Everything You Need To Know About Destiny's Big April Update

The agonizing wait for new things to do in Bungie's shared-world shooter is almost over. While Destiny Update 2.2.0 may not be the sexiest name for a content drop, it promises new activities, more powerful gear, and tons of tweaks and improvements. We've rounded up everything you need to know into one concise list.

The following bullet point list has been culled from Matt Miller's extensive reporting on Destiny's April update, and as such you can click the link on any given topic to learn more.

What's New:

• New story missions take players back to The Reef to help the Awoken prevent another Taken resurgence. New quests will also be introduced, with PlayStation owners receiving an additional exclusive quest.
• The new Blighted Chalice strike takes players back to the moon's Ocean of Storms region to take down an up-and-coming successor to the Taken King.
• The Winter's Run strike also returns, this time with Taken-themed enemies.
• A new level-41 version of the Prison of Elders activity is being introduced, with new bosses and a higher challenge. Matchmaking will be supported.
• A new Challenge of the Elders mode within the Prison of Elders pits players against multiple rounds of  specific boss fights. The bosses and additional modifiers change weekly, and a scoring system will allow high-scoring players to earn additional weapons and armor.

• New weapons are being added, along with beloved year-one exotics and legendaries. PlayStation owners can get an additional exotic sniper rifle, entitled Zen Meteor.
• New armor sets are on the way, including one full set for each faction and new Taken-themed armor.
• A new Chroma feature allows players to apply custom colored lights to their Guardian's gear.
• Sterling Treasures are new rewards that players can earn weekly by visiting the postmaster, playing a PvP playlist match, and completing the level-41 Prison of Elders activity. Players can also buy the treasure chests with silver, but all awarded armor will start at light value 3.
• New cosmetic items including ships, Sparrows, and other visual gear will be available. New dances and other emotes are also being added.
• New Grimoire Cards tie into the activities, gear, and bosses introduced in the update.

Coming Up Next: A list of all the tweaks coming in Destiny Update 2.2.0, including weapon balancing, class changes, and the increased light level cap... 

What's Changing:

• Light level cap is increasing 15 levels, from 320 to 335. Bungie is also expanding the number of ways to get high-level items.
• The King's Fall raid is increasing in difficulty and will net players better loot, up to light-320 gear on normal and light-330 gear on hard. Following a hotfix that will be deployed some days after the April Update, hard mode will include light-335 gear.  
• The Court of Oryx activity is also getting a boost in difficulty and will drop certain level-335 items, specifically artifacts.
• The light level of rewards in Iron Banner and Trials of Osiris events are also increasing.
• Infusing gear has been drastically simplified, allowing the light-value of one item to be directly transferred to another item.
• The player's vault space is being expanded to store more weapons, armor, and general items.
• Bungie is making myriad tweaks to weapons. Low rate-of-fire autorifles and pulse rifles are getting slight damage boosts, while high rate-of-fire auto rifles are getting a slight reduction. Hand cannons will have increased ammo inventory, while sniper rifles and shotguns will lose a few rounds (5-7 depending on the weapon). For all the nitty-gritty details, check out Bungie's breakdown.

• Specific exotic and legendary weapons are also getting tweaked, which you can read more about here.
• Numerous tweaks will make reviving players more difficult in an effort to reduce "sprint revives" in PvP and to make the penalty for dying less trivial.
• Special ammo will once again spawn at the beginning of Crucible matches, but won't spawn again until the three- and five-minute marks of matches. This includes Elimination and Trials matches.
• Heavy ammo will only spawn at the five-minute mark of Crucible matches, with the exception of Mayhem matches.
• Legendary weapons and armor will now drop at a higher rate at the end of Crucible matches.
• Warlocks are getting a significant overhaul, including a scaled-back melee attack for Sunsingers, some nerfs to the Stormcaller subclass, and some much-needed boosts to make Voidwalker more competitive. You can learn more about the changes coming to Warlock here.

Destiny Update 2.2.0 will roll out next Tuesday, April 12. For a more in-depth look at what to expect, check out Miller's exclusive interview with Bungie's live events lead designer Ryan Paradis, along with his explainers on the impending gear and gameplay changes. You can also take a gander at the following screenshot galleries to see some of the new enemies and gear you'll come across.