GET APPEVERYTHING CHANGING IN NIGHTFALL
Season 2 lands June 2, 2026. Night descends on Dire Marsh, a new defensive Runner shell joins the lineup, two new guns and eight new chips hit the sandbox, implants are redesigned, and the Cradle hands you real control over your shell's stats. This is the TL;DR.
Sourced from Bungie's Welcome to Season 2 article.
NIGHT_MARSH
Dire Marsh after the lights go out
Pitch-dark interiors
Multiple areas of the zone now feature pitch darkness. Even the exterior wayfinding lights you rely on are reduced — quiet steps, maximum awareness, and a quick trigger finger matter more than ever.
The anomaly stirs
New enemies appear in Night Marsh as the anomaly grows restless. What's out there in the dark is for you to find out.
New gear for surviving the dark
- ▸Flashlights — A new tool all Runners have access to on Night Marsh.
- ▸Vector rounds — A new type of mag that creates pools of light where your bullets land, illuminating enemy Runners and combatants.
- ▸Vector grenades — Highlight the environment and illuminate nearby enemies.
- ▸Darksight scopes — Highlight the environment around you after you ADS for a brief period — focused on traversal rather than highlighting enemies.
- ▸Signal Flares — Light up the environment and come in multiple colors.
COMPLEX_CONTROL
The UESC is locking down Night Marsh
UESC Certs gate the map
The UESC has secured their resources on Night Marsh with advanced encryption. Kill UESC to gather encryption certificates (Certs), then hack into Network Towers across the map to access stockpiles of weapons, healing supplies, and other loot.
Cert-gated exfils
The UESC has locked down the exfils on Night Marsh. You'll need to collect Certs to activate exfils on the map — no Certs, no extraction.
Closed-off doors on Marsh
Those staircases on Marsh that led to closed-off doors? Anomalous energy is flowing from Complex. Gather enough UESC Certs to open the doors and hunt down what awaits in the upper rooms.
Marsh map rotation
Dire Marsh and Night Marsh are both available at all times for at least the first week of the season. After that, the maps rotate availability every 90 minutes. Most existing Dire Marsh contracts work on either zone, with new Night Marsh-exclusive MIDA and Traxus contracts coming.
If you unlocked and completed a run on Dire Marsh in Season 1, both Marshes are unlocked at Season 2 launch (same rule as Outpost). Otherwise both unlock at Runner Level 3.
SENTINEL
The new defensive Runner shell
Built for controlling space and defending areas. Whether you're protecting your team from a rocket drone barrage during a clutch final exfil or turning the tides on an aggressive team rushing you down, Sentinel is the Runner you want anchoring the crew.
Deploys an automated laser platform that identifies and destroys incoming enemy grenades and missiles, and boosts weapon handling for all nearby crewmates. Limited charges — it can't block rocket drone barrages forever.
A thrown proximity-triggered mine that detonates into several Immobilizing submunitions. Bait enemies into your traps and lock them in place to finish them before they can escape.
Increased resistances after taking splash damage, and faster weapon handling for close-range weapons when surrounded by enemies.
Activates a short-range motion-tracking system that shows nearby moving targets on radar. Use it to gather extra intel on who or what's moving around you, and set up your defenses accordingly.
THE_CRADLE
Empower your WEAVEworms to raise stats and unlock perks
The Cradle lets you empower the WEAVEworms that create your biocybernetic body, raising your Runner shell's stats across six categories and unlocking powerful perks.
- ▸Matter Converter is your primary progression tool — feed it weapons, equipment, and other items to turn them into Cradle experience. Better items give more XP.
- ▸Leveling up the Cradle earns Energy that you allocate to any of the six stat categories.
- ▸Hitting certain breakpoints unlocks additional perks for your Runner shells.
- ▸Reset anytime during the season — your Energy is fully refunded so you can rebuild around a different playstyle.
NEW_WEAPONS
Two new guns in the sandbox
KKV-9SD
SMGPistol-frame SMG with an integrated suppressor. Extremely fast at 1200 RPM — great for taking down UESC without other shells noticing, or for melting a Runner in a split second. Strong counter to Season 1's shotgun-rushing meta.
Ships with a new built-in folding stock: closed for hipfire benefits, unfold via weapon action to trade those for ADS benefits. The D54 Battle Pistol can also use this mechanic.
D54 Battle Pistol
PISTOLBuilt for close encounters and 1v1 duels. Comes equipped with an integrated red dot sight and fires full-auto three-round bursts. High-handling, medium rate-of-fire sidearm — think hybrid between the BR33 Volley Rifle and the BRRT SMG. Perfect companion for sniper rifles and other long-range weapons.
Both new weapons synergize well with Sentinel's Castle Doctrine — bonus close-range weapon handling when surrounded by enemies.
NEW_CHIPS
Eight new chips total — three named so far
Brain Freeze Chip
Precision downs and kills with this weapon create a small explosion that spreads Frost to nearby hostiles.
Alarmist Chip
After aiming down sights for a brief duration, projectile impacts create a terrifying proximity drone alert.
Scrapyard Chip
Defeating hostiles with this weapon has a chance to spawn depleted heal items or standard materials.
Bungie has also confirmed weapon rarity changes and new Armory options for Season 2 — full breakdown coming closer to launch.
IMPLANT_REDESIGN
Perk-first naming and fixed stats
In Season 2, implants are now defined by their perk first and have fixed stats, with the name of each implant reflecting its perk. Vault management and on-the-fly looting should be much easier to read.
- ▸All your favorite implants are still there, split between head, torso, and legs.
- ▸Stat benefits still scale with each rarity tier — gray all the way up to gold.
- ▸Some high-utility perks (e.g. Logic Bomb, Triage Cloaking Device) now only exist at higher rarity tiers to balance their power.
CONTRACTS
Rough edges shaved off — less linear, more organic
Priority Contracts loosened
No longer gated behind faction reputation levels, and reformulated so they don't feel like a blocker. Focused more on granting loot rewards than being hard requirements for reputation.
Standard & Liaison refresh
Both Standard and Liaison contracts refreshed to shave off rough edges. If you completed Liaison contracts and unlocked a faction in Season 1, that faction stays unlocked in Season 2.
Heavy traversal toned down
Less emphasis on heavy traversal and 'in a single run' requirements across the board.
Cryo Archive contracts reworked
Reworked so progress can be made over multiple runs without forcing a key for every contract — though the seventh contract still requires taking down the Compiler.
QUEUES
Duos Queue, experimental queues, and PvE explorations
Duos Queue rotation
Duos Queue arrives in Season 2 with a rotating daily queue for Perimeter, Dire Marsh, Night Marsh, and Outpost. Bungie is being judicious about matchmaking divisions to keep queue health up.
More PvE content explorations
Experimental queues continue from Season 1, with new explorations into more PvE-focused content. More details coming.
RANKED_UPDATES
Returns June 14 with new rewards and simplified queues
- ▸Low and High Stakes merged into a single queue with a 5,000 Loadout value minimum.
- ▸Players must now bring a Holotag that matches their current rank.
- ▸Progression adjusted to feel faster across all ranks.
- ▸Win/loss points now scale by average rank of the lobby vs. your rank — smaller losses against higher-ranked players, bigger wins.
- ▸New daily Ranked Sponsored Kit scales with your rank — higher rank, better gear.
- ▸Players can earn Arachne reputation by exfiling with a Tag Chip.
- ▸A new system to make it harder for ill-intended players to coordinate and team up across runs is coming as the season progresses.
QUALITY_OF_LIFE
Big list of quality-of-life updates
- ▸Vault expanded to 512 grid spaces when fully upgraded, plus batch select for Vault items.
- ▸New loot filter — select a missing loadout slot and only see loot that fits it.
- ▸Lobby UI simplified — Loadout and Vault menus combined for faster, more intuitive run prep.
- ▸UI access during matchmaking now includes factions, Codex, settings, and more.
- ▸New PC and console cursor speed settings.
- ▸New privacy settings: name obfuscation and matchmaking timer offset.
- ▸Additional game security features to speed up cheat detection and reduce effectiveness.
- ▸CPU performance pass, plus frame generation support on PC.
- ▸Network improvements to reduce disconnections, especially for players outside the United States.