan Aspect: Flechette Storm

• While sliding, activate your charged melee ability to leap into the air, knocking nearby targets away and dealing damage. While airborne, activate your charged melee again to launch a cluster of damaging, Unraveling projectiles. Repeatedly activating melee will chain additional throws.

Warlock Aspect: The Wanderer

• Tangles you throw attach to enemies and detonate into a suspending burst. Threadling final blows create a Tangle.

Super Tuning Updates

• All Supers
  • Increased PvE damage resistance by ~20%

Hunter

• Golden Gun (both Marksman and Deadshot)
  • Increased PvE damage by 20%
• Arc Staff
  • Increased PvE damage by 20%

• Spectral Blades
  • Increased PvE damage by 35%
  • Heavy attack now weakens targets on hit
  • Fixed an issue causing some right-hand Spectral Blades attacks to fail to connect when attacking at maximum attack speed

• Gathering Storm
  • Direct impact damage vs. players increased from 200 to 300
  • Delayed lightning strike damage vs. players increased from 300 to 500
  • Lingering lightning tick damage vs. players increased from 40 to 60
  • Now deals increased damage vs. Well of Radiance and Ward of Dawn

Titan

• Fists of Havoc
  • Light attack cost reduced from 8.5% to 6%
  • Heavy attack cost reduced from 18% to 12%
  • Increased heavy attack PvE damage by 33%
  • Heavy attack now blinds targets near the center of the slam area

• Glacial Quake
  • Increased Shiver Strike thrust speed while in Super by 10%
  • Increased light attack damage by 20%

• Sentinel Shield
  • Increased PvE damage by 20%
• Hammer of Sol
  • Increased PvE damage by 10%
• Burning Maul
  • Increased PvE damage by 10%
  • Now creates a Sunspot on cast when Sol Invictus is equipped, matching the behavior of Hammer of Sol
  • Heavy attack cyclone now applies scorch over time

Warlock

• Nova Warp
  • Increased PvE damage by 15%
  • A fully charged attack now makes enemies Volatile on hit
• Nova Bomb
  • PvE damage increased by 20%
• Stormtrance
  • Increased PvE damage by 25%
  • Damage ramp while attacking now occurs more quickly (over 3 seconds, down from 5)
  • Landfall detonation and seekers now jolt targets
• Chaos Reach
  • Increased PvE damage by 25%
  • Sustained damage on a single target now creates a jolting lightning strike at the target’s location
  • Increased damage resistance vs. players from 40% to 50%
  • Increased maximum strafe speed from 3.5m/s to 4.5m/s
  • Adjusted Super camera to avoid the player’s body blocking view of targets when strafing
• Winter’s Wrath
  • Increased PvE damage by 10%
• Daybreak
  • Adjusted Super camera to allow the player to look down further and avoid VFX blocking view of targets when moving quickly

Strand Tuning Updates

• Hunter
  • Threaded Spike
    • Increased projectile travel range before beginning to return to the player by 30%
    • Increased damage vs. PvE combatants by ~55%
    • Slightly reduced speed of the dart as it returns to the player to make catching it easier
    • Increased energy gain for catching the dart based on the number of enemies hit
    • Now pierces Cabal Phalanx shields
    • No longer prioritizes the catch action over the grapple melee if an enemy target is within grapple melee range

• Titan
  • Frenzied Blade
    • Decreased cooldown based on how many melee charges the player has stored
    • At 0 charges, cooldown reduced by 15%. At 2 charges, cooldown reduced by 30%

• Warlock
  • Arcane Needle
    • Decreased cooldown based on how many melee charges the player has stored
      • At 0 charges, cooldown reduced by 15%. At 2 charges, cooldown reduced by 30%.
    • Increased projectile speed based on the projectile’s flight time
      • Initial velocity increased to 40 meters per second, up from 30
      • Final velocity increased to 70 meters per second, up from 60
    • Increased projectile tracking strength by ~10%
  • Grapple
    • Reduced base cooldown from 105 seconds to 82 seconds
    • Reduced the minimum time between grapple activations from 2.5s to 0.2s
  • Thread of Generation
    • Reduced energy generation provided by some damage-over-time mechanics
    • Reduced energy generation provided by Trace Rifles by 36%

Stasis Tuning Updates

• Hunter
  • Withering Blade
    • Increased projectile tracking search range on bounce vs. players by 20%
    • Increased maximum tracking strength by 12.5%

• Titan
  • Shiver Strike
    • Maximum thrust while in flight increased by 16%
    • Decreased maximum downward influence of gravity while in flight by 18%
  • Howl of the Storm
    • Increased width of freezing cone vs. players by 31%

• Warlock
  • Frostpulse
    • Now provides 2 meters of additional melee lunge range after activation for 1.2 seconds

Economy Changes

For the first time, Bungie will not be increasing the power bands in Season 21.

• Power Floor (1600), Soft Cap (1750), Powerful Cap (1800), and Pinnacle Caps (1810) will not change over the course of Season 21
  • If players hit the Pinnacle Cap during Season 20, they will remain at the Pinnacle Cap in Season 21

Exotic Armor Focusing and Decryption

Focusing Options

• Standard Decryption
  • Allows players to decrypt engrams for free
  • Players receive random drops from standard Exotic engram loot pools
  • No additional cost

• Exotic Focusing Tier 1
  • Focus an engram to receive a random roll of an Exotic from the associated expansion
    • Red War: Exotic Helms
    • Red War: Exotic Arms
    • Red War: Exotic Chests
    • Red War: Exotic Legs
    • Forsaken: Exotic Armor
    • Shadowkeep: Exotic Armor
    • Beyond Light: Exotic Armor
    • The Witch Queen: Exotic Armor
    • Lightfall: Exotic Armor focusing will be coming in a future Season!
  • Requires ownership of the associated expansion as well as having previously acquired all armor pieces within the engram for your class
  • This process will cost:
    • 1 Exotic Engram
    • 30,000 Glimmer
    • 1 Ascendant Shard

• Exotic Focusing Tier 2
  • Focus Specific Exotic Armor for high cost.
  • Requires ownership of the associated expansion as well as having previously acquired that piece of armor.
  • This has a higher cost:
    • 1 Exotic engram
    • 60,000 Glimmer
    • 3 Ascendant Shards
    • 1 Exotic Cipher

Raid Triumphs

Boosted Triumphs are being added to legacy content with Season 21, with randomly dropped Exotic weapons to bring them up to modern Destiny 2 standards. The additions are as follows:

Trials of Osiris Introductory Quest Update

The following changes have been made to the introductory quest for Trials:

• Step 1
  • Complete your Competitive placement matches (helps to get players introduced to 3v3 and revive game modes in an environment where they will be matched against similarly skilled opponents).
  • Get 50 kills in Competitive.
  • Raise your Power level.
• Step 2
  • Pick up a Trials Passage.
  • Play a game of Trials.
  • Win 1 round of Trials.
  • Get 1 elimination in Trials.
  • Reward
    • A roll of the Astral Horizon Trials Shotgun!

Full Season Details

If you wish to read more about this upcoming Season, including new Trials rewards and more, you can do so via the official Bungie Season 21 blog post.