With Season 6, the maximum Power Level of Guardians in Destiny 2 will be raised by another 50 levels to 700. Numerous players will try to reach the new cap as quickly as possible. However, a popular leveling method will no longer be available: hoarding Bounties.
What happened? As the developers explained in the current “This Week at Bungie” blog, the studio will implement changes to the distribution of powerful rewards through Bounties from previous seasons at the start of the Season of the Vagabond.
All Bounties accepted in previous seasons will now have a Power Level cap for the resulting reward. This cap will be equal to the level cap that was active at the time of acceptance.
With this, Bungie aims to prevent so-called Bounty Hoarding and ensure equal conditions for everyone at the beginning of a new season.
What is Bounty Hoarding? It is a popular Power Level method with which many players try to reach the new maximum level as quickly as possible when the level cap increases.
To do this, Guardians hoard as many Bounties and Quests that grant powerful rewards as possible before an upcoming level increase. They complete these Bounties without redeeming them. Raid keys are also stocked for this purpose.
Once the new level cap goes live, they redeem all these Bounties. The corresponding rewards will then already exceed the old level cap. This allows for huge jumps toward the new maximum level right at the start of a new season.
Bounty Hoarding is practically like doing intensive homework before a new season. Bungie likely prefers that everyone relaxes and starts fresh with the new season without players feeling disadvantaged for not having intensively prepared for the new DLC.
For example, with this method, a Guardian managed to reach the new max Power Level of 650 in just 2 days at the beginning of Season 5.
Therefore, you should turn in your Bounties at the end of a season: As part of this change, Bungie explicitly advises Guardians to turn in Bounties even before the end of a season.
If you do not do this, not only will there be no reward beyond the old level cap, but you might also miss the chance for a powerful reward with the new Power Level.
Bungie gives a specific example from practice:
- For example, one accepts a large weekly Wanted Bounty from Spider during the current season of the Forge, completes it, and then turns it in
- If you redeem the reward after the start of the upcoming Season of the Vagabond, the resulting loot will be at 650
- However, if you had turned in the Bounty before the end of Season 5, you could potentially accept it again at the beginning of Season 6, but you would receive a reward that is already above 650
- If you turn in the last season’s Bounty at the beginning of the new season, where it may also still be active, you will initially not be able to accept it again. You will have to wait until the respective Bounty comes back around
