With the drastic power reset in Destiny 2‘s new Edge of Fate DLC, players have been on the hunt for the best way to reach the new power cap of 450 as fast as possible. Some were gearing up for the Desert Perpetual raid race while others were looking to jump into other endgame activities. Very soon after players realized the Episode: Echoes mission “Encore” was the fastest way to grab Tier 5 gear, Bungie removed it from the Pinnacle options, leaving some players with a distinct advantage over others.
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Edge of Fate Rekindled the Power Grind
As with every new DLC and season in Destiny 2, Edge of Fate‘s power reset meant players looking to hop into Desert Perpetual on day one needed to prepare, and quickly. On top of needing to completely finish Edge of Fate‘s campaign, players would also need to farm the best gear they could to max out their preferred stats for the raid race. With the power reset came a shakeup of the stat system, meaning most of the armor in players’ loadouts and vaults was depreciated. It was essential to find well-rounded, high-stat armor sets to empower Guardians to fight their best in the Desert Perpetual race.
The Pinnacle missions offered in the Portal tab were the best way to do this, and one mission in particular, “Encore”, was found to be the best of the three on offer. However, players were surprised to find something else about the loot dropped at the end of the “Encore” activity: it was giving high-power drops.
“Encore” Stacked the Deck for Certain Players
Like it or not, Destiny 2 is a looter-shooter, and the genre is infamous for its long grind. With loot being randomly generated, getting high-tier and well-rolled gear is a lottery, and being able to farm an activity that guarantees good loot is a huge benefit when trying to power up quickly. Being a Pinnacle activity, “Encore” was giving extra drops, and with it being much shorter than the other Pinnacles to complete, it was a magnet for those looking to win the World’s First race. Unfortunately, not everyone had the same chance to farm—players with jobs during the week leading up to the race or other plans might have completely missed out on the “Encore” farm depending on their schedules, and Bungie’s removal of the activity from the Pinnacle list meant those players who missed out were at a significant disadvantage for the race.
Even though effective power was capped for Desert Perpetual, “Encore” drops allowed players with enough free time to reach 300 power relatively quickly, giving them access to Tier 4 and 5 drops pretty early on. While their high power wouldn’t have any benefits in Desert Perpetual, their Tiers 4 and 5 gear would—high-tier gear has better stats and more perks, giving those players a slight edge over their non-grinding competitors. Understandably, players who didn’t get to log in before “Encore” got removed were upset, and raised a larger question in the Destiny community about exclusivity and fairness in a game that’s largely PvE, though there is some PvP.
What Does Equity Look Like in a Looter-Shooter?
There’s nothing that can be done now about the unfortunate disparity in opportunity created by the removal of the “Encore” mission, but the issue remains that Bungie seems to have no problem punishing some of its players for not playing constantly. The time between the farm being discovered and being patched was short—meaning the only players who really got to take advantage of it were those who happened to have the time to play a lot. In general, Bungie has been criticized for playing too much into FOMO with its player base. While the studio does need continuous engagement from its players in order to stay afloat as a free-to-play game, it stings to be disregarded by the studio just because you weren’t able to be online at the right time.
There is, as in all things, a need for balance between equitable access to rewards and interesting, one-in-a-million live events that make Destiny 2 such a dynamic game. The community response to the removal of “Encore” before the Desert Perpetual race shows that a large portion of players think that this decision failed to find that balance.
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