In Destiny 2, it will be easier to obtain powerful loot in the Iron Banner. Additionally, Bungie explains the power level advantages. This is how much your level affects this PvP event.
Issues with the Iron Banner: On September 18th, the first Iron Banner in Destiny 2: Forsaken started. This brought some new features, such as the activation of the power level advantages and a new rewards system. However, guardians quickly encountered two annoyances:
- It was unclear how the power level advantages specifically impacted gameplay. Many guardians reported that they were completely outmatched in the Iron Banner with low levels.
- It took a lot of time to master the bounties with Lord Saladin. The requirements were too high for many, resulting in numerous guardians missing out on the powerful gear as a reward.
Bungie is now responding to these criticisms, lowering the bounty requirements and clearly outlining the power level advantages.
Iron Banner bounties will be easier and more rewarding
Goal missed: Bungie’s senior designer Jeremiah Pieschl explains that one of the goals with the Iron Banner was to give low power level players more chances to earn powerful gear and to level up. Based on community feedback, they did not achieve this goal.
This is how the Iron Banner is changing:
- In the future, all Iron Banner bounties will yield powerful gear (previously only 2 did). This is the loot that will help you progress beyond power level 500.
- The bounty requirements will be reduced. Due to gameplay disadvantages, it is otherwise too difficult for guardians with low power levels to complete them.
This is how the bounties are changing:
- Lightbearer: The required number of super kills has been reduced from 25 to 20.
- Blood of Iron: The required number of match completions has been reduced from 30 to 15.
- Shine On: The required number of created orbs has been reduced from 100 to 50.
- Iron Victory: The required number of match wins has been reduced from 10 to 7.
- To be precise: The required number of precision kills has been reduced from 100 to 50.
- A Week’s Work: The required number of kills has been reduced from 250 to 150.
This is how significant the power level advantages are in the Iron Banner
Power level advantages mean in brief: Guardians with a higher power level have an advantage over players with a lower power level. They can deal more damage and take less damage themselves.
PvP lead Derek Carroll illustrates in this graphic how this specifically works in Forsaken:
Explanations and examples:
- The thick, purple line represents the current trend of the damage multiplier depending on the power differences in Forsaken.
- When you read the graphic from left to right, you can see the effect that occurs when your power is far below that of an opposing player.
- If you have the same power level as the opposing guardian, the power difference is 0 (left in the graphic). The damage multiplier is therefore 1.0 – meaning, there is no difference from the normal crucible.
- If you are 100 power levels below that of the opposing guardian, your damage is multiplied by 0.80. In other words, you deal 20% less damage against that guardian.
- If you are a full 200 power levels below that of the opposing guardian, your damage is multiplied by 0.50. You deal only half the damage. And you are pretty much outmatched.
- The curve also works the other way around: If you are 20 power levels above that of the opposing guardian, you deal 10% more damage to them.
These power level advantages will also be active in the next Iron Banner. However, they will continue to monitor player feedback.
Short history of power level advantages
Via Twitter, Carroll introduced past power level advantages from Destiny 1 that we don’t want to withhold from you.
At the launch of Destiny in 2014, a 20% damage reduction was the maximum reached at a light level difference of 100:
In autumn 2014, they reacted to the feedback from the first Iron Banner and greatly increased the effect of light level:
In 2015, with House of Wolves, the curve was flattened up to a power difference of 40:In autumn 2015, with The Taken King, the curve was flattened up to a power difference of 150 in order to reduce the gap between new players and endgame players:
And you can see what the current curve looks like in Forsaken in the top graphic.
What do you think about this information?
