‘Destiny 2’: Bungie Explains Why New Faction Rally Weapons Aren’t Included In Engrams
The return of Faction Rallies has landed with a thud in Destiny 2 thanks to a throttling mechanic to prevent farming Lost Sectors and players not being able to earn any of the new Faction weapons added with Season 2. Bungie has provided an explanation for the latter Wednesday that is predictably not being received well by PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC players.
According to a Bungie forum post by Destiny 2 Game Director Christopher Barrett, the three faction rally factions received five new weapons with the release of Curse of Osiris and the start of Season 2. However, these weapons cannot be earned immediately and will become available via the following method.
“In the first Faction Rally of Season 2 (this week), there is a new Auto Rifle available as the Winner’s Offering. No new Faction Weapons are available through Faction Engrams.
“In the second Faction Rally of the season, the Winner’s Offering is updated to a new weapon. Additionally, the previous Winner’s offering (Auto Rifles) and an additional weapon are added to Faction Engram rewards.
“The final Faction Rally of the season will follow this functionality: The Winners Offering will be updated to a final weapon that has yet to be featured. The previous Winner’s Offering will be added to the Faction Engram rewards, alongside an additional weapon. This brings the total to four weapons within the Faction Engram, and a final Winner’s Offering for factions to compete for over the course of the event.”
The issue here appears to be one of communication by Bungie, which has become a familiar refrain for the community. Destiny 2 players were not informed of these changes and went into the first Faction Rally of the season expecting to see the same system in place as the first two events. Instead, they are seeing non-Faction weapons mixed in with Faction armor, shaders, ghost shells, and ships when they turn in their Tokens for a Faction Engram.
Additionally, Barrett’s explanation of Destiny 2’s new Faction Rally mechanic appears to provide an incentive not to participate in this month’s event. Players may as well wait until the second and third Faction Rallies when the Faction Engram will contain the new weapons.
This comes at the same time Destiny 2 players have been loudly voicing their concerns over the throttling mechanic introduced to prevent Lost Sector farming. The general consensus among the community is Bungie would have been better served adjusting rewards for different activities and fixing the issue with farming the Weep Lost Sector that allowed the Lost Sector chest to reset its contents but not the enemies when a player exited the zone through a set of doors and returned.
Throttling rewards and not providing an indicator of a cooldown only serves to inflame tensions among Destiny 2 players at a time when the game is in a precarious position between DLC releases and before the roadmap of planned fixes kicks in. Bungie was burned before by introducing an XP throttling mechanic, so it is baffling why it would be introduced elsewhere. Additionally, some players are concerned that Public Events may have been affected by the Lost Sector throttling in some way, something that Bungie Community Manager Cozmo23 says has been investigated and is not happening.
