Destiny 2's Edge of Fate expansion launches today, July 15, and I'm trying to keep an open and optimistic mind as Bungie takes some big swings at things like Power cap, number crunching, tiered loot systems, and post-Light and Darkness Saga storytelling. I got what I wanted from The Final Shape, and I'm ready to find out what's next. That said, the hefty new patch notes for update 9.0.0.1 are so stuffed with what seem like reinvented wheels that I'm currently scratching my head over where I'll be spending my time for the next few months.
We're going to have to get a feel for this stuff in person in the coming days and weeks, but for a game that's been hoping to make the path to acquiring specific loot less confusing, the Edge of Fate patch notes sure are confusing when it comes to economy and rewards.
Bungie's fired off a salvo of about 10,000 words here, which you can read in full on its website, but I want to focus on a few areas for now. The balance changes are their own topic, but it's the economy changes that raise my eyebrow.
Edge of Fate introduces new loot tiers designed to add vertical progression to gear, and these are tied to difficulty tiers with their own Power level. The harder the activity and the higher your Power level, the better the loot – that is, the higher the tier, with higher tiers offering better stats. I'm with you so far, Bungie.
Here's where things get a little complicated. The Normal, Advanced, Expert, Master, and Grandmaster activity difficulty settings are just the start. There are also tons of difficulty modifiers – like 100, from what pre-release previews said – that players can use to tailor their experience and alter their "reward forecast," including target gear tier.
By adding multipliers that make the game harder, like giving enemies special effects or reducing your ammo, and by playing well in activities to increase your score bonus, you can earn better loot. I'm still with you, Bungie. But here's where you start to lose me a bit: Reward Score, Reward Rank, Reward Package, and how gear tiers fit in.
"Final Reward Score is based on two parameters," Bungie says, pointing to challenge and reward multipliers, respectively based on your chosen difficulty modifiers and your Power level and gear. But Reward Score then forks into Reward Rank and Reward Package.
Your Reward Rank levels up as you play, starting at Copper and capping at Diamond 5 like a PvP comp ranking. Your Reward Package, however, is based on your performance in whatever activity you select from Destiny 2's new Portal menu hub, from grade C all the way up to A "based on the score you achieved."
The pitch seems to be: take on harder modifiers and earn better scores to acquire higher-tier loot. But the breakpoints for these things, and the benefits of that loot over weaker versions, are kind of opaque right now.
"Players must score enough points to reach the tickmark on the in-game scorebar to get the forecasted Reward Package," Bungie says. What I foresee here, as a day-one Destiny veteran, is a whole load of Twitter, Reddit, and YouTube posts from players wondering why the heck they can't get the loot they signed up for in their modifier page. And chasing Tier 5, Grade A, and Rank Diamond 5 loot seems like it could exacerbate the existing problem of deterministic rewards.This sounds like a goldmine for the Destiny YouTubers who make a living explaining this stuff to the casual players that make up most of this game's player base.
This is where some alarms really start to ring in my head, because I'm old enough to remember Destiny 2 grappling with a fairly similar system with Nightfall scoring many years ago, and that was ultimately canned, in part, for overwhelming players with options without clear signposting. Here's hoping this new system is worth it and, in practice, simpler to navigate.
The alarms intensified when I got to this line: "Commander Zavala now offers a selection of powerful New Gear items each week" which "Requires two new currencies: Armory Requisitions and Arsenal Credit." I don't know why Bungie has taken this opportunity to add more currencies to a core system which was only recently freed of the Legendary Shards currency, but I do know that Armor Requisitions and Arsenal Credit are deeply scary words.
I'm not freaking out yet, mind you; I'm just putting these on my list of things to investigate as Edge of Fate rolls out. And there are some outwardly promising economy changes in here, too. The vendor refresh tucked away at the bottom of the patch notes actually sounds really good, finally addressing a few pain points that have lingered for years in some cases.
Bungie is still overcomplicating the heck out of transmog, but hey, the transmog bounties sold at ADA-1 have now been simplified considerably, no longer sending players to specific destinations.
Engram master Rahool has had his annoying reward track removed entirely, meaning "Novel focusing for Exotic armors from past expansions will be available to players immediately, with no need to decrypt engrams to unlock access." Also: "Gunsmith Engrams, Iron Engrams, Trials Engrams, Crucible Engrams, Gambit Engrams, and Vanguard Engrams have been removed from the game." RIP, engrams.
Finally, Xur will now sell two Exotic armor pieces per class, per week, plus his Legendary loot pool has been tightened to focus on a bigger pool of weapons (including the occasional Adept) and ignore currencies like "Nightfall Ciphers, Osirian Ciphers, Upgrade Modules, or Ritual Engrams." I'm hoping that this, at least, will give these characters clearer purpose and make their inventories more rewarding, but how all of this fits into the new Destiny 2 economy remains to be seen. I'm pulling up my bootstraps and battening down my hatches. This is going to take some getting used to.
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