Today’sDestinypatch made some important ‘quality of life’ improvements, according to Bungie, including a boost to raid rewards and an important fix for engrams.
It’s been almost two months since the launch ofDestiny: Rise of Iron, which means two months to try to hit thenew light level cap, two months to experience the Wrath of the Machine raid, and two months to try to goflawless in Trials of Osiris. It also means two months for Bungie to feel out its player base and discover ways they can improve the Destiny experience moving forward.
Today, Bungie released a newDestinypatch that the developer claims will improve the “quality of life” of its popular multiplayer shooter. More specifically, Bungie is improving the behaviors of engrams in-game, to ensure thatDestinyplayers see new gear more often.
While not the only major change, the biggest one in today’sDestinypatch makes it so Rise of Iron Vanguard and Crucible weapons will decrypt from engrams. Most players may not have noticed, but pre-patch engrams were only decrypting into Year 2 weapons, not any of the new Rise of Iron gear. Hopefully this means we wont see any more Choleric Dragon rocket launchers or Diluvian 10/4X heavy machine guns.
Alongside the engram “fix,” Bungie has alsoremoved the Silver Dust requirementfrom Iron Lord, Trials of Osiris, and Perfected Ornaments. The Silver Dust requirement was becoming quite the contentious issue as of late; with many feeling it pushed players towards Destiny’s microtransactions. That being said, weapon ornaments will still require Silver Dust and Xur will still sell them in exchange for Silver Dust.
Raids have also been made more rewarding for those players who want to complete the endgame activity multiple times per week. Now, a raid boss will drop threeSIVA Key Fragmentsafter the first kill on Normal difficulty, and three SIVA Key Fragments for the first kill on Heroic Difficulty for a total of 6 Fragments. After the first kill, players will earn one less per difficulty (i.e. 4 for the second kill, 2 for the third, and 0 for the fourth).
Read the full patch notes below:
While most of these changes will go a long way towards improving the quality of life ofDestiny’s rewards systems, most would argue that there are still plenty of areas that need attention.Weapon balancewill always be a constant struggle forDestinyand right now shotguns are arguably too dominant thanks to the return of Matador 64. Additionally, there are some subclass changes that most PvP players would like to see made, most notably a nerf to the Juggernaut ability on Titans and the Stormcaller melee range.
Even on the rewards side there are some changes that Bungie could make, like an improvement toSkeleton Key drop rates. Luckily, problems with rewards haven’t stood out so much, thanks to the smart loot system. Even if players aren’t getting the items they want, at the very least they are consistently getting rewards, and that’s a major improvement compared toDestinyin the earlier years. Still, the hope is that this is just the beginning for quality of life changes in Year 3.
Destiny: Rise of Ironis out now for PS4 and Xbox One.
