An avalanche of new information on the future of Destiny 2 rolled off Mt. Bungie Thursday, one day after a senior member of the dev team confirmed collectibles will be included in all future DLC. Many players likely would’ve settled for confirmation that Crimson Days will return next month. But the Destiny 2 team also provided a lengthy explanation of its current developmental goals.
The Crimson Days revival wasn’t exactly a surprise for many players. Evidence of the next Destiny 2 event appeared on the game’s subreddit earlier this week, sparking a wave of speculation about the first holiday event of 2018. Will it be just as disappointing as the 2016 iteration? Does Bungie have enough content to keep Crimson Days entertaining for the duration of the event? Will we still have to rely on tokens and luck to claim prizes?
According to Game Director Christopher Barrett, Crimson Days will return on Feb. 13 and will feature some of the long term loot changes Bungie has planned for Destiny 2. Barrett says not all the changes will be implemented at first, and we’ll have to wait until Season Three to see everything Bungie has planned. . But engrams will all but rain from the sky -- doubling on level-up and dropping after each Raid, Nightfall and Crimson Days milestone -- during the Valentine’s Day celebration.
Faction Rallies return next week, and the first rally of 2018 sees players competing for shaders and auto rifles tied to each of the Tower’s three factions. The biggest difference is that each faction’s reward pool will replace last year’s accessories with season two armor ornaments. But the rest of the event’s structure -- pledging, destroying supply caches, etc -- remains unchanged.
Holiday celebrations aside, the latest development update from Barrett doubles as Bungie’s latest attempt to reduce some of the ongoing tension between Destiny 2 developers and the community. Players have been fuming for months and reasons run the gamut. Some are still mad about a lack of content in Destiny 2. Other feel like their favorite shooter has been made too easy, removing any sense of achievement from the experience. But few features draw more ire than the Eververse store, where players spend real money on an assortment of cosmetic items. And Bungie is finally reigning in some changes widely perceived as evidence of corporate greed.
Barrett acknowledged the current shortcomings, saying “scales are tipped too far towards Tess” when you reach the Destiny 2 endgame, and he promised major overhauls in the months ahead. The director says Bungie will be “shifting the balance” to prioritize activity rewards over Bright Engram prizes. The studio will also introduce a new means of earning Bright Engrams, separate from Silver and the existing post-20 XP reward, to make it easier to get each season’s Eververse gear. Barrett says Bungie is continuing to experiment with potential XP changes, fully cognizant that people are still fired up about the leveling controversy that exploded in December.
Masterwork Armor will also roll out at the end of the month, further expanding the game’s loot pool, as part of a massive patch slated for Jan. 30. Bungie is also taking a second pass at the current raid rewards in an attempt to make Leviathan and Eater of Worlds runs more exciting. And that’s just the start. A February patch will rework the game’s mod system -- one of the most commonly requested changes online and in-game -- add a text chat to the Tower (for PC players) and reduce the frequency of duplicate exotic drops. Bungie also has big plans to change the Crucible, including the introduction of a 6v6 playlist for everyone fed up with the transition to 4v4 matches.
For more information on the future of Destiny 2, check out Christopher Barrett’s full Development Update over on Bungie.net and/or read the latest “This Week At Bungie” from community team.
Destiny 2: Curse of Osiris is available for PS4, Xbox One and PC.
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