Upcoming Destiny 2 update will heavily nerf Luna's Howl and Not Forgotten

Destiny 2's PvP meta has long been dominated by Luna's Howl and Not Forgotten, the pinnacle Crucible hand cannons available from Shaxx. In an effort to make other weapons more relevant, Bungie announced it's heavily nerfing both guns in the Season of Opulence which starts in June. 

The nerf is two-fold. Most importantly, both Luna's Howl and Not Forgotten will have their rate-of-fire reduced from 180 to 150. However, they will still be precision-class hand cannons - the only 150 RPM precision hand cannons in the game. This will dramatically lower their time-to-kill without removing their smooth recoil and sharp in-air accuracy.

Additionally, the unique perk Magnificent Howl - which is the main reason these guns are so strong - is being adjusted. Currently, this perk dramatically strengthens your next shot whenever you rapidly land two consecutive headshots. As you can imagine, this perk can lead to exceedingly fast kills as long as you land all of your shots, especially on 180 RPM hand cannons which usually take four headshots to kill. However, after the nerf, Magnificent Howl will only boost body-shot damage. In other words, the optimal time-to-kill with these guns will now be two headshots and a body-shot finisher. 

"After significant amounts of feedback, internal discussion, and playtesting, we’ve decided to adjust how these hand cannons work," Bungie said. "For some players, these weapons can represent a significant investment of time and the personal improvement needed to acquire them. When tuning, we attempt to take into account the time commitment players make to acquire weapons and balance that against how those weapons affect the different game modes." 

"The team has been hard at work on these changes, ensuring the weapons are still viable (and heavy hitters) in the sandbox," community manager dmg04 said on Twitter. "Coming from playtests, they still feel to be the 'pinnacle' legendary hand cannons of D2." 

Nerfs can't please everyone 

Spider, the tangled shore vendor in Destiny 2: Forsaken

We'll need to play with the nerfed versions of these weapons before coming to any conclusions, but at first glance, these nerfs look a bit… inelegant. I have a feeling Ace of Spades and The Last Word - which are already enormously popular in the Crucible - will outclass Luna's Howl and Not Forgotten if they're only 150 RPM, and the change to Magnificent Howl sounds counter-intuitive. Why would a pinnacle Crucible weapon force you to not land headshots? The new version of the perk will also be way weaker in PvE. Then there's the issue of 150 RPM hand cannons performing very poorly on console due to recoil and unpredictable bloom (or bullet spread). It's possible Luna's Howl and Not Forgotten won't feel as snappy after their nerf, but again, we'll need to play with them before passing judgment. 

As you can imagine, some players aren't pleased with these nerfs. Many PvP enthusiasts agreed something needed to be done about Luna's Howl and Not Forgotten because they were pushing other weapons out of the Crucible, but the initial response has been fairly negative. As Bungie said, these weapons take time to earn. Some players have argued that these nerfs will discourage people from obtaining these guns, and many players who already own them are frustrated that their time investment has been devalued. Somebody was going to be disappointed no matter what happened to these guns, so I can't say the immediate response is a surprise. 

Bungie has definitely over-corrected with weapon and ability nerfs in the past, but it also re-corrected in several of those instances. I'm not entirely sure if this another over-correction, and until we can test this nerf for ourselves, the future of Luna's Howl and Not Forgotten remains unclear. 

Speaking of balance changes: here's everything in the latest Destiny 2 patch notes. 

Austin Wood
Senior writer

Austin has been a game journalist for 12 years, having freelanced for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree. He's been with GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize his position is a cover for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a lot of news and the occasional feature, all while playing as many roguelikes as possible.

Latest in Destiny
Destiny 2 Lightfall
When Destiny 2 "weekly active users dropped lower and faster than we'd seen since 2018," Bungie assembled an A-Team to put out some fires: "We needed to do something"
Key art for Destiny 2's Heresy Episode.
"A fun example of a bug becoming a feature": Destiny 2 accidentally made Exotic Glaives free to all classes, and Bungie says "we're going to let this ride"
Destiny 2 Episode 3 Heresy screenshot of Eris Morn
Destiny 2's new Episode suggested the upcoming Apollo expansion will launch on July 15, but that date has mysteriously been scrubbed from the game
Destiny 2 Guardian in Taken energy
Bungie yanked Destiny 2 servers offline for emergency maintenance as Episode 3: Heresy got off to a rocky start, but it looks like we're back in business
Destiny 2 Star Wars armor sets
"Oryx is back": Destiny 2's final Episode takes the MMO to the site of the iconic Taken King expansion for a Coil-inspired roguelite mode, and also Star Wars armor
Destiny 2 guardian in scorn armor
How to get Destiny 2 Twitch Drops and link your accounts
Latest in News
Nintendo Switch 2 controller slot
Best Buy Canada just confirmed the Nintendo Switch 2 pre-order date, and there's only days left to wait
WandaVision episode 8
Robert Downey Jr's WandaVision Easter egg in the Avengers: Doomsday announcement has me thinking Scarlet Witch will be in the movie after all
Mario & Luigi: Brothership trailer still
"They are really feelin' the pressure": Former Nintendo staff think today's Direct, just 6 days before the Switch 2 Direct is a "bad idea strategically"
channing tatum gambit in deadpool and wolverine
Marvel fans are hoping Channing Tatum's Gambit return in Avengers: Doomsday will be different from Deadpool and Wolverine
Final Fantasy 16 protagonist Clive uses magic in closeup screenshot
Despite fans begging for Tifa, Final Fantasy 16's Clive is "significantly more popular" than any other Tekken guest fighter
Spider-Man 4
There might be an obvious reason why Tom Holland's Spider-Man wasn't announced for Avengers: Doomsday