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AFK farming has spread to Destiny 2's PVP

Destiny 2 players have found a relatively harmless way to farm materials while being AFK in PVE, but the PVP side isn't so lucky.

Sam Chandler

July 16, 2019 6:00 AM

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Whether we wanted it or not, we’ve stepped into a war with the AFKers in Destiny 2. It may have started as a harmless bathroom break and evolved into conscientious objector PVE farming, but now AFK players are plaguing the Crucible.

This has always been a problem since Destiny 2 hit PC, but it’s not often discussed enough outside of community areas. But now that a light has been shined on the Forge farmers, the proverbial can of worms is open.

Polygon, and then PC Gamer, reported earlier about players going AFK in Forges in order to farm planetary materials. The idea is that by going AFK, players can stay in an activity and continue to earn rewards.

The reason they’re not booted from the activity is that the fail-state timer is shorter than the inactivity timer.

In order to avoid inconveniencing other players who are trying to finish these activities, players are lowering their Power down to sub-optimal levels. This prevents them from being matched up with players that are level-appropriate.

The end result being that AFKers are grouped together, a point which has been commented upon in the Destiny subreddit.

At least they’re being courteous in their exploits.

Unfortunately, there is another group of AFKers, one much more toxic than the humble Forge farmer. These players use macros in order to keep their character moving in random ways, circumventing Destiny 2’s inactivity detection.

These players are doing this in the Crucible, Destiny 2’s PVP mode. The reason for this purposeful exploitation is that whether you win or lose in Crucible, you gain XP. There are certain endgame weapons that can only be acquiring by gaining large amounts of XP each season. What many legitimate players are left with is a team consisting of one or more AFK players, severely hampering their ability to win.

This is obviously frustrating when you’re looking to have fun, but it’s made so much worse when you require victories and a portion of your team is AFK. The problem is especially heinous in Gambit and Competitive Crucible. The first of these requires a fully functioning team to stand a chance at winning and the second outright deducts points on a loss. The AFKer typically won’t care about this, as some weapons simply require match completions, not wins, in order to unlock.

There is, however, a glimmer of hope. Some of the macro users have taken to Rumble in order to farm their Valor XP. This means they aren’t letting down a whole team of players. But as mentioned above, players who actually want to play a good game of Rumble will instead find a barrel full of fish.

Bungie has systems in place to deal with external programs influencing the game. There are FAQs detailing what type of player behaviour can get a player banned, and “using an external program or device to automate gameplay or circumvent idle detection,” is one of them.

However, given that people are still using macros to AFK in Crucible leads many to believe the punishment isn’t strong enough. But until Bungie either comments on it in a TWAB or an official feed, players just have to rest assured knowing that people do get banned.

Sam Chandler

Head of Guides

Hailing from the land down under, Sam Chandler brings a bit of the southern hemisphere flair to his work. After bouncing round a few universities, securing a bachelor degree, and entering the video game industry, he's found his new family here at Shacknews as Head of Guides. There's nothing he loves more than crafting a guide that will help someone. If you need help with a guide, or notice something not quite right, you can message him on X: @SamuelChandler