As promised, developer Bungie addressed concerns about Destiny 2’s Trials of Osiris mode in its weekly blog post. The studio discussed plans to improve rewards, incentivize players to reach for Flawless tickets and the Lighthouse, and even offer a path for less skilled players to earn some Trials of Osiris gear. But any discussion about Trials of Osiris also has to include talk about cheating, and Bungie had a lot to say about the topic this week.
Perhaps the most surprising revelation in Bungie’s blog post is that it now bans about 2,133 players each week. Prior to the launch of Destiny 2’s Season of the Worthy content, the studio was averaging about 656 bans. And overall, the game has seen a 50% rise in cheating since January, but Bungie says that is largely relegated to the “highest skill echelons.”
According to the Engineering Director David Aldridge, Bungie has plans to combat every cheating or hacking related issue in Destiny 2. From wall hacks to aimbots to infinite revives, there is a plan in the works to help mitigate these issues.
Unfortunately, a lot of the behind-the-scenes workings are being kept redacted so as to not clue cheaters in. But Bungie did want to put to rest any claims that Destiny 2 does not have an anti-cheat system, though. Rather it’s the nature of the game and its P2P (peer to peer) hosting that makes it more difficult to highlight cheaters.
The good news is that Bungie plans to shift more development resources towards eliminating cheats in Destiny 2 and the studio will continue to hone its ability to detect hacks. The devs also say that fireteam members (not matchmade teammates) will no longer be free from punishment if caught with a cheater. Plenty of services offer either carries (playing with someone) or recoveries (accessing an account for the player) with guaranteed Flawless rewards, and sometimes, these services include cheating. Now, players need to be warier of aligning with these types of people.
Bungie is even considering raising the requirement for accessing Trials of Osiris, so players can’t simply jump into the mode with a relatively new account. The number tossed out was about 100 hours of Destiny 2 playtime, which could curb cheating a considerable amount. Very few cheaters would want to invest 100 hours into an account knowing that it could lose access.
Transparency has always been one of the beneficial elements of Bungie splitting from Activision, even if posts like this only arrive when the community is frustrated. It may not be the lowest point, but there is little doubt that Destiny 2 is not in a great place and needs improvement. Bungie says this is just a start, though, and there will be more topics to discuss in the coming weeks.
Destiny 2 is available now for PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One.