Destiny 2 Weapon sunsetting

After months of speculation, Bungie finally shed light on how weapon retirement will actually work. In a nutshell:

This definition comes from Bungie’s May 14th’s TWAB, a post that also gave us more information about their plans for the game. Yet my biggest question remained:

When is this going to impact my favorite weapons?

Today we will answer that question as we dive deep into Weapon sunsetting. We will also cover armor retirement and explain how sunsetting, in general, will work moving forward.

Weapon retirement in Destiny 2: The complete list per Season

The table below should help you better visualize when some of the best weapons in D2 will be affected by this. If a weapon is listed within a particular season, it means it will be retired that season included.

Example: Recluse is listed as retired/sunsetted in Season 12. This means Recluse will only be able to go as high as Season 11’s Max Power Level.

Season	Pinnacle (and Ritual) weapons		Other weapons
Nov 10, 2020 Season 12: Beyond Light ► Weapons and armor from Seasons 1-8	► Strikes:		► All Black Armory weapons, including:
		Loaded Question | Fusion Rifle		Hammerhead | Machine Gun
		Oxygen SR3 | Scout Rifle		Galliard-42 XN7568 | Auto Rifle
		Wendigo GL3 | Grenade Launcher		Blast Furnace | Pulse Rifle
		Edgewise | Machine Gun		Kindled Orchid | Hand Cannon
	► Crucible:			Stryker's Sure-Hand | Sword
		Luna's Howl | Hand Cannon	► All Menagerie weapons, including:
		Not Forgotten | Hand Cannon		Beloved | Sniper Rifle
		Redrix's Broadsword | Pulse Rifle		Austringer | Hand Cannon
		The Mountaintop | Grenade Launcher		Drang (Baroque) | Sidearm
		Recluse | Submachine Gun	► All Gambit and Reckoning weapons, including*:
		Revoker | Sniper Rifle		Spare Rations | Hand Cannon
		Randy's Throwing Knive | Scout Rifle		Gnawing Hunger* | Assault Rifle
	► Gambit:		► Also:
		Breakneck | Assault Rifle		Mindbender's Ambition | Shotgun
		21% Delirium | Machine Gun		Bygones | Pulse Rifle
		Hush | Combat Bow	► All Iron Banner weapons*.
		Exit Strategy | Submachine Gun	► All Year 1 Escalation protocol weapons.
			► All Moon weapons.
Winter 2020 Season 13 ► Weapons and armor from Seasons 9	► Strikes:		► All Obelisk weapons, including:
		Buzzard | Side Arm		Steelfeather Repeater | Assault Rifle
	► Crucible:			Breachlight | Sidearm
		Komodo-4FR | Linear Fusion Rifle		Martyr's Retribution | Grenade Launcher
	► Gambit:			Perfect Paradox | Shotgun
		Python | Shotgun	► World drops:
				The Old Fashioned | Hand Cannon
				Last Hope | Sidearm
Spring 2021 Season 14 ► Weapons and armor from Seasons 10	► Iron Banner:		► All Trials of Osiris weapons, including:
		Point of the Stag | Combat Bow		Astral Horizon | Shotgun
	► Hidden Quest:			The Summoner | Assault Rifle
		Felwinter's Lie | Shotgun		Eye of Sol | Sniper Rifle
			► World drops:
				Dire Promise | Hand Cannon
				Interference VI | Grenade Launcher
			► All Seventh Seraph weapons.
Summer 2021 Season 15 ► Weapons and armor from Seasons 11			► All Last Wish raid weapons, including:
				Sacred Provenance | Pulse Rifle
				Ancient Gospel | Hand Cannon
				Omniscient Eye | Sniper Rifle
			► All Garden of Salvation raid weapons, including:
				The Supremacy | Sniper Rifle
			► World drops:
				Truthteller | Grenade Launcher
			► All Umbral and Exodus weapons, including:
				Cold Denial | Pulse Rifle
				Falling Guillotine | Sword
				IKELOS_SMG_v1.0.2 | Submachine Gun
				IKELOS_SR_v1.0.2 | Sniper Rifle
			► All Prophecy dungeon weapons.

It is worth noting that weapon retirement will only affect endgame content where Power Level matters (which is less than a third of all the content available in the game). Yet, weapon retirement will still significantly shift the game’s meta. Currently, some of the best PVE and PVP weapons are Pinnacles that will be sunsetted in just a few weeks.

If you’re serious about endgame content, you have to start searching for decent replacements now.

About re-issued weapons…

Re-issued Weapons: Some weapons in the list above have an asterisk next to them (*). This means they have been re-issued. Re-issued weapons remain exactly the same as before but have a higher Power level cap. However, whatever god roll you already have from before will keep the same old Power Level Cap, not the new re-issued one.

I’m not one to rant, but the way Bungie keeps re-issuing weapons is worrisome. Many warned this could happen:

“Bungie is retiring our weapons to force us to grind for the same thing all over again”.

Bungie keeps saying weapon sunsetting will give them more freedom to create amazing weapons without having to worry they’ll need to keep them balanced forever (and then be forced to nerf them, as was the case for several Pinnacle weapons).

Pinnacle weapons: The ones we will miss the most…

I want to believe Bungie, but re-issuing weapons as they did with Gnawing Hunger and some Iron Banner weapons is not a good sign.

Absolutely nothing was changed.

No new perks, fine-tuned stats, or anything. They simply slapped a different logo to the thumbnail and increased the Power Cap. This is not what weapon sunsetting should be. I do hope this was an exception and that Bungie will indeed surprise us with amazing new weapons this Fall…

A word about Exotics…

Some of our favorite Legendary weapons will be retired soon, but fortunately, Exotic weapons will not be subject to sunsetting. Not yet at least…

Anarchy shall remain one of the best PVE weapons for a little longer

This means you will be able to continue using your favorite Exotic weapons in end-game content and challenging activities for the foreseeable future. This makes the Top Tier Exotics even more relevant, and a priority, if you don’t have them yet.

The state of Combat bows is a great example. Most of the best bows in Destiny 2 will be retired when Beyond Light launches, and that makes the Exotics, such as Trinity Ghoul, even more appealing.

And this is an excellent move from Bungie. Losing all those difficult to obtain Pinnacle weapons will be hard to swallow. By excluding Exotics, Bungie is telling players that they somewhat respect their time and dedication. After all, some of the best Exotic weapons and Catalysts are locked behind difficult quests that can take several hours to complete.

Armor sunsetting in Destiny 2: The exceptions

Unfortunately, Sunsetting will also impact armor. This means all the armor pieces you spent massive resources on to Masterwork will also only have a one-year lifespan. More importantly, all armor from Season 1 to 8 will suddenly become obsolete with the release of Beyond Light this Fall.

The decision to sunset weapons has been criticized. But the decision to sunset armor, however, has been widely rejected by the community. It simply makes less sense. In fact, it seems like the only real reason to sunset armor is to push players to have to re-acquire and re-masterwork new armor.

A Masterworked piece of armor down the drain

There is one exception to this rule:

• Weapons from the Last Wish and Garden of Salvation raid will have a longer lifetime and won’t be sunsetted until Season 14.
• Armor from all raids, including legacy raids going away this Fall, will have a longer lifetime and won’t be sunsetted until Season 14.

Also, from a pure cosmetics perspective, the effects of armor sunsetting should be somewhat limited by the upcoming ability to transmog the looks of your favorite armor pieces into newer gear.

Destiny 2’s sunsetting rules: How will it work, exactly?

Bungie’s May 14, 2020, TWAB is a must-read if you want to know everything there is to know about weapon retirement, but these are the key “rules” you need to know:

• Each Legendary weapon and piece of armor will have a Max Power Level it can reach through infusion.
• Exotics will not have a Max Power Level.
• The Max Power Level for these items will be set at the player Power Cap attainable 3 Seasons after its release Season (4 Seasons total).
  • This means all Legendary gear has a one-year span of time during which it can be used in activities where being at or near the player Power Cap is important (difficult and Power-enabled activities).
• The Max Power Level for these items will be visible in-game in Season 11, but no items will be at their Max Power Level at the start of Season 11.
  • This means all your gear will be relevant in all activities during Season 11.

If you had the perfect Gnawing Hunger before, you now have to farm a re-issued version

• At the start of Season 12, weapons and armor released in Seasons 1-8 will have a Max Power Level at the Season 11 player Power Cap
• Gear from Seasons 9, 10, 11, and 12 will all be infusible to new player Power Caps for 1 year after their release.
• Weapons and armor from the Last Wish and Garden of Salvation raids, will be granted exceptions and will have a higher Max Power Level”

Those are the basics. But you may have additional questions, such as:

• Can I still use gear that has reached its Max Power Level?
  • Yes. You will always be able to equip and use any piece of gear.
  • Reaching the player Power Cap is beneficial, but not strictly required, for most activities in Destiny. You can continue to equip and use all gear in these activities.
• Does this apply to armor as well as weapons?
  • Yes – all Legendary gear that provides Power will have a Max Power Level.
• When gear drops after its debut Season, what will its Max Power Level be?
  • It will have the same Max Power Level as it did in its initial release Season.
• Will gear ever have its Max Power Level updated?
  • Not directly, but gear can be re-issued in future Seasons. These re-issued versions will have a new Max Power Level based on the Season in which it is re-issued.

The community keeps pushing Bungie to answer more questions, namely:

Will we need to pull out armor from the Collections Tab or should we keep our Vault cluttered with stuff we are not using?

Your turn

You now know everything there is to know about weapon and armor sunsetting in D2.

The weapon list above is my take on how sunsetting will impact the most popular (and some of my favorites) weapons in Destiny 2.

But perhaps I missed some. If I did miss your favorites, or weapons you consider S Tier, let me know in the comments section below.