Destiny Rising Season 1 patch notes, release date, new characters, banners, more

Following a hugely successful launch in August 2025, NetEaste has now rolled out the first major post-launch update for Destiny Rising.

The full patch notes confirm new characters, likely obtained from in-game banner events, seasonal content, limited-time events, shop items, and a wave of optimizations and fixes.

As always, we’ll update this overview with all the juicy details as and when the developer reveals more information, but here’s what we know so far.

Daybreak release date

Season 1: Daybreak began on September 11, 2025, and runs until November 6, 2025.

On the game’s official Discord server, fans had speculated likely dates to be anywhere between September 11 and 25. The current in-game banner event for Gwynn ended on the latter date, which had made this the most likely answer.

New Banners & Characters

Two new Lightbearers arrived with Season 1:

• Estela, Ahamkara Bane, a Mythic Solar offense unit wielding a Pulse Rifle and Machine Gun.
• Umeko, The Kunoichi, a Legendary Void support with Scout Rifle and Sniper Rifle, marking the game’s first Awoken addition.

Both are available through the new limited-time draw, “The Sun’s Shadow.”

Patch notes

Here are the full patch notes for Season 1:

New Characters

• Mythic Character: Estela, Ahamkara Bane
  • Element: Solar
  • Role: Offense
  • Weapons: Pulse Rifle, Machine Gun
  • Revived carrying an Ahamkara bone, giving her strange powers and hallucinations.
• Legendary Character: Umeko, The Kunoichi
  • Element: Void
  • Role: Support
  • Weapons: Scout Rifle, Sniper Rifle
  • Awoken who left the Reef, revived on the Japanese island of Shikoku.

New Events

• Limited-Time Draw “The Sun’s Shadow”
  • Starts after 9/11 maintenance, lasts 28 days.
  • Guaranteed Mythic: Estela.
  • Legendary pool: Kabr, Ikora, Umeko.
  • Includes Character Trial activity with rewards.
• Limited-Time Event “Benediction Day”
  • Runs 9/11 – 10/4 (UTC-7).
  • Collect Crystalline Sprouts for discounts on Estela’s “Daughter of Spring” ornament.
  • Benediction Day Shop offers transmat effect, emote, emojis, and dynamic emblem for completing the full set.

New Shop Additions

• Estela’s Mythic Ornaments: Dragon Slayer, Dragon’s Crown.
• Estela’s Mythic Relic Ornaments: Thorny Medal, Sinner’s Spine.
• Dragon Slayer Bundle with 20% discount.
• New Legendary Ornaments: Hazy Dream, Woodland Walker, Unending Grudge, Dark Moss, Misty Violets.

Season 1: Season of Daybreak

• Runs 9/11 – 11/6 (UTC-7).
• Seasonal Modifier: Void and Solar shields in Expanse, Calamity Ops, and Challenge activities.
• Seasonal Pact: Haven Crest grants enhancements; 1 Pact Point per 20,000 Team XP.
• Season Engrams: Exclusive cosmetics including Crystalline Mystery, Furies III ornament, Daybreak Decals.
• Seasonal Collection: Unlocks “Daybreak” emblem and Homepage sigil.

Optimizations & Adjustments

• UI & Interaction
  • Better login prompts, controller guidance, Ghost Menu UI, weapon comparison visuals, and Black Market selling safeguards.
  • “Shoot to Pick Up” is now toggleable.
• Character & Weapons
  • Estela face model fixed.
  • Gwynn: Soul Assault range improved, Void Dance fixed, Void Spirit cap raised to 8.
  • Ning Fei’s Super visuals improved.
• System & Activities
  • Common Bounties can refresh once.
  • Wolf Pack recommendations improved.
  • Relic Trait 3 unlock moved to Team Lv.71.
  • Rewards for Singularity: Chaos improved.
  • Morgran’s Prey wish pool adjusted.
• Animation, Audio & Visuals
  • Improved SFX for wishes, Wolf’s Strike, Exotic weapons, dual sidearms, Sweet Business.
  • Better decal display during dialogue.
  • Smoother slide controls.
• Localization
  • English: clearer perk/objective descriptions.
  • Japanese: fixed honorifics and consistency.
  • Latin American Spanish: grammar and terminology fixes.

Fixed Issues

• Activities
  • Morgran’s Prey Void Vortex spawn fixed.
  • Singularity boss exploit, reward display, and stage glitches fixed.
  • Expanse treasure chest visibility fixed.
  • Iron Bar abnormal damage bug fixed.
  • Fishing visual clipping, campaign camera/character-switch bugs, ball-kick bug, Vex self-destruction insta-kill fixed.
• Characters & Weapons
  • Ning Fei’s Sidetrick damage resistance fixed.
  • NPC disappearance in Ning Fei’s quest fixed.
  • Bonfire dialogue fixed.
  • Weapon model/ornament/sound issues corrected (Moonshot EMR-M, Satiyaaliksni Smart Bomb, Izanagi’s Burden).
  • Exotic Auto-Crossbow Mahamayuri power adjusted for balance.
  • Weapon switching and jumping issues with sidearms fixed.
• Systems & Features
  • Artifacts: Ring of Conversion bug fixed.
  • UI: Reward Retrieval, Fair Play icon, Acclaim rewards fixed.
  • Shop: animations for ornaments fixed.
  • Events: Spreading Light challenge exploit fixed.

Trailers

NetEase released a trailer for Estela on September 8, 2025, showcasing her Solar abilities. The patch notes confirm she’s an offense-focused Mythic character with strong crowd-control potential, using Ahamkara energy to conjure fire-breathing avatars and area attacks.

One such ability allows her to conjure an avatar of the legendary beasts to spew flames in a wide area. That being the case, expect her to be an excellent pick for crowd control in Strikes and other PvE activities.

That’s a wrap on everything we know about Destiny Rising’s first major content drop so far. We’ll keep you abreast of any updates by adding them here, but in the meantime, check out our tier list to see how the game’s existing roster stacks up against each other.