Mammoth Roundup of Destiny 2 bugs, glitches and possible fixes

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Destiny 2 has been released for PC players, first with a pre-load and now globally to everyone. Whenever a new game gets released, especially one already popular on other platforms, there’s huge hype. So, naturally, more and more start downloading it, which results in a heavy load on servers, one among thousands of issues for Bungie’s flagship title.

In this article, we’ve decided to make a huge round-up with most, if not all, the Destiny 2 bugs on PC, with fixes where available.

Destiny 2 bugs, issues, glitches

This article will be continuously updated as we discover more and more. Before proceeding, it’s important you update to the latest NVIDIA and AMD drivers in order to avoid some of these problems.

If the play button is greyed out, it simply means the game hasn’t been released yet, so just have a little more patience.

1. Blizzard app getting stuck on initializing

If you’re getting the “Blizzard app getting stuck on initializing” error, you should know first of all that this isn’t something limited to Destiny 2, but it’s common. Usually, a restart and/or redownload of the app should fix this.

In case it doesn’t work as easily as that, Blizzard suggests third-party programs running in the background can interfere with their games. If this is the case, here’s what you need to do:

Selective Startup

  1. Press Windows Key+R.
  2. Type msconfig and press Enter.
  3. Select Selective startup and uncheck Load startup items.
  4. Select the Services tab.
  5. Check Hide all Microsoft services Note: Skipping this step may prevent your computer from rebooting correctly.
  6. Click Disable all.
  7. Click Apply then click OK.
  8. Click Restart.

Note that Selective Startup may disable firewall and security software, so make sure you re-enable your security software after trying these. Also, if your issue still persists, have a look at Blizzard’s official guide.


2. Corrupted or missing game files

If some of your Destiny game files are corrupted, the easiest fix is to delete the game completely and re-download it. The second most immediate option is to make use of your Windows’ built-in troubleshoot functionality.

For that, you just need to select the game, right click on it and choose “Troubleshoot compatibility“.


3. Game crashes or closes unexpectedly

Many gamers reported that Destiny crashes with a black screen error at launch or a few minutes into the gameplay.

After character Creation, and first cutscene the game turns to a black loading screen but then crashes for my PC. beta played just fine but now this game wont load for me. please help. just crashes to desktop.

If your Destiny 2 crashes or closes unexpectedly, Microsoft has provided a complete guide on how to fix this, but it should serve as a general guide. We will make sure to add specific fixes for Destiny 2 once we have them.

Meanwhile, you can also try the following general troubleshooting steps:

  • Install the latest Windows 10 updates on your PC
  • Run a full system scan to remove malware
  • Clean your registry with one of these dedicated tools to fix file corruption issues

4. PC players get randomly banned

If you got banned from Destiny 2, but you still don’t know what you did wrong, you’re not the only one. Actually, many gamers consider they were wrongfully banned.

Other people on Reddit are saying they got banned without even playing the game. It seems the auto-banning software is banning first and asking questions never.
The URL given with the ban message also says there is no means to overturn a ban because they only ban after “rigorous checking,” which is obviously a load of crap as I have literally done nothing on this game but play through the first mission.

This is a widespread problem and there are several possible explanations for it:

  • Certain overlays are incompatible with the game. However, there is no exact information available about the respective overlays, so can’t compile them to a list at the moment.
  • Battlenet won’t allow players to run game capture software in the background. The problem is that game capture tools are standard now and many players aren’t even aware that they’re using such a tool.
  • Discord is not supported on Destiny 2 and results in players getting banned. The only solution is to remove this voice and text chat software if you want to be able to play Destiny 2.
  • MSI Afterburner is on the black list as well and using it will result in players getting banned.

5. FPS drops and stuttering

destiny 2 aim assist turn off

Many gamers also experienced FPS drops and stuttering while playing Destiny 2. Usually, installing the latest Windows 10 and graphics driver updates solved the problem.

Here’s how one gamer describes this issue on Reddit:

Am I the only one getting very noticeable FPS drops? I go from 144 to 110 and sometimes even 90, every 2-3 minutes or so. (game freezes for a split second)
I play on a 144Hz 1080p monitor. That’s why it just feels terrible.

Users also confirmed that if the two solutions mentioned above didn’t work, restarting your PC will.  You can also try changing some of your settings in Task Manager. Changing the priority on destiny2.exe to “High” should help reduce stuttering, especially if the option is set to “Lower than normal” by default.

For more information on how to fix low FPS issues on Windows 10, check out these two related articles:


6.  Destiny 2 freezes

For many players, stuttering turned into freezes. More specifically, the game often freezes completely for 10-15 seconds on average and then resumes.

This is quite a severe issues, preventing gamers from playing the game.

Game is unplayable. No matter what settings I choose (fullscreen, windowed, maximum spec/minimum spec) it randomly freezes for a few seconds (up to 10 seconds) and then comes back. It is happening so often that it is unplayable. This hasn’t happened in any other game.
I also already installed the newest drivers from intel.

To fix that, try closing background apps so that all your PC may use all the resources available to run the game.


7. Game server disconnects

Many players reported that the game randomly disconnects from server and returns to the Character Selection section.

Disconnect and get booted to Character Selection with the error code Cabbage.
And yes, I’m aware that the destiny 2 website claims this to be a router issue. But that is not the case. Its enabled on my windows firewall, its enabled on my router firewall, and the two other people who share the same router/modem have no issues whatsoever. Wonder what they spent those 7 weeks on, clearly it wasn’t networking.

These are the most common Destiny 2 issues reported by gamers so far. As we stated in the beginning of this article, we will continue to scour the forums and add more bugs to the list as soon as we discover more problems.

If you encountered other issues while playing the game, tell us more about your experience in the comment section below.