Destiny 2 will be releasing its Desert Perpetual raid today, bringing the usual excitement of a race to finish first. Contest mode, the raid’s hardest difficulty, will run for 48 hours, offering an emblem and bragging rights to those who complete it early, likely later today, as past races have sometimes lasted just 24 hours.
If you’re preparing to jump in, whether competing or casually, there’s a list of disabled gear you should be aware of. While not extensive at present, the list may expand as new issues arise during the raid’s opening hours. This information comes from Bungie’s official help post.
Disabled Exotic Armor Perk: Spirit of the Liar (disabled throughout Destiny 2)
Disabled Weapons: Outbreak Perfected, Third Iteration, Choir of One, Icebreaker
The new exotic scout rifle, Third Iteration, reportedly deals 150% of its intended damage when anti-barrier is active. The Choir of One has accidentally regained its large ammunition reserves. Outbreak Perfected remains a popular exotic choice, so its disablement will affect many players. The exact reasons for Icebreaker’s disablement are less clear.
To help reduce server load during the raid race, Bungie has also paused bounty and weapon leveling progression from kills within the raid. Server strain can quickly derail a race, so this move aims to maintain stability.
There are still concerns about the fairness of the race. Recently, players rapidly farmed the exotic mission Encore, boosting their power levels for three days before Bungie disabled it. How much of those boosted benefits remain active during the race is uncertain, though the new system focuses on damage reduction and increased damage on tiered gear.
The revamped build system, with stats going up to 200 and altered benefits, has led to many unexpected and potentially broken builds appearing frequently. For example, Saltagreppo, a frequent World’s First winner, is running an almost unkillable grapple-based Prismatic Hunter build that has not been disabled.
Hoil Cyrtarachne on Hunter with Grapple and 200 Grenade stat is by far the most gamebreaking build I have ever seen in 10 years of Destiny. You are invincible no matter what and your Grapples hit harder than Thundercrashes with basically no CD. -50 Mythic feels like Patrol EDZ pic.twitter.com/kyJfWfHb3x
— Saltagreppo (@SaltagreppoD2) July 18, 2025
There are also reports of new forms of infinite super chaining, and it’s unclear what other unintended strategies might emerge. Bungie likely doesn’t have all the answers yet, so the raid race could become quite unpredictable and possibly controversial.
What are your thoughts on these disabled items and the current state of the raid race? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below.
