Bungie has removed a popular farming system from Destiny 2 and replaced it with a new system – and it’s not going down well.
What was the perfect farming system? With the 2024 released expansion “The Final Shape” (engl.: The Final Shape), Bungie introduced the so-called Pathfinder system in Destiny 2.
Pathfinder displayed game progress through a kind of node system in a visually identifiable grid of various activities, where each node housed a specific task or challenge.
Pathfinder was very popular among players as a farming method because it allowed for very easy and especially fast grinding and farming of loot and Glimmer. Moreover, with this system, it was possible to skip unpopular activities like PvP. There was no obligation.
New system replaces the iconic star map and Pathfinder
What has happened to Pathfinder now? Destiny 2 has removed the Pathfinder system, as it was before, with the release of the new expansion “On the Edge of Destiny” and instead introduced “The Portal.” You can now find Pathfinder in the Shattered Heart and only use it for its activities.
The Portal is a new activity hub through which players can start various game modes. Everything that players need to grind will be initiated through the Portal from now on. The reward system is based on daily and weekly challenges.
Within the Portal, the game modes are divided into categories so that Guardians can see whether something is suitable for solo players or specific fireteam sizes. However, the uniqueness of the system is the customizable difficulty and the ability to set various modifiers, allowing each player to tailor their gaming experience to their personal preferences.
The basic idea behind the Portal system is to give players more control over the potential rewards of the activity.
“You don’t know what matters to your players”
How is the change being received by players? Judging by the reactions on Reddit, the new Portal system is currently very unpopular. Long-time Destiny players miss the old star map, and some wish to have the Pathfinder system back.
- “I really dislike the Portal and can only pray that it is not a long-term solution. […] Everything that is not in the Portal is being deliberately made redundant. I really don’t like that.” – via Reddit
- “Replacing the grindable Pathfinder with this capped garbage painfully shows that you don’t know what matters to your players.” – via Reddit
- “Designing a system that players, myself included, eventually really liked and then completely removing it without discussion is crazy.” – via Reddit
- “It’s funny how they really pushed Pathfinder and eventually got it to a point where it was actually decent, only to flush it down the toilet just as people started liking it as a system.” – via Reddit
- “I hate how detached it [The Portal] is from everything else in the game. They really went for a gameplay loop of ‘select activity from a list, play activity, repeat’, didn’t they? The Portal should have just been a quick-start menu, not EVERYTHING we do in Destiny.” – via Reddit
Overall, “The Portal” is criticized for the type of grind associated with it, as the reward system through daily and weekly challenges is very limited, whereas Pathfinder could be reset repeatedly and continued to be grinded.
Overall, the new expansion has come under a lot of criticism. Besides the Portal system, aspects such as the new ability “Material Spark” and the design of the new planet Kepler are also criticized. However, one player proudly admits that they have fun with “On the Edge of Destiny”: Many players complain about the new expansion of Destiny 2, but one Guardian is still having fun and receiving a lot of support from the community
