What's Coming July 15th
Edge of Fate changes how Destiny 2 works at a fundamental level. This expansion takes you outside the solar system for the first time to explore Kepler. But more importantly, you're getting massive changes to power progression, armor systems, and how stats work across the entire game.
This is Bungie's shift toward smaller expansions instead of massive yearly drops. Don't let the size fool you, though - the system changes affect everyone from day one players to veterans with thousands of hours.
Here's what you need to know to hit the ground running when Edge of Fate goes live.
Getting Ready: What to Do This Week
Clean Out Your Vault (But Don't Go Crazy)
Your vault needs space for new weapons and armor, but don't nuke the whole thing. Yes, new weapons get up to 10% damage bonuses, but that doesn't make your current gear worthless. Top-tier weapons will still perform well even without the bonus.
Try to clear about 100 slots from your 700-item vault capacity. Start with these:
- Delete duplicates first. You don't need 10 copies of the same gun. Keep one good PvE roll and one PvP roll, ditch the rest.
- Craftable weapons you never use. If you haven't touched them in months, you probably won't miss them. You can always recraft later if needed.
- Weapons collecting dust. That exotic you pulled from the collections and never equipped? It can go back to the collections.
- Low-tier armor pieces. Keep your best stat rolls, delete the mediocre ones taking up space.
Stock Up on Materials (The Smart Way)
You don't need to max out every resource, but having extras makes life easier when new content drops.
Ascendant Alloys drop from Master Wellspring, Expert Arena Breach Executable, and the Tome of Want.
Enhancement Prisms come naturally while farming GMs. Slap a Prism Harvest mod on your ghost to boost drops.
Exotic Ciphers are trickier. Xur's weekly Xenology quest is reliable. But here's a secret: you can claim forgotten rewards from old season passes.
The Season Pass Trick
Go to the official website and check the Episode Revenant rewards page. You can claim anything you forgot to grab when it was live. That's just one season back, but there's a community extension called "Season Pass Pass" for Firefox that lets you go way further back. If you can set it up, you can claim Ascendant Shards, Exotic Ciphers, Enhancement Cores, and especially Deep Sight Harmonizers from seasons ago. Those Deep Sight Harmonizers are particularly valuable since they're rare and help finish craftable weapon patterns.
Finish Weapon Patterns Worth Keeping
Don't craft all of them, but these weapons stay relevant even with new gear bonuses:
- Hezen Vengeance
- Corrective Measure
- Scatter Signal
- The Call
- Aberrant Action
- Lost Signal
- Praedyth's Revenge
These cover most situations you'll face in Edge of Fate content.
Skip Exotic Hoarding This Time
Normally, you'd save exotic engrams to decrypt when new content drops. Don't bother this time. Cryptarch ranks are gone, and new exotic armor only comes from beating the legendary campaign. Your hoarded engrams won't help with anything.
Turn in what you have now instead of letting them sit.
Grab "Illegal" Armor Rolls While You Can
Edge of Fate introduces six armor archetypes with preset stat priorities. Some stat combinations that exist now won't be possible later.
If you want specific stat spreads for future builds, farm them now at Failsafe in the HELM. Use ghost mods to push stats toward what you want.
Bounty Prep (If You Have Time)
Bounty prep is tedious but gives immediate XP for your season pass and artifact when Edge of Fate launches. Complete bounties now, turn them in after launch.
Focus on weekly bounties for maximum XP:
- Variks on Europa
- Shaw Han in Cosmodrome
- Petra Venj in Dreaming City
- Hawthorne's clan bounties (you can cheese Crucible ones in private matches)
- Lectern of Enchantment on the Moon
- Eris Morn on the Moon
- Starhorse in Xur's area
- Nimbus on Neomuna
Pro tip: Set private Crucible matches to Collision mode with the lowest score. Capture one flag, get the win, complete the bounty.
Avoid Gunsmith bounties - they'll disappear and give nothing when the expansion launches.
Power Changes: Starting From Scratch
Everyone starts at power level 10 when Edge of Fate goes live. Your current power level doesn't matter, so stop wasting upgrade modules trying to hit the cap.
New Power Structure
Seasonal power works differently, too. Instead of artifact bonuses, you earn it through challenges across all activities, including PvP. No weekly limits on grinding, but seasonal power resets each season.
The new currency "Unstable Cores" lets you infuse seasonal power into existing gear, so you won't need completely new sets.
Armor 3.0: How Sets Work Now
Set Bonuses Replace Individual Pieces
New armor sets come with bonuses based on how many pieces you wear. TechX armor's 2-piece bonus gives increased kinetic damage to shields and constructs. The 4-piece creates kinetic shockwaves when you break shields or kill with kinetic damage.
New armor also provides 10% weapon damage and 15% damage resistance compared to old gear. That's significant enough to make switching worthwhile.
Six Archetypes With Fixed Stats
Every armor piece belongs to one of six archetypes. Each archetype prioritizes specific stats while the other four stay lower. However, archetype assignment is random. You might get the set bonus you want with terrible stats for your build.
Tiers Affect Your Stats
Armor comes in tiers that change your total stats:
Tier 4 gives extra mod energy, while Tier 5 lets you "tune" armor by moving stats around or adding +1 to three lower stats.
Higher-tier armor drops from harder content, so expect to grind challenging activities for the best pieces.
Exotic Armor Gets Nerfed (Mostly)
All exotic armor in Edge of Fate maxes out at tier 2, capping stats at 63. Masterworking gives +15 instead of +12, but you lose the artifice slot. If you have 66+ stat exotic pieces now, they'll likely outperform anything you can get later.
Exception: Exotic class items automatically convert to Armor 3.0 versions and get massive stat boosts, especially for Prismatic builds.
Stats: New Names, New Rules
The Six Stats Get Renamed
The six stats get new names and functions:
| Old Name | New Name | Primary Function |
|---|---|---|
| Mobility | Weapons | Reload speed, handling, damage |
| Resilience | Health | Healing from orbs, flinch resistance |
| Recovery | Class | Ability cooldowns, energy generation |
| Discipline | Grenade | Grenade cooldown and damage |
| Intellect | Super | Super cooldown and damage |
| Strength | Melee | Melee cooldown and damage |
How New Stats Work
Weapons affect reload speed, handling, and damage. Below 100, it boosts damage to minor enemies. Above 100, it increases boss damage. Combined with Super above 100, this becomes crucial for raid DPS phases.
Health increases healing from orbs and flinch resistance. Above 100, it boosts shield health and recharge rate.
Class reduces ability cooldowns and increases energy generation. Above 100, using your class ability grants an overshield.
Grenade, Super, and Melee all provide damage bonuses above 100 in both PvE and PvP.
The 200 Cap Changes Build Planning
Stats now cap at 200 instead of 100, and every single point matters. No more tier breakpoints - 81 health is better than 80 health. Going above 100 unlocks powerful effects instead of being wasted points.
This changes build priorities completely. Instead of hitting specific tier breakpoints, you can spread stats around for incremental benefits.
Kepler: Your New Playground
Beyond the Solar System
Kepler marks Destiny's first destination outside our solar system. The aesthetic leans more toward Venus than recent locations like the Pale Heart or Savathûn's Throne World.
You'll meet the House of Exile with new flying enemy types, Ionians (Golden Age human survivors), and a mysterious NPC named Loi who's apparently very far from home.
Sequence Breaking by Design
Unlike linear campaign progression, Kepler lets you break the sequence intentionally. Complete missions out of order, explore areas early, or finish the campaign faster than intended. Bungie built this flexibility into the destination's design.
Three New Movement Abilities
Instead of new subclasses, you get three traversal tools:
- Matter Spark turns you into an arc energy ball for exploring new areas. Upgrades can make it infinite-use and add combat applications.
- Matter Morph creates platforms in midair for vertical movement and puzzle-solving.
- Relocator is a cannon that taps into Fallen teleportation networks for fast travel around Kepler.
All three can be upgraded for combat effectiveness beyond just movement.
New Activities and Systems
Three-Player Wave Activity
Similar to Vex Incursions or Wellspring, this new activity pits three players against waves of enemies and bosses around Kepler. You'll use the new traversal abilities for unique mechanics, and completion gives chances at new exotic armor.
Fair warning: it's technically time-limited, so it might not stick around permanently.
The Portal Replaces the Director
The confusing Director gets replaced by the Portal system:
- Solo Ops: Single-player content and matchmaking
- Fireteam Ops: Group activities
- Pinnacles: Weekly high-level challenges
- Crucible: PvP organization
This shows clear rewards, bonus drop availability, and matchmaking options. Previously released content like The Coil and Savathûn's Spire gets integrated here too.
Difficulty Modifiers Change Rewards
Activities now range from Normal (easiest) to Ultimate (hardest) with matching enemy power levels.
Difficulty modifiers increase challenge and improve rewards substantially. Positive modifiers make things easier but reduce rewards. Avantgard restricts you to new gear only.
Higher difficulties drop better weapon tiers:
Tier 5 weapons feature unique visual effects and maximum enhancement potential.
Shooting Range Finally Arrives
The Tower gets a proper shooting range where you can:
- Spawn different enemy types including Champions
- Toggle between stationary and attacking enemies
- Test damage numbers that match real activities
- Experiment with supers and abilities
- Accurate damage testing
- Build optimization
- Weapon comparison
- DPS calculations
New Weapons and Exotic Gear
Three New Exotic Weapons
Precision hits and kills overcharge the alternate mode for lightning strikes or stasis explosions with crystal generation.
Fires spread void projectiles from the hip. ADS condenses into a powerful round that marks enemies. Precision hits grant true sight and invisibility.
Increases damage with precision hits until you die. Returns with classic feel and animation canceling.
New Weapon Types
// New Weapon Categories
- Rocket Pulse Rifles: Special ammo, solid damage
- Long Bows: Heavy damage, overpenetration
- Spread Hand Cannons: Shotgun-like close range
- Crossbows: Legendary heavy with recoverable ammoExotic Armor for Each Class
Buffs Throwing Hammer builds. Rapid solar kills or fire sprite collection grants Forgemaster. Perfect hammer recalls create explosions and extend the buff.
Works like Getaway Artist for Song of the Flame builds. Helion projectiles deal more damage at distance and explode into scorch shrapnel.
Throws threaded spikes at tangles, detonating them and returning both the tangle and spike immediately. Great synergy with Whirling Maelstrom.
Seasonal Artifact and Meta Shifts
Solar, Strand, and Stasis Focus
This season's artifact heavily favors Solar, Strand, and Stasis elements.
Notable solar perks include rapid precision hits with solar weapons granting Radiant, and damage while Radiant, releasing scorching projectiles. Stasis gets Frost Armor synergies, while Strand focuses on suspension and tangle generation.
Featured Gear Bonuses
New weapons get damage bonuses based on tier:
Weapon Tier Bonuses
| Tier | Damage Bonus | Visual Effects | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 | 2% bonus damage | Standard | Basic activities |
| Tier 3 | 6% bonus damage | Enhanced glow | Challenging content |
| Tier 5 | 10% bonus damage | Unique effects | Ultimate difficulty |
Featured exotics (including older ones like Graviton Lance) count as new gear and get maximum bonuses regardless of when you acquired them. Plan your builds around the featured list for maximum effectiveness during the legendary campaign and early endgame.
Prismatic Changes
Several Prismatic aspects lose fragment slots, including Consecration for Titans and Helion for Warlocks. Set up your four most important fragments now and accept that your fifth might disappear.
Launch Week Strategy
Key Dates
Important Launch Dates
Expansion launches with new campaign, Kepler destination, and system overhauls
Contest mode raid launch • World First race • Emblem rewards
Raid Preparation
Completing the legendary campaign gives enough power for raid entry, but you'll want good gear and artifact perks for contest mode. The tight timeline between launch and raid means efficient progression through new systems.
Day One Priorities
- Turn in prepared bounties immediately for artifact progression
- Start the legendary campaign with loadouts built around featured gear for damage bonuses
- Focus on understanding new systems rather than rushing through content
- Farm high-tier gear from challenging activities
The power reset levels the playing field, but knowledge of the new systems gives you the real advantage.
Advanced Tips for Week One
Resource Management Timeline
Finish vault cleanup, material farming, and pattern completion. Grab impossible stat combinations and set up bounties.
Convert deprecated currencies, claim old season pass rewards, and finish exotic farming.
Turn in bounties, start legendary campaign with featured gear, prioritize system understanding over speed.
Farm high-tier armor and weapons, learn new Portal system, prepare for raid contest mode.
Build Planning for New Systems
With 200 stat caps and incremental benefits, consider spreading investments across multiple stats instead of focusing on traditional breakpoints. High-stat existing exotics might outperform new drops initially, but armor set bonuses could provide greater long-term benefits.
Plan around Solar, Strand, and Stasis emphasis in the seasonal artifact. Solar weapon and ability combinations look particularly strong based on available perks.
Getting the Most from Day One
Edge of Fate represents the biggest system changes Destiny 2 has seen since launch. The power reset puts everyone on equal footing, but understanding these new systems gives you a massive head start.
Don't stress about perfect prep - the game will be different enough that adaptation matters more than perfection. Focus on understanding the new armor archetypes, stat functions, and featured gear bonuses. These fundamentals will serve you better than any specific loadout recommendation.