As one of the most successful looter-shooters for nearly a decade, Destiny 2 prides itself on a deep and rewarding build-crafting system. Players have seemingly endless ways to customize their Guardians for specific activities, and they can do so to wild extremes, such as triple 100 stat armor. New players, however, have been left out of a lot of this experimentation, and it may be hurting the game’s ability to keep them coming back.
It’s no secret that Destiny 2 has been struggling to onboard players ever since it sunset the original campaign storyline. New Lights, as Bungie calls new players, often remark that the game feels overwhelmingly vast, and they don’t know what to do. Aside from the Red War story not being playable anymore, there is one key gameplay pillar that is unavailable to New Lights, and its absence could be more of a hindrance than a help.
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Mods Being Locked Behind Guardian Ranks Could Be Confusing to New Destiny 2 Players
Alongside subclasses, weapon and armor mods are half of the equation in making a build. While a new player may not know the ins and outs of how to use mods most efficiently, they are integral to creating a character that suits a certain playstyle, and new players should be able to experiment with them.
Guardian Ranks were introduced in Lightfall, and they are Bungie’s way of providing clearer objectives and a more focused on-boarding path for new and veteran players alike. While most of the challenges in a rank don’t award anything beyond progression, access to mods is locked behind three different ranks:
- Rank five: Armor mods
- Rank six: Weapon, armor energy and three loadout slots
- Rank seven: Armor charge mods
Guardian Ranks were intended to help slowly introduce concepts like mods, but they may not have the desired effect. Many new players have voiced their confusion about what mods do and how to apply them, noting that they see other high-level Guardians using tools that they themselves cannot access.
The mod systems connection to Guardian Ranks may appear obvious to veterans, but for a new players, who are taking in Destiny 2’s myriad activities and features for the first time, it is not very clear how to get started making a build. New players might not necessarily know that key aspects of making their character shine are locked behind ranks that must be progressed in a set order.
It could be argued that giving new players access to mods from the start would not make much of a difference. Indeed, new players are unlikely to understand what makes a strong, synergistic armor charge build for Titan, but the barriers that prevent them from trying to experiment with mods may be detrimental to the overall experience. And while most early Guardian Rank objectives are fairly simple to overcome, New Lights may not know what they should be looking for.
Destiny 2 Has to Strike a Balance
The game has found itself in a strange place in the past few years. With so many things to do, and so many things removed, there is a balance the game must strike to maintain a contented core of players and to bring in new ones. At the moment, locking things like mods behind progression may be doing more damage to Destiny 2‘s New Light experience than good.
There is a chance for things to be simplified soon, however. Bungie is reworking armor in Frontiers, with a greater focus on making builds less reliant on good RNG stat rolls. Potentially, there is room to revamp mods too, and that could help to address some of the bigger problems the game is having with getting new players to jump in and stay engaged.
- Released
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August 28, 2017
- ESRB
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T For TEEN for Blood, Language, and Violence
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