In Destiny 2, Guardians receive almost only Tokens as loot. Bungie has now realized that Tokens alone are not fun.
In Destiny 2, the proud Guardians have become silly collectors of tokens, only daring to enter battles to receive a bag full of tokens as a reward. While once they returned home with a Gjallarhorn or a perfectly rolled Eyasluna as loot, proudly sharing the news with a broad smile on their faces, now they only grunt after a victorious battle: “Great, more tokens…”
Random drops have been minimized in Destiny 2. The excitement of finally getting the item they’ve long desired after the battle is gone. Instead, one already knows in advance: I fight here to get tokens.
But tokens are not sexy. Tokens are boring and provide no variety.
Therefore, Guardians have been complaining for weeks about this stark dominance of the token system. They refer to it derogatorily as “The Token King”.
Many players do find some advantages in tokens, but these should serve more as a supplement to random drops – not replace them entirely. After all, we Guardians are radiant heroes and fearless godslayers who should not settle for tokens but only for the best loot, with the most powerful weapons and armor, after a glorious battle!
Bungie has recognized this as well and is changing the Iron Banner
At TwitchCon, Bungie addressed these discussions about the token system – specifically regarding the Iron Banner. With the start of the Iron Banner, this discussion nearly boiled over, as the Iron Banner essentially represented a normal control playlist with different tokens as rewards.
Bungie now states that Guardians have collectively spent over 1500 years of playtime in the Iron Banner. Through this, they learned how Guardians engage with the loot system and concluded: The token system is not always the best system.
Guardians want a “more meaningful” reward system, Bungie admits. Community feedback has clearly shown this. Therefore, changes will be made to loot in the future.
With Season 2, there will already be a change in Iron Banner loot. Tokens will still be obtained – they will not be removed – but you can buy weapons directly from Lord Saladin for tokens and Legendary Shards. Until now, you could only redeem tokens with him for a random reward.
In Season 2, you can specifically farm tokens and Legendary Shards to get the Iron Banner weapon you want (that Lord Saladin has available). So far, Bungie has only spoken of purchasable weapons. Whether there will also be armor pieces for purchase remains to be seen in the future.
Season 2 does not yet have a concrete start date. An Iron Banner event will definitely take place in Season 1. This will still proceed with the existing reward system.
For detailed information about Seasons in Destiny 2, and how the Iron Banner will change, read here.
