Destiny 2: Lightfall: Winterbite VFX
Fueled by the Stasis Artifact attached to it, Winterbite courses with ambient Stasis energy.
Stasis cymatics blossom from around the weapon in areas where Stasis energy is seen concentrating.
The artifact at the end of the glaive continuously leaks Stasis energy, full of crystals attempting to escape.
Winterbite fires a high density heavy projectile that over the course of 1 second unravels, expands, and deploys into a turret, shooting everything within the radius of it.
The turret itself, being made of barely contained Stasis energy, also detonates on impact, dealing heavy damage to combatants in the vicinity of the explosion
A showcase of the "Big Watcher" Turret (Friendly)
A showcase of the "Big Watcher" Turret (Enemy)
The Turret launches Stasis shards at anything within it's radius sphere, which detonate and freeze anything in a small radius around the impact zone.
Enemy Big Watchers have a much more visible targeting zone and audio cues, alerting you the incoming danger
Winterbite also has a unique trait in that the glaive will slow on each hit, fully freezing a target in 3 hits, as long as you have ammo loaded. This does not consume ammo.
Weapon Concepts by Jacob Gonzalez. These were exceptionally helpful in getting inspiration and providing some visual building blocks for me to work with.
https://www.artstation.com/jacobg
Winterbite is a new Exotic Heavy Glaive that released as part of Destiny 2: Lightfall. I had the honor of coming up with and implementing the VFX for Winterbite, including the ambient VFX, Turretjectile, and everything in between.
Our first ever heavy slot glaive, I wanted to add VFX that would help enhance the underlying Hard-Surface art, done by the incredible Dylan Mellot, and entice players with a visual spectacle, putting a grin on their faces as they watched their turret buddy carve a wake of frozen destruction across the battlefield.
Special Thanks:
Mark Flieg: Rewards VFX Team
https://www.artstation.com/mfliegjr
Jacob Gonzalez: Concept Art
https://www.artstation.com/jacobg
Dylan Mellott: Hard-Surface Art
https://www.artstation.com/dmellott11
Paxson Helgesen: Audio
And to everyone else at Bungie. Teams are Stronger than Heroes.