Bungie’s decision to limit a weapon’s power in Destiny 2 – a significant controversy in the loot shooter community when it was made three years ago – is being completely reversed for the game’s final expansion, The Final Shape. And that too is cause for some controversy.
To explain: With the release of Destiny 2: Beyond Light in November 2020, Bungie introduced “Weapon Doom.” The weapons themselves have not been removed, but a player’s ability to “infuse” (energize) certain weapons has been removed.
The problem is that power creep could allow older weapons to be quickly adapted to the game’s new power caps. This caused a huge headache for Bungie when it came to designing and balancing new content, as these weapons allowed players to fly through them rather than face a challenge. The game had already been out for three full years when Bungie made its “sunsetting” call.
But community opposition was so strong that Bungie rescinded these “shipment” plans just four months later, even though older weapons were still effectively limited. As their usefulness diminished, many Guardians dismantled their weapons (and broke them into parts to better improve their weapons).
Destiny 2: The Final Shape undoes the sunsetting of all weapons
Guess what. For The Final Shape, Bungie has announced that the infusion limits on all of these old items will now be lifted, meaning anyone who was either far-sighted – or nostalgic – enough to keep them in their vaults can now use them at full strength .
What is the reason for reversing a four year old policy that took four months? Destiny 2: The Final Shape will introduce something called Fireteam Power, which is intended to encourage group play (and lure renegades back into the game). Basically, everyone on the team is brought up to the performance level of the highest performing player (or just below).
“Always being able to play with your friends was a big goal for us,” Bungie wrote on its official blog on Thursday. “As we conclude the Light and Darkness saga, we want to bring all Guardians (active, returning and new) together to help in the fight against the Witness, and there is no better way to play Destiny than with your fireteam.”
When Bungie thought about how to implement this for The Final Shape, they realized that this feature would result in older items with limited power being boosted beyond their cap. And if that were to happen, the developers argued, they might as well remove the caps on these old weapons in the rest of the game.
“As we pursued this goal,” the developers said, “it became clear that the power limitations were fundamentally incompatible with Fireteam Power.”
Destiny 2 fans complain that it’s too little, too late
Bungie admitted with some face that “many old Power Limited items have been dismantled at this time and we regret that we do not have a recovery mechanism for them.” Other players have pointed out that even if someone is holding on to their original Power Limited items notes that he is still underpowered compared to current gear because he doesn’t have access to the benefits that Bungie has added to Destiny over the last two years.
The studio said it will “reintroduce sources for most or all of these, updated to modern Destiny sandbox standards,” but that still means Guardians seeking their prized gear will have to do so again.
Destiny 2: The Final Shape will be released on June 4th. The game is available for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One and Xbox Series X.