Destiny 2 overhauls PvP in Season 18 – brings Killstreaks like from Call of Duty

Destiny 2’s Iron Banner event was designed to wow Guardians with Rift. In the end, the mode couldn’t really score. That’s why Bungie is once again looking for the unique “BOOMSHAKALAKA!” twist for PvP. It should now succeed with the new “Eruption” mode, which is reminiscent of “Call of Duty” killstreaks, only with many more space skills.

Bungie has announced this PvP mode: First off, in Season 18, Guardians will no longer be able to duel in Rift mode during the Iron Banner event. Instead, she expects a “Call of Duty” rendition of Killstreaks for Destiny 2.

Just like Killstreaks, players are rewarded for racking up a lot of kills in a row without dying. However, not with little helpers, as in CoD, but with a decent boost to their space skills. Each kill also makes you shine brighter and can also push your team.

However, experienced players may already be familiar with this game principle, because “Eruption” is basically the well-known PvP mode “Clash”.

Alan Blaine, Bungie’s Principal Technical Designer, explained exactly how this mode will work and where you can play it in the near future.

What is Eruption and how does the mode work? This is a modified version of the original Clash Team Deathmatch mode, but Bungie has given it a new “BOOMSHAKALAKA!” Just like in “Clash” you get points for your kills in “Eruption”.

In Destiny 2, however, this new mechanic also pushes your space skills properly. Kills give you and your team ability energy. This increases if you manage to eliminate a number of enemies without dying. Assists also count.

• The first kill grants you only a small amount of ability energy.
• Your second kill without dying grants you the Surging buff. You begin to glow. From now on, every kill is worth 3 points and you also get +10% super energy and +20% grenade, melee and class ability energy.
• If you make your fifth kill without dying, you buff yourself as “Primed”. Now your Guardian will be as bright as day, your position will be marked for your team and the hunt is on.
• Primed kills now grant +12% Super and +5% Grenade, Melee, and Class Energy. In addition, the team benefits because they get +5% Super and +10% grenade, melee and class energy.

Therefore you should not rejoice too soon: The best Guardians who reach Primed not only enjoy benefits. You shine so brightly that the opposing team doesn’t just see you from miles away. You are also worth 3 points to them, making you a preferred target. Only skilled guardians can survive then.

And anyone who shines so brightly is also about to erupt. Therefore, as an additional challenge, you get a tight 15-second timer, which you can only reset to 15 seconds with further kills. If you don’t manage to do this by the time the timer reaches 0, you’ll burst out and your keeper will “burst”. This ends your killstreak and also the hunt.

Bungie does not want to repeat the “Rift debacle”.

That’s why “Eruption” starts first as a test: Since Eruption is essentially a new mode for players, some real live play testing is a good idea. As Alan Blaine points out, lessons have been learned from the bad experiences with “Rift” in Season 17.

As such, during Season 18, Bungie will first be making Eruption accessible to you in the non-critical environment of the Crucible Labs and gathering feedback on it. Only when everything fits there and maybe a few more fixes have been made does the mode officially come into the Iron Banner. This could probably be the case in Season 19.

And what about Rift mode?

After the start of “Rift” was known to be quite bumpy, with its bugs and some “teething troubles”, the number of players also improved after the first fixes. So apparently you still see potential for the mode and don’t want to give it up.

• At least 1.5 million Guardians have played at least one Rift match.
• 300,000 of you managed to reset your Iron Banner rank with Rift. 150,000 Guardians even twice.
• Two players had so much fun with “Rift” that they caused conspicuously crazy swings in Bungie’s statistics.
  • A Guardian reset their rank 17 times in just 55 hours of play.
  • Another played Rift for over 133 hours in season 17 alone.
• And our Destiny author Christos Tsogos loves the Rift mode too.

So “Rift” will not be mothballed in the Destiny Content Vault for the time being. Bungie will instead bring the mode to the Crucible on a weekly rotation. You start with it in the first week of Season 18 and will then bring it back again in week 8 and week 14. Including the option for private matches on any map.

More Rift updates and changes are planned: With player feedback, the Rift mode has also been optimized and adjusted again. It is planned that further changes will be made in the future.

• On the one hand, Rift gets more standard rules for match extensions. This should give the teams the chance to break a possible tie after all.
• Updated AFK protection to take advantage of Rift-specific events.
• Rift mode is also planned for the coming season.
  • Instead of just 6vs6 also 3vs3 matches.
  • Using smaller maps for Rift, like Wormport, or asymmetric maps, like Burnout.
  • A reduction in black screen time after a successful dunk.
  • As well as further measures to deter kill farming and the return of Multispark.

Rift, like Control, is scheduled to return to the Iron Banner event at some point. But until then, the Guardians will first prove their skills in “Eruption” and boost their skills there.

What are your thoughts on the return of Team Deathmatch mode? Does that sound like excitement with potential to you that you will definitely try the mode in Season 18? Or does this heated game mechanic not appeal to you because it only brings more skills and a heavy shower of grenades into PvP? Tell us what you think about it in the comments.