Destiny: The Pre-order Gjallarhorn… it doesn’t fit me

Destiny warms up the Gjallarhorn as a pre-order argument. Our author Schuhmann has a problem with that.

The Gjallarhorn was the most important and powerful weapon in the first year of Destiny. Now they are giving it as an incentive for pre-orders of Rise of Iron as a Year 3 weapon in a new, black version as an added bonus and making a big fuss about it. None of this sits well with me. It seems shabby to me, as if Bungie is capitalizing on something that does not belong to them but to the players, the community. They are selling a piece of tradition.

The Gjallarhorn – a wonderful mistake

The Gjallarhorn was a wonderful mistake. Because it was so powerful that it disrupted the game mechanics. If enough Gjallarhorns were available, one did not have to care about what one was actually fighting; it could simply be pulverized in record time.

The most beautiful and fitting nickname given to the rocket launcher was “The golden crowbar.” It was not a picklock with which one dealt with a lock that still required some craftsmanship; it was the crowbar – brutal, violent, but you could get anywhere with it.

Under boss guides for “Prison of Elders” we read back then: “The guide is: Titan sets up a bubble, everyone in, Gjallarhorn, heavy ammo synths, Gjallarhorn. Done. This is the guide for every boss in Destiny.”

Random groups sometimes only took you if you had the Gjallarhorn. And since it was not possible to truly farm it intentionally, it was also a gamble: Either you had it or you didn’t. A cult developed around the weapon: Were there secret tricks to get it? Maybe a prayer circle just before Xur would finally make him sell it? Were you just cursed? Would Bungie nerf it?

When Xur actually sold it at the end of Year 1, it was a festive day.

Year 1 was the year of the Gjallarhorn in Destiny.

In Year 2, the Gjallarhorn was officially buried

In Year 2, Bungie made it clear that the time of the Gjallarhorn was over. Such a powerful weapon should no longer exist.

If the answer to every question was always “Gjallarhorn,” then that was a design flaw, it was recognized. Therefore, the Gjallarhorn did not get a Year 2 version, and back then it was said: If it comes back, it will be weaker. No more overpowered weapons. Take the right tool for each task, do not rely on a crowbar.

Now Bungie wants to sell the new expansion and seems to have forgotten all this. They bask in old glory and say: Here is the Gjallarhorn. Oh, do you remember! Man, those were the days! Here you have it back. Pre-order the game!

I find it transparent and it leaves a rancid aftertaste. On the one hand, because one knows the “effect” of the weapon, one knows the players, one knows that they long for such a “simple” solution. That they want a weapon that makes them something special, the “key to paradise.” This is calculating.

And one also kind of sells one’s own history with the pre-order action, similar to how soccer clubs sell their stadium names to sponsors. Or when WWE brings back a 50-year-old Undertaker, who can barely walk, for the nth time to sell more tickets.

Yes, that’s how you make money. It works. Of course, it works… But must it be earned that way? Do you really need it?

Admittedly, it will not be bad what Bungie ultimately does. Even non-pre-orderers will be able to get the Gjallarhorn. Through a quest, they will be able to piece it together themselves.

But overall, in my eyes, this is an unsympathetic, uncool action from Bungie that will ultimately end in disappointment. Because the Gjallarhorn, as it once was, cannot and will not be brought back by Bungie. By doing so, they would only shoot themselves in the foot and trivialize bosses completely, just as it was in Year 1 of Destiny.

The Gjallarhorn is important, beautiful, and dead. It belongs to the past of Destiny and should remain there. With its imitation now selling a few more units… that just doesn’t need to happen.