Destiny 2 bug grants absurd power increase before the start of the raid

Over the years, Destiny 2 has been plagued by various glitches, but the current glitch with seasonal artifacts providing excessive power bonuses in endgame activities takes the cake. Bungie's typical response to errors and glitches involves disabling the faulty equipment until developers can find a solution. However, the nature of this glitch and the unique role of seasonal artifacts in Destiny 2, which are crucial to the core player experience, make it problematic to simply address it through deactivation, even with a raid race on the horizon.

Seasonal artifacts are an integral part of Destiny 2's current seasonal model and directly impact gameplay from moment to moment. They provide players with various options for building unique setups that go beyond the scope of the base game. Seasonal artifacts and their associated mods are refreshed each season, incorporating new mods tied to the current seasonal narrative themes and offering players unique advantages. Seasonal artifacts also serve as the primary source for entire weapon archetypes to gain anti-champion abilities, further increasing the diversity of gear setups in endgame activities. Most importantly, seasonal artifacts provide players with stackable power bonuses that enhance defensive values and damage output in challenging endgame activities such as Grandmaster Nightfalls and Master Raids.

Given the diverse applications and the strength of seasonal artifacts, the current glitch that allows players to equip the artifact from the previous season for a power boost is even more shocking. Cheese Forever, a well-known Destiny 2 YouTuber famous for discovering glitches and errors, has released a video where he replicates the glitch with minimal effort. In the video, the YouTuber demonstrates how players only need to obtain the artifact from the previous season from the equipment menu and equip the older artifact to benefit from its power bonus while still benefiting from the current seasonal artifact mods.

The glitch manifests in the game as a visual error, displaying the highest power level achieved in the ongoing Season of the Witch in Destiny 2. Cheese Forever clarifies that despite the visual glitch, the faulty artifact does provide the highest power levels from the previous season, as evidenced by Cheese Forever's successful completion of Master Nightfalls. Several players have commented, with many confirming the validity of the glitch, while others jokingly suggest that Bungie could deactivate artifacts altogether.

While many people are taking the issue lightly, others have expressed concerns about the balancing issues this glitch could have on the upcoming race for the world's first raid. Returning Destiny 2 raids require players to complete both versions of the entire activity to earn the title of world's first, with the Master versions being particularly challenging due to tougher enemies and higher damage numbers. With a glitch of this magnitude affecting such a significant community-oriented event, players fear that Bungie may take drastic measures to prevent Crota from suffering the same fate as Nezarec.

Destiny 2 is available for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.