Why Destiny 2 Needs a Better Exotic Loot Farm
Destiny 2, is arguably the king of the hill when it comes to looter shooters. With a world full of rich lore, a compelling and addictive core gameplay loop, and more, there’s plenty to suck in players of all kinds. That being said, it’s not without its flaws. Any game that has been around as long as Destiny 2 has or one that has such a devout following is bound to have some rougher edges, real or otherwise. One such pain point for Destiny 2 is its Exotic armor system.
Acquiring Exotic Armor in Destiny 2 is a Pain
Exotic armor in Destiny 2 serves a unique role. It’s armor whose stats may not necessarily be better than a Legendary piece, but it comes with a unique perk. Each of the three classes has a bevy of Exotic armor choices with each being tailored to one special effect or gimmick. These could be effects like enhancing a subclass ability or affecting how a certain weapon type works. As such, many Guardians will create a loadout based heavily on a piece of Exotic armor.
When Destiny 2 first launched, Exotic armor was part of the world loot pool. This meant that it had a random, yet slim, chance of dropping during any activity that Guardians partook in. Guardians also had the ability to purchase Exotic armor from Xur, a vendor that would show up every weekend.
This system changed shortly after the Warmind expansion. Guardians could still earn all previous pieces of Exotic armor through Xur or world drops, but new pieces required Guardians to run Legendary Lost Sectors by themselves. These Lost Sectors have unique modifiers attached to them and require Guardians to think about their loadout before diving in as dying too many times results in failing the challenge.
The Lost Sectors will rotate on a daily basis and the rewards rotate with them. They are broken up into categories like helms, arms, legs, etc. This is where the problem lies. As new Exotics are added to the game, the loot pool for these Lost Sectors grows. Despite Bungie recently increasing drop rates for exotics, the chance of acquiring one after a five to 10-minute run is painfully low. While results vary, some on Reddit have reported drop rates to be lower than 25%.
With an already low drop rate, Guardians are then confronted with the dilemma of not having the Exotic they’re chasing drop at the end of the activity. Adding salt to the wound is the stat roll issue. Armor in Destiny 2 drops with a stat spread between the different attributes. For a decent piece of armor, Guardians need to consider the total number of stat points and how they are distributed.
With a 24-hour window, low drop rates, and no guarantee that the item they’re after will drop with the stats they’re after, it’s hard to recommend farming Lost Sectors for these armor pieces unless they’re critical to a build.
Instead, Bungie should adopt a targeted loot system similar to The Division 2. In this looter shooter, players could select several factors like weapon type or armor manufacturer when running an activity. This allowed players to specifically hunt down pieces of equipment and made the loot grind far more tolerable.
If Destiny 2 were to implement a similar system, we would like to see drop rates increased to 100%, effectively guaranteeing one piece of Exotic armor per run. From there, players should be able to target what kind of armor they’re after like chest, legs, etc. This would keep the random element of what piece drops but removes the time limit issue. From there, Guardians could farm to their heart’s content with the promise that their time would be adequately rewarded.
It’s understandable that Bungie has a vested interest in keeping players playing, but if a player’s time isn’t respected, there’s little incentive to play the content at all. This would also go a long way to get new Guardians more engaged with end-game content which then has the potential to branch into other activities like GM Nightfalls and raids. There’s no losing with a system like this.