TheDestiny 2community is up in arms again, this time over the new Slayer’s Fang Exotic shotgun from Kell’s Fall.
As it turns out, the weapon can actually damage and debuff its wielder, leaving some under the impression that the situation is another blunder during Bungie’s buggyEpisode: Revenant. However, the situation took an odd turn when the studio hopped to social media to explain that the self-damage and Weaken effect are not bugs; they are features.
Episode: Revenant, and the greater year that’s followed sinceThe Final Shapeexpansion, hasn’t been the best forDestiny 2. The first Episode,Echoes,ended in an unsatisfying flop, andRevenant has had no shortage of issues since it began. Between thenow-infamous Weightgate,Tonicgatefollowing soon after, anda crop of Dawning Event issues, the hits to morale and studio trust have been relentless. Now, players have a hard time taking Bungie’s explanation at face value when something seems off in-game.
Why is my gun hurting me?
Imagine the surprise of players who get caught by their own ricocheting projectiles of Slayer’s Fang. Not only will the weapon damage its wielder, but it can also apply the Weaken debuff. Slayer’s Fang can be as powerful as anything else in the game, but if it’s Weakening and has a chance to kill players, it becomes less practical and more of a hazard.
It appears that’s been the consensus of theDestiny 2community, with many taking to social media to question whether the new Exotic weapon’s behavior is an accident. With the state the game has been in lately, it wouldn’t be much of a surprise ifyet another piece of content shipped broken. However, Bungie has made it clear that Slayer’s Fang is (mostly) working as intended.
The burn means it’s working
What’s the opposite of an Insignificant Lie?We hold these trials and truths in high regard…
Ina post on X(formerly Twitter), Bungie brought the discussion to the Slayer’s Fang Exotic and acknowledged some of the discourse highlighted by the community. “We’ve seen conversations around Slayer’s Fang’s ability to do self-damage and apply Weaken to yourself if you’re hit by the ricocheting projectiles. Note, the Weaken is only applied while Nightsworn Sight is active, while the self-damage always happens. This is intentional for both gameplay and narrative reasons and we wanted to give a bit of insight into our thought process.”
The team explained that the possibility of self-damage was a conscious choice. Bungie noted, “A lot of ricochet projectiles or explosives do self-damage (Sleeper Simulant can even kill the user) and it’s an important balancing measure.” The studio added that this potential self-damage creates a risk/reward scenario that influences a player’s choice of weapon use.
Bungie also shared a lore reason why Slayer’s Fang behaves the way it does. “On the narrative side, Slayer’s Fang is aware of its use as a tool for destruction and doesn’t lend its power to its wielders easily,” the studio noted. “You may find that if you mishandle Slayer’s Fang, the gun with a mouth for a barrel may just bite back a little. With the ultimate Slayer Baron weapon in your hand, you may not fear dreams nor teeth, but you will want to handle it with care.”
In the final section of the post, Bungie doubled down, stating, “So, appropriate for its design and narrative goals, Slayer’s Fang does a little damage plus a short Weaken instead of outright killing the player.”
The community bites back
Bungie’s definitive statement on Slayer’s Fang went about as well as anyone familiar with theDestinycommunity might expect. Between the X post itself and similar Reddit topics, commentersquickly pointed outthat Bungie’s explanation felt too convenient. OneX commentersaid, “Dude there is no way you put an exotic weapon in the game that can actively harm using the weapon as intended.”
Others are echoing a similar sentiment across social media. “I’m actually not too bothered by the self damage or even weaken applying from the ricocheted shots as many others seem to be since it’s been a present interaction throughout the game,”explains one Redditor. “But what’sreallybothering me is the attempt at giving it a narrative explanation of making the self-damage a canon in-universe result. It reads like it was written up by one of the teenaged kids of one of the developers who’s going through their edgelord phase.”
Of course, it wasn’t an entirely negative response. Some players loved that Bungie took the time to come up with a narrative reason for why the Exotic weapon was behaving the way it was. “Please don’t change it,” beggedone X commenter. “[R]ealistically it won’t come up in combat and it’s a neat little narrative beat. People complaining are doing it just to complain.”
Poor design or backtracking?
It seems that theDestinycommunity has a real chicken-or-egg situation here. Was the self-damage and Weaken debuff intended all along as a yet-to-be-disclosed narrative tidbit? Or is Bungie’s explanation a bandaid aimed at yet another unseen wound? It’s tough to say, and we’ll probably never get a definitive answer. Still, it is interesting to note that there’s no mention of the potential damage or debuff anywhere on the weapon or even hinted at through its Lore page.
If Slayer’s Fang’s self-damage and debuff were intentional, then the quality of the weapon design becomes part of the conversation, even if we’re taking the lore explanation into account. And sure, other Exotic weapons like Sleeper Stimulant have lethal ricochet potential, but those aren’t weapons players are sprinting into melee range to use. Sleeper Stimulant also doesn’t punish players for using it with a Weaken debuff, increasing damage taken across the board.
I do think the situation seems a bit odd. As I mentioned, there’s nothing in the weapon’s Lore hints that the gun could harm or debuff wielders. Also,this isn’t the first time this has happened. It seems much more likely that Bungie made a powerful, fun shotgun with some oversights. The community quickly uncovered those oversights, and it’s much easier to say that it was always supposed to work that way.
Slayer’s Fang has its fans and has indeed shown to have its haters. Either way, it’s becoming clear that it’s far from an automatic pick. Asmany players have noted, there isno shortage of shotgun choicesinDestiny 2,and plenty can do just as much, albeit in a different way, as Slayer’s Fang. That’s all without the risk of damaging or Weakening oneself and without using an Exotic slot.
