Destiny 2 Rite of the Nine Update 8.2.6 Early Patch Notes Preview

Here’s an early look at the patch notes for Destiny 2’s Update 8.2.6, dropping alongside next week’s Rite of the Nine event.

Destiny 2’s next major content update, Rite of the Nine, is just around the corner, launching alongside update 8.2.6 next week on May 6, 2025. This limited-time event is all about revisiting old dungeons like Prophecy, Spire of the Watcher, and Ghosts of the Deep, revamped with new loot and multiple difficulty modes, making it accessible whether you’re brand-new or a hardcore veteran.

Bungie is also adding unique, Nine-themed weapons, emblems, and more. Before you jump in, here’s an early look at what changes and improvements you can expect when the update drops next week.

Destiny 2 Rite of the Nine: Update 8.2.6 Patch Notes

In the This Week in Destiny blog article, Bungie has shared an early preview of the upcoming changes in Destiny 2’s Update 8.2.6, launching alongside the Rite of the Nine event next week. This update brings highly requested adjustments to exotic weapons, armor pieces, and subclass abilities.

Check out the full Destiny 2 Update 8.2.6 patch notes preview below.

Crucible Only Changes

• Prismatic Supers: Reduced Prismatic-specific Super cooldown penalty from 10% to 5%.
• Scatter Grenade: Reduced scatter grenade damage vs. players by 15%.
• Hunter:
  • Reduced PvP prey-finding range from 45m to 25m.
  • Reduced PvP hunt time from infinite to 15 seconds.
• Warlock:
  • Clamped the variability of Lightning Surge damage against players.
  • Slightly increased the minimum damage dealt and reduced the maximum damage dealt.

Global Changes

Hunter:

• Withering Blade (Stasis and Prismatic melee)
  • Increased tracking strength by 20%.
  • Increased damage by 10%.
• All Throwing Knife melees:
  • Fixed an issue where throwing knives were not tracking correctly. They should now track more consistently.
  • Lightweight Knife (Solar melee)
    • Increased tracking shape size by 10%.
    • Increased tracking strength by 20%.
  • Fan of Knives (Solar and Prismatic melee)
• On the Prowl (Void Aspect)
  • Reduced prey-finding cooldown from 0.5s to 0.1s.
  • Ability energy is now granted instantly instead of over time.

Warlock:

• Lightning Surge (Arc Aspect): Slightly increased the follow-up-melee suppression time after Lightning Surge to match Shoulder Charge and other similar abilities.

Weapon Changes

Pulse Rifles:

• Legacy Frame:
  • The Legacy Frame Origin Trait now reduces ADS Damage Falloff Scalar by 0.1.
    • This reduces Battler and Estoc’s ADS Damage Falloff Scalars from 1.7 to 1.6, matching High Impact Pulses.
    • Increased BxR Battler’s Airborne Effectiveness stat – 10 to 21.
• Rapid-Fire:
  • Increased base damage from 14.5 to 15.
  • Increased precision damage from 27.6 to 27.8.

Hand Cannons:

• Heavy Burst: Increased ADS damage falloff scalar from 1.5x to 1.6x.
• Adaptive – Judgment:
  • Magazine size increased from 9 to 11.
  • Reload increased from 40 to 45.
  • Handling increased from 42 to 55.

Auto Rifles:

• High Impact:
  • Increased base damage by 4%.
    • Body shot goes from 23 to 24.
    • Critical hit goes from 41.4 to 43.2.
• Precision:
  • Increased base damage 3%, reduced the precision damage scalar slightly to offset this.
    • Body shot goes from 19.4 to 20.
    • Critical hit goes from 33.95 to 34.

Submachine Guns:

• Adaptive Submachine Guns: Increased ADS damage falloff scalar from 1.4x to 1.5x.

Shotguns:

• Heavy Burst Slug: Increased damage by 8%.

Weapon Perk Changes

• One Quiet Moment: Now has two stacks, one that activates after 1s of being out of combat for 50% of the bonus, and the other at 2s.
• Alacrity: Now activates at reduced effectiveness whenever a teammate dies. Reaches maximum effectiveness when two or more teammates are currently dead.

Exotic Weapon Changes

• Lord of Wolves: Reduced hip fire damage in PvE by 30%.
• Riskrunner: Increased zoom from 13 to 14.
• Truth and Two Tailed Fox: Increased the amount of ammo picked up from ammo crates in Crucible from 1 to 2.
• Alethonym:
  • Creating a special ammo brick now only costs 50% energy.
  • Reworded the Vestigial Alchemy trait description to be a little less confusing.
• Finality’s Auger:
  • Increased the duration that a target is painted to match the duration of the turret.
  • The environmental target marker now marks additional targets that enter the zone after its initial creation.
  • Now grants an automatic reload from reserves after deploying a turret.
  • Reduced the turret’s self-damage by 85%.
  • Increased the turret’s damage by 10%.

Exotic Armor Changes

• Radiant Dance Machines (Hunter):
  • Reduced the bonuses granted to Primary weapons when hip firing. Aligned the hip fire bonuses to range and accuracy with the values granted by the Hip Fire Grip perk, instead of the Legacy Frame intrinsic perk.
  • Reduced the accuracy bonus for standard weapons by 60%.
  • Reduced aim assist falloff distance bonus by 60%.
  • Further reduced the accuracy bonus for the custom-tuned Exotic weapons (including The Last Word) by an additional 25%.
  • Reduced the amount of energy refunded for defeats against players when you do not have full class ability energy from 33% to 20% to align it with the upper tier of the Strategist perk.
• Lion Rampant (Titan):
  • Added the accuracy and range hip fire bonuses from RDMs to Lion Rampant for Primary ammo weapons only. These hip fire benefits are always active, not just when airborne.
  • The +50 Airborne Effectiveness bonus is now always active, not just when you are hip firing while airborne.
• Lunafaction Boots (Warlock):
  • Added the accuracy and range hip fire bonuses from RDMs to Lunafaction Boots for Primary ammo weapons only. These hip fire benefits are always active, not just when in a rift.
  • Decreased the range bonus granted by the Empowering Rift by 50% in PvP only to reduce occurrences of extremely long-range kills with short range weapons like Fusions and Slug Shotguns.

And…there you have it! An early preview of Destiny 2’s Rite of the Nine update! If you’re looking for a quick refresher, make sure to check out our full guide covering everything you need to know about the event.

Which update or feature are you most excited about? Let us know in the comments below!