Bungie’s Overhaul To Destiny 2’s End Game Includes Masterworks, Heroic Strikes & More

The Destiny 2 community hasn’t been a happy place for a long time. Since launch, a lot of people who would play the first game day in, day out have complained of a lack of meaningful feeling activities and goals to aim for, and the negativity flared up last week with the discovery that the game was fudging the lines of the XP you were earning.

While Bungie haven’t been particularly open with the community – and when people are annoyed, being open with them generally helps – a blog post today has replaced a planned preview stream for the upcoming Curse of Osiris expansion. Instead they’ve gone in depth on what they are doing to improve the end game, and detailed when players should expect to see them. Some of these are coming with updates on 5th and 12th December, at and just after the DLC release.

In December, a headline returning feature is weapons with randomised re-rollable stats, dubbed Masterworks. You’ll also have ways to buy items directly from vendors instead of throwing tokens and legendary shards at engrams, which will include armour ornaments to add more visual variety without messing with shaders. Getting there, you might be tempted to dip into the new Heroic Strike playlist.

There’s plenty more, but it’s the start of what we hope is a more open line of dialogue with the developers. XP mechanics, for example, are currently in the process of being overhauled and rebalanced after removing the scaling effect, there’s private matches, a “Quitter Penalty” system, and other things coming in the new year.

The overarching planned changes are below, but for the nitty-gritty of what will appear in December head to Bungie.net:

• New systems and rewards to give our most engaged players additional, optional pursuits, including:
  • A new Weapon Tier: Masterworks, which will feature stat trackers, random, re-rollable stat bonuses, unique item tooltips, and item details screens (see the December Update Details section below for more info)
  • Improved vendor rewards, adding ways for people to purchase items directly with their Legendary Shards and Tokens (see the December Update Details section below for more info)
  • Adding Armor Ornaments that grant visual permutations of armor as players complete specific Challenges (see the December Update Details section below for more info)
• Better incentives for players who complete challenging Prestige activities
  • We’re targeting a January update to provide better incentives to complete Prestige activities
• Better rewards and replay value for Strikes, Adventures, and Lost Sectors
  • In December, we will be introducing a Heroic Strikes playlist and more generous Strike rewards
  • Rewards for Adventures and Lost Sectors are still on our radar, but will not be delivered for our December updates
• Private matches for the Crucible
  • Still targeting early 2018 and expect to have better insight into exact timing in the New Year
  • We are also moving Ranked PVP to the top of our priority list for next year to support the competitive community
• Crucible tuning like adjusted Supremacy scoring and better spawning rules
  • In December, we will introduce additional updates and bug-fixes intended to improve these areas of the Crucible
• Better incentives for completing Crucible matches (and penalties for quitting competitive games)
  • A “Quitter Penalty” system is currently in development, and you can expect an update on the deployment of this system in the New Year
• Continued improvements to Iron Banner and Faction Rallies, including uniqueness of rewards
  • The next Iron Banner and Faction Rally will introduce improvements in both these areas (see the December Update Details section below for more info)
• Changes to make the mod economy more interesting and impactful
  • The Gunsmith will have some updates to how Mods are acquired (see the December Update Details section below for more info)
  • We are exploring more updates to this system in the New Year
• Ongoing improvements to Exotics, including adjustments to reduce instances of duplication
  • We plan to tune under-performing Exotics and will continue to make targeted updates and improvements
  • Duplication protection will be added for Exotics in the New Year
• New ways to spend surplus currency and materials (looking at you Legendary Shards)
  • Players will be able to spend Tokens and Legendary Shards on Vendor inventory (see the December Update Details section below for more info)
  • Xur will have new items, as well (see the December Update Details section below for more info)
• An emote interface that allows players to equip Salty, Spicy Ramen, Six Shooter, and Flip Out all at the same time
  • Emote interface improvements are still on the list, and you can expect an update on the development of this system in the New Year

How do you think Bungie have done stepping back from the brink? Is it too little too late, or does it look like they’re pulling it off? Let us know in the comments below.

Source: Bungie