Destiny 2has been going through a lot of changes ever since the Lightfall expansion dropped, and while some of them have been great for the overall quality of life of the game, others have had a negative impact on some areas. Lightfall wasn’t an end-all, be-all kind of deal when it comes to overhauling major aspects of the game, though, and it seems like Bungie planned to make more changes to the game starting withDestiny 2’s Season of the Deep. The most recent article on Bungie’s website acts as a reflection on Lightfall’s launch, but also as a springboard to what’s coming - namely, a plethora of tweaks, some of which may harm the experience of casual and solo players.
Destiny 2’s recent difficulty nerfs didn’t help solo playersall that much because they simply focused on the HP scalar of the enemies in Legend and Master content, with Legend often being where solo and casual players fall due to the big divide that comes with Master content. An example comes from Lost Sectors, which are often used to farm Exotic armor pieces, even though their difficulty and commitment-reward ratio skyrocketed with Lightfall. In Season 21, Bungie is aiming at making farming Exotic armor much easier thanks to focusing, but this is once again leaving behind solo players, especially casual players.
RELATED:Destiny 2’s Season of the Deep Leaks and Lightfall’s Changes Are Two Sides of the Same Coin
Why Destiny 2’s Exotic Engram Focusing Doesn’t Help Solo and Casual Players
Exotic Engram focusing sounds like a dream come true for manyDestiny 2players, as it finally provides a deterministic way to obtain desired armor pieces more easily instead of relying entirely on RNG. For those who regularly complete endgame group content, the requirements are not even going to be too imposing, as focusing will come with two options: Advanced Decryption and Precision Decryption, both asking for a good chunk of materials. Namely, oneDestiny 2Ascendant Shardfor the first option and three Ascendant Shards, as well as an Exotic Cypher, for the second.
The problem here lies in the fact that Ascendant Shards are quite abundant for those players who complete harder versions ofDestiny 2’s Nightfall Strikes, such as Master or Grandmaster, and generally to those who can dedicate a fair amount of time to grinding. For example, while Ascendant Shards remain an endgame currency, they are offered at the end of a rank-up cycle for any vendor, awarding players with one Shard every time they reset a given vendor’s reputation after hitting Rank 16.
However, doing so requires quite a bit of time, especially considering that it’s a one-time reward per Season, per vendor. While this is a great extra that will likely be appreciated by casual and solo players, it’s not nearly enough to makeDestiny 2’s buildcraftingmore accessible. In fact, Masterworking a single Exotic costs a total of three Ascendant Shards, which is a pretty hefty sum for casuals who can’t play a lot. On top of that, obtaining a specific Exotic is going to cost them even more Ascendant Shards, and with no guarantees that the roll they get will be the one they’re looking for.
As such, while the changes planned forDestiny 2’s Season of the Deepsound great in theory, they are leaving casual players high and dry. Bungie did mention that some changes to Lost Sectors are coming and that the very rareDestiny 2public event called Vex Incursion Zone will start to drop Exotics from a knockout list, but this may very well be not nearly enough for solo players and casuals who seek to just play from time to time. WhileDestiny 2has made efforts to fight FOMO in the past, this doesn’t seem to be a solution to long-standing issues.
Destiny 2is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
