Destiny 2: Usurper’s Armaments “One Pager” – Design Practice

Overview

In this “one page” pitch, I took on the task of creating not one, not two but three (one for each light element) exotic weapons for Destiny 2. Currently, I have just created the three exotics but in the future, I also plan on creating a questline for their acquisition.

Usurper’s Lance

The Usurper’s Lance is an exotic energy pulse rifle that uses the solar element.

Impact	Range	Stability	Handling	Reload Speed	Rounds Per Minute (RPM)	Magazine
35	59	59	40	50	530	30

Visible Stats

Aim Assist	Inventory Size	Zoom	Recoil	Bounce Intensity	Bonce Direction
35	49	18	65	35	Tends Right

Hidden Stats

For its intrinsic exotic perk, I gave it Fire Starter. This perk has the weapon fire 5 round bursts, just like Vigilance Wing (another exotic pulse rifle), and causes precision hits to deal burn damage to targets over time. Though it would need testing (somehow), I would have each burn ping off about 12 points of health (or shield) from the target, with it pinging 3 times. For this weapon (and honestly for all three), I wanted to create things that could be used to help clear crowded control points or act as lane deterrents. In order to move in this direction, I created the Like Wildfire perk. This perk causes burn damage inflicted on an enemy with precision shots to spread to other enemies if they are close enough.

Of course, with this came a few questions as well:

• How much damage should transferred burn deal?
  • At first, I had the thought of having transferred burn deal the same damage as it does to the original target. However, I polled a few of my Destiny clanmates, and they (and eventually I) agreed that doing that would likely be too powerful an ability, and it would certainly cause overcrowding, possibly changing the meta. So, I decided to cut it down from full burn to 1/3 the burn damage over time (each time the target is damaged) that the original target receives. This means that since the original target will take 3 pings of 12 damage, transferred targets will take 3 pings of 4 damage.
• How close is “close proximity” exactly?
  • Obviously, I don’t want the weapon to just light everyone on fire within 100 feet of the original target. Instead, similar to real fire, secondary targets would need to be quite close to the original in order to ignite, so I would say about 1-2 meters at the most in order to ignite from Like Wildfire.

Aside from those two custom perks, I also created a custom catalyst perk that is unlocked when the player completes the objectives to unlock the catalyst itself. In order to unlock said catalyst, I have set the following objectives for the player (testable):

• Get 500 kills
• Get 250 burn kills (enemies killed from burn DOT)

Completing the above objectives unlocks the catalyst for equipping, which adds the Red Barrel perk to the weapon. This perk acts much like Sunshot’s exotic perk in that it causes enemies killed by precision hits to explode in solar fire. The explosion itself deals 80 damage to any enemies within a 2.5 meter radius of the kill. Close proximity enemies damaged by the explosion (that aren’t killed) are ignited and also take double the normal burn damage, upping it from three pings of 12 damage to 3 pings of 24 damage. This is quite a powerful perk to add to the already powerful weapon, which is why I both added the precision kill necessity to activate it and why I require so many kills to unlock the catalyst in the first place.

I have, of course, filled in the rest of the blanks with existing weapon perks, the first being Chambered Compensator, which increases stability (+10) at the cost of a bit of handling (-5). I chose this barrel to buff stability but to also keep the weapon a bit in check by making it a bit slower to handle.

Next up, I threw in Drop Mag, which greatly increases reload speed (+30) at the cost of ammunition by dropping the whole remaining mag on reload. Out of all of the exotic pulse rifles, only one of them, Vigilance Wing, has a slower base reload speed than Usurper’s Lance. This is the chief thing that lead me to this perk, which I think buffs it quite well. However, this does beg the question:

• Can this again potentially overpower the weapon by countering low handling with super fast reloads?
  • To me, dropping the rest of the mag is a counterbalance to this, as it means running out of ammo faster every time the player reloads. I myself have a bad habit of reloading after every encounter, as do many other players, which helps to ease this concern.

My final perk choice was Composite Stock, which increases stability (+5) and removes the handling debuff from the earlier perk by increasing it (+5) as well. I think this stock serves to make the weapon decently well-rounded while also hopefully keeping it from being overpowered.

Usurper’s Hammer

The Usurper’s Hammer is an exotic energy shotgun that uses the void element.

Impact	Range	Stability	Handling	Reload Speed	Rounds Per Minute (RPM)	Magazine
95	40	40	20	30	55	4

Visible Stats

Aim Assist	Inventory Size	Zoom	Recoil	Bounce Intensity	Bounce Direction
65	50	12	80	20	Tends Left

Hidden Stats

For this weapons intrinsic exotic perk, I gave it one I call Seal Breaker, which simply grants a temporary boost to movement speed when the player gets a kill using it. Since it’s a shotgun (and not a slug), its range is quite low, which means I want players using it to get up close and personal, and a speed boost helps them to do that by allowing them to more quickly scout around the level.

Moving along to the custom trait perk, I gave it one I call Devour. Devour takes incoming void damage dealt to the player and reloads the magazine with it, allowing a reload of up to the magazine cap plus one, which means a fully devour-charged magazine would cap at 5 instead of 4. Let’s take a look at some questions and/or test points this brought up:

• This ability could essentially give the user infinite ammo.
  • This was true, as long as the user survived all the damage they would take to continuously reload. However, simply having the trait take ammo from the players reserve was enough to quell this concern.
• Should it really only be void damage that triggers this?
  • This is a tricky one because while it fits well with the “lore” of the weapon, there could certainly be matches where a player never encounters anyone using void weapons or a void class, essentially making the ability useless. I have, for now, kept it as solely void damage, as it does lend itself well to the rarity of the catalyst perk and it could also benefit PVE players as a strategy piece. This is something that would need to be tested, though, as I fear that allowing any damage source to charge Devour could make this overpowered.
    • Something else I had considered was allowing the player to “devour” one charge of a class ability when using a void class in place of taking void damage to charge the trait. Again, this would also need to be tested but it could help avoid those uselessness scenarios mentioned above.
    • Another option I considered was allowing the Devour trait to proc when simply killing an enemy using the void class, essentially “devouring” their void energy alongside allowing the reload from taking void damage specifically.

As with the first weapon I created, I also created a catalyst that adds another custom perk to this weapon as well. Once again, I have set a few objectives for the player to complete to unlock the catalyst for equip:

• Get 500 kills
• Get 250 kills with Seal Breaker active

Completing the above objectives unlocks the Usurper’s Hammer catalyst for equipping, and doing so adds the Regurgitate perk to the weapon. This perk essentially makes the weapon act like a ticking time bomb in certain situations, as it creates a void element explosion (with the player/gun as the epicenter) once the weapon’s magazine has been fully loaded from the Devour trait. Much like the Usurper’s Lance Red Barrel perk, this explosion deals 80 damage to all enemies within a 2.5 meter radius and (if it doesn’t kill them) knocks them back.

Aside from the custom perks, I also gave the weapon Full Choke, which tightens up the weapon’s pellet spread when aiming down sights at the cost of precision damage. I figured that although the player likely won’t be aiming down sights much with this weapon, it could pay to allow more accuracy when they do.

Next up, I added the Assault Mag perk, which is a magazine perk, in Bungie’s own words, “optimized for quick combat.” The perk adds a +15 buff to stability and also beefs RPM by 10, which was a nice addition to make the originally low stability of 25 more manageable at 40. Plus, I basically designed this weapon for “quick combat” anyways, so it’s a narrative fit as well.

Finally, I decided to give the gun the Opening Shot, which boosts both accuracy and range on the opening shot of attack. I want this weapon to be as lethal as possible, and allowing the one-hit kill (OHK) range to extend even a bit for the first shot gives the player a better chance to get ahead and activate Seal Breaker. However, even this brought up a question or two:

• Since Opening Shot can actually activate multiple times after a short delay (~3 seconds), does this give the possibility of the player simply waiting after each shot to proc it over and over?
  • The simple answer here is yes, the player could simply wait a few seconds after each shot to keep activating Opening Shot. However, given how hectic PVP can be and how close they should be getting to use this weapon, I believe other players can be relied on to keep this from happening. It’s definitely a point that needs testing.

Usurper’s Arrow

The Usurper’s Arrow is an exotic energy sniper rifle that uses the arc element.

Impact	Range	Stability	Handling	Reload Speed	Rounds Per Minute (RPM)	Magazine
55	80	45	51	46	140	6

Visible Stats

Aim Assist	Inventory Size	Zoom	Recoil	Bounce Intensity	Bounce Direction
63	55	50	98	26	Tends Vertical

Hidden Stats

This weapon provided a bit of conundrum for me, so I’d like to start off with a quick question that I came up with here:

• If perks require a 2+ hit chain on a single target, then is 55 impact to high?
  • The short answer here is I’m not sure. Without an engine to test out the specific gunplay of Destiny, it’s hard to determine that answer quickly. The testing would likely need to happen in-game with a sniper with similar stats. Obviously, it’s something to be tested.

Getting into the perks, the intrinsic exotic perk I gave this one is called Lightning in a Bottle. This perk gives enemies hit with this weapon that survive a status called Charged, which lasts for 15 seconds. The timer resets if they are hit and charged again. Charged enemies take an additional 25% damage from ALL arc sources, not just weapons. A few testing points/questions raised by this were:

• Is 15 seconds too long for the charge status to last?
  • This is a testable point that is hard to answer without direct testing and consulting with heavy players. For now, I think 15 seconds is a good time, and though a 25% increase in all arc damage taken during that time seems like a lot, it is still survivable.
• Should charges stack (Chargedx2, Chargedx3, etc.)?
  • Right now, I do not allow charges to stack, and I instead have a player that is charged have their timer reset if they are hit again by the Usurper’s Arrow. Allowing for stacking of charges is interesting, but it also begs the question of whether or not arc damage increase should stack as well.
    • If I were to stack both, I would likely try an increase of 5% for arc damage taken from every charge after the first. I would also likely cap the max stack at 3.

My custom trait perk for this weapon is Strike Twice. This perk says that if the player can land 2 (or more) hits on a single target in quick succession, the target becomes afflicted with the Charge Overload debuff, lasting 15 seconds just like normal Charged. Not only does this debuff cause the target to take 35% more arc damage from all sources, a 10% increase over normal Charged status, but it also highlights (blue outline, even through walls and over any distance) the enemy on the player’s and all of their teammates’ screens (similar to the Foetracer helmet for hunters, but for the whole team) for the duration of the debuff.

For the exotic catalyst, we’ll get straight into the objectives I have set to unlock it for equip:

• Get 500 kills
• Get 250 kills on enemies afflicted with Charge Overload

Completing these objectives will unlock the catalyst, and equipping said catalyst will add the Power Surge perk to the weapon. This special perk creates an EMP-like detonation from Charge Overloaded enemies when they are killed (while afflicted with the debuff). However, unlike the previous two weapons’ explosions, this one doesn’t deal direct health damage. Instead, it will fully drain the shields of all enemies within a 2.5 meter radius of the epicenter. This could potentially lead to a grouping of now super vulnerable enemies that could all easily be taken out with a well-placed grenade or just a quick room sweep.

To round out the sniper rifle, I first gave it Chambered Compensator, which, if we look back at Usurper’s Lance (which also had it), increases stability (+10) at the cost of a bit of handling (-5). Finally, I added the Alloy Magazine perk, which allows for much faster reloading when the weapon is empty. Since there are only 6 shots in the magazine, I figured that the player would likely empty the whole thing more often in hopes of getting charges or charge overloads, which made the quick reload when empty seem like more of an incentive to do so.

Difficulties in Creating Custom Weapons

While this whole process was quite fun to go through, there were of course a few difficulties that come with making viable custom weapons in this way that I feel could use some addressing:

• There is no way to test these in-game or in-engine without either finding a way to recreate Destiny 2’s gunplay system in a different engine or by only using similarly statted weapons in the actual game.

This is true. In fact, the only real testing I was able to do during the process was gathering feedback from my Destiny 2 clanmates after sending them the weapon profile images. While this is great, especially since many of them are veteran players that play every day, it still pales in comparison to actual, digital testing in-engine, especially when this is the only form of testing available. As for using just similarly statted weapons in the actual game, this is viable, but it only gets me so far, since even a few points difference in a particular stat could throw the whole process off.

• In the same vein as the above, only being able to really test through vocal feedback makes balancing custom weapons incredibly difficult.

Once again, this is definitely true. The best way I found to try to balance weapons, especially with both their visible and hidden stats, is to simply use the wiki and compare the numbers to other exotics of the same weapon type. While that does come in handy, once again, it still does not fully take the place of being able to test and adjust stats as needs in-engine.