Published , by Sam Chandler
Published , by Sam Chandler
Another week, another This Week at Bungie blog post to read over. These weekly updates have been giving players a good insight into what to expect from Destiny 2 in the coming months, and from season to season. For this TWAB, we’re hearing more about Power, sunsetting weapons, Seasonal rewards, and a new type of Engram. Let’s have a chat.
The topic of Power is a tricky one to navigate. Players that put the time and effort into unlocking a weapon will inevitably feel a strong connection to that weapon. If said weapon is to cycle out of the meta, players are just putting in the work to get an item that they know will be left behind. For some players, it’s a problem where the only solution is to simply not engage.
On the flip side, Bungie can’t keep making weapons better and better for the reason often referred to as “power creep”. If each weapon kills slightly faster than the one before it, taken to the nth degree, you have time-to-kill values that no longer fit the sandbox.
Bungie has taken a valiant stab at trying to solve this problem and has outlined some goals. Firstly, each Legendary weapon (and piece of armor) will have a Max Power Level. This level will be the level three Seasons after its release, meaning a weapon will have peak Power potential for a year before slowly falling at the wayside or "sunsetting".
An example would be that a weapon from Season of the Drifter would now be obsolete in Season of the Worthy. That Spare Rations you farmed for? It’s no longer going to be keeping up with the Power level of those around it.
Interestingly, the TWAB notes that weapons from the Last Wish and Garden of Salvation raids will be granted exceptions to this rule. Though, truth be told, I can’t personally think of a single weapon from those raids that I’d currently want to use. But that's a problem for another time.
This is a big conversation and something that impacts the very fabric of the Destiny experience. From the onset, it sounds like Bungie is laying its cards on the table, and giving players some good transparency about what to expect with their gear. It will still be disappointing to have to say goodbye to The Mountaintop or The Recluse.
As it stands, when a new piece of content is released, any player that wants the new gear will need to spend a lot of time farming the new activity. The latest addition, the Seraph Towers, has shown that it’s not really something players are interested in. One look at the new quest, The Lie, shows players are burned-out. Being locked to one activity to earn rewards when there is a plethora of other fun things to be doing just isn’t enjoyable. Bungie sees this and has a plan.
Starting in Season 11, the Seasonal rewards will be scattered a bit further than the new Seasonal activity. Players will be able to earn these rewards from the core activities like Strikes, Crucible, and Gambit and from many, many other places.
Furthermore, Bungie is bringing two weapons from each of the previous three seasons into Season 11 and adding them as drops.
There also appears to be new mechanic being introduced with a unique type of Engram. Players can take this Engram, which contains “the majority” of the Season 11 rewards, and by spending Seasonal currency, can effectively “focus” the contents of the Engram to increase the chance of a specific drop. As Robbie Stevens puts it:
To clear up any confusion let’s imagine if we launched this [REDACTED] Engram in Season of the Worthy. Imagine this engram contained all the Season of the Worthy weapons and armor. Now imagine you could take this engram to a Seraph Bunker and spend Seasonal currency to Focus the contents of this engram so it only contains the Seventh Seraph SMG and Shotgun. By focusing [REDACTED] Engrams in Season 11 you can choose your rewards, this includes the ability (once you’ve earned it) to Focus engrams so they only contain Season 11 armor with high-stat packages.
We’ve had something similar to this in the past in the form of the Chalice of Opulence. Players could effectively “focus” on a specific weapon, and then farm that for the rolls they wanted. It worked well then (ignoring the Menagerie nerf) and so, if done well, it should work now.
These new Engrams drop from a variety of different activities listed below, along with the two activities being introduced next Season:
We’ll be sure to let you know which one offers the best farming method.
The TWAB also makes mention of an update coming on Tuesday, May 19. This is hotfix 2.8.1.2 and it addresses the Season Pass XP buffs, fixes a problem with the Wormgod Caress gauntlets, and also solves a problem with the Winter’s Guile gauntlets.
There’s a lot of information to parse this week, so make sure you head over to the Bungie post and give it a good read-through. Gut reactions so far from the Destiny subreddit are mixed. Players seem to be understanding about sunsetting weapons, but adding the weapons back in later on is not going down too well. Make sure you keep it locked to Shacknews as we bring you the latest on Destiny 2, and also check out our Destiny 2 complete strategy guide for more information.