In Destiny 2, the community has finally won the Christmas event after a long wait. However, the reward has frustrated many. Others celebrate their gift for doing nothing. MeinMMO tells you what’s inside the packages.
About this gift: The winter Dawning Event 2020 is taking place in Destiny 2 until January 5th. As is known, the world is decorated for Christmas, there’s snow, and there are event-specific items to earn and in the cash shop.
The Guardians also had the task as a community to create a good “Dawning spirit.” As a reward for completing the 10-step challenge, there was supposed to be an “exotic gift.”
In the afternoon of January 1st, the community reached the common goal. As a reward, all Guardians may now unpack their “Dawning gifts in abundance” at Eva Levante in the Tower.
This is what you will get:
- Random Exotic (usually an armor piece with 60+ stat values)
- Legendary event weapon (Glacioclasm, Cold Front, or Avalanche)
- Ascendant Shard (the rarest upgrade material)
- 2-3 exotic and legendary event cosmetics (anything from Ghost shells, Sparrows, or projections from previous years can be included)
- “Useless” item (these items have no use in the game itself, they are fun references – like Cayde’s Noodle Coupon)
- Event Shader (Eventide Celebrations) – You receive this when you redeem the triumph for “Dawning gifts in abundance”
Keep in mind: While all Guardians can unpack the gifts, including Free2Play players, you must first bake some cookies and deliver them to the right person. You can find more about baking, the ingredients, and recipes here on MeinMMO:
Frustration when unpacking gifts
This was the backstory: Community events where all players work together towards a goal are nothing new for Destiny players. At more or less regular intervals, there is such a task to tackle together. However, during the Dawning event, it quickly became clear that the players would never mathematically reach the 1 billion Dawning spirit before the event ended.
For a brief moment, there was speculation about whether Bungie would let the community fail. Then the Destiny developer stepped in and tripled the spirit increase overnight. This did not immediately solve the spirit problems, but before the end of the event, the task could be completed.
This is why players are upset: The farming of the required spirit did not sit well with most players. Critics complain about the tedious task and the lack of new content in the Dawning event.
The final gift was for many the last straw:
- Guardians are frustrated that the gift contains nothing really new. An old exotic, a weapon that was farmed in the event anyway, and some cosmetics.
- The frustration largely stems from the fact that people had too high expectations. Paul Tassi writes critically on Forbes: “There were people like me who hyped this event more than Bungie themselves, but I was just hoping for something that would really bring the community together and excite them. That hasn’t happened, as they say.”
- A problem is now also seen in that future community events will follow the same pattern. Regardless of whether they win or not, Bungie steps in, adjusts the numbers until the event is completed, and the reward is something already known.
Among the last posts from Bungie on Twitter, there are many negative comments. However, for those who really expected Gjallarhorn, it seems they had perhaps too high of expectations…
Other Guardians are happy about their exotics for doing nothing
Even though many players are frustrated right now, not all Guardians see it so bleakly. In the Destiny subreddit, some players find the gift quite successful:
- They claim that they didn’t lift a finger in the event, and now they are happily enjoying the gifts.
- The guaranteed Ascendant Shard is particularly well received. It is needed for max upgrading exotic armors and can otherwise only reliably be found through endgame activities like the Trials or can be exchanged for exorbitant prices.
- The event weapons are strong, you do not say no to a gifted exotic, and everyone can use Ascendant Shards – some players just shake their heads in disbelief over why others had even higher expectations.
- Popular YouTuber Rick Kackis titles his video “Destiny 2 players are ANGRY about the final Dawning gift” (via YouTube), but he notes that the gift is perfectly reasonable without the (self) generated hype.
What do you think? Were you hoping for a new exotic or a fresh masterwork catalyst that gives an old exotic new powers? Can you understand the anger about the event and the rewards, or are you happy with the gifts? Let us know your opinion in the comments.
Another reason for a lot of frustration in Destiny 2 is the loot poverty caused by weapon sunset. But Bungie promises improvement: Destiny 2 promises you more loot – These weapons are on the way
