Destiny 2 announces new Thorn catalyst, Glaive and Exotic changes in Season 23 preview

Destiny 2 has announced a bunch of weapon tuning changes coming in Season 23, including a new catalyst for Exotic Hand Cannon Thorn.

We’re well on our way towards the end of Season of the Witch in Destiny 2. As per usual, Destiny 2 developers Bungie are looking to make changes to the game’s sandbox, keeping the meta fresh and all weapon types somewhat viable. Bungie has already accidentally showcased some of the changes planned for next season for exotic armor, however, they’ve since shut down those rumors.

Like exotic armor, Bungie looks to revamp several weapon archetypes and exotics when heading into a new season. This paired with the new seasonal artifact allows the developers to further enhance build crafting for the players.

Now Bungie has revealed a bunch of new changes that are coming with Season 23. This includes a brand new catalyst for the Exotic Hand Cannon Thorn, and adjustments to Auto Rifles, Pulse Rifles, Glaives, and Sniper Rifles.

In a recent blog post, Bungie has listed several changes coming to weapon archetypes in Season 23. However the most notable of these changes is the introduction of a new catalyst for the Exotic Hand Cannon Thorn.

Thorn’s Catalyst will bring its strength up in PvP by allowing it to overflow the magazine when picking up Remnants dropped by slain enemies. Thorn’s Exotic catalyst also grants 20 bonus range and 10 stability as a bonus.

Alongside the Thorn changes, the developers have included changes to incentivize lesser-used weapon archetypes. You can find the changes here:

Legendary Weapons

Auto Rifles

• Increased damage against minor (red bar) combatants by 10%.

Pulse Rifles

• Increased damage against minor (red bar) and major (orange bar) combatants by 12.5%.

Glaives

• Increased projectile speed by 30%.
• Increased projectile damage in PvE by 25%.
• Increased projectile damage in PvE by 25%.
  • Aggressives: 123
  • Adaptives: 113
  • Rapid-Fires: 101

Sniper Rifles

• Increased Sniper Rifle PvE damage with a flat buff of 15%. (This also applies to Exotic Sniper Rifles that use Heavy ammo.)

Exotic Weapons

Vex Mythoclast

• Increased damage versus:
  • Minor (red bar) combatants by 10%.
  • Bosses by 25%.
  • Champions by 200% when in the Linear Fusion Rifle mode.

Revision Zero

• Increased damage versus Champions by 100%.

Osteo Striga

• Removed the SMG damage bonus scalar that was affecting the poison damage. This brings Osteo Striga poison down to match standard Necrotic Grip poison, though as an Exotic, it will still deal 40% bonus damage against minors.

Winterbite

• Increased the detonation damage of the large projectile by 25%.
• The self-damage blast radius has been halved, and the self-damage has been reduced.