In the MMO shooter Destiny there are only 9 instead of 18 exotic armor pieces in the game. This explains many phenomena of the first weeks.
In the database of Destiny, there are already 18 exotic armor pieces, but only 9 are in the game. The armor pieces that are more geared towards PvP are still missing. Also, not all year-1 armor pieces with year-2 versions are in the game yet.
This could explain some strange occurrences regarding exotic engrams.
That’s why Bungie took the “Three of Coins” so lightly
Now that we know this, it also becomes clear why Bungie reacted so extremely casually to the issue of the “Three of Coins”. Because what seemed like: “Oh God, the Guardians are already acquiring all the exotic armor pieces in the first week”; was taken in stride by Bungie. As Game Director of “The Taken King” Luke Smith said in a podcast interview with Planet Destiny, he knew exactly what would come out of those exotic engrams and especially what would not.
To him, it was rather funny that players were calling it an exploit.
After all, there are only relatively few of the “really new” year-2 exotic weapons and armor obtainable through exotic engrams. Most weapons are tied to quests, while half of the armor is still under lock and key.
What the Three of Coins actually did, according to Smith, was to allow players to “save legendary marks”, so they could directly obtain year-2 versions of year-1 weapons without having to pull them from the weapon designs for expensive marks, Smith explains.
In the podcast, the humorous theory arose that Bungie had intentionally introduced “Draksis” and the “Three of Coins” to melt down the “Strange Coins” mountain, on which Guardians still sat at the beginning of Year 2.
This also explains the many duplicate items from engrams
However, this engram frenzy also caused many players to be disappointed with the results of the engrams: It always turned out the same. As Smith reveals, only one item could come out of chest engrams for Hunters and Titans each. Naturally, players ended up with duplicates.
It should have been made clearer beforehand that players should have sent the chest engrams to their own Warlock instead. There were three possibilities for what the chest engram could decode into.
Dawnbreaker Gauntlets and ATS/8 Tarantella likely only through a bug in the game
Smith’s statement is particularly interesting, as two armor pieces that were supposed to still be locked have been found on occasion.
These “uniques” or at least “rarities” are the Titan chest Dawnbreaker Gauntlets …
… and the Hunter chest armor ATS/8 Tarantella.
Apparently, there are no plans for players to receive the two armors yet. At least not through engrams. The isolated finds seem to be more of exceptions or bugs.
Interestingly: In the database, there are still third chest armors with year-2 values recorded for both Titans and Hunters. The year-2 versions of Healing Armor and the Lucky Raspberry. These two items are also likely in the official database, but not yet in the game.
Which 9 new year-2 armor pieces are still missing can be read in this article. It can probably be assumed that they will gradually find their way into the game.
