In Destiny 2, Bungie reveals information about the loot and the engrams. When and how does it decide how strong the loot items will be?
Just a few days ago, Project Lead Marc Noseworthy announced via Twitter that everyone’s “engram decrypting” ritual in Destiny 2 will be a thing of the past: You no longer need to equip the best items before visiting the Cryptarch to get the best possible loot from the engrams. Now, you will automatically receive the best possible loot based on your progress.
In a blog post, Bungie’s investment designer Daniel Auchenpaugh now provides more information on this.
When and how does the strength of the loot from engrams get determined?
First of all: The “light level” from Destiny 1 is called “power” in Destiny 2. Bungie always refers to it as “power”.
The power of the rewards is determined at the moment when the rewards are earned. This means that when an engram drops in Destiny 2, the item power is already fixed at that moment. However, which item is included is only determined upon decrypting.
How high the item’s power will be is determined by the “best possible gear” that your character could equip at that moment. The entire account is taken into account. In other words, if you are currently playing as a Hunter, then the entire inventory of that character (what they are wearing and what they are not) is considered, the vault is taken into account, and even the items on other characters are considered. If your Warlock, for example, has a powerful weapon, this will be taken into account when your Hunter receives loot drops.
If you now create a second Hunter, will they directly receive the best possible gear as loot that the top-equipped Hunter receives? Here, the answer is: No. The system recognizes level restrictions and excludes everything that has too high a level for the character.
When determining item power, it is also considered that one can only equip one exotic weapon and one exotic armor piece at a time.
By the way: One thing is not taken into account: The contents of the engrams that you already have in your inventory. These have no influence on the reward calculation.
This calculation of item power is not only applied to engrams but also to other rewards, such as Crucible end-of-match rewards or strike rewards.
You can see before decrypting in your inventory at what power level the engram dropped. Here at 210. That is the minimum power that comes from the engram. The actual power that was determined can therefore also be higher than displayed.
Interesting: Destiny 2: When does the raid start, when do the Trials start? – All dates!
