That’s why it’s such a shame that Destiny 2’s current New Light experience does everything in its power to push fledgling players away. New Guardians are dropped into the vast world of Destiny with virtually no guidance, no incentive to explore the breadth of content this game offers. And for those who somehow learn the ropes, they’ll see just how much of Destiny 2 is locked behind a paywall and how content has been locked away into the Destiny Content Vault.
When players face the Vex in Dares of Enternity , players will kill a named Vex enemy, pick up a cranium, and use it to destroy mini-bosses shields. On the other hand, players facing the Scorn will kill a named enemy, step into debuff, and shoot at crystals until they’re destroyed to move on. The only enemy type that has a different encounter in this first round is the Fallen, who will spawn in mines that have to be defused by standing in their area. If players disable all the mines, they’ll be rewarded with an additional chest that can award extra Strange Coins and Treasure K
We were stuck in the Vault of Glass for hours. My team was doing everything in their power to take down the Master variant of Templar in hopes of claiming our own Timelost Fatebringer. Alas, our damage output wasn’t enough to finish the boss. I started to pitch a few ideas.
You’re on your own with this one. We worked out that Lady Dimitrescu would almost certainly crush you to death if she actually stepped on you – with her whole body weight, at least – and Destiny has gone even bigger. The much anticipated Witch Queen expansion for Destiny 2 has a leading villain who clocks in at 21 feet tall – more than double Lady Dimitrescu. She’s so big I couldn’t leave her off this list, but I can definitely leave her off my face. Thanks.
Since these mods only work for certain damage types, there’s a good chance that these mods require a specific affinity to go on your helmet. If you’re someone who decides to change their loadout and just so happens to switch damage types, you’ll need to Masterwork your helmet again every time you switch weapons . That’s tremendously inconvenient and compounds the mod swapping problems builds already deal with. And if you’re a newer player who can’t afford to Masterwork a helmet, you’ll need to spend multiple Cores and Prisms every time you switch guns. This stifles build variety for no reason, and I seriously hope the Orb mods don’t behave this way.
An additional change Bungie announced is the reduced cost of changing the elemental affinity of Masterworked armor. If you want to change the element of your helmet from Arc to Void, it’ll only cost some Glimmer and an Upgrade Module. This alone is a great change, but veteran players like myself wonder if this is the Monkey’s Paw at work.
Bungie has made it clear that they want buildcrafting to be the next pillar of Destiny’s core design. It’s why armor mods have become more and more important, and it’s why the Light subclasses are getting reworked this year . On a fundamental level, I agree with Bungie’s vision. I’d love to play a version of Destiny where every player you meet has a unique build that kicks alien ass in its own way. But with the current state of armor mods, those builds are locked behind layers of RNG and hundreds of hours of grinding. To realize a version of Destiny where every Guardian is truly their own legend, it’s time we reduce mod bloat, not make it worse.
For those who decided to press on, they would eventually make their way to the Tower. Ghost introduces you to every NPC before you’re tasked with completing a Strike. Players are then greeted with a menu featuring a dizzying amount of options, some of which are locked behind an XP requirement or paywall. Assuming you finish the Strike, the game gives no guidance beyond increasing your character level. What’s a Power Level? What’s Crucible? Gambit? How do I get better gear? What makes a good piece of gear? Why are these planets locked? What should I do next?
Helmets are about to suffer the same fate as arms, arguably worse. While most arm mods give minor buffs in PvE, helmet mods include ammo finders that bypass Destiny’s otherwise random ammo economy. Most players run two ammo finders in PvE, but now they’ll be forced to use one if they want to take advantage of Charged with Light or other Orb mods. Crucible players will need to forgo targeting mods altogether if they want their Primary and Special weapons to spawn Orbs.
I have 930 hours in Destiny 2 on Steam, which doesn’t include the time I spent playing it on Battle.Net. I’m probably close to 1500 hours in the game, and I’ve never completed a Grandmaster Nightfall. Like many others, my clan loses interest every season when they reach 1340 and there’s nothing left to do but log on and grind. The gap between hitting the pinnacle cap and confidently running the Grandmaster Nightfalls is way too wide. It punishes players that are otherwise dedicated Destiny players, pushing them away and making them feel unworthy of the highest challenge simply because they value their time more than the game does. I would like to see better options for earning Artifact Power in the future, or at the very least, a lower level requirement for Grandmaster Nightfalls. I’ll play Destiny 2 crafting guide 2 every day as long as I have meaningful content to complete, but if you ask me to do bounties on the Moon every night for several weeks, I’m going to move on to other games.