This week, the developers of Destiny 2 had to disable the Exotic “Twilight Oath of Radius.” However, the reason for this unusual decision is as surprising as it is confusing: The Exotic worked exactly as intended by Bungie in the last rework for Season 21. MeinMMO shows what is going on and why the Exo was likely disabled.
Which Exotic did Bungie disable? On May 26, shortly before the start of the new Dungeon “Ghosts of the Depths”, the developer announced that they had to disable the recently reworked Warlock Exotic “Twilight Oath of Radius” due to a problem.
Thus, the Bungie Support informed the Guardians via Twitter:
- “Due to a problem where the Exotic
Twilight Oath of Radius
can make enemies explode, it has been disabled until a fix can be implemented.”
This is not stated in the announcement: The deactivation exclusively refers to the new dungeon “Ghosts of the Depths,” so the Exo cannot be used there.
This announcement, however, led to some confusion in the Destiny community, even without this addition, as the reason for the deactivation sounds just like what the Exo is supposed to do according to its description.
MeinMMO tells you in which combination the Exotic seems to cause problems.
This is the controversy surrounding the disabled Exotic
Isn’t it supposed to explode, Bungie? If you read through the Exo perk, the explanation for the deactivation is indeed confusing. The shockwaves of Twilight Oath of Radius
are supposed to do exactly that: make killed enemies explode.
Rifts regularly emit Arc shockwaves. Death blows with these shockwaves create an Arc explosion. While an Arc focus is equipped, the shockwaves and subsequent explosions blind nearby targets. The Rift energy is recharged faster when surrounded by enemies.
The question that many Guardians asked under the tweet on Twitter was therefore justified. Why did Bungie disable an Exotic that does exactly what it was designed to do? The explanation does not seem to disclose all the details of the problem, omits where it was disabled, and is therefore slightly misleading.
The later published hotfix information from May 26 did not bring any new information from Bungie to light.
This is why the Exo is considered problematic: With the Exotic “Twilight Oath of Radius,” there are especially unintended explosion chains that occur primarily in connection with an interaction of the exotic scout rifle “Skyburner’s Oath.”
- With each kill, the explosions could chain indefinitely and thus transform the “Skyburner’s Oath” into a “Sunshot” with massive range through the effect of “Twilight Oath of Radius.”
- As a result, the explosions were excessively strong in some situations and led to an unintended superiority in the game.
The Destiny player Chadly responded to Bungie under the tweet with a video and wrote: “So it is actually disabled because ‘Skyburner’s Oath’ creates an explosion chain when killing some trash enemies? […] If that is all that was wrong, there was 0 reason to disable [the armor Exo].”
Some players note that it might have made more sense to disable the scout rifle “Skyburner’s Oath” instead of the Warlock Exo.
However, it is also not known whether the Exotic led to interactions with other weapons additionally.
And indeed, there were probably similar problems with the Warlock class ability “Phoenix Dive” that could trigger strong explosion chains and thus would have been too powerful for the new dungeon on day one. Hence, it likely made more sense for Bungie to disable one thing rather than several.
When will the Exotic “Twilight Oath of Radius” be available again? The deactivation of “Twilight Oath of Radius” is only temporary. Bungie is already working on adjusting the Exotic and bringing it back into the game as soon as it meets the intended balance and performance standards.
However, when that will be the case is still unknown. We will update this article for you in this case. So feel free to check back if you need current info.
“We must never have fun in Destiny 2!”
If it’s fun, it must go: For the players, this new deactivation is once again proof that Exotics or weapons are only ever disabled by Bungie when they are the most fun. However, the Twilight Oath of Radius
would simply be too strong for the new dungeon and would have simplified and trivialized many mechanics and hordes of enemies.
Therefore, the decision to disable an Exotic because it works too well may seem strange at first glance. Nevertheless, most deactivations due to bugs or excessive strength in Destiny 2 are justified. Bungie also deactivates in this case proactively to preserve the player experience and maintain balance.
What is often left unmentioned in this complaint: There are also gameplay bugs in Destiny 2 that have been to the advantage of the Guardians and which were not immediately removed. And despite the bug, you can still use the Twilight Oath of Radius
, despite its blockage, for example, in the open world.
Even in these cases, Bungie set a fix date with a wink and let the overpowering fun go on for a while. True to the motto: “Enjoy it while it lasts”.
- For example, one could storm the raids with up to 12 players for a few days (normally only a maximum of 6 players are possible).
- The “Solar Raider” mod offered significantly more ammo than intended for a while. However, this option was only disabled in PvP, but remained usable in PvE.
- Similarly, Guardians were able to deal significantly more damage to Destiny bosses with official permission and their Arc Acrobat Super for a while, so that the Ancient One in Gambit or other activities could be almost taken down solely by Hunters with Arc Stab.
These were just three examples of many. This shows that even Bungie is willing to allow fun in some cases – although not forever.
That in the end a fix must also come here is still inevitable. Because, as every Guardian in Destiny 2 has experienced, even the most careful plans by Bungie can lead to unexpected consequences. Also, because Destiny 2 is a constantly evolving game. Such adjustments are therefore part of the process.
Have you also noticed the power of the Exo combination in Season 21 and wanted to take it into the dungeon? And what do you think of Bungie’s wording in the support announcement? Do you believe that the problem was adequately communicated? Or was it also confusing for you with this explanation? Then feel free to share it with us in the comments.
By the way, Guardians have plunged into the brand new dungeon “Ghosts of the Depths” since yesterday. We have linked everything you need to know in our dungeon overview:
Destiny 2: All playable dungeons in 2023 at a glance – How to master them
