Gamers Call BS On Destiny 2 XP Scaling System So Bungie Reacts

Destiny 2 is a good lesson in making sure you don't let hype get the best of you. At its core, Destiny 2 is a solid game, but in many ways the game falls flat, leaving some more familiar with the series scratching their heads wondering what it was that Bungie was thinking. The list of minor gripes is too exhaustive for a simple post but  vocal veterans of the franchise are complaining about what the game should have been.

In a couple of weeks, the game's first DLC, Curse of Osiris, is set to launch, and as usual, three livestreams are being held in the lead-up to the release, to help fill players in. Generally, this is very much appreciated, but given the current state of the game, its most ardent fans want polish, not another DLC right now. The content isn't the issue, it's having no drive or reason to do it.

Then there are situations where Bungie may have intentionally made game play even less enjoyable for gamers. Ever since the game's launch, many have wondered about XP cooldowns, and not to mention chest cooldowns. Your first Public Event might net you 1,000 Glimmer and a good chunk of XP, but subsequent ones become less rewarding. What's worse, you may see your XP bar notify you of a good chunk of XP gained, but in reality, that number may be false.

A couple of days ago, one ambitious redditor took to the game to do some research, and ultimately, they found that very quickly that XP gains do in fact decline, despite what the player is told, to the point where it could be worth a mere fraction of what it should be. That means that people grind longer for less reward, in effect simply wasting time due to a truly bizarre mechanic.

Destiny's biggest communities have a saltier flavor to them lately

In a special news post made to its website less than 24 hours ago, Bungie acknowledges that this mechanic exists, and claims that after poring over the data, things are not how they should be. Four months after launch, Bungie finally responds about this mere days after this exhaustive research was posted to reddit. A mere coincidence, we're sure.

Currently, XP will scale up when playing longer or fixed duration activities like Crucible competitive multiplayer matches and the Leviathan Raid, and XP will scale down when playing activities that can be quickly, repeatedly chained, like grinding Public Events. We are not happy with the results, and we’ve heard the same from the community.

Effective immediately, we are deactivating this system.

For a handful of reasons, this news is both appreciated and frustrating. For four months, this ill-designed system has persisted, and only when people provided hard evidence was something finally done about it. As the shot from the DestinytheGame subreddit above can attest, people are downright salty about the situation. The top 10 stories in this particular subreddit, at any given hour, is dominated by complaints and ideas threads that sometimes feel like they fall on deaf ears. And this XP matter just makes things even worse.

In advance of the game's launch, Activision and Bungie teamed up with Kellogg to release special Pop-Tart packages that included codes to increase XP earned. With these revelations about the XP drop after regular play, some are wondering if these kinds of codes were worthless. Likewise, real money can ultimately purchase a consumable item for bonus XP earned, but at this point, it's not certain whether or not using it would negate the issue in the first place, or if it would simply become effectively useless just the same (in effect making the in-game currency Silver Dust you spent on it a waste).

At this point, we'll have to wait and see where things go. Bungie has one more livestream on tap to talk about the upcoming Curse of Osiris, and the community has been pleading with the company to spend some time talking about the issues. Let's hope that happens, because just four months after the game's launch, it's kind of depressing to see so many people not even interested in the new DLC.