Destiny 2 puts a lot of emphasis on the experience of farming for loot and powerful items, which makes sense in terms of gameplay and from a design perspective. Bungie's space magic looter-shooter is fast approaching its eighth anniversary, and while many things have changed over Destiny 2's lifespan, the fact that this game is meant to fulfill different power fantasies remains at its core. This is achieved by including randomly generated loot, and players can expect to get items with all sorts of perks or stat distributions while running most activities.
There are exceptions, in the sense that some activities or gimmicks allow players to farm specific items over others, or those items are more likely to drop with a given selection of traits and stats. A great example comes in the form of Exotic armor pieces, which normally have a completely casual stat distribution and only a handful of ways for players to get them more consistently, such as farming Master and Grandmaster Nightfalls or Lost Sectors. Lost Sectors are, in theory, the most prominent way of farming for Exotic armor in Destiny 2, but the final experience is mostly frustration and dissatisfaction, which is something that could be fixed in a few ways.
How Bungie Could Fix Stat Distribution on Exotics in Destiny 2
Destiny 2's Lost Sectors can be extremely unrewarding and rely too heavily on RNG when it comes to awarding players with an Exotic and stat distributions for said Exotic. Lost Sectors are supposed to be good ways of farming for specific Exotic armor pieces because they are on a daily rotation, meaning on any given day players can knowingly farm for a category of Exotic armor. This is a good approach in theory, but in practice it more often fails to deliver.
The random stat distribution on Exotics from Lost Sectors is currently mitigated with Ghost Shell mods that allow players to guarantee Exotics will have at least 10 points in a given stat that players have agency over. This helps, but it's not enough to make sure the Exotic obtained will be even remotely useful because there are six randomized stats. The randomness of this process is threefold, as Destiny 2 has to first generate a random Exotic, then generate its total attribute points, and finally assign them.
These mods could be improved to guarantee 20 points in a given stat and work similarly to armor stat-focusing with Umbral Engrams, which would make more sense now that Bungie wants players to have build-crafting options. Another option would be to provide players with two sets of Ghost mods for Exotics, with one providing a guaranteed roll of 20 or more in a given stat, and the other providing a guaranteed roll of 10 or more on two specific stats. This would help players have more options, and it would force the game to provide more consistent results that are in-line with players' expectations from farming Lost Sectors.
This is even more important than ever with the Void 3.0 update and the upcoming reworks of both Arc and Solar subclasses, because Void Fragments - unlike Stasis Fragments - tend to reduce a character's stats more than they enhance. If this becomes a trend for Arc and Solar 3.0, having the right amount of attribute points in build-defining stats will be crucial, which is why Bungie should improve this.
How Lost Sectors' Drop Rates of Exotics Should Improve
A big change has to be made to the whole experience of farming Lost Sectors, as it is possibly the worst grinding method in the game currently. Theoretically, players have a 25 percent chance to get an Exotic at the end of a Legend Lost Sector, which could lead to the belief that an Exotic item is guaranteed to drop in four runs. This is false, as the 25 percent for any Exotic item dropping from the boss chest at the end of a Lost Sector doesn't go up the more the activity is played, meaning there can be awful streaks of getting nothing for 10-to-20 runs.
Because there are already ways to increase rewards from playing the same activity repeatedly, namely streaks for playlist stuff, this same concept could be applied to Lost Sectors, gradually increasing the chance of dropping Exotics the more players run the activity. Destiny 2 implemented this same logic into Strikes, Gambit, and the Crucible, which means there is room to do something similar for Lost Sector runs as well. This could result in an increased chance of getting an Exotic the more Lost Sectors runs are completed, rewarding players for their dedication to getting streaks.
Another option would be to introduce new items that affect the drop chance of Exotic in Lost Sectors alone, such as a Xur weekly mission or tokens to purchase from other vendors. A great approach to this problem was introduced by Destiny 2's predecessor thanks to a Legendary consumable item called Three of Coins, which would increase the drop chance of Exotic items from all sources for four hours. This was later added to Destiny 2 as well, but it didn't last.
Destiny 2 doesn't have the same drought of Exotic drops that its predecessor suffered from, but because there are so many Exotics to get, having Three of Coins back and working only in Lost Sectors would not only be beneficial, but also make sense. For example, all three classes in Destiny 2 have eleven different Exotic arms that can possibly drop from Lost Sectors that are specific for that category, and the chance of getting an Exotic that players need is pretty slim. As such, boosting the drop rate of Exotic items in Lost Sectors, together with other tweaks, would finally make this a worthwhile activity to run.
Destiny 2 is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.