Bungie released Destiny 2 update 9.1.5.1 on Oct. 14. This patch matters because it initiates the removal of Unstable Cores from the economy, introduces a one-time compensation, and implements a series of fixes and reward tweaks across various activities, weapons, abilities, and UI elements.
Bungie plans to deprecate Unstable Cores fully. To help players bridge the gap, the update grants a one-time reward of 777,777 Unstable Cores via a catch-up chest in the Tower at reset. Players are advised to log in and use their currency before it is removed. A temporary reduction in Unstable Core costs for infusion at higher power levels is also included while the developer finalizes the retirement plan.
Patch Notes – 9.1.5.1
Below are the patch notes as delivered in the update. For context on some reward changes, Bungie’s 9/25 TWID is linked where relevant.
Gameplay and Investment
Power and Progression
Unstable Cores
- Last week, we announced that Unstable Cores would not reset with the launch of Destiny 2: Renegades on December 2, 2025. We noted in the TWID that we would provide future updates on how we would rebalance the economy of this currency. We have landed on a plan to fully deprecate this currency. Once deprecated, infusion will cost an amount of Enhancement Cores and Glimmer. Overall, we’ve found that Unstable Cores have been too restrictive across power levels and fail to drive interesting buildcraft decisions, whether they be powering up through Campaign missions and wanting to try different weapons, or going into Endgame content and looking to infuse lower-level gear to higher power levels.
- We don’t have an exact patch for this change just yet but are working rapidly to align on a target date. In the short term, we have two items of note shipping today with Destiny 2 Update 9.1.5.1.
- Our goal is to help players with smaller amounts of unstable cores infuse gear alongside Power and Progression changes going live tomorrow until the currency can be retired:
- We have added a one-time reward of 777,777 Unstable Cores to the catch-up chest that will be available in the Tower today at reset. We highly recommend signing in and using these before they’re removed!
- We are shipping a minor change that reduces the number of Unstable Cores needed for infusion at higher power levels until they are deprecated.
- We will provide additional updates when available.
Reward Power
- Reward Power has been improved across both PvE and PvP Portal content. For details, check out the 9/25 TWID.
- The Edge of Fate activity rewards are also getting a small buff from 200-300 Power.
- Seasonal Hub rewards are getting a slight improvement to make them more consistent from 400-500 Power.
Techsec Supply Drop
- A chest of Vanguard-sanctioned armaments calibrated to prepare all Guardians for the Call to Arms event is now available in the Tower near Zavala.
- The chest contains a set of Tier 3 armor and weapons as well as Enhancement Cores, bringing recipients up to 300 Power.
- The chest can be claimed once per account until the end of Season 27.
- The chest will be available to all players though those under Guardian Rank 4 will be cautioned that they should be accustomed with the game’s combat and systems before opening it as the equipment will advance their Portal activities to Master difficulty.
Armor
- Fixed an issue where Armor 2.0 copies of Young Ahamkhara’s Spine did not count as featured gear.
- Fixed an issue where the Iron Panoply Warlock gauntlets could obscure the screen.
Weapons
Traits
- Fixed an issue where the charge time Masterwork didn’t provide additive stats based on gear tier.
- Note: Charge Rate can’t boost itself further unlike some other stats as the value proposition of +10 is already significantly better than other Masterwork options for many Fusion Rifles.
- Enhanced Reservoir Burst has had its stability removed and increased magazine stat returned.
Exotic Weapons
Alethonym
- Fixed an issue where Alethonym projectiles weren’t counting as micro-missiles.
Abilities
Glacial Harvest
- Fixed an issue where Glacial Harvest still had a cooldown in PvE.
Ensnaring Slam
- The Class stat overshield now triggers on Ensnaring Slam activation.
Weavewalk
- Weavewalk now grants woven mail if exited via finisher.
Gameplay Modifiers
Volatile Shields
- Shortly after your shield breaks, you now regain the ability to attack with weapons (excluding Swords).
- While your shield is broken, you now gain Devour.
Activities
Portal
- Power adjustment has been removed from all Challenge modifiers. Instead, players are capped in effective Power in each tier.
- Grades are now based on the number of green and red arrows applied via modifiers, banes, boons, and player stakes as well as activity and highest player Power level.
- All chests after the first mid-activity chest in Onslaughts, The Coil, and Contest of Elders now drop loot based on your projected score (plus 5% for the timer) for both Power and gear tier. End-of-activity rewards have been adjusted to account for this.
- Players will no longer have difficulty tiers automatically selected for them until they meet the Power level of the activity.
- All Conquests have had their time limits increased to match their Portal counterparts, based on the specific tier.
- All Bonus Drops now get Power matching the other scored engrams that drop at the same time.
- Bonus Portal drops awarded from Hub Daily Objectives moved to Hub Weekly Objectives so that players don’t have to log in each day to optimize their Power gain.
- Each of the five Weekly Objectives rewards the player four Bonus Portal Drops upon claiming.
- To keep the total number of Bonus Drops equivalent, the number of Weekly Login Bonus Drops has been increased from five to six.
- Since a vast majority of players will be at 300 Power or above going forward due the Techsec Supply Drop chest (details below), Normal, Advanced, and Expert Quickplay nodes have been removed as has the Expert Matchmaking tier from direct launch so that you can find players when you try to matchmake. This new node has been adjusted so that anyone from 10-399 Power can earn good rewards from it.
- Additionally, we have tweaked the modifiers available on this new Quickplay playlist to be more amenable to this wider population. (If you want to see if Volatile Shields or Haste was removed, you will just have to check for yourself.)
- Fixed an issue with the Heliostat Exotic Mission where fireteam members would sometimes fail to be pulled into an encounter.
- Fixed an issue where shanks could spawn in a closed vent in the Fallen S.A.B.E.R. strike boss room when the Caltrops bane is active, causing a soft lock.
- Fixed an issue where the Contest of Elders activity couldn’t reach a score of 10,000 and end-of-activity chest rewards were being sent directly to the Postmaster.
- Fixed an issue where the Nightfall activity node could sometimes not be launched.
- Fixed an issue where players could be unable to respawn without being immediately downed when respawning in Duality Lair during the Gahlran encounter.
Reclaim
- Mid-activity chests have been added to all three variants of Reclaim.
The Desert Perpetual
- Epic Koregos now uses its beam attack during DPS phases.
- Epic Koregos’ detain bubble is properly removed from players when destroyed.
- Epic Koregos’ portal mechanics are disabled as intended during final stand.
- Epic Agraios’ phase limit feat allows for two encounter loop damage phases in addition to final stand.
- Iatros’ hourglass is reset at the end of each encounter loop as intended, preventing an immediate wipe to Neomutation.
- Fixed a bug with the Whirling Ovation Catalyst drop rate.
- Attuning to the Catalyst will now guarantee it on the next The Desert Perpetual encounter clear.
UI/UX
Power Communication
- Activities that use the Activity Power Cap system will now display Combatant Power in addition to the Activity Power Cap in tooltips and other pre-launch displays.
- In the Customization screen for activities that use the Activity Power Cap system, your Power (including Fireteam Power adjustments, capped at the Activity Power Cap) will be presented alongside Combatant Power.
- Tooltips for customizable Portal activity difficulties will present the Activity Power Cap for that difficulty. Reverted the entirety of the Stronghold rework from Update 9.1.0.
General
- Updated the Guardian Rank 6 objective that required the Third Iteration weapon to also progress with the New Malpais weapon.
- Fixed an issue where new Chronologs could be lost if acquired or claimed while the stack of Chronologs was in the Vault. Chronologs lost due to this issue will be replaced at a later date.
- Fixed an issue where players above 500 Power couldn’t claim clan engrams from Hawthorne.
This update reshapes the game’s economy and smoothing of Power progression ahead of Renegades. For further context on reward tweaks see Bungie’s announcement linked above and the developer update.
Players should log in to claim the catch-up chest and use the Unstable Cores before they’re removed. For Bungie’s official post on the update see Bungie.
If you want to chat about how these changes affect loadouts or Power progression, leave a comment or ping the team on social: X, Bluesky, YouTube.
