Destiny 2: Edge of Fate

After The Final Shape, Bungie set out to change how players build, gear up and level their characters, and to make armor matter again.

I led UI/UX for weapons, armor and the new power system: a team of six (two visual designers, two UX designers, a technical UX designer and a UI engineer), working with Systems, Economy and Destiny 2 leadership. It was my first time as an area lead.

Role
Design UI/UX Area Lead
Services
UI/UX leadershipUX designUI design
Studio
Bungie
Team
6 people
Year
2025

Seven features, one gear system

Gear Tiering

Weapons and armor drop at Tier 1 to 5. Each tier adds more, and Tier 5 adds a unique ornament and combat flair.

New Gear

This season's gear boosts weapon damage and armor damage resistance in PvE, and raises Portal rewards.

Seasonal Power

Power above the 200 cap, earned in harder content, shown in teal and reset each season.

Ammo meters

Replacing a vague armor mod, a meter under each weapon fills with every kill, so players know exactly when the next kill drops an ammo brick.

Armor Archetypes

Six archetypes, like Brawler (Melee and Health), set each piece's primary and secondary stats.

Armor Set Bonus

Wearing two or four pieces of a set unlocks bonus perks.

Stat Refresh

Six stats renamed Weapons, Health, Class, Grenade, Super and Melee, scaling to 200.

The gear tooltip

I set one rule for the gear tooltip: show only what a player needs to quickly decide what to do with an item (equip, dismantle, infuse or store). Everything else moves to the expanded panel, or lives only on the details screen.

That cut weapon level and all but the most important stats, turned perks and mods into a single row of icons, and moved More Info and Compare onto the tooltip. It made room for the new information, Seasonal Power, tier, archetype and set, without a longer tooltip.

Final Shape tooltips: the Aurvandil FR6 weapon with every perk listed by name, and the Aeon Safe gauntlets with six stats
Before: The Final Shape
Edge of Fate tooltips: the Sublimation weapon with teal 300+ Seasonal Power and perks as icons, and the Techsec Grasps gauntlets with archetype and set
After: Edge of Fate
Gear Tiering: enhanced weapon perks on a Tier 5 weapon, the Weapon Tier and Armor Tier tooltips, and kinetic weapons and gauntlets in the inventory
Gear Tiering

Worth it at a glance

Tiers replaced Artifice armor and Adept weapons with one clear rank, Tier 1 to 5, so players know what a piece of gear is worth the moment they see it.

I split the work by discipline: UI/UX designed a tier icon that reads at a glance and audited every screen that needs it, and technical UX built a reusable pip template driven by gear data, so tiered and legacy gear display correctly everywhere.

Armor Archetypes: the Gunner archetype panel above the Grenadier tooltip, the Ferropotent Strides tooltip showing Gunner, and armor tiles with archetype icons
Armor Archetypes

Six ways to build

Armor now rolls with one of six archetypes that sets its primary and secondary stat, so builds are easier to plan at a glance: Paragon, Grenadier, Specialist, Brawler, Bulwark and Gunner.

Every armor tooltip names its archetype, the expanded panel and details screen explain it, and each tile shows its icon, so pieces compare without opening them.

Armor Set Bonus: the armor details screen with 2-piece and 4-piece perks, an armor tooltip with its Ferropotent set row, and the character screen set bonus tooltip
Armor Set Bonus

Perks for wearing a set

Equipping two or four pieces from the same set grants bonus perks, adding a new layer to buildcrafting. Bungie described set bonuses as an origin trait for armor: a perk that reflects the set's theme.

The tooltip names the set, the character screen shows which perks are active and which pieces you're wearing, and the details screen spells out both perks in full.

Seasonal Power: the teal 300+ gear tooltip, the Power tooltip with 200 +100 Seasonal Bonus Power, and the weapon details screen
Seasonal Power

One teal number

Seasonal Power sat on top of the 200 base cap, on every weapon and armor piece, and reset each season.

Leadership first wanted the full breakdown on every tooltip. I disagreed, and ran a quick internal survey on the clearest way to tell the two apart. The results won approval for a simpler signal where two numbers wouldn't fit: a single teal number with a plus. The full breakdown, base in white and seasonal in teal, lives on the details screen.

New Gear: the New Gear tooltip, armor tiles with New Gear flags, and the New Gear Bonuses readout
New Gear

Rewarding this season's gear

Gear from this expansion gets a New Gear tag that boosts weapon PvE damage and armor damage resistance, growing at higher tiers, and raises rewards in Portal activities.

A teal flag marks every eligible item, and the artifact screen tallies how many New Gear pieces you have equipped.

Stat Refresh: the Health and Melee stat tooltips, each with its enhanced benefit, and the six new stats on an armor tooltip
Stat Refresh

Six new stats

Mobility, Resilience, Recovery, Discipline, Intellect and Strength became Weapons, Health, Class, Grenade, Super and Melee.

Stats now scale to 200 with every point mattering, and past 100 a stat grants enhanced benefits, shown in each stat's tooltip.

Ammo meters

Edge of Fate removed the ammo armor mod, because it was too unclear what it actually did. In its place, a meter under each weapon fills by a set amount with every kill, so players know exactly how many kills are left. When the meter is full, the next kill drops a Special (green) or Heavy (purple) ammo brick.

I did the technical UX and built the meters in the engine myself, and sat in the lead meetings that decided whether the feature would ship.

The Heavy ammo meter, a purple bar under the weapons in the lower-left HUD, nearly full
The Heavy ammo meter
Ammo meters in the HUD