Bungie outlines a zero-tolerance policy to "players who abuse tools specifically to gain an advantage"

Bungie is clamping down on Destiny 2 cheaters, revealing that "people who abuse tools specifically to gain an advantage over players" will be banned.

In the latest TWAB post, the studio said that the issue had been "a matter of extended conversations both internally and in the community", and was keen "to strike the right balance between Bungie’s goal of simultaneously enabling everyone to enjoy our games and protecting our community".

"Our community has grown increasingly frustrated by a form of cheating that uses third-party peripherals with the intent to manipulate the game client," the team said. "These devices are plugged into a computer or console, where they can - for example - execute simple scripts or trick the game into giving you extra aim assist.

"You’ll note that we aren’t calling out the services by name, the primary reason for that is we simply don’t want to offer a bigger spotlight than necessary. Instead, our focus is on what the impact of using tools like this has on a PvP environment. To this end, Bungie has adopted the following policy on any form of external aides."

The post goes on to explain that whilst Bungie "embraces the use of external accessibility aids that enable an experience the game designers intended", it will "take action" when players abuse these tools to cheat.

This means the studio is looking out for the use of external accessibility aids that "augment the player's ability to control the game beyond what the game itself normally provides" and "gain an advantage".

"For example, some players that abuse these tools rise in PvP ranks at a rate far beyond what is expected for a player improving through typical play. Because the benefits of cheating in PvE can affect things like the World First Race or even spill over into PvP, we will be evaluating all gameplay for violations.

"We do not intend for difficulty to be automated away via software or hardware. Therefore, simply using an accessibility aide to play Destiny 2, where a player could not play otherwise, would not be a violation of this policy. Using these tools to mitigate challenges all players face, such as reducing recoil or increasing aim assist, would be a violation."

"Lightfall isn't Destiny 2's best expansion," contributor Kalie said in their feature, For all its flaws, Destiny 2's Lightfall expansion pulled me back from service game burnout. "I don't know what caused its story problems, and I don't know what it is that burns people out so hard in Destiny 2.

"But as of now, I'm willing to take Bungie at its word that the expansion was meant to be an entryway to a full year of interesting seasonal stories leading up to The Final Shape. This time, I feel up for the journey - and if nothing else, grappling onto rockets with Strand's new grappling hook is a lot of fun. Maybe that's what I was missing before."

Destiny 2 may have seen its latest expansion, Lightfall, bring its "highest concurrent players in years", but developer Bungie has publicly acknowledged that it "missed the mark on some of [its] goals".