• Last call for emblem entries in the competition, they are due by 12AM PT tonight.
• Prize week is starting, each day there is a different prize to win, anyone donating more than $1 will receive an entry to win the prize for that day. The prizes are as follows:
  • July 13: Signed Lightfall Collector's Edition
  • July 14: Destiny Plush Bundle
  • July 15: Drifter Collectible Bundle
  • July 16: Lord Shaxx Statue
  • July 17: Variks Statue
  • July 18: Witch Queen Statue
  • July 19: Sony PlayStation Game Code Bundle
• Each day you enter, you will also receive an additional entry into the grand prize: a signed Lightfall Collector's Edition, a signed The Final Shape Collector's Edition, a copy of The Final Shape Deluxe Edition, and a PlayStation game code bundle.

• In the mid-season update releasing on 7/18, the following changes will be made:
  • Fixed a few out of bounds spots in various maps.
  • Whisper of Chains: Reduced damage reduction in PvP from 15% -> 5%.

• In Season of the Deep, they made a number of adjustments to Control and Clash respawn logic.
• Respawn points are evaluated on a number of factors: proximity and sightline to enemy players and owned objectives, as well as proximity to friendly players and owned objectives.
• Previously in objective-based modes, friendly objectives were were strongly weighted as positive, and enemy sightlines/proximity as negative.
• To help players get back into action quicker on larger maps, they reduced the weight of friendly objectives and enemy sightlines, and increased the importance of friendly players.
• These changes seemed safe, but it's impossible to know for sure until implemented in the live game.
• After the changes went live, it was shown that enemy sightlines was too deprioritized, and that players were often spawning in front of enemies and being spawn trapped. This led to a sharp increase in matches ending in Mercies.
• In the first hotfix after the mid-Season patch, they will be increasing the influence of enemy sightlines and proximity to what it was before, hopefully keeping some of the benefits of the changes without allowing for easy spawn camping.

• Also in Season of the Deep, they made a change such that competitive match making rating (MMR) is now calculated based on both your current rank and current skill level, such that climbing the competitive ladder feels better while maintaining competitive integrity and match fairness.
• If you are near your target skill rating, you will instead match with players at your current rank.
• They are limiting how far above or below your target skill rating you are allowed to match, for example players with skill rankings matching Ascendant players can never match with anyone below Adept, regardless of your current rank. The same applies the other way too, you will never match with someone more than one major rank above your target skill rating.
• They are considering the following changes for a future season:
  • Adjusting the rank -> skill limiting so that it doesn't limit you at all if you are above your target skill
  • Loosening up on the division points throttling done when you are too far above/below your target skill.

• Several months ago they outlined a feature they would be implementing, Dynamic Skill Ranges. This feature was designed to equalize matchmaking pools during low population times, or in low population skill brackets.
• This feature was built in Season 19, but there were issues preventing its testing for a long while.
• They found an opportunity to test it at the start of Iron Banner a few weeks ago, and it promptly broke all matchmaking, so they turned it back off.
• They are fixing the bugs they found and are hoping to redeploy it again in a future season.

• See below for the winner of the community skin vote:

• When designing catalysts, the team isn't aiming to create something you need to get, but something to entice you to let your weapon achieve its full potential.
• The main thing they wanted to facilitate with the catalyst is getting the player into a rhythm with precision hits. Refilling the magazine when collecting a shard accomplishes that, letting you continue ADSing to chain precision damage.
• Adding overflow with the catalyst lets you extend that even further, especially when picking off red bars in between damaging stronger targets and collecting the shards when they return to you.
• Having the ability to slow targets with a primary weapon in PvP is already a bit strong, so they tuned the perk so that a single target would be dead or close to it by the time the slow activates. Of course, switching targets allows you to chain this slow to other players.
• The perk works with all stasis shards, so if you're running a stasis subclass you should rarely have to reload.
• They have heard the feedback on the base weapon, and have a few buffs on the way.
• They were cautious with the timing window for Creeping Attrition, but are looking to adjust that in the future.

• Solstice begins 7/18.
• This year, they worked on the enemy density and overall difficulty of Bonfire Bash, so it will be a bit more difficult.
• They're also introducing two new buffs:
  • Firebound: When close to a fireteam member in Bonfire Bash, gain increased Recovery and Super regeneration
  • Flare: Rapidly defeat combatants in Bonfire Bash or Vanguard Ops to unleash waves of paracausal fire around you, dealing damage to nearby combatants
• The solstice armor seems to work the same as it did last year:
  • Earn Silver Leaves by completing activities throughout the game
  • Transform Silver Leaves into Silver Ash by completing the Bonfire Bash activity
  • Spend Silver Ash to reroll armor stats from the armor mod screen.
  • Earn Kindling by completing Solstice Event Challenges.
  • Spend Kindling to upgrade your armor stat roll potential, each piece of armor can be upgraded three times.
  • You only have to upgrade armor once per armor slot, all duplicate armor pieces will receive the same upgrades.
• The new Solstice armor sets feature both free and paid glows, like previous years.
• Here are the armor sets:
• Here is a preview of the Strand rocket launcher that will be earnable during Solstice

Did we miss anything? Let us known on Twitter or in the #tips channel on our Discord.

Sources:

• This Week In Destiny - 07/13/2023