Destiny 2 will improve transmog by cutting out one of the steps

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The seasonal synthweave cap isn't budging though

Destiny 2
(Image credit: Bungie)

Destiny 2 will streamline and expedite its armor transmog system in Season 15 by removing the synthstrand currency entirely. 

Until now, you'd need to collect 150 synthstrand to purchase one bounty for synthcord which you can then use to craft the synthweave needed to transmog gear. Going forward, synthcord bounties will just cost 10,000 glimmer instead. Since most players can essentially get infinite glimmer from the Forsaken vendor Spider, this means that the transmog grind now boils down to however long it takes you to complete the bounties themselves. 

The initial three-stage crafting process was immediately unpopular with many players when Destiny 2's transmog system was unveiled earlier this year, with plenty (including myself) calling it needlessly complicated. However, synthstrand didn't truly wind up in the hot seat until players deduced that there's a hard cap on how quickly you can earn them – one for every two minutes of combat, regardless of how many dudes you kill in that time. This made transmog feel like even more of a slog, and after this discovery, calls for a change intensified. 

This update will make it much easier to get synthweave, but players will still run into the seasonal wall of 10 synthweave per class. Bungie says it will "continue to monitor the conversation and use of Armor Synthesis as Season 15 rolls out," and it'll be interesting to see if this cap is ever lifted or otherwise adjusted. I wouldn't expect any other changes to arrive until Season 16 at the earliest, but for the time being, it is good to see Bungie respond to player feedback on transmog. 

Austin Wood
Austin Wood
Senior writer

Austin has been a game journalist for 12 years, having freelanced for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree. He's been with GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize his position is a cover for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a lot of news and the occasional feature, all while playing as many roguelikes as possible.