In Destiny 2, Bungie shows how Lord Shaxx is changing the PvP experience with Shadowkeep. A completely new map is coming, and 4 old ones will be removed for now.
This brings more variety to the Crucible: Since the Forsaken release a year ago, little has changed in the Crucible. Guardians have been waiting in vain for innovative new features or fresh PvP maps. Therefore, the PvP area of Destiny 2 has been criticized for some time.
With Shadowkeep, Lord Shaxx has had enough of the old Crucible and is throwing a lot out. With each new season, the PvP experience should be a little different from the previous one. For this, the list of PvP maps will be revised – some maps will be removed and are expected to be improved.
The following 4 PvP maps will be removed from all playlists first:
- The Death Cliffs – a map in the EDZ on Earth
- Legion’s Gulch – also a map in the EDZ
- Retribution – a PvP map on a Cabal ship above Mars
- Solitude – a PvP map on Mars
Bungie states that – if time allows – they will revisit these maps. The spawn areas, ammunition spawns, and general structure are to be changed so that they return better than before.
Additionally, some maps will be removed from playlists where they could not shine.
- Equinox will only appear in the modes Breakthrough, Iron Banner, and Scorched
- Fortress Echo can only be found in the modes Domination, Iron Banner, and Breakthrough
New map reminiscent of the Dreaming City + Frosted Vale
These maps are new in Destiny 2: With Shadowkeep, there will be three new PvP maps for the Guardians.
Two maps from the Destiny 1 era will return in Season 8:
- Widow’s Court
- Duskfall
Additionally, there will be a completely new map:
- Fragment
For the Fragment map, Bungie shows this image. The map is supposed to remind one of a mix between Dreaming City and Frosted Vale :
What else is new in the PvP playlists?
These PvP changes are coming: Besides the new maps, there are plenty of changes to the PvP playlists:
- There are no more Quickplay and Competitive playlists in the Crucible Navigator.
- A similar experience to Quickplay is now offered by the “Classic Mix” – Here, matchmaking particularly focuses on connection quality. This playlist includes the modes Control, Conflict, and Domination.
- Competitive is replaced by a 3v3 Survival mode (gives Glory)
- A Solo Survival playlist is coming (also gives Glory)
- A 6v6 Control will be added as its own playlist. Here, especially newcomers can have fun, according to Bungie, and find their footing in the Crucible.
- There will be a playlist for 4v4 and 6v6, in which modes like Conflict, Domination, Iron Banner, Lockdown, or Countdown will rotate weekly.
Your Crucible Navigator will look like this:
But that’s not all that the Crucible overseer Lord Shaxx has to offer in Shadowkeep. The elimination mode that many Guardian veterans know from the Trials of Osiris in Destiny 1 returns via Crucible Labs in Destiny 2.
They will test several variants of the elimination mode to find out how this format performs with the new weapons and abilities in Destiny 2.
There’s a new feature in 6v6 playlists: When a Guardian picks up Heavy ammo from a crate, their teammates have 7 seconds to interact with the same Heavy ammo crate and pick up Heavy ammo.
If a sneaky enemy from the other team picks up the ammo first, it will be marked red for you – you will not be able to touch it anymore.
This change is only active in 6v6 modes.
Through these “shared ammo crates”, all players receive less Heavy ammo than from “unshared crates” in 4v4 or 3v3. The amount of ammo you get from it is fixed. It doesn’t matter whether 2 team members or 5 team members interact with the crate.
