Destiny 2’s Into The Light update is a huge success if rising playercounts and glowing community praise is anything to go by. Its random weapon rolls and new attunement system have been so well received, in fact, it has reignited player ire around the prevalence of the game’s crafting system.
In a post today, content creator Skarrow9 lamented at just how much crafting, introduced to Destiny 2 in The Witch Queen, has “absolutely killed” the game’s loot incentive. It isn’t the first time crafting has come under fire for its impact on the grind, but Into The Light’s reward format was what really highlighted the issue for Skarrow. “I honestly haven’t had this much fun looking for guns in so long,” he wrote.
While random rolls haven’t gone away since crafting was introduced, they’ve become a significantly smaller portion of Destiny 2’s loot chase. New seasons, raids and expansions all feature complete suites of craftable weapons, leaving only a few activities such as dungeons and ritual playlists to exclusively offer traditional drops. As Skarrow expanded upon in another reply, “it has completely homogenized endgame PvE with no grind to get there. Everyone is automatically at the power ceiling.”
Into The Light not only features the return of some of the game’s greatest weapons with new perks, but also offers an evolution of the random roll system. Between the attunement system allowing players to target farm specific guns and the limited edition “shiny” variants which have a rare chance of dropping, Bungie’s constructed a middle ground—the grind can still be lessened with fine tuning, but the excitement of getting the dream loot drop is retained.
For players who have already been critical of crafting in its current form, Into The Light’s structure presents a promising new path. “I haven’t felt envious for another players roll on a gun I’m chasing in years,” read another comment. “More of this.”
Not every player agrees though. Many replies express frustration being left at the mercy of random chance as casual players with less time to dedicate to Onslaught. “All it’s done is remind me how awful the grind for stuff is when you’re reliant on drops and a bad currency system,” said one player. “This grind is fine for folks who have a lot of time to play, and absolutely awful for anyone who can only play one to two hours a night.”
However, even those who believe crafting plays an important role in Destiny 2 agree it could do with some changes. “Crafting definitely needs tuning. But it’s the best option as a failsafe,” a reply read, suggesting the system’s impact would be less negative if it became better at being that failsafe instead of “the reason for the chase” as it has slowly warped into being.
Bungie hasn’t mentioned any plans for sweeping changes to how crafting works in Destiny 2 in the upcoming expansion. But with the warm reception that Into The Light’s rewards have received, it wouldn’t be surprising to see the attunement system find its way into more activities in the future. After all, it would be a shame for a new feature that’s already gotten so much praise to remain exclusive to Onslaught.
