The problem child of Destiny 2, Gambit, is getting something of a refresh.

Gambit is Destiny 2’s player versus player versus enemy mode in which teams of four players compete to see who can shoot the most monsters in the face, pick up their treasures and deposit them to summon a boss.

While it was initially praised ahead of its public release, Gambit has become something players have to do rather than being something they want to do.

This week, Bungie has detailed the changes it is is making to the mode in an exhaustive blog post. There are no Gambit Prime-esque changes coming rather this should be seen as a run at tuning the mode to feel a bit more balanced.

There are many problems with Gambit but moving into the launch of The Witch Queen, Bungie will be addressing five aspects of the mode, namely:

• Core Activity – Addressing aspects such as facing a full team as a solo player, respawn points and timers, Mote loss and more.
• Ammo Economy – Limiting the amount of Special and Heavy ammo players have access to.
• Primeval Tuning – Putting an emphasis on team work and mechanics rather than the final boss being a damage check.
• Invasions – Make invaders work a bit harder so as not to make the invader the make or break aspect of a match.
• Rewards – Engram focusing will be added much like it was for Trials of Osiris.

As regards the Core Activity aspect, Bungie wants to put an emphasis on team work and being able to pull back and win even if a team is losing. To that end the following changes are being made.

• A Freelance mode is being added to give those who don’t want to face full teams a fighting chance.
• A rotating seasonal selection of curated encounters will debut in season 16
• Respawn points are being added to all areas where enemies spawn in known as Fronts. This should make getting back into the fight when you’re downed easier while also making Invasions less predictable.
• Players now only drop half of their motes when they are defeated. Dropped motes can be collected by team mates and Invaders.
• Revive timer reduced by two seconds and auto-respawn is delayed by two seconds
• Shields are no more resistant to non-matching damage types. While not as severe as Match Game, Bungie hopes this promotes build crafting.

There are also changes to blockers coming next season.

The Phalanx blocker summoned with 10 Motes now has slightly more health while the 15 Mote Knight Blocker now gains a Stasis attack.

Bungie is also reworking the Mote drain feature. Now, even if a player has a Primeval, there motes will continue to drain. We’re not entirely sure why this will be done. Will the Primeval disappear if motes drain beyond a certain point?

We don’t know but given Bungie says, “This also gives the team in the lead a bit more incentive to kill Blockers during their Primeval phase,” we have to assume blockers will have some sort of effect on the Primeval.

Speaking of which, Primeval Envoys will now create an immunity shield around the Primeval. This forces players to deal with the Envoys. Bungie also mentions invading which is weird as Envoys and Invasions aren’t necessarily linked.

Army of One

One of the biggest gripes regarding Gambit has been the ammo economy. If players get lucky they can invade loaded to the gills with Heavy ammo and that feels bad for the opposing team.

With forthcoming changes Bungie is looking to limit the amount of Special and Heavy ammo players get their hands on.

Now, when players have cleared an area of enemies a chest containing Special and Heavy ammo will spawn in the middle of that area. The chest will be active for 20 seconds and will then disappear.

One Heavy ammo brick per player will drop when players defeat a high-value target and ammo chests will spawn in Fronts randomly during the Primeval phase every 60 seconds. Ammo finder perks will still work but will only spawn limited ammo.

As regards Invasions these are getting a look as well.

Invaders will now no longer be able to see how many Motes a player has and player names will fade away when aiming down sights. The amount the Primeval is healed upon an Invasion kill is now a fixed 27 percent rather than a random figure of between 5 and 35 percent of its total health.

We do quickly want to touch on rewards because Bungie mentioned something that affects all areas of Destiny 2.

“Starting with The Witch Queen, ritual playlist rewards will be updated to grant ritual specific gear (weapons, mods, armor) and no longer be granting rewards from the general world pool,” Bungie wrote.

This means that you together with Engram focusing for Gambit, grinding out new rewards should be less of a chore.

We would have liked to have seen some new Gambit maps or at the very least the return of Cathedral of Scars and Kell’s Grave. Seeing as the worst PvP maps (Eternity and Vostok) are returning we’re sad that none are returning for Gambit.

However, the changes Bungie has detailed make Gambit look a lot more balanced than it is right now. Of course we won’t know how these changes help the game mode until The Witch Queen drops.

Thankfully we won’t have to wait long as Destiny 2: The Witch Queen releases on 22nd February at 19:00 local time for Xbox, PlayStation and PC.

https://youtu.be/PYM7KDrx_Ho