Expansions are purchasable updates that typically add new Story, Destinations, and Gear, as well as new Crucible, Strike, and Raid Lair content.

Seasons introduce content that is made available to all players of Destiny 2, at no additional cost.

• We’re shifting the balance of new content in favor of activity rewards over Bright Engrams. This includes adding Ghosts, Sparrows, and ships (to date found only in Bright Engrams) to achievement reward pools.
• We’ll provide a gameplay path to earn Bright Engrams and all contained rewards (including Event Engrams).
• We’ll give players more direct purchase options and make adjustments to Bright Engrams to allow players to get the items they want more often.

• Completing Nightfall, Raid, and Crimson Days milestones during Crimson Days will reward you an exclusive Legendary Emote, Weapon Skin, and Exotic Sparrow, respectively.
• Players will earn double engrams at level-up: one Crimson Engram and one Illuminated Engram for the duration of the event.
• Crimson Engrams can also drop from completing the Crimson Days match and from completing the Crimson Days milestone on each character.
• Each Crimson Engram is very strongly weighted to new rewards when decrypted until all new event items have been obtained.

XP Rates

We are still investigating changes to XP earn rates. Our goal with any updates to XP are transparency and consistent XP gain regardless of your preferred activity. Right now, it’s too slow in general and lopsided towards grinding specific activities (which is not a fun grind) and we want to fix that without making those activities low value to players who aren’t grinding them (fairness is cool). Our first attempt turned out to be unworkably buggy so we’re having to investigate other angles. We will continue to update you as we move forward.

• Masterwork Armor
• • We are expanding the Masterwork system to include armor. 
  • Masterwork Armor provides increased damage reduction while using your Super. 
  • You can reroll the armor stat type on Masterwork Armor, and similar to Masterwork weapons, you can upgrade a piece of armor to Masterwork by spending Masterwork Cores and Legendary Shards.

• Raid Reward Rework
• • We are updating Raid rewards to make them more unique and interesting. They will now feature mods with Raid-specific perks, and we are adjusting the rewards to ensure a Raid item drops from each major encounter. The Raid vendor will also directly sell Leviathan and Eater of Worlds armor and weapons for purchase with Raid tokens and Legendary Shards.
  • We are also adding a new Ghost with Raid-specific perks that has a chance to drop from the Leviathan and Eater of Worlds final encounters. We intend to return to creating more Raid and other activity-unique rewards in the future.

• Strike Scoring + High Score Tracking
• • Strike Scoring is coming to Nightfall and replacing the current time limit mechanic. The scoring is similar to the Destiny 1 system but with adjustments to emphasize competitive execution of Strike objectives and support for player selectable score modifiers. In February, Nightfall High Scores will be exposed in-game via new emblems and will unlock rewards. We also have plans for Clan and Community High Scores in the works.
• Mods 2.0
• • Work is underway on a full rework of armor and weapon mods. This will focus on reducing redundant mods, more unique theming, and greatly increasing their impact on your power. We are aiming for a February release, but the scope of the rework could push parts or all of it out to early spring. We will be evaluating how Mods play into the Bright Engram economy as a result, because we’re sensitive to pay-to-win outcomes.
• Quickplay Improvements
• • We are adjusting game mode rules to increase the pace of gameplay and power ammo acquisition in Quickplay.
• PC Tower Chat
• • We are adding text chat to the Tower for the PC version of the game.
• Exotic Repetition Reduction
• • This will prevent players from receiving the same Exotic twice in a row. You may still receive duplicates, just not consecutively.
• Fireteam Members on Destination Map
• • You will finally be able to see the other members of your fireteam on the destination map. No more having to ask your fireteam where they went when they fast travel to another landing zone.

• Crucible Rank
• • Beginning with Season 3 we will introduce Seasonal Crucible Ranks. There will be two different ranks for players to pursue:
  • • Valor – A progression rank that goes up as you complete matches. Winning helps you move up faster, but there are no loss penalties.
    • Glory – A progression rank that goes up when you win and down when you lose. Performance is how you move up here.

• Private Matches
• • Private Matches are coming to all players of Destiny 2. Players will be able to invite their friends to play on the map and mode of their choosing.

• 6v6 Playlist
• • We’re bringing 6v6 PvP to Destiny 2 in addition to the current 4v4 game modes.
• Mayhem Event
• • Mayhem will return as a limited-time event during Season 3 and going forward.
• Additional Fixes
• • We are making some changes to make quitting less common and behind-the-scenes security improvements to help improve the overall Crucible experience.

• Weapon and Ability Balance Pass
• • Sandbox adjustments based on player feedback and data from the live game. The Sandbox team will share specific changes as we lead up to Season 3.
• Exotic Weapon and Armor Balance Pass
• • Exotic weapons and armor are receiving a comprehensive design pass to ensure they stand out from the rest of the gear and offer new, exciting, powerful ways to play.
• Seasonal Reputation
• • Specific vendors will now display a Seasonal ranking. Earning reputation will unlock unique Seasonal rewards and will reset each Season.
• Improved Iron Banner and Faction Rallies
• • In addition to the changes that you will see when Iron Banner and Faction Rallies return this month, we will continue iterating on these to make them unique, exciting experiences that you all look forward to.
• Playlist Repetition Reduction
• • This feature solves the problem of experiencing the same playlist entry multiple times in consecutive or frequent succession for both Crucible and Strikes.
• End Game Player Pursuits
• • We agree with your feedback on the imbalance between Achievement and Bright Engram rewards, and we will be making adjustments to shift more rewards into specific endgame pursuits instead of generic XP grinding for Bright Engrams. We are excited to share the details as soon as we have them worked out.
• Multi-Emote
• • When multi-emote launches, you will be able to choose which emote you have equipped to each of your four emote slots.
• Vault space
• • We are targeting an additional 50 slots to player vaults. We don’t believe just adding more space is a complete solution and are actively working on other changes to reduce load on your vault space.
  • We are adding an Exotic accessory tab to Vault collections so you will no longer need to spend Vault space on Exotic Ships, Sparrows, and Ghosts.
• PC Clan Chat
• • In addition to the Tower chat that is targeted for February, we are adding clan chat to the PC version of the game.
• Heroic Strike Changes
• • We’ll be introducing modifiers to add more gameplay variety to the experience.

• Item Collections and Records
• Weapon Slot and Archetype Improvements
• Additional Crucible Playlists (e.g. Rumble)
• Better Clan Rewards
• Masterwork Exotics
• Pinnacle Weapon and Gear Improvements
• Trials of the Nine improvements
• Shaders and dismantling
• The Future of Guided Games
• Address Solo Vs Fireteam matching

Whether it’s a daydreaming doodle in a school textbook or a sneaky sketch during a work meeting, we’ve all probably spent a little too much time making up crudely-drawn stickmen over the years. It’s one of those instantly familiar forms of childhood storytelling, and it’s a conceit that helps bring the cute world of Draw A Stickman: EPIC 2 to life with an affable sense of charm and creativity. 

Things start out innocently enough. First, you draw your own hero (using either the touchscreen or ZL/ZR and the analog sticks) before sketching out a fellow, stick-based friend. It’s a relatively basic drawing suite, but with a few colours and sizes to choose from there’s the option to create a relatively detailed new character a classic stick-based chap. However, the good times soon make way for doom and gloom as a spilled bottle of ink turns your friendly chum into a dastardly nemesis.

Before you know it, your newly-inked foe jumps into a storytelling book, rips up its pages and causes all sorts of villainous trouble within. So it’s up to you and your sketched avatar to leap after them and pen a plan to save the day. At its core, DAS:E2 is basically a simplified action-RPG that combines exploration, environmental puzzle solving and combat into a cute package that boasts some pleasingly deep mechanics within its seemingly simple concept.

As shocking as it sounds for a game with the word ‘draw’ in the title, flexing your artistic muscles really is the key to success. Its creative setup might not be as grand as, say Scribblenauts Unlimited, but it’s still a fun mechanic to mess around with. You can even sketch your own tools and weapons; in fact, there’s something quite satisfying about seeing your avatar – however convincing or laughably bad they might look – carrying around one of your own poor attempts to draw a pickaxe. Each tool enables you to perform a new task, such as destroying rocks and boulders to reach new areas or attacking certain enemies, although they do feel a little redundant compared to the more versatile pencils unlocked throughout the story.

With these you can draw leaves on dead trees (which protect you from the inked monsters that roam the over-inked pages of the storybook), or sketch sheets of ice to freeze rivers so you can reach further sections of the map. There’s a rewarding systemic balance to the rate at which these powers are revealed, as well as the way in which each one interacts with one another. Rain clouds, for instance, can make your newly revitalised trees expand, increasing their effect and dispelling pools of nasty ink to reveal seemingly inaccessible collectibles.

These trinkets also feed into the rest of the game by expanding your creative repertoire. Colour Buddies are one such collectible item, with each one unlocking more colourful shades for use when drawing tools. These might seem a little pointless, but when you consider tools such as keys correspond to locks of a certain colour, you realise there’s a practical necessity to returning to previously completed levels to seek out items that were once tantalisingly out of reach.

However, not every ability-toting pencil feels as inherently creative as the next. The power to draw eggs, for instance, only has a limited use across the main game’s eight levels, making it somewhat limited by comparison. On the flipside, the power to draw colour-coded wires serves as the most dynamic of the entire set, requiring a mixture of creative thinking and careful placement to link batteries and switches that swap colours. 

Unfortunately, this particular power – along with the drawing suite itself – does reveal how clunky sketching can be. Using the shoulder buttons and the analog sticks is incredibly unintuitive, effectively forcing you to use the touchscreen for all freeform creations. It doesn’t break the game by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s a shame to see one part of an otherwise excellent game feel partially unsuited to the platform.

The main game’s story does feel a little short by the time the credits roll (although there is some replay value to be found in seeking out those missing collectibles), but when you factor in the entire Down Below expansion (which strips away your power-related pencils and forces you to track them down with a series of progressively tougher puzzles) bundled in on top, DAS:E2 becomes of one of the most rewarding and charming ports on Nintendo Switch to date.

Conclusion

Despite a few niggles with the implementation of its drawing mechanics on a button-based handheld, Draw A Stickman: EPIC 2 remains one of the most creative genre mashups we’ve played on Switch. With a splash of RPG, a sprinkling of puzzle solving and a generous dollop of creativity, you end up with a recipe for family friendly entertainment that feels fresh and new on Nintendo’s hybrid console (even if it has been out on PC for over two years already). Add in the Down Below DLC as standard and it’s not hard to draw your own conclusions on this little gem.