Bungie has spoken out and defended the radical changes to Checkmate revealing that they are a part of a bigger plan to rework core PvP in the near future.
Season 22 saw Checkmate trialed in Labs, offering something different for Guardians to try. With a slower TTK, less Special ammo, and decreased ability usage this new spin on PvP puts the focus firmly on Primary ammo weapons.
Although the initial reception to Checkmate was mixed and its first weekend in Trials wasn’t perfect by any means, Checkmate has an audience and isn’t going anywhere.
However, fans were concerned after Bungie revealed a series of massive changes to the new PvP mode on January 9, but now the developer insists these aren’t as they first appear.
Destiny 2 devs clarify purpose of Checkmate tuning
Looking to address community backlash over the proposed Checkmate changes, Bungie opened on X/Twitter, “For anyone worried that these changes to Checkmate will permanently change a fun mode you enjoy, we wanted to clarify our intentions for the current round of Checkmate tuning.”
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“While it is not our intention to make the original Checkmate into the core PvP experience, we are experimenting with the current iteration of Checkmate to gather data, lessons, and feedback we can use to eventually tune the base PvP sandbox,” the Destiny 2 developer revealed detailing its plans.
For anyone worried that these changes to Checkmate will permanently change a fun mode you enjoy, we wanted to clarify our intentions for the current round of Checkmate tuning: https://t.co/ZGjW2IOlgx
— Destiny 2 Team (@Destiny2Team) January 9, 2024
Explaining further what this means, Bungie continued, “Things like primary weapon balance, special ammo economy, and ability uptime are easier to alter in a single modifier, which gives us freedom to iterate quickly,” before identifying “a more skilled, more deliberate sandbox,” as the final goal for PvP.
“Later in the season, once we have tuned the base PvP sandbox, we will continue developing Checkmate as a standalone modifier,” the Destiny 2 developer divulged before doubling down and declaring, “More changes are coming to the Crucible.”
If feedback is positive, these tweaks will see the base PvP experience shift closer to what Momentum currently offers. However, both Special weapons and abilities will still play an important role in regular PvP, something that the community has come to value.
