Destiny 2 Armor 2.0 explained

On a recent livestream, Bungie finally explained how armor 2.0 is going to work. Armor 2.0 is the upcoming overhaul to Destiny 2's armor system, due to arrive alongside the Shadowkeep expansion on October 1st.  The good news is, it's pretty much everything Destiny 2 players have been asking for. The bad news is, a lot of your current armor is about to look 'so yesterday'. Let's take a closer look.

THREE NEW (YET OLD) ARMOR STATS

In addition to the existing Resilience, Recovery and Mobility stats, armor 2.0 adds  Strength, Intelligence and Discipline (all returning from D1), which influences melee, super and grenade regeneration speeds. All stats are now measured on a 1-100 scale, with every 10 point increase on the scale unlocking a tier bonus. For example, every 10 additional Mobility points on the scale is rewarded with a +4% movement speed boost. Masterwork status adds +2 tiers (+20 points) to all 6 stats.

ARMOR ENERGY LEVEL AND EXCHANGEABLE MODS

With armor 2.0 perks are out and interchangeable mods are in. Every piece of 2.0 armor has an Energy Level ranging from 1-10, a pool of points that is essentially your budget for attatching mods.  All 2.0 armor comes with three mod sockets: one neutral socket for element-free mods and  two sockets for elemental weapon-specific or ability-specific mods. If a piece of amor has, for example, an energy level of 5, you could attatch one 1-cost mod and two 2-cost mods. More powerful mods cost more energy points. Upgrading your armor's Energy Level will require a new currency called Ascendant Shards.

ARMOR ELEMENT TYPE

All 2.0 armor has an element type (i.e. Void, Arc or Solar) which determines the types of mods you can attach. If your armor piece is Void, you can only attach Void weapon or ability mods. The upshot of this seems like more unnecessary grinding to me.

But that isn't even the aspect of this system that concerns me the most. From the livestream it seems like each element type is affiliated with a specific set of weapon types. You can only equip mods for weapons that your armor's element allows. The stream suggested this is the current combination:

• Void: Hand Cannons, Sidearms, Scout Rifles, Sniper Rifles and Grenade Launchers.
• Arc: Bows, Pulse Rifles, Shotguns, Machine Guns and Swords.
• Solar: Auto Rifles, Submachine Guns, Fusion Rifles, Linear Fusion Rifles and Rocket Launchers

The details aren't clear, but I personally hope this isn't what it looks like. This system would essentially force players to mix and match armor with different element types just to create the builds they want. You cannot have an all Void, all Arc or all Solar armor set if your desired weapon load-out doesn't fit within that element type's weapon selection (e.g. you can't have a Hand Cannon mod or a Shotgun mod if you have a Solar armor set).

I have several questions. First of all why? What is the purpose of this restriction? Does your armor's element type still provide resistance to that element type? If not, why even name the types Void, Arc and Solar? When you pull a piece of 2.0 armor from your Collection, can you select its element type? If not, does that mean current players who just earned their Solstice Armor are stuck with the element type their class was given (Solar for Warlock, Void for Titan, and Arc for Hunter)? Does the element type of the armor piece even mean anything beyond the kinds of mods you can attatch to it?

Players across the internet are concerned about this system. Armor 2.0 was supposed to broaden build options, not limit them. We're all waiting to hear Bungie's response, but for now, this is a bit of a question mark dangling over what was supposed to be a celebration.

WHERE WILL WE FIND THESE MODS?

Mods will  be available from several sources. The Gunsmith will still sell a rotating selection of mods or you can recieve them from Gunsmith packages. General mods will drop worldwide, while specific mods will drop from specific activities. The good news is that once you unlock a mod, it's yours to keep. Attatch it, detatch it, re-attach it, as many times as you like.

WHAT ABOUT MY EXISTING ARMOR?

All your Y1 and Y2 armor pieces will still work in Shadowkeep. You can still infuse other armor into them to raise their Power Level, or upgrade them to Masterwork status. Your old armor will just will never gain mod sockets or the 3 new stats.  If you know it's something you're never going to use again, go ahead and delete it. Not just to free up vault space, but to start amassing legendary shards, weapon parts and cores that you're going to need come October 1st. On the other hand, if it's armor you find particularly effective, the perks could turn out be the equivilent of 2.0's Energy Level 10,  in which case you'll be glad you saved it.

• Eververse Armor: All Eververse armor is being converted to into ornaments. You should delete your Eververse armor now if you want to obtain Bright Dust while you still can. When Shadowkeep launches it will all be converted into Shards instead.
• Exotic Armor: You can acquire 2.0 versions of your Exotics from your Collection. These will be fixed rolls, so you may want to keep a hold of any truly remarkable 'god rolls' you have, to see how they fare in Shadowkeep.
• Legendary Armor: You're going to have to obtain all new 2.0 Legendaries in-game, either through vendors or as drops.
• Activity Armor (e.g. Gambit Prime, Iron Banner): They're introducing 2.0 versions of special armor, so you're going to have to re-acquire these too.
• Armor Mods: If you're breaking down your old armor, there's no reason to keep old mods. They will serve no function within the 2.0 system. Plus the mod components you receive can be used to buy 2.0 mods.

UNIVERSAL ORNAMENTS

Armor 2.0 is all about customizing your look, and one of the biggest new features is the addition of universal ornaments. All  the Eververse armor you've collected will be trasformed into universal ornaments. Once you get a universal ornament, it's unlocked for all characters of the relevant class on your account. Look fabulous, or, for the pros, disguise what you're working with. Exotic armor will still retain its unique appearance (or its custom variants). There's no hiding greatness.

OTHER  OBSERVATIONS

• With Shadowkeep the Power Level cap is being raised to a number beyond 950. Source.
• Every Player is going to be instantly raised to level 750. Source
• Every weapon, armor piece, etc. in your inventory is going to be instantly infused to level 750. So you should probably stop spending any resources on levelling up your gear right now. Source
• The glimmer wallet cap is being raised to 250,000.
• Bottom-tree Nightstalker Hunters (the Quiver tree) will be able to apply the Heart of the Pack buff to allies using smoke grenades. This buff increases weapon handling, adds a boost to Mobility, Resilience and Recovery, makes allies invisible, refunds grenade energy and buffs damage to Shadowshot's Quiver arrows.
• The Titan's Ward of Dawn Super (aka the Titan Bubble) is getting the buff it always needed: Weapons of Light. When top-tree Sentinel Titans throw down a bubble, allies will receive a significant damage buff that persists inside and outside the bubble for 15 seconds.
• Ghost and Sparrows now display on the equip screen.
• Ammo finder mods are now tied to specific weapon archetypes (Scout Rifles, Snipers, etc).
• Ammo will now drop with a special glow to indicate your ammo-focused mods are working.
• There are Major and Minor damage resistance mods.
• Not all mods will stack.
• Classes, not level numbers, now display over Guardian’s heads.

Here's a link to a recording of the Bungie livestream on Twitch

Here's a link to a written summary on Polygon