GAME/SERVER/STATUS
Destiny 2 error

Destiny 2 BUFFALO

Bungie names this code but does not publish the wording it prints on screen, so we quote only the code itself: BUFFALO. Any site showing you an exact message for it has written one.

Could be either

This one genuinely goes both ways, so the first job is telling which you are looking at.

Destiny 2 right now

Operational

Bungie has every core Destiny 2 service switched on

Full Destiny 2 status →

What it actually means

Bungie's description names three causes: “This error appears to players who are not signed in with their platform account, or if their platform service is undergoing maintenance. Additionally, this error may appear to console players if their PlayStation Plus or Xbox Live subscription has expired.”

The important part for diagnosis: every one of those is on Sony's or Microsoft's side of the line, not Bungie's. A wave of BUFFALO reports usually means a platform is having trouble, not Destiny.

Bungie publishes word-for-word identical descriptions for BUDGIE, SQUIRREL, VULTURE and STINGRAY. Five codes, one cause, which is why this page covers them together.

How to tell which one you have

Check PSN or Xbox status first, because platform maintenance is one of the three documented causes. If the platform is healthy, check whether your subscription is still active. On PC, check that you are not signed in to Destiny on another machine.

Fixes, in the order worth trying

  1. Sign back in to your platform account — Not into Destiny — into PlayStation Network or the Xbox network itself. The game cannot do it for you.
  2. Check your subscription has not lapsed — An expired PS Plus or Xbox membership produces this code, and the game does not say so.
  3. On PC, sign out everywhere else — Bungie's instruction is to ensure you are logged out of Destiny 2 on any PC you do not intend to play on, then restart Steam, the Epic launcher or Xbox Cloud Gaming.
  4. Check platform status — The live blocks for PSN and Xbox on this site are read from Sony and Microsoft every five minutes.

If the problem is platform maintenance rather than Destiny, our scheduled-maintenance page collects announced windows across every operator we track.

Operator documentation: help.bungie.net. Bungie documents its error codes in a public directory of over 300 articles. Those articles describe causes and fixes and never quote the in-game dialog, so neither do we. BUDGIE, SQUIRREL, VULTURE and STINGRAY carry identical text in Bungie's directory.

Common questions

What does Destiny 2 BUFFALO mean?

Bungie's description names three causes: “This error appears to players who are not signed in with their platform account, or if their platform service is undergoing maintenance. Additionally, this error may appear to console players if their PlayStation Plus or Xbox Live subscription has expired.”

Is Destiny 2 BUFFALO an outage?

This one genuinely goes both ways, so the first job is telling which you are looking at.

How do I fix Destiny 2 BUFFALO?

Start with: Sign back in to your platform account. Not into Destiny — into PlayStation Network or the Xbox network itself. The game cannot do it for you.