The Destiny 2 designer responsible for Banner of War, the Titan's once-innovative and still game-changing ability, also led the charge for the game's new exotic shotgun, Slayer's Fang, which is noticeably less innovative but still very cool .
That developer is associate designer Danny Nanni, who normally handles skills but took the opportunity to work on his first exotic weapon. Other members of Bungie contributed to its design and creation, of course, but Nanni was at the forefront.
“I definitely took a lot of the inspiration and sensibility that we have about abilities,” Nanni tells GamesRadar+, “and when I had the opportunity to work on the weapons team for this release, they said, 'We need someone who wants to make a shotgun for vampires. And I'm like, yeah, please, I don't know anything else, please let me do that.”
The result was Slayer's Fang, a strange, magazine-fed shotgun that specializes in precision damage but fires scattered Void crystals that seek out targets and can apply the Debuff debuff. Also includes innate Anti-Overload Champion tech (which unfortunately cannot stack with this season's Anti-Barrier Shotgun Artifact buff). Shotguns face inherent limitations in Destiny 2's difficult content because entering a shotgun's range can get you killed, but especially after recent PvE improvements, the weapon type has found some places to shine. Slayer's Fang fits the bill perfectly, especially when combined with builds like Gyrfalcon Hunter and No Backup Plans Titan. For warlocks, the random Void nonsense still works well for me.
“The fantasy of the vampire hunter is what drove the whole design from the beginning,” says Nanni. “I think the use case is to kill a smaller guy and then go boss hunting, or beast hunting in a way, because once you get the first kill, the weapon really powers up. And there's some uniqueness here too. . – instead of shooting a bullet, our game here was, what would happen if I shot a Void Crystal, kind of like a stake through the heart?
Slayer's Fang's strange firing pattern brings in some tricks. Ricochet shots bounce more when you have the kill perk active, and improve as a group. “It's not written anywhere, it's a secret that players will probably discover, but if you kill, you extend the benefit to everyone who is also using this weapon,” Nanni confirms.
As icing on the cake, Slayer's Fang received a special flavor text reminiscent of a Destiny 1 Exotic called Voidfang Vestments. Connoisseurs may remember Exotic's entry: “You will dream of teeth and nothing else.” It is no coincidence that Slayer's Fang reads: “Fear neither dreams nor teeth.”
“Since it's about the vampire killing weapon, I wanted the flavor text to be a reference to that,” confirms Nanni. “It's an homage to D1 and we were able to tie it in. It was just an idea I had, and the narrative team were able to make that change.
I asked how Slayer's Fang will compete with Conditional Finality, a dual-element exotic shotgun that's so good my friends and I simply call it The Shotgun. Turns out he has more secrets up his sleeve. “It's meant to be a little better against Fallen and Scorn,” Nanni says. “There is a little secret bonus to this weapon that I'm sure players will discover over time.
“If you really want to lean on Weaken and Overshield and those types of survival tools, this will be the shotgun for you and will create great synergy within those kits,” he argues. “And I think that synergy is very valid. But also, because of its range as a slug shotgun, there are boss DPS implications here that Conditional Finality can't compete with because it's not designed for that… There are definitely different cases “We never want to override someone's choice. Is conditional finality your weapon of choice? “That's awesome, but I think there are some tantalizing opportunities elsewhere for you to apply to this weapon.”
Slayer's Fang also faced the immense challenge of following Choir of One as a special Void exotic. Choir has barely left my hands since it came out, and Nanni says it was her favorite weapon during the Final Shape development cycle, so I knew her weapon had a lot to prove. “I thought I had to live up to this, especially with it being my first weapon,” he recalls. “So I think he will live comfortably next to him. They are very different… and I love that there are different versions that they support.”
All that said, I also asked about Bungie's approach to the power budget with the new exotics. When is it time to launch a meta-breaker?
“A lot depends on where we want to go with the meta at that moment,” Nanni begins. “You know, we like to have our seasonal themes and our seasonal meta. A lot of that is highlighted in the Artifact. For example, this season, we had a big Stasis push, right? And so, one of the things we did was, Salvation's Grip has a catalyst. It's time, Stasis season, let's get Salvation's Grip out, so I think it depends a lot on what our direction is at the time.
“Sometimes if there are certain builds or playstyles that we see other teams working on, like if I'm on skills and they see my balance going, they say, maybe we want to make an exotic that matches what we have.” we are working on skills, or [vice-versa]. We can try to match that. It takes a lot of synergy and teamwork to decide, well, is the meta stale? Do we want a new king of the hill, or is it time to go through some older stuff to see if there's a new synergy we can highlight, or a quirky one? It's really just a lot of collaboration, monitoring what's happening in the game. “All of us at Sandbox play a lot.”
“If your cake is garbage, no one wants to eat it”: In a difficult time for Destiny 2, Bungie launches an exotic quest that promises vampire vibes, a cool shotgun, and a finale with a bite..