We all knew this was coming. Destiny 2: The Final Shape will make sweeping changes to the MMO's overly complicated Power system, streamlining the grind and making it easier to play with friends. The kicker is that all "legacy" items – you know, the ones that were sunset years ago – are coming back. Except they're also not, because most players already deleted them after they were sunset, and developer Bungie admits "we have no recovery mechanism."
Bungie's latest blog post is a spicy one. Power changes are the focus, and it's saying something that official un-sunsetting isn't the only bombshell. It is, however, probably the biggest one.
"After thoroughly considering the problem space, we came to the decision to remove Power limits from all items starting in The Final Shape," Bungie says. This means that every piece of gear will once again have an equal Power cap. Old gear currently marked with a grayed-out symbol widely interpreted by Destiny 2 players as "please destroy immediately" can be infused up to current Power.
"As we close out the Light and Darkness saga, we want to rally all Guardians (active, returning, and new) to help fight the Witness, and there is no better way to play Destiny than with your fireteam," Bungie continues. "As we pursued this goal, it became apparent that Power limits were fundamentally incompatible with Fireteam Power."
This is when the other shoe drops: "We understand that many old Power limited items have been dismantled by this point, and we regret that we have no recovery mechanism for these." So if you understandably deleted years-old guns because they were useless in most content, well, you're going to have to get them again – the Destiny special. "Going forward, we intend to reintroduce sources for most or all of these, updated to modern Destiny sandbox standards with added properties such as Origin Traits and buildcrafting perks," Bungie adds.
This is good news, of course; sunsetting was enormously unpopular and ended up severely hurting the game after the design space it was meant to free up ended up becoming a black hole instead. But this is also a slightly bitter pill to swallow after all this time.
"Look, I get that some people will be upset about this change, we said you could delete sunset weapons and changed course," said senior game designer Josh Kulinski. "These aren’t things we foresaw, but we believe this is the right move for the success of Destiny in 2024 and beyond."
The unambiguously good news is that increasing your Power is going to be a lot simpler going forward. Here's a quick summary of everything Bungie's announced for The Final Shape.
- The new Power floor is 1900, the soft cap will be 1940, with the Powerful cap at 1990, and the hard cap at a clean 2000.
- "Just about every reward source in Destiny 2" will drop Powerful rewards with bigger Power boosts.
- Power will be disabled for many activities, including campaigns (both Normal and Legendary difficulties), Seasonal story missions, free-roam destinations, Crucible, and some legacy content.
- Power-enabled activities include: Vanguard playlists, Nightfalls, Seasonal activities, Exotic Mission Rotators, Trials of Osiris, raids, and dungeons.
- Activity Power bands will be adjusted: Standard at 1945, Advanced (previously Hero) at 1995, Expert (previously Legend) at 2005, Master at 2010, and Grandmaster at 2020. Contest Mode remains a unique modifier with fixed Power.
- Fireteams will have a "Power Leader," and any low-level members will be brought up to five levels under the Power's leader. If your 2000-Power friend is in charge and you're a little behind on the grind, you'll be 1995 Power anyway.
- The highest-Power Guardian on your account will set the standard for any drops you receive on any character, so you can grind one up and then bring that level with you.
- Artifact Power is "staying the same at its core" but has been rebalanced with the longer Episodes following The Final Shape in mind.
Destiny 2 dev thought it would be "impossible" for someone to clear the MMO FPS's new horde mode solo until now: "I'll never underestimate this playerbase again."
