Bungie has announced the return of a notorious strike in Destiny 2. But it appears to already be playable. What happened?
Since the end of May, Destiny 2 has one heroic strike less. The “Exodus Crash” was temporarily removed from the matchmaking of the heroic strike list due to numerous complaints from Guardians and was set to be revised. Bungie did not mention a date for its return.
Exodus Crash should actually return soon – but it is already here
Announcement of a soon return: Recently, community manager dmg04 shared on Twitter that the Exodus Crash strike is set to make its way back into the strike playlists in the coming weeks after the Forsaken release. However, dmg04 did not mention an exact date. Further details on the revision are expected to follow in patch notes.
But the strike is already here – probably in revised form! Shortly after this news became public, some Guardians noted that the revised strike is already showing up in the rotation of the Legacy Strike List and can already be played.
This was supposedly not supposed to happen yet. As dmg04 confirmed, Bungie is currently looking into the matter again. But since the strike is already active in the Legacy Playlist, some changes might have gone live prematurely, according to his words.
Changes in the boss fight: This was confirmed by other community members. The strike is indeed already supposed to be the revised version. Whether the changes are now fully or only partially live remains to be seen. However, the previously despised boss fight with Taviks is reportedly now much more balanced. The invisibility phases of the strike’s final boss have apparently been reduced to just one sequence.
This is why Exodus Crash was removed in May: Since the launch of Destiny 2, this strike has been one of the least popular strike activities in the entire game. This has been evident through numerous comments and corresponding Reddit posts.
It could also be felt repeatedly in the game itself. Whenever Exodus Crash was up, one player would typically almost always leave – if not both teammates – immediately.
Particularly the boss fight was not well received due to its mechanics. The Fallen boss, Thaviks the Corrupted, had an enormous health pool. Furthermore, he could turn invisible multiple times, only to reappear behind the players with a deadly melee attack.
Players had only brief windows of time for damage phases. There were also few evasion and cover options in the circular arena. Many attacks from the Fallen leader felt often arbitrary.
With the introduction of modifiers in the heroic strikes, the complaints from fans escalated. In some combinations, the strike became nearly unplayable, especially the boss encounter. Players sometimes spent more time fighting Thaviks than in a raid encounter and still ended up failing.
Have you been able to play the strike since the update 2.0.0? What are your experiences? Have you noticed any more changes?
