Sunday, October 17, 2021

Destiny 2 - An introduction to mods

 

An Introduction to... Mods By DakotaThrice An introduction to mods - what they are, where to get them and what they can do. This guide isn't intended as a complete list of all mods as this information can already be found in-game. What are Mods and where to acquire them. Mods are unlockable items that can be inserted into your weapons, armour or Ghost. They do exactly what you'd expect and modify your gear - some provide extra stats whilst others provide a variety of buffs and effects.  The main method through which you'll acquire most of your mods is juts playing the game. Anytime you decrypt an engram and acquire a weapon or a piece of armour you also have a chance to acquire a mod as an additional item. There are seven other sources that mods can be acquired from: Banshee-44 sells two weapon mods on a daily rotation. Ada-1 sells two armour mods on a daily rotation. One of these will always be a standard armour mod and one will always be a Combat Style mod. Raid mods can be acquired from the secret chests in each Raid. Last Wish is entirely RNG whilst Garden of Salvation, Deep Stone Crypt and Vault of Glass are on a knockout list. Combat Style mods from Hunt, Chosen, Splicer and Lost can be acquired from the relevant seasonal vendor. Next season these will move into Ada's loot pool. Nightmare mods can be acquired by completing Nightmare Hunts. Adept mods can be acquired by either completing Grandmaster Nightfalls, completing encounters in Master Vault of Glass or going Flawless and reaching the Lighthouse in Trials of Osiris. The Seasonal Artifact has a selection of mods available which change with each season.  Purchasing mods requires a currency called Mod Components which are primarily acquired by completing bounties from Banshee-44 (two per daily, one per repeatable). One of Hawthorne's clan upgrades also adds Mod Components as an additional reward to clan bounties. If you're a returning player with leftover consumable mods in your inventory then you may also receive mod components for dismantling these. There is also a chance to receive mod components for dismantling Year 1 weapons though this is costly and not something I recommend.  Each mod shares a number of core features: Elemental Affinity is shown on the top left corner of armour mods. Mods with an elemental affinity can only be slotted in armour with a matching affinity. Energy Cost is shown in the top right corner of armour and Ghost mods. The combined cost of mods on a single piece of armour or Ghost can't exceed 10 (assuming it's masterworked). Armour Mods Each piece of legendary armour has four mod slots available. The first slot is for general armour mods, the second and third are for mods specific to the that armour type and the fourth is for combat style mods. Raid armour has a fifth mod slot for raid specific mods.  Head  There are three types of mod that can be applied to this armour type: Super/Orb Generation - These mods either provide you bonus Super energy or spawn additional Orbs of Power when meting certain conditions. Ammo Finder - These mods increase your chance of finding Special (green)/Heavy (purple) ammo whilst you have a weapon of the matching type equipped. Weapon types that only use Primary (white) ammo don't have an Ammo Finder mod available. Targeting - These mods improve target acquisition, accuracy and aim-down-sights (ADS) speed for the matching weapon type.  Arms  There are three types of mod that can be applied to this armour type: Mods that effect the functionality of your grenade and/or melee abilities in some way. Primarily through changes to regen/cooldown. Loader - Increase the reload speed for the matching weapon type. Dexterity - Faster ready and stow speed for the matching weapon type.  Chest  There are three types of mod that can be applied to this armour type: Resistance - Reduce certain types of incoming damage. Reserves - Increase the amount of ammo you can carry for the matching weapon type. Weapon types that only use Primary (white) ammo don't have a Reserves mod available. Unflinching Aim - Reduces flinching from incoming fire whilst aiming the matching weapon type.  Legs  There are three types of mod that can be applied to this armour type: Mods that provide various effects when picking up Orbs of Power. These are primarily either reduced ability cooldown or health regen. Scavenger - Matching weapon types get bonus reserves when picking up ammo used by that weapon. Weapon types that only use Primary (white) ammo don't have a Reserves mod available. Holster - Gradually reload stowed weapons of the matching type over time. Stacking a second copy of a mod reduce the time required for a full reload but not the amount of ammo reloaded. Rocket Launchers, breech-loading grenade launchers, bows and swords don't have a Holster mod available.  Class  There are two types of mod that can be applied to this armour type: Mods that effect ability cooldown/regen when using your class ability. Finisher - These mods provide various effects upon using a finisher but using your finisher now costs a certain amount of your Super energy.  General  These mods can be applied to any piece of armour and add either +5 or +10 to the matching character stat.  Combat Style  There are currently three types of combat style mod - Charged with Light, Warmind Cell and Elemental Well.  Charged with Light  These mods come in three types. Mods with green icons give the player a stack of the Charged with Light buff when their condition is met, mods with yellow icons consume those stacks when their condition is met whilst mods with white icons provide other effects related to this buff.  By default a player can have a maximum of two stacks of Charged with Light though some of the white icon mods can increase this, once acquired stacks don't have a timer but will be lost when you die. Whilst there are ways to become Charged with Light without generating your own stacks you can't become Charged with Light if you have no way to spend those stacks.  A very basic Charged with Light build would combine the Taking Charge and Protective Light mods. The former generates stacks of Charged with Light by picking up Orbs of Power whilst the latter consumes those stacks to provide you additional damage resistance whenever your shield is destroyed.
Warmind Cell  Warmind Cells are glowing orange orbs (not to be confused with various other glowing orange orbs) that explode when shot and in turn deal damage to any enemies within the area of effect. Warmind Cells are generated by defeating enemies with any Seventh Seraph or IKELOS weapon whilst having any Warmind Cell mod equipped. All players can see and shoot Warmind Cells created by other players regardless of their own mods and can also interact with other players Warmind Cells in any other way there own mods allow. Warmind Cells expire after approximately twenty seconds and will glow more brightly the closer they are to expiring.  As well as the basic functionality outlined above Warmind Cells can provide a variety of other effects depending on the mods you have equipped. Certain mods also allow you to pick up and throw Warmind Cells to further extend their functionality. Wrath of Rasputin in particular stands out by allowing you to generate Warmind Cells with solar splash damage final blows even if you don't have a Seventh Seraph or IKELOS weapon equipped. Mods with green icons give the player stacks of Charged with Light for interacting with Warmind Cells, all other mods have white icons.  Spawning a Warmind Cell requires up to seven kills credited to you with higher tier enemies giving more progress towards your next cell and with Boss kills guaranteeing a cell spawn. Warmind Cells can be spawned in all PvE activities including Gambit but not in PvP game modes. There is a short cooldown on the generation of Warmind Cells.  Elemental Well  Elemental Wells can be spawned when you have an elemental Well mod equipped and fulfill its stated condition. An Elemental Well will generally match the subclass of the player that created it. Elemental Wells spawn for all players in a team and one player picking them up doesn't prevent other players from doing so. picking up an Elemental Well doesn't require any mods to be equipped. Like with Warmind Cells Elemental Wells can't be spawned in PvP game modes.  The basic functionality of Elemental Wells grants 10% energy to the ability with the lowest energy, picking one up that matches your subclass grants energy to all of your abilities. This functionality is then expanded upon depending on which mods you have equipped.  Again, as with both Charged with Light and Warmind Cells mods with a green icon give the player stacks of Charged with Light with all the other mods having white icons.  Legacy and Raid  Vault of Glass, Deep Stone Crypt, Garden of Salvation and Last Wish  These mods are exclusively acquired from raids and can only be equipped to a given raids specific armour set. They have a wide variety of functions but typically enhance a players ability to fulfill a specific role with a given raid encounter. These mods will only be active whilst in the appropriate raid.  Nightmare  These mods are acquired through Nightmare Hunts and can only be slotted into Dreambane Armour which like raid armour has a fifth mod slot specifically for these mods. These mods provide either increased damage against or reduced damage from Nightmare bosses.  Riven's Curse and Transcendent Blessing  These are technically general armour mods but are grouped here as they relate primarily to legacy content.  Riven's Curse can currently only be found on the Reverie Dawn armour set obtained from the Dreaming City and increases both the damage you deal and receive whilst in the Dreaming City. If you remove or replace this mod on a given piece of armour it cannot be recovered.  Transcendent Blessing is an enhanced version of Riven's Curse that increases only the damage you deal within the Dreaming City. This is the only consumable mod still in the game and is acquired by completing Petra Venj's Gateway Between Worlds weekly bounty. This mod ca be applied to any piece of armour but can only be recovered by dismantling that piece of armour. Weapon Mods All legendary weapons have a single mod slot available. Weapon mods fall into the following lose categories. Spec - These mods either increase a weapons damage against certain types of enemies (Minor, Major, Boss, Taken) or increase the effects of certain weapon perks (Surrounded, Rampage, Dragonfly). Stats - These mods improve one or more of your weapons stats either globally or under certain conditions (in-air, ADS, sprinting, etc). Adept - These are enhanced versions of the stat mods and can only be equipped on Adept weapons. Some of these have a negative impact on a second stat. Adept Icarus Grip is currently exclusively earned through Trials of Osiris. Adept Big Ones Spec can be earned from either Grandmaster Nightfalls or Master Vault of Glass but Not Trials of Osiris. All other Adept mods an be earned from any of the three sources.  There are no caps on acquiring Adept mods from Trials of Osiris or Grandmaster Nightfalls but you can only acquire them from your first clear of each encounter per class per week in Master Vault of Glass. Ghost Mods Like armour pieces Ghost shells have four mod slots that each take a certain type of mod. Most Ghost mods are permanent unlocks just like weapon and armour mods though some of the higher tier ones are considered fragile, fragile mods expire at the end of the content year in which they are obtained.  Experience Mod - Increase XP gains by up to 12%. Tracking Mod - Detect chests, resources or both at up to 75 meters. Economic Mod - Increase Glimmer gains by up to 65%, focus the stats rolls on armour, increase the rewards from harvesting or public events or generate Gunsmith telemetry on weapon final blows. Activity Mod - Award extra currency or materials for meeting certain criteria ion specific activities. This slot unlocks once a Ghost shell is fully masterworked. Seasonal Artifact  Each season a new Artifact will be available and with it will come a new selection of temporary yet potentially meta defining mods. This seasons artifact features twenty five mods of which you can unlock twelve at any given time. You can reset your artifact at any time to choose a different selection of mods but each time you do so the cost will increase from the initial cost of 10K Glimmer until it caps at 100K Glimmer.  The first column includes five mods that allow you to add anti-Champion functionality to a variety of weapons. Once you've acquired one mod from the first column you'll gain access to the second column that features five more mods. Accessing the third column requires any four mods across the first two columns to be unlocked.Accessing the fourth column requires any seven mods from the first three columns to be unlocked. Accessing the fifth and final column requires any ten mods from the first four columns to be unlocked. As you can only unlock twelve of the available mods you can only ever have two mods from the final column unlocked at a time.



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