Destiny 2 Gambit Prime armor set bonuses and perks revealed

Gambit Prime is arguably the most exciting addition coming in Destiny 2 Season of the Drifter and its Joker's Wild annual pass DLC, and the mode's well-defined roles are the most interesting thing about it. In a new video detailing how Gambit Prime's flashy color-coded armor ties into these roles, Bungie stressed just how important that armor will be. Here's a quick rundown of the unique armor perks available for all four roles.  

Reaper - clear waves of enemies and kill big targets 

  •  Weaken high-value targets 
  •  Multi-kills generate special ammo 
  •  Gain increased Mote lifetime (ie Motes take longer to despawn)
  •  Powerful enemy kills increase grenade recharge   

Collector - collect and deposit Motes as quickly as possible 

  •  Drop Motes on death (rather than lose them) 
  •  Motes grant overshield 
  •  Gain ammo on Mote deposit 
  •  Send giant 20-Mote Blockers (where other roles can only send up to 15)  

Sentry - defend the Mote Bank while watching for Blockers and Invaders 

  •  Multi-kills grant a damage buff against Taken (that is, against Blockers) 
  •  Bank gives health regeneration (presumably while you're next to it)
  •  Mark invaders for teammates  
  •  Buff allies in the Well of Light (not the Well of Radiance, which is a Warlock Super) 

Invader - invade the other team to kill them and steal their motes  

  •  Gain ammo while invading  
  •  Improved invasion overshield 
  •  Damage bonus on Guardian kills 
  •  Lock and drain Motes from enemy bank  

Most of these perks are straightforward, but some raise a few questions. What is the Well of Light mentioned in the Sentry perks? Is it connected to the new Primeval mechanics? What is the giant 20-Mote Blocker that the Collector can summon? How exactly do Invaders lock down enemy Banks and steal Motes? I assume it involves killing everyone. 

It's also unclear how these armor perks are assigned - that is, which armor pieces give which perks. From the way they're listed, I would assume that, starting at the top, these perks come from your helmet, gloves, chest, and boots. The question is, where does that leave the Gambit Prime class items? Do they also come with special perks? I suppose it's possible that these armor sets work like the set bonuses in Diablo 3, where you need to equip multiple pieces in order to access more and better perks. Personally, I'd bet on the former system as it's a little more streamlined, but we'll see. 

In any case, these perks sound pretty darn powerful, which is good news. If Gambit Prime's individual roles are going to stand out - and if The Reckoning, which is where this armor comes from, is going to be worth doing - then they're going to need strong perks. After seeing these, I'm already thinking about effective team compositions and how I'd build my loadout to match my preferred role. That's more than I can say for normal Gambit, so that's a good sign. 

Speak of normal Gambit: it's getting a much-needed overhaul in the Season of the Drifter. 

Austin Wood
Senior writer

Austin has been a game journalist for 12 years, having freelanced for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree. He's been with 12DOVE since 2019. They've yet to realize his position is a cover for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a lot of news and the occasional feature, all while playing as many roguelikes as possible.

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