In Destiny 2, Tess Everis will soon have less to do. This is because the Eververse will be weakened in its dominance.
The Eververse is the cash shop of Destiny 2. It has caused trouble and harsh criticism in recent weeks and months, as it is too much in the spotlight during the endgame. Too many items are tied to the “loot boxes”, the Bright Engrams, especially events like “The Dawning” were primarily focused on microtransactions.
In a detailed blog post, game director Christopher Barrett presented a roadmap for 2018, dedicating a chapter solely to the Eververse. Recently, the community has been placated with cliches that Bungie is always listening. Not anymore – now they are taking action.
This is how the Eververse is changing
Barrett admits that currently the focus in Destiny 2 is too much on Tess Everis. The Eververse should never be a substitute for endgame content and endgame rewards, as critics have repeatedly accused Bungie.
Therefore, for the upcoming seasons, three changes to the Eververse will be made (specific dates are not mentioned):
- When new content comes to the game, rewards should increasingly be earnable through activities. The balance between activity rewards and Bright Engrams should clearly lean towards activity rewards. This includes ghost shells, sparrows, and ships that have only been available through Bright Engrams so far.
- There will be a direct “gameplay path” to Bright Engrams with their rewards – including event Engrams. If you want Bright Engrams, you can earn them specifically.
- In the Eververse, there will be new opportunities to directly purchase items. This eliminates randomness in purchases. Additionally, the Bright Engrams will be adjusted so that players receive the items they want more frequently.
By the way: Bright Engrams can contain mods. Since in February, mods will become significantly stronger and more important, Bungie is examining how this can be reconciled with the Bright Engram economy. Pay2Win should not be the outcome. Therefore, there might still be adjustments.
First Eververse changes in February
The first changes to the Eververse and the Bright Engrams will be implemented in February with the Crimson Week event. This starts on February 13.
- You can earn an exclusive weapon skin, an exotic sparrow, and a legendary emote by completing milestones, the Nightfall strike, and the raid during Crimson Week. These cosmetic items are thus tied to activities and not to the Eververse.
- Upon leveling up (by collecting XP), you will receive a Bright Engram and a Crimson Week Engram. During the Dawning event, there were only Bright Engrams when leveling up – this was heavily criticized.
- You earn Crimson Week Engrams in various ways, for example by completing “Crimson Week matches”. You can therefore earn them specifically. Additionally, these Engrams primarily contain only the new Crimson Week rewards until you possess all event rewards.
Earn Bright Engrams with XP – XP gains are being revised
Bungie is still looking for ways to revise XP gains after the XP disaster. They want to present experience points more transparently. Currently, the gains are too low, promoting a boring grind of certain activities. They want to fix this without diluting the activities too much.
More info from the blog post: At present, many rewards introduced with Season 2 are only accessible to guardians who own “Curse of Osiris”. In the future, all new seasonal rewards like those from the Crucible, from strikes, and from the Trials of the Nine will be available to all guardians.
All further information from the blog post can be found here in the overview: The future of Destiny 2 – These endgame innovations are coming in 2018
