Summary
- Destiny 2 Episode Revenant faced backlash for non-craftable seasonal weapons due to bugs and a less rewarding Tonic system.
- The decision not to make seasonal weapons craftable leads to decreased vault space for players over time.
- Bungie’s reservation to add crafting for Heresy weapons in Episode 3 may spell trouble for Destiny 2’s future.
Destiny 2 is currently experiencing multiple issues tied to bugs and glitches, with them shipping into the game with the release of Episode Revenant first, then the Vesper’s Host Dungeon, Act 2, and finally the Dawning 2024 event. Partly because of the many bugs in the game and partly due to changes to Destiny 2‘s formula in Episode 2, Revenant’s overall reception has been more on the negative side. One of the biggest issues that fans had with Revenant was that it removed craftable seasonal weapons in favor of the Tonic system, and despite the community being very vocal about this, Bungie is about to do it all over again.
The reason why Destiny 2‘s Revenant weapons were poorly received is that they are exactly the average seasonal weapons – some are good, others are not great, with one outlier being Bitter/Sweet. As such, it made sense to have them as craftable loot because they are not exactly the ultimate chase the game has to offer. However, the Tonic system was intended to make them more common and easily focusable to justify the lack of crafting, but Tonics ended up being bugged and not very rewarding. Still, the reception of non-craftable seasonal guns was negative, and Bungie’s recent post regarding Destiny 2‘s future states that seasonal weapons will be once more non-craftable.
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The decision not to make seasonal weapons craftable in Destiny 2 derives from a general sense that crafting slowly made regular drops feel insignificant and not valuable. This is arguably true for many players, as getting five red-border versions of a given weapon means that any future drop of that gun won’t be impactful since players can already get their desired roll in The Enclave. However, one could argue that seasonal weapons are the perfect target for crafting given that they typically are slight upgrades over existing guns, and future loot will usually surpass them.
What follows is that it would make the most sense to remove crafting from other weapons and leave it on seasonal guns, if anything. Seasonal weapons in Destiny 2 can also be a great starting point for new players, so making them craftable would eventually guarantee an upgrade for newcomers, which would be a great plus. Instead, in the End of Year 2024 Developer Update post from Bungie, the studio stated that crafting is not being added to Revenant weapons, and it seems it won’t return in Heresy either.
Bungie is planning on adding a new tier of seasonal weapons in Episode 3, Heresy, called Heretical Arsenal. It’s unclear what this will mean at this time, though.
Why No More Craftable Seasonal Weapons in Destiny 2 Means Less Vault Space
Another problem with removing crafting from seasonal weapons and instead focusing more on the enhanceable nature of perks is that players’ vault space is going to shrink in size over time. This is because crafting a weapon, or at least fully unlocking the pattern for guns in Destiny 2, means that any prior or future rolls of that weapon can be dismantled safely. Instead, relying on enhanced versions of randomly-rolled guns can lead to less and less storage space.
In the same End-of-Year post, Bungie stated that it is looking at solutions for vault storage, but they will mainly be a part of Destiny 2‘s Frontiers expansion. Choosing not to make Heresy’s weapons craftable already puts Episode 3 in a bad spot, as the vast majority of players were already against this decision in Revenant.
Destiny 2’s Episode Heresy Needs a Better Tonic System
On top of that, not making seasonal weapons craftable means that Bungie will need to find a different way of improving the drop rates for these guns so that they are more easily farmable and desirable. It’s unclear whether the Heretical Arsenal will be a good fix for this problem, but hopefully, it is an improved version of Revenant’s Tonic system. As it stands, Bungie seems resolved not to change its stance on craftable seasonal weapons at least in Episode 3, if not for the big Frontiers release too, and that may spell trouble for Destiny 2.
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