The third forge in Destiny 2 is now live. However, the quest to ignite the Izanami forge has been criticized by many players. What is going on?
What happened? With the weekly reset on December 18, the third of a total of four forges from the Black Armory was added to the game.
As with the two predecessors Völundr and Gofannon, igniting the Izanami forge is tied to a quest. However, many fans believe Bungie has overdone it with the tasks for the new forge. Some players truly have to push themselves to complete the quest or simply skip it altogether. But why?
Here’s how igniting the new forge works: The quest consists of multiple steps and several visits to Ada-1, the merchant of the Black Armory, in the Tower. In short: You find the forge, realize it is broken, and spend most of your time repairing the igniter.
During this, you need to kill 100 Vex here, take down 20 Minotaurs there, farm a ton of materials, play missions, and visit Ada-1 from time to time. At the end, there’s an even tougher version of the “Terminus of Insight” strike – with a recommended power level of 640, no matchmaking, and guaranteed to kick you to orbit if the entire team wipes.
You can find a guide for the Izanami forge here: Unlocking the Izanami Forge – Here’s how
What’s the problem with the new forge? The quest to unlock the Izanami forge is the most extensive of all forge quests so far.
However, as soon as you tackle the task, you quickly realize: The quest progression is not really creative. This task offers little new content.
Instead, Guardians spend between three and five hours grinding through tedious and monotonous farm tasks, which feel strongly like filler and content stretching. All of this takes place in already known locations with familiar enemies.
Particularly, the strike poses challenges for solo players, as the level requirement is high, there is no matchmaking, and you have to start over if the entire fireteam or you alone dies there.
In numerous Reddit posts, fans are expressing their frustration and disappointment. Many state that they really have to push themselves to even complete this boring and artificially stretched quest line. They certainly won’t put themselves through this on a second or third character. After all, the forge is unlocked individually for each Guardian when ignited.
Many players give up midway through the quest or completely refrain from unlocking the third forge. This type of content provides no motivation to even take on this task. After the two predecessors and with these new steps, the enthusiasm has waned for quite a few players.
Fans are currently discussing: A discussion has arisen in the community about whether the forge quest is really the kind of content players want. On one side are fans saying “You wanted more grind, and here you have it”. On the other side is the majority of players who retort, “Yes, but not like this”.
Playing all three characters, this one unlock quest for a single forge takes between 10 and 15 hours of gameplay. Most of that is monotonous and, above all, essentially pointless grind, which brings little to the player besides unlocking the forge.
No one is forced to play all this content in one go and to unlock the forge immediately. However, when players are told a new forge is live, it can be assumed that many Guardians will want to unlock it right away and start crafting new weapons there.
However, whether such quest design will succeed in exciting the Guardians for this remains questionable for many players. A large portion of players apparently will not put themselves through this on more than one character. And some may not do so at all.
What do you think? Did Bungie overreach with the new forge? Do you have any ideas on how to better design such quests?
