Bungie's latest This Week in Destiny confirms Arms Week III launches January 27 and runs through February 3. The event centers entirely on Bows, introducing two new weapons alongside a returning roster of legacy options and three Volatile mods built for the archetype.
Arms Week III Event Details
New Weapons
Two weapons join the Arms Week rotation this time around.
King Orfeo is a Precision Frame Arc Combat Bow. The frame offers consistent accuracy and damage output suited for players who prioritize landing headshots.
The Heron is an Aggressive Frame Void Glaive, giving Guardians a melee option to pair with ranged bow gameplay.
Both weapons drop during the event period.
Returning Legacy Bows
Ada-1 in the Shooting Range will stock the following legacy Bows during the event:
- Raconteur (Season of the Lost)
- Whistler's Whim (Trials of Osiris lightweight kinetic)
- Lunulata-4B (Season 17 lightweight Stasis)
- Anamnesis (Void lightweight)
- Hush (former Gambit pinnacle, now Precision Frame Solar)
- Lethophobia (Season 23 lightweight Void)
- Tripwire Canary (Season 19 lightweight Arc)
- Under Your Skin (Season 16 Precision Frame Void, craftable)
These are original variants without the tiered weapon system. Craftable weapons like Under Your Skin still offer the chance to obtain red border versions for pattern completion.
Volatile Bow Mods
Three new Volatile mods work exclusively with Bows during Arms Week III:
Shattershafts splits arrows and bolts into multiple projectiles after traveling a short distance, turning single shots into spread patterns.
Tungsten Bowstring increases damage at the cost of draw time and handling. A fully drawn shot releases an elemental explosion matching the weapon's element. Kinetic weapons release a burst matching the Guardian's equipped Super element instead.
Jumpshot triggers when drawing the weapon while airborne. It grants increased damage, faster draw time, improved target acquisition, and dramatically increased movement speed. These effects last until the player touches the ground. The effect activates once per jump and resets after briefly landing.
All three mods are temporary and stop working when Arms Week ends on February 3.
Crucible Playlists
Two PvP playlists run during the event.
Medieval Hardware is a 6v6 match with strict weapon restrictions. Only Bows, Glaives, and Swords are permitted. Praxic Blade users may find an opportunity here given the melee-friendly ruleset.
Rumble Hardware follows the same weapon restrictions in a free-for-all format.
Both playlists share the same modifiers: Volatile mod weapons are enabled, while abilities and Supers are disabled. Only weapons are allowed.
Weekend Updates
Trials of Osiris
The Trials map rotates to Pacifica starting Friday, January 16. Cataphract stays as the featured weapon reward for Guardians still hunting that drop.
Portal Activity Bonuses
Heavy weapon damage and heavy ammo drops are increased across all Portal activities this week. The modifier doesn't affect activity scores, so players can still hit high score thresholds and earn top-tier loot while benefiting from the damage boost.
Anyone still farming Portal content will find this a good week to grind.
Recent Patch Notes
Recent patches addressed several issues across the game.
Renegades Campaign: Fixes for problems involving saving and maintaining character progress throughout the campaign.
Lawless Frontier: Soft-locking issues have been corrected, preventing players from getting stuck during this content.
Equilibrium Dungeon: Combat against the Harrow Apprentice encounter has been tuned for more consistent behavior.
Earlier patches also fixed lobby balancing issues, extended timers in certain missions, and increased revive counts in higher difficulty activities.
Game2Give 2026
The Bungie Foundation's Game2Give 2026 campaign is live and already past $800,000 in donations after just four days.
The campaign runs through January 29. Funds support the Little Lights program for pediatric patients and partnerships with Make-A-Wish. Current totals allow the foundation to onboard three new hospitals to Little Lights and grant 15 wishes through Make-A-Wish.
Donors earn exclusive in-game rewards with a 90s anime aesthetic: new emblems, a ship, a shader, a Sparrow, and a Ghost shell. Donations can be made through Game2Give.com.
New Player Guide Expansion
Bungie added a new section to the New Player Guide covering recommended content paths. The update is aimed at players who feel lost following the story after jumping into Destiny 2 for the first time.
The guide lives on Bungie's help website, with more sections planned.
Known Issues
Player Support flagged the following active issues:
Visual and Cosmetic
- Hunter Polar Wolf helmet doesn't display ears when the hood is down
- Martlet Pulse Rifle shows incorrect colors with black shaders applied
- Covert Ranger Cloak ornament doesn't move properly with character model physics
Gameplay
- Some Exotic armors don't show the New Gear Armor damage resistance stat increase when previewing the artifact. Bungie confirms the Exotics apply their damage resistance correctly; this is purely a display bug.
- The Dawning Oven remains in some player inventories after the event ended
- Vanguard Alerts: Challenges weekly objective description incorrectly references general activity challenges. The objective progresses with Vanguard Alert activity challenges or Grandmaster Vanguard Alerts.
- Renegades campaign activities and Lawless Frontier Jobs default to Normal difficulty. Players can manually set Expert difficulty when launching for better rewards. Job difficulty doesn't affect Legendary campaign completion triumphs.
- Players hit an endless black screen when launching into the Exodus Garden 2A Expert Lost Sector from the Cosmodrome flag
Event Calendar
Bungie laid out the following seasonal events:
- Arms Week III: January 27 through February 3
- Guardian Games: March
- Call to Arms: April
- Iron Banner and Heavy Metal: Dates to be announced
Community feedback has called out Iron Banner's limited appearances this season. Players are hoping for a February return.
Marathon Preview Announced
Marathon will have an open preview weekend before launch, letting all players try the game. No specific date has been announced, but the preview is expected within the next two months.
Bungie also shared details on the Cryo Archive, the first floor of the UEC Marathon ship. This area will be locked at launch. Once accessible, players will solve security measures resembling raid mechanics to breach frozen vaults. Reaching the seventh vault unlocks a challenge against a powerful entity.
