The episode “Returners” starts in Destiny 2 on October 8th and brings some new content. There is a “new” mode that divides the community.
What kind of mode is this? With the episode Wiederkehrer, the “new” mode “Onslaught: Salvation” starts in Destiny 2. This is a redesign of sorts for Onslaught mode, which came to Destiny 2 in early April 2024 with the free Into the Light update.
Onslaught is a horde mode in which you have to survive up to 50 waves of increasingly difficult enemies. Over the course of a charge round, you can also unlock tools such as trip hazards and turrets to help you defend your position.
With Onslaught: Salvation, Bungie is addressing community feedback on the original Onslaught mode and making some changes to the gameplay.
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Improved defense
What changes with the new mode? Onslaugth: Salvation comes with enemy factions that you will also fight against in the upcoming episode. On top of that, the mode will offer three maps. One of these maps will be an onslaught variant of “Widow’s Court,” which PvP players already know from the Crucible.
The big highlight of the Onslaught redesign, however, is the overhaul of the defenses. The gun can now scorch enemies if you upgrade it. Affected enemies then suffer damage over time. According to Bungie, this should harmonize with builds that rely on scorching.
It looks similar with the trip wire. This now creates slowing stasis fields when triggered by an enemy. If you improve the tripwire, it even creates stasis crystals.
There is also a new defense system that was called “Airstrike” in the developer livestream on YouTube. You mark an area on the ground and when an enemy walks into this area, they are hit by a gigantic “beam”.
What does the community say about the mode? The original Onslaught mode was really well received by the community. Many players therefore hoped that Bungie would not abandon the mode and would improve it based on player feedback.
Bungie has now done that and part of the community is happy about it. One user on Reddit calls it “a great decision” and gets a lot of support in the comments. Some players call Onslaught their “favorite mode”, others are just happy that Onslaught is probably not one of the contents that will be forgotten forever at Bungie – like Gambit (via Reddit).
But there is also that part of the community that is complaining about the announcement on Reddit. The main criticism here is that the new activity in the upcoming episode is a revision of an old activity. “Recycling” content is an ongoing discussion in Destiny 2.
Bungie has already presented some exciting plans for the future of Destiny 2. For example, next year a change from 2021 will be reversed: Destiny 2: Players cheer as Bungie reverses a hated change after 3 years: “It should have always been this way”