Nine Years, One Final Patch: Here Is Everything Bungie Put Into Destiny 2’s Last Update
Destiny 2’s final live-service update, Monument of Triumph (Update 9.7.0), went live on June 9, 2026. It marks the end of active development on the game after nearly nine years of continuous updates, and is available to all players at no cost. The patch covers weapons, activities, armor, quality-of-life systems, and the permanent return of Sparrow Racing League. Our Monument of Triumph preview covers what was announced in the weeks before launch.
Bungie ended support for Destiny 2 after Sony — which acquired the studio for $3.6 billion in 2022 — reported impairment losses of approximately $204 million in November 2025 and $766 million in May 2026. Despite that context, Monument of Triumph drove Steam to 167,867 concurrent players on launch day — the game’s highest figure since The Final Shape in June 2024. Use the interactive sections below to explore what changed.
Guardians Showed Up One Last Time
Peak concurrent players on Steam at launch. Source: SteamDB
(Lightfall, 2023)
Monument of Triumph reached 53% of Destiny 2’s all-time Steam peak set during the Lightfall expansion on February 28, 2023. For most of early 2026 the game averaged below 20,000 concurrent players on Steam.
Every Corner of Destiny 2, Touched
Select a category to explore what changed. All details drawn from Bungie’s official launch article.
The Portal tab introduced with Edge of Fate is gone. The Director — the solar system map that was Destiny’s original navigation hub — is back at the centre of the game. Kepler and the Lawless Frontier have been added alongside all classic destinations.
Portal Ops categories now live as icons along the bottom row of the Director screen. Gambit, raids, and dungeons all have dedicated quick-access points. Dungeon Ops as a separate node has been retired; raids and dungeons are accessed directly from the Director’s front screen.
Distortions are a new patrol feature active on seven destinations. These are timed, higher-difficulty events tied to patrol zones — designed to bring loot incentives back to open-world exploration, an area that had gone without meaningful rewards for several years.
Sparrow Racing League (SRL) is now permanently part of Destiny 2 as of Update 9.7.0 — not a timed seasonal event. Races are six players, three laps.
Both Sparrows and Skimmers are available. Bungie balanced both vehicles so neither has a built-in speed advantage. Skimmers cannot use rail grinds or manual jumps; Sparrows cannot use destabilizer rolls or flips. Ghost and Shaxx return as race announcers.
A new track — Quantum Circuit, set in the realm of the Nine — joins four returning tracks from the original Destiny. Players choose their vehicle before each race via a new vehicle selection screen. Heavy Metal mode has also been put on permanent Crucible rotation, adding the Cabal Behemoth alongside the Drake and Brig, also with a pre-match vehicle selection screen.
Monument of Triumph adds 25 new Exotic weapon catalysts to weapons that previously had none, and 9 additional perks to existing catalysts that only had stat bonuses. Per Bungie, each perk was chosen to match the corresponding Exotic’s design or lore.
The new Weapon Tier Upgrading system lets players spend materials to move any eligible weapon up to Gear Tier 5, unlocking enhanced perks and exclusive Tier 5 cosmetics. This applies retroactively — weapons already in the vault can be upgraded. Upgrading tier does not add new perk columns; it enhances what is already rolled. Enhanced Mods unlock at Gear Tier 3.
All crafted legendary weapons are immediately eligible for this upgrading path via the Crafting Table — no re-farming of patterns required. Anti-Champion capabilities are now built directly into weapons, removing the seasonal Artifact dependency. The Artifact mod system has been simplified into three buckets, removing the refund loop required to re-spec earlier columns. Artifacts are disabled in Competitive and Trials of Osiris.
For a fuller breakdown of weapon changes, see our Monument of Triumph preview.
Six new armor archetypes have been added to the original six, targeting build variety gaps. All Armor 3.0 Exotic pieces — excluding Collection rolls — have been retroactively updated to Tier 5 stats with access to all tuning mods. No new Exotic drops required.
A large batch of new set bonuses spans elemental effects, ability synergies, movement options, survivability tools, and callbacks to older armor mod systems. Existing set bonuses remain earnable.
Ornament flexibility is also expanded: all quality tiers of armor ornament — Common through Legendary — can now be applied to equipped Exotic armor alongside Universal Exotic Ornaments. Ornaments not specifically parented to the equipped Exotic will have visuals temporarily disabled in PvP content.
Three new Aspects bring every non-Prismatic subclass to four: Titan Sunbreaker — Shieldburst, Hunter Gunslinger — Crackshot, Warlock Voidwalker — Soul Siphon. Two new grenades (Stasis Shatter Grenade and Strand Slicewire Grenade) and a new Hunter Nightstalker melee (Phantom Surge) are also included.
Gambit now has a dedicated home in the Director via Gambit Ops, with a tiered reward pool, a new armor set and set bonus, and reprised weapons. Scoring is team-based: reaching the Primeval phase earns S-grade / Tier 5 gear for the full team.
Crucible playlists move to a predictable cadence. Iron Banner returns every four weeks. Control is permanent. Trials of Osiris runs Friday through Tuesday weekly — except during Iron Banner weeks. Trials now features up to three maps per weekend from tiered pools: Pool 1 maps are Burnout, Javelin-4, and Endless Vale.
Pantheon returns with new bosses, new rewards, and an Adventure difficulty that lifts the Power cap, allows infinite revives, and eases timing requirements. Two multi-boss activities launch on day one. A third full-gauntlet activity unlocks the first Saturday after launch. Individual bosses rotate weekly from the following Tuesday.
Attunement now lives in your inventory and works anywhere — orbit, social spaces, between SRL races. Vendor Reputation Rank Reward tracks return for Shaxx, Zavala, Saint-14, Xûr, Banshee-44, and the Drifter, with Tier 3 and Tier 4 weapon focusing available. For more context on the gaming landscape this update lands in, see our wider gaming news coverage.
Bungie’s stated approach for Monument of Triumph’s reward slate was to “hold nothing back” — returning limited-time cosmetics, new ornaments, and Exotic weapons that were previously unreleased or unobtainable.
Returning cosmetics include the previously time-limited Chatterwhite, Superblack, Gryphon, and All Star Vector Skimmer. Exotic Faction Ornaments return. 16 Armor Ornament sets are included, alongside new universal helmet ornaments including the Einherjar Coronet flaming helmet.
Exotic weapons Fafnir and Heir Apparent are part of the update. Turncoat — a new Reward Pass Exotic Hand Cannon — receives its own Weapon Ornament. Endlessly purchasable engrams cover tiered weapons from the Lawless and Reclamation Seasons, Pinnacle Ops, Crucible, Fireteam Ops, Dawning, Festival of the Lost, Guardian Games, and Solstice.
Bright Engram Focusing is new: Focused Engrams in a new Eververse tab award an unowned item from the Engram’s category. Destiny 2: The Collection — all five expansions, four content packs, ten dungeons, and seven raids — is available as a single bundle. For more gaming coverage this period, see our report on Hogwarts Legacy 2.
Under the Hood
Key mechanical changes from Update 9.7.0 that affect how the game plays day to day.
Destiny 2 — From Launch to Lights Out
The road that ended at Monument of Triumph. Steam concurrent figures from SteamDB.
The above sections covered Monument of Triumph’s key changes: the return of the Director and patrol Distortions across seven destinations, SRL’s permanent addition with Sparrows and Skimmers balanced against each other, 25 new Exotic catalysts plus 9 perk additions to existing catalysts, retroactive Gear Tier Upgrading for vaulted weapons and crafted gear, six new armor archetypes, retroactive Tier 5 stats for all Armor 3.0 Exotics, anti-Champion built into weapons, a simplified Artifact system that now works with loadouts, Gambit’s integration into the Director with team-based tiered rewards, expanded vendor focusing, and a reward slate covering returning time-limited cosmetics, 16 Armor Ornament sets, and previously unobtainable Exotic weapons.
Update 9.7.0’s patch notes — over 17,000 words — were published on Bungie’s official site. Bungie confirmed Destiny 2 will remain playable following the close of active development, with maintenance patches and smaller hotfixes still planned. Weekly TWID blog updates will enter a period of reduced publishing once the launch window closes.