Bungie admits it's been slowing XP gains in Destiny 2 if you grind too fast, but has now stopped

Did it ever feel like however hard you were grinding Public Events in Destiny 2, you just weren't earning that XP fast enough? It turns out you might not be a paranoid maniac, because Bungie has just admitted to changing the rate of progression for certain activities and - now that someone on Reddit has spotted it - has said it'll stop. 

Here's the statement in full:

"We’ve seen community discussion around XP gain in Destiny. After reviewing our data, we agree that the system is not performing the way we’d like it to. Today, we’d like to describe what’s going on under the hood, and talk about what you can expect going forward when it comes to earning XP in Destiny 2.

Currently, XP will scale up when playing longer or fixed duration activities like Crucible competitive multiplayer matches and the Leviathan Raid, and XP will scale down when playing activities that can be quickly, repeatedly chained, like grinding Public Events. We are not happy with the results, and we’ve heard the same from the community.

Effective immediately, we are deactivating this system."

As a result, players will see XP earn rates change for all activities across the board, but with all values being displayed consistently in the user interface. Over the course of the next week, we will be watching and reviewing XP game data to ensure that these changes meet our expectations, as well as yours. Any additional updates to this system will be communicated to you via our official channels."

So why is this a big deal? It could be interpreted by some as a cynical attempt to push players into spending actual cash money to acquire those all important Bright Engrams, because they couldn't earn them fast enough in game. And as we all know, Star Wars Battlefront 2 has made loot boxes and microtransactions in games the talk of the gaming town.

You could also look unfavourably on the fact that it took an eagle-eyed Redditor to point out the machinations and PC Gamer to cover it before Bungie decided to change it and put out a public statement on a busy holiday weekend. 

The good news is your Destiny 2 holiday grinding is about to get a lot more satisfying. Happy holidays Guardians. 

Destiny 2 is just one of the games currently on offer in the Black Friday gaming deals, so don't miss out.

Rachel Weber
Managing Editor, US

Rachel Weber is the US Managing Editor of GamesRadar+ and lives in Brooklyn, New York. She joined GamesRadar+ in 2017, revitalizing the news coverage and building new processes and strategies for the US team.