Destiny 2 devs explain divisive lore dubbed “d**k move” by fans

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Bungie has started 2025 for Destiny 2 by releasing Revenant Act 3 followed by update 8.1.5.3. While the patch of balance changes and fixes has largely been well received, the reception to Revenant Act 3 wasn’t overwhelmingly positive. One of the biggest disappointments was the Slayer’s Fang shotgun, and Bungie has explained its lore as Destiny 2 fans dub its weakness a “d**k move”.

Destiny 2 Slayer’s Fang shotgun lore

On the official Destiny2Team X account, Bungie has outlined the following lore for the Slayer’s Fang shotgun in response to fan reception about its ability to self-damage and self-weaken:

“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.

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“A lot of ricochet projectiles or explosives do self-damage (Sleeper Simulant can even kill the user) and it’s an important balancing measure. If you are taking a cheeky shot around a corner or just firing from the hip, the self-damage provides a balance to ensure high risk, high reward usage.

“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. 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.


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“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. As always, we are happy to see the feedback and will continue to adjust sandbox atoms accordingly.”

D2 fans react

Reacting to the explanation from Bungie on Reddit, players are not entirely thrilled with the reasoning. There’s no issue with self-damage, but the self-weaken has been dubbed a “d**k move”.

One of top replies simply says, “Ricochet self-damage is fine. Self-weaken is excessive”. Another comment echoes the sentiment of the community by saying, “I don’t care about the narrative reason. I’m not running a weapon that applies a weaken effect to my character”.

While Bungie has provided the excuse of lore, fans are instead believing that it’s a bug the developer can’t fix. One comment says, “I’m usually willing to take Bungie at their word but no f***ing way, someone saw this and thought ‘Wouldn’t this be neat to excuse as a narrative thing’ either cuz they just thought it was clever or because it was proving too hard to fix”.

Other comments say, “this smacks of ‘We can’t fix it so make it a feature not a bug,’” and another comment says, “’It’s for balance,” has to be the most brain-dead excuse I’ve ever heard of”.

In addition to the self-weaken drawback, there was also controversy about the Slayer’s Fang involving fans accusing Bungie of misleading about its abilities in the Revenant Act 3 trailer.

For more Destiny 2, check out the 2025 roadmap along with leaked cel-shaded armor for the imminent return of Bungie’s Game2Give charity fundraiser.

About the Author

Callum Smith

Callum Smith is a freelance gaming writer for Videogamer. He covers news for PlayStation, Xbox, and PC, and he has over five years experience covering the video games industry.

Destiny 2

  • Platform(s): Google Stadia, PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Web, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X
  • Genre(s): Action, Adventure, First Person, Massively Multiplayer, Shooter
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