Free content back built for everyone but especially new players.
Will have a number of small but exciting changes, touching content many players haven't though about in several years.

Onslaught

3 player wave defense activity
Maps include a modified version of the Midtown map, as well as "a few other locations"
Enemy races depend on the map, Midtown is Hive and Fallen, Taken show up on other maps
Witness' forces are trying to keep us pinned down in Sol, prevent us from entering the heart
Defend the "ADU" (advanced defense unit), a structure with a health bar. If the health runs out, the activity is over.
When enemies are killed, they give "Scrap". Scrap is distributed to each player equally, but each player has their own wallet to spend from.
ADU lets you build defenses, and upgrade them up to two times with Scrap.
- Turrets
- Tripwires
- Decoys (sweeper bots)
Some enemies drop "ADU batteries", which can be thrown at the ADU within 30 seconds to heal it and grant scrap, or if the health is already full to get 3x the amount of scrap.
There's two variants, a normal mode and a "challenge" mode. Normal mode has 10 waves, challenge mode goes up to 50.
- Challenge mode has an additional difficulty tier, which will bring enemies up to GM difficulty, and apply Extinguish (team wipes send you to orbit)
- The normal mode is matchmade, potentially one or both of the challenge mode difficulties will be as well.
Waves are in sets of 10. They either involve, enemies spawning into the map and sieging the ADU, or teleporting to a pyramid ship and completing a short encounter. After 10 waves you teleport to the ship and kill a boss, get some loot, the ADU moves to a new part of the map, and the difficulty goes up.
- The boss will have a randomly selected augment to help you kill the boss faster. The boss doesn't have immunity phases, but will be hard to kill without doing the augments.
- You get one chest normally, two chests at later waves of the challenge base difficulty, and two chests much earlier in the challenge GM difficulty. Chests always drop a weapon.
- Every few waves you are given a 30 second buy phase, which is the only time when you're allowed to purchase and upgrade defenses.
Defenses stay active where they were even after the ADU moves.
Certain waves will have "Augments", like "Skybombers", "Demolitionists".
- "Skybombers", spawns yellow health enemies around the map further away from the ADU.
- "Demolitionists", large tanky bosses spawn to attack the ADU.
- "Spike Mines", fallen mines spawn away from the ADU and must be defused.
- "Tormentor", spawns one giant tormentor near the ADU.
Certain waves have a secondary objective like a speed constraint, completing it will grant an ammo crate.

Hall of Champions

New social place, in the back areas of the tower
Landing area is decorated with all of the out of season event decorations used in the tower
Main area is a large, grand hall, full of chests, holographic statues of Shaxx, large statues of guardians, and Shaxx at the very end standing in front of a containment device holding a flowing black substance.
- By obtaining both Superblack keys from the vendors (mentioned below), you can interact with the black substance to obtain the Superblack shader from D1
Social space has several sets of chests, grouped according to class.
- Chests work much like 30th anniversary, requiring a certain vendor rep (Hype) and costing vendor currency (Trophies of Bravery), dropping armor.
- One chest is dedicated to dropping weapons, costs just Trophies of Bravery
They're bringing back "Gift of the Thunder Gods", drops hard cap gear, free for all players
Players can interact with the holographic statues of Shaxx to enable weapon attunement for the weapon that the statue is holding. Attunement makes it more likely for that specific weapon to drop.
- Certain Shaxx statues are locked, which will be unlocked by completing the weapon quests mentioned below.

Vendors

Shaxx gives vendor rep rewards, which include Trophies of Bravery, armor chest unlocks, an Enhancement Shard, an Enhancement Prism, an Exotic engram, and the "Superblack Key Alpha" as the last reward. He also offers bounties.
- Superblack Key Alpha: "This one of two keys needed to unlock Superblack Containment at the rear of the Hall of Champions. The other key, Superblack Key Omega, is held by Arcite 99-40. Complete weekly weapon quests to unlock."
Arcite (a redjack) gives weapon quests (seemingly will be weekly), bounties,
- Weapon quests have objectives like "Defeat combatants with precision damage using Sniper Rifles anywhere in the system. Bonus progress granted in Onslaught. OR Defeat combatants in raids and dungeons using Sniper Rifles."
- Weapon quests drop curated "limited edition" versions of their corresponding weapons (extremely good roll, not necessarily the god roll), will unlock the weapon to drop in general, unlock Attunement for that weapon, and give a boost of rep.

BRAVE Arsenal

The armor is based off of the D2Y1 parade armor
There is a low chance that any BRAVE Arsenal weapon will drop as a "limited edition" variant, with a unique ornament, and 2 perks in the 3rd and 4th column.
- These "limited edition" variants will be unobtainable once The Final Shape launches.
- The limited edition ornaments are unshadable, but can be taken off to be able to shade the base ornament.
The BRAVE Arsenal weapons will be enhanceable once The Final Shape launches.
Legendary ornaments for the original guns will be applicable to the Onslaught versions.

Perks

Origin Trait - Indomitability: Final blows grant grenade energy when playing a light subclass, melee energy when playing a dark subclass
Magnificent Howl: The number of precision final blows before reloading affects the total rounds granted with increased range and damage. Precision final blows with Magnificent Howl active extend the effect for additional rounds.
- 1 precision kill seems to translate into 1 buffed bullet after reload. Damage buff seems to be 50% buff to precision hits.
Last Stand (name will be different on release): Weapon final blows grant bonus damage. Melee and grenade final blows grant a larger damage bonus that can stack
- Damage buff on weapon kill is 10% for 6 seconds, buff from ability kill is unknown
Master of Arms: Kills with any weapon improve this weapon's damage for a short time
- 15% damage buff for 6 seconds

Kinetic Slot

The Mountaintop (Kinetic Special Grenade Launcher)
- Will no longer one shot kill in PvP, even with a direct hit
- Frame: Micro-Missile Frame - This weapon fires a high-speed projectile in a straight line and deals reduced self-damage. Move faster with this weapon equipped.
  - If you fire at your feet, you will rocket jump into the air.
- Column 3: Impulse Amplifier, Auto-Loading Holster
- Column 4: Vorpal Weapon, Frenzy
Blast Furnace (Kinetic Pulse Rifle)
- Now rolls barrels instead of scopes, the new version comes by default with the Rasmussen ISA scope.
- Frame: Aggressive
- Column 3: Headseeker
- Column 4: Last Stand
Hung Jury (Kinetic Scout Rifle)
- Frame: Precision
- Column 3: Rewind Rounds
- Column 4: Precision Instrument
Succession (Kinetic Sniper Rifle)
- Frame: Aggressive
- Column 3: Discord
- Column 4: Recombination
Midnight Coup (Kinetic Hand Cannon)
- Frame: Adaptive
- Column 3: Explosive Payload, Firefly
- Column 4: Kinetic Tremors

Energy Slot

The Recluse (Void Submachine Gun)
- Frame: Lightweight
- Column 3: Dynamic Sway Reduction, Feeding Frenzy
- Column 4: Master of Arms
Luna's Howl (Solar Hand Cannon)
- Frame: Precision (but 140 rpm)
- Column 3: Slideshot, Heal Clip
- Column 4: Magnificent Howl, Kill Clip
Elsie's Rifle (based on The Stranger's Rifle) (Void Pulse Rifle)
- Frame: High-Impact
- Column 3: Zen Moment
- Column 4: Desperado
- In an unknown column: Rewind Rounds
Forbearance (Arc Special Grenade Launcher)
- Frame: Wave Frame
- Column 3: Disruption Break
- Column 4: Chain Reaction

Heavy Slot

Edge Transit (Void Heavy Grenade Launcher)
- "One of the strongest heavy grenade launchers in the game"
- Frame: Adaptive
- Column 3: Cascade Point, Auto-Loading Holster
- Column 4: Frenzy, Deconstruct
Falling Guillotine (Void Sword)
- Frame: Vortex
- Column 3: Chain Reaction
- Column 4: Eager Edge
- In an unknown column: Sword Logic
Hammerhead (Void Machine Gun)
- Frame: Adaptive
- Column 3: Rampage
- Column 4: Killing Tally

Whisper Returns

Whisper will be returning, with a crafted version of Whisper of the Worm
Secrets and chests have been shuffled around, will need to find them again
On normal difficulty, the mission will have a 40 minute timer to be more accessible.
On legend difficulty, which is where most of the missions and quests will be located, the timer is 20 minutes.
The boss fight seems to be different somehow, but they're not explicit about how
A new ship to earn

Craftable Whisper

3rd column perks will drop from a 3 week quest completable in legend mode, instead of unlocking with just weapon levels.
The catalyst will drop from the legendary difficulty
Reserves are going from 18 to 24
Barrel and Magazine are selectable
Stock perks are also available
3rd column is Mulligan, Field Prep, No Distractions, Eddy Current
The only catalyst option is Whispered Breathing

Guardian Customization

Will be able to modify the appearance of existing guardians
You will be able to change all appearance options including body type, face, hair, and markings. You will not be able to change your guardian's origin (Human, Exo, Awoken).

Patch 7.3.6

Crucible Game Modes

Checkmate will be back in Crucible Labs, returning to a form closer to its initial version:
- 30% penalty on ability cooldowns
- No starting Special ammo
- Melee damage will not be increased, it will take 3 base melees to kill
- Primary weapon optimal TTK will be shifted to allow for a more tactical sandbox, in line with the original goal of Checkmate.
A new modifier, Hardware, will be tested in labs
- No abilities, only weapons. Special and Heavy ammo will come from crates located around the map.

PvP Sandbox

Auto rifles are outperforming the competition in the mid-range, with Precision frames in particular as outliers. This is not just a problem with Prosecutor, but many Precision frames.
- Precision Auto Rifles: Decreased base damage by 5%
Hand Cannons
- Precisions: Increased base damage by 6%
- Adaptives: Increased body shot damage by 1%, crit damage by 4%
  - This will give Adaptive Hand Cannons a more forgiving range cushion, and fix an issue where Explosive Payload wouldn't kill in 3 crits against some Resilience levels.
Pulse Rifles
- Rapid Fires: Increased body shot damage by 3.5%, crit damage by 1%
- Lightweights: Increased body shot damage by 6%, crit damage by 3%
- Adaptives: Increased body shot damage by 5%, crit damage be 2%
Scout Rifles
- Rapid-Fires: Increased base damage by 2%
Bows
- Lightweights: Increased base damage by 6% (Wish-Ender and Le Monarque are not affected by this change)
Exotic weapons
- Sunshot: Increased critical hit damage against players by 11% to allow for 3 crit kills
- The Last Word: Increased base damage by 6% to allow for 3 crit kills
General changes
- With increased resiliance to critical hits, being flinched off target when using Primary weapons feels especially punishing.
  - Reduced flinch taken by all Primary weapons by 15%

Miscellaneous

There will be a title attached to Into the Light, "Brave"
You'll now be able to skip the game tutorial
- You'll have the choice of subclass to be granted after skipping the tutorial, from any of the light subclasses.
One more in-game name change will be granted
A "loot explosion" from Into the Light chests is mentioned, unclear what that is or where it shows up.
There is a prompt next to the locked Shaxx statues to "Collect Grimoire Card", unclear what this does at this point.

April 30th Release

April 30

Andy