After seeing DMG's post, which seems to be asking for gear that we would like to see adopted to tier systems for the mode. I wanted to at least take a shot at getting something beyond that level of feedback to any developers who may see this.
To start, probably the most attainable item is health gating, or the fact that it is almost optional in today's meta. Anyone who can use a thundercrash just before the boss goes immune can easily negate a good amount of health regenerated by a decent invade. Even in the most recent "John Chunk" bug time, it hardly mattered as long as you were the first one to get to the slayer x4 phase, because then you could just instakill with the damage scaling + the bug itself. If I am going to armchair dev, I would ask that there be a much higher health for the boss (Its only a major enemy somehow), reduce the damage scaling as we increase in slayer stacks, or implement extremely hard health gates to these bosses. This might actually give a team a chance at making a comeback, without their invades being basically negated by timing a super later than we should.
The second thing that could be adjusted with I think relative ease is invader spawns, or the ones specifically that can be instakilled by standing on a certain spot on the map to just shoot an izanagis shot and move on with life. A couple of vulnerable spots are ones like the top of Depot in New Arcadia, spawning at base with someone standing on the ledge as you walk out, or spawning at the top of the Steps with someone near the heavy spawn waiting for you to get out of the corner. Emerald Coast has so many simply because it's a small map. You can literally stand on top of an invader spawning, or stand even 20 meters behind them as they spawn, and they would never know it. Cathedral of Scars has such height differences that you can stand on the middle island and kill anyone on any spawn as long as you know where the invader cannot spawn.
Third, I guess, and this is where I push a little out of possibility, is specific weapon tuning for the PvP aspect of the mode. I know this mode operates on the sandbox of the ones it is made up of and not its own, but some specific weapons truly do make the mode stale because they are the only option in an S++ tier and make anyone not running them less likely to win. We have seen this countless times in PvP modes being addressed immediately, but I can only think of Xenophage or Eriana's bug being actually taken care of for Gambit specifically.
Izanagi's Burden has been the be-all end-all of countering an invader, like I mentioned earlier, stand in spot "X", aim at the spawn you know the invader will be at, shoot when your screen turns red, profit. It removes so much what I would consider possible magic from the mode simply because its body shot is nearly impossible to counter (Sword block, Health + DR stacking). An average player would never be running anything to fully account for the guy staring at their spawn with a 1-shot to ruin whatever idea they thought they had to save the game. It's not healthy for the general playerbase or the people who play the mode for more than Orders/Quests.
Second is probably another key item to address, but I would say eager edge swords of all types, except probably the lightweight ones, are probably having far too much ammo for what is considered healthy for the mode. We can move as fast as possible to the bank, to the spawns, to the waves without and deal the most/consistent boss damage all for going to these heavy boxes and get 12 ammo per box. The uptime of movement in combination with the possible damage for swords seems too high for what would be equal to other weapon types.
I would say that LMG's are the same in terms of overly tuned invasion options for medium+ range, but the same could be said for eager edge swords in medium-close range. LMG's are extremely strong against almost any other option outside of maybe a sniper at Long+ range on a large enough map, but outside of that, there is almost only the option of using a super, or trying to get a flank simply because you need to send more than one person at an LMG user, because odds are the best you get is a traded kill from a 1v1. That being said, LMGs also have some of the worst damage for a heavy weapon against bosses in Gambit. So there is a trade-off occurring, but that can be mitigated by a double special+abilities loadout.
I guess one last point I could make is that the player base that is dedicated to the mode would always appreciate an "endgame" to the mode. Longshot, I know, we all do. But there are so many ideas out there (some more far-fetched than others), but implementing some sort of endgame would be a shot in the arm for it. I have numerous posts on places like that. Take a shot at just outlining what "could" be done. Are some of my ideas a reach? Yeah, for sure, but with tiered armor now in play, I would say it is nearing an actual route that could be built off of. Tiered armor, cosmetics, and weapons are earned from a wager system. "I bet I can win 3/5/7 games straight". "Okay, if you win 7 games straight, you'll get this (specified gambit role-based) Tier 5 armor and a Tier 5 weapon, with a chance at this cool emblem." "If you fail, you lose most of what you wagered." Wagering currency is earned just by playing games, and could inspire higher general activity in the mode.
I'll leave some links that could be useful to anyone seeing this for ideas of what I am talking about.
https://www.reddit.com/user/bentfryingpan/submitted/
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1J8COJbN_flIsUg9o_NczFe8l6smfshrnoNmii_0_7wo/edit?tab=t.0
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Edited by SLOOOT_APOCALYPS: 4/9/2026 5:03:40 AMI play the hell out of Gambit too, got all the emblems and stuff. I just want the heavy machine gun QUA XAPHAN V, I WANT MY EXACT ROLL TO WORK AGAIN :) (work as in that blue square and make it stop unstoppable please. Or fusion unstoppable)
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This is good stuff. Thanks for posting- we need more people to speak up about the issues and possible solutions.
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1 ReplyNot reading all that. The answer is, it needs to be deleted. It's a failure, it's a waste of resources, in an already bloated game.
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1 ReplyThings I would change that might take the least amount of work so could/might actually happen? 1. At minimum we need to double the spawn points for invaders and move around some of the existing ones. 2. Maybe an arms week like mode w/o abilities like we had with the bows a week or two ago. 3. Increase the amount that an invader can heal the primeval so a good invader can actually make a difference in the game. 4. Maybe one more invasion phase in the lead up? The games only last 10 minutes, maybe 13 could be a sweet spot? 5. Let our armor transmogs do what they did in the old days on top of what they do now or in lieu of it? Have Drifter sell them every week so people don't miss out. That might take some programing so maybe on the wish list. 6. Have a weekly weapon class that does more damage to invaders so that lower skilled players have a chance--or have many more in-game messages saying that Malfeasance does extra damage to invaders and it's not the worst DPS. 7. I think I'd do an 'over charged day' where certain Aspects/Weapons/supers do more damage (not all at once, just one of them) so that will mix up build craft. 8. I hate modifiers in the portal, but something like that might be good for gambit, where everyone has to deal with them. Not zero gravity but famines/Burns/attrition/threats might make it more interesting.
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2 RepliesHeavy Ammo should be extremely limited. Special ammo should be limited as well but not to the same degree. Heck at this point they should add Champions to this game mode.
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3 RepliesRemoval of the Mongeese. It gets very frustrating waiting 10 minutes for it to hit 7 (or even 8) out of 8 only to have the game go "Psych!" to make you do it all over again. Also, they can take a page from Crucible's book and mix up the existing players that choose to play again rather than starting queues again from scratch.
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1 Replyyeah remove cheaters there
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1 ReplyI’ve never, ever, ever, thought this hard about Gambit….
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3 RepliesA few suggestions… - make all bounties team based so whoever fulfils it, anyone with a similar bounty is also completed. - bring back the coloured armour sets…that lets the whole team know what’s what. - make invading high risk high reward. - make it worthwhile to play or many won’t. Mote thieves are a bane! 👈 That is all. Ease Things! 🖖👻 MTFBWY
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5 Replieshonestly with how low the player poulation is and how its life cycle is going i'd say it just needs to be removed i had my fun with it
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6 RepliesGambit sucks BECAUSE of the PVP aspect. I hate invaders! I suck at PVP so all I do is die. Even with a super up and used on an invader I often do not kill them. Their shield is way too powerful. Then you do not have a super for use on the boss. The whole mode is terrible. When facing a good invader, you never have a chance even if the boss had more health. The boss health resets with kills this basically makes a team start over from scratch. you have to redo every phase of boss damage which means the invader keeps getting chances to invade. Because of the PVP imbalance in both Gambit and PVP, I play neither. THERE IS NOTHING bungie could do to make gambit more appealing! No weapons, no armor, nothing not even the best exotic armor would or could tempt me to play gambit ever again. The drop would be random and my luck is such it would never drop. I would not waste time trying!
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2 RepliesI would like to see a variety of different types of Gambits. The core Mode itself can attune itself to different ways to play. Say, for example, instead of dunking Motes to progress the activity, you have to complete a certain encounter as fast as possible, before going to the next level, turning it from a slayer into a race. This could be done with something like Savathunes Spire, where you also have the parkour sections inbetween, encouraging players to get good with movement too. And motes/invasions still have value. Make it so Motes spawn Mini Bosses, and these Mini Bosses cause certain mechanics not able to progress. Invasion, have it work the same way. An invader is more squishy than a Miniboss, sure, but they are also more threatening and easier to defend themselves. Forcing the players to engage the Invader to progress the encounter means that the role has far more importance. Gambit should essentially be the party mode. Implement new tools that you’d want to see in the base game. Rogue Like mechanics. New Vehicles. Different challenges that might be introduced to raids, etc etc,
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1 Reply2 things i would really like to see. 1 Put the game mode in portal system so we get rewards. 2 get rid of Mongoose. So many times im 7 out of 8 and get booted . Its not our network problem. Just let us stay and wait.
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Gambit is the one mode I have always said needs a weapon ban list/loadouts or just gambit specific weapon tuning of some kind since it, unlike pvp, allows for the full might of the pve sandbox in pvp situations and that just isn't sustainable. As someone who was never a gambit main, but did enjoy the coordination of a well played gambit match i think it's a shame the mode ended up in the state it is.
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pretty much agree with everything In addition , id love to see envoys reworked and armour set bonuses like prime to really play into the set roles gambit has to offer and for god sake fix some of the prevalent bugs that have plagued the playlist for years on end . i dont think thats much to ask for