Destiny 2 took one of the biggest steps in breaking down barriers for new players in Hotfix 6.3.0.3, deployed on Jan. 11, 2023. With the Lightfall expansion on the horizon, the developer made all standard armor mods available for all guardians. This means all players will have access to all basic mods (not counting mods obtained from raids or the Seasonal Artifact), democratizing buildcrafting in the game.

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Unlocking all standard armor mods is certainly the star of Hotfix 6.3.0.3, but it’s not the only change coming in. Bungie also adjusted the Unstoppable Hand Cannon mod to make it fire faster and bring it more in line with previous iterations, a request from players since early into Season of the Seraph, and the developer also reenabled the Jade Rabbit scout rifle after an issue.

Here’s everything that’s changing with Destiny 2’s Hotfix 6.3.0.3, according to the patch notes.

Hotfix 6.3.0.3 unlocks all standard armor mods

The star of the patch is the unlocking of all basic armor mods for all players in Destiny 2, which excludes raid mods and any mods from the Seasonal Artifact. Bungie revealed its plans to unlock mods for all players on the eve of the patch. The developer also promised “big changes coming to buidcrafting in Lightfall,” saying it wanted to let all guardians “enjoy all mods in their current state.”

The “major Lightfall changes” could mean adjustments to mod cost, for instance, or possibly overhauling specific mods. The tweaks are also possibly connected to the upcoming in-game loadout system, slated for Lightfall, which will offer an official alternative to third-party apps.

Minor armor changes: Quicker Unstoppable Hand Cannon, Arc-only Crown of Tempests

Hotfix 6.3.0.3 also touched on some demands from players. The Unstoppable Hand Cannon mod in Season of the Seraph was taking far longer to activate than in previous seasons, which was potentially troublesome (every second counts when there’s a huge angry Unstoppable Ogre coming at you). The Energy Diffusion Substrate mod, which grants damage reduction, wasn’t stacking properly, which meant equipping more than one copy of the mod would reportedly remove all damage reduction from it.

Players who wanted to transmog their Solstice armor from this year can also find the Candescent armor in their transmog menu again, and Crown of Tempests will now work only with Arc subclasses, as it’s intended to do. The Jolt effect from Voltshot could still activate the Conduction Tines buff even in a non-Arc subclass, though the latest patch has removed that possiblity. Here are the changes, as outlined in the patch notes:

• Unstoppable Hand Cannon perk now activates more quickly and no longer plays its audio cue when using a non-Hand Cannon weapon.  
• The Energy Diffusion Substrate mod now correctly stacks up to three times.
• The Candescent armor sets now appear correctly in the Appearance Customization screen.
• Crown of Tempest will no longer provide ability energy when using a non-Arc subclass.  

Weapon changes: Jade Rabbit re-enabled and other bug fixes

The Jade Rabit has returned to Destiny 2 after a long absence. The Exotic scout rifle was disabled in the first week of Season of the Seraph due to a bug that applied its bonus damage to all shots, but the issue has since been fixed and players can equip it again. Bungie has also squashed bugs with Kill Clip’s newly added refreshing and with Wish Ender’s functionality if you had the Anti-Barrier Bow mod equipped. Here is the list of weapon bug fixes, according to the patch notes:

• Fixed an issue where Wish-Ender’s additional hits were disabled when the Anti-Barrier Bow mod was equipped.
• Fixed an issue where Kill Clip wasn’t correctly being refreshed when already active.
• Fixed an issue where Revision Zero’s weapon glint wasn’t consistently visible when in the alternate high-damage mode.
• Fixed an issue where Rapid-Fire Shotguns didn’t have the intended bonus reserves.
• Fixed an issue where Jade Rabbit’s Exotic perk applied its damage buff to all outgoing damage.
• Fixed an issue where the lights on Witherhoard’s Exotic ornament Drowned in Strife operated in reverse (they were lighting up when the weapon was empty, now they light up when it’s full).

Changes to Activities: Crucible, Heist Battlegrounds, Strikes

Heist Battlegrounds got a few bug fixes with Hotfix 6.3.0.3, tweaking some of the inconsistencies with the launch screen in Legend difficulty, allowing players to join in progress in boss rooms, and fixing a potentially game-crashing glitch. For Strikes, Sepiks Prime will now count as a Fallen boss as intended for some objectives, and both Strikes and Gambit will show the correct rank reputation boost on launch screens.

Bungie also brought some bug fixes and smaller quality-of-life changes to its PvP-verse, including tuning the quitter penalty system, changes to score limits in Showdown, Rift, Survival, and more. Here’s what changed, according to the patch notes.

Competitive

• Fixed an issue that caused Promotion and Relegation series director dialogs to display at the wrong time.
• Reduced round score limit in Showdown to 10 from 15.
• Adjusted the match score limit for three-vs-three Rift and Survival to three rounds to win.

Quickplay

• Adjusted the quitter penalty system to be more lenient before triggering the quitter warning message and suspension timer.

Game History

• Fixed an issue where Season 19 Competitive Crucible and Iron Banner matches were missing from Bungie.net Game History APIs.

Heist Battlegrounds 

• Fixed an issue where the game would crash when depositing an Arc charge while the boss is immune in Heist Battlegrounds.
• Players can now join in progress during the boss encounters in the Heist Battlegrounds playlist.
• Fixed an issue where the Heist Battlegrounds: Legend node would sometimes display incorrect activity details, such as matchmaking.

You can find the full patch notes for Hotfix 6.3.0.3 on Bungie’s website.

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