Although Destiny 2 will be preserving many of the features that fans have come to love from the first game, there are still many mainstays of the series that are not confirmed for the sequel. The Cryptarch, for example, is a character that most assume will be in Destiny 2, but new evidence suggests he may not make the jump.

While speaking to Bungie PC lead David Shaw and senior software engineer Thomas Gawrys, PC gamer made an offhand comment about the Cryptarch. But rather than brush it off or answer the question, the two Destiny 2 devs said they are not sure if the character is even in the game.

The Cryptarch will feel familiar. That’s what you’re telling me. 

David Shaw: If there were a Cryptarch. I don’t know that there is.

For those that might not be familiar, the Cryptarch is the Destiny vendor responsible for turning engrams into gear. Early on he was a source of endless frustration, and even became a Cryptarch meme, but eventually the character became a working cog in the Destiny machine, even if decrypting engrams gets a bit tedious.

Since in Destiny 2 players are able to travel between destinations without loading, there were some questions about whether the Cryptarch would even be necessary. If Bungie wants players to focus on their journey, stopping at the Cryptarch may take them out of the experience. Bungie even sowed the seeds of that by adding the ability to instantly decrypt low tier engrams into materials.

The question now is whether or not the Cryptarch will be necessary for Destiny 2. If the character survives Ghaul’s attack on The Tower, he will surely be around the Farm social space but whether or not players will need to visit him is unclear. We’re sure that players would prefer to simply decrypt engrams right from their inventory, but there is something about visiting the Cryptarch and watching the RNG at work that can be satisfying. Who can forget the first time they got an exotic from a legendary engram?

Considering Bungie loves to keep things mysterious with Destiny it’s unlikely the devs will confirm whether the Cryptarch returns or not in the sequel. Chances are we might see him in a trailer, but there’s no guarantee his role will be the same. To be honest, for as much as the Cryptarch is an essential piece of the Destiny experience, it would be nice to streamline things by letting players decrypt engrams at will.

Destiny 2 releases September 6, 2017 for PS4 and Xbox One, and October 24th for PC.

Source: PC Gamer