Destiny 2 drops skill-based matchmaking from most PvP modes

(Image credit: Bungie)

The big Destiny 2 news this week was the launch of Season of Arrivals and the reveal of the next expansion, Beyond Light. (And the insta-kill grenade launcher, I suppose.) But big things are happening in the Crucible, too. Bungie announced today that it's removed skill-based matchmaking from all of the game's PvP playlists except Elimination, Survival, and Survival: Freelance.

Bungie said the change was made in response to community feedback, and should shorten queue times, improve connection quality in matches, and will also "play into the strengths of Crucible being a bombastic, frenetic action game," where the priority is having fun rather than winning at all costs.

Trials of Osiris matchmaking will continue to be based on the number of wins on your Passages, Bungie said. "The pursuit of Glory Points in Survival and attempting to go Flawless in Trials of Osiris will allow those playlists to reinforce that the outcome of matches are important and keep the stakes high. We want the rest of the Crucible to be less of a high-stakes environment where players can have a more relaxed experience and just enjoy the Destiny multiplayer sandbox."

The Crucible matchmaking changes are already live, and Bungie said it would keep an eye on the situation and adjust if and where necessary. It also revealed that, just ahead of the launch of Season of Arrivals, it found a bug that enables players to equip all current Charged with Light armor mods on any Season of the Worthy armor pieces, without having previously acquired them. That'll be cleared up in the next hotfix, but until that comes Bungie is going to leave it alone, so players can try out the mods for the week. Much like the Witherhoard glitch, you should enjoy it while you can.

Here's the full list of fixes coming in the 2.9.0.1 hotfix:

The Guardian Angel artifact armor mod is not granting its perk when the mod is slotted.
The Breach Resonator artifact armor mod is not granting its perk when the mod is slotted.
On controllers, Sprint will cancel if players press the Sprint action again.
Players will a full engram inventory of Umbral Engrams may be blocked from completing the Season of Arrivals opening quest.
Visible holes are present in the EDZ terrain where the Seraph Towers used to be.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.