The endgame grind is easily the most prominent part of the Destiny 2 experience, with the quest for max level being the main focus for the months between seasonal updates. However, while this endgame loop has managed to work to a degree up until now, the endless grind for loot in Destiny 2 can drag thanks to the limits on the pinnacle engrams that give high-level rewards and ongoing issues with RNG.
It should be noted that many of these pinnacle engrams that are the center of the endgame grind are rewarded from playing some of the more interesting parts of Destiny 2, including the Strike Playlist, Seasonal Activities, and especially the Raids. The issue itself is less about whether the activities are enjoyable, but rather how rewarding some of the most difficult tasks in the game can be when it comes to helping level players up.
What are Pinnacle and Powerful Rewards
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To start looking at these rewards, it's best to first look at the differences between the many different drops that players can find throughout Destiny 2. These would namely be the powerful and pinnacle rewards that come from completing activities that are refreshed during Destiny 2's weekly reset. Both of these engram rewards have a chance to drop items that are stronger than the player's current highest possible level up to a certain cap for each.
For powerful engrams, these will reward players with increased levels from 1520 to 1570 for the current loot pool for Season of Plunder. Beyond these powerful engrams is the stretch through the final ten levels to 1580, which can only be rewarded through pinnacle engrams received for completing some of the toughest challenges in Destiny 2. It's the limitations of these pinnacle engrams specifically that developer Bungie should take another look at when updating the loot pool for the upcoming Lightfall expansion.
Weekly Limits on Pinnacle Rewards
The fact that rewards are limited to weekly activities is nothing new for longtime fans, as this has been the case for hunting down many of the most powerful items since the vanilla version of Destiny launched. So, it isn't the weekly rewards in general that is the problem, but the number of pinnacle engrams available within each week that makes the loot grind so much more tedious. There is also the factor of Destiny 2 Free-to-Play players versus those who continue to pay for expansions like the recent Witch Queen or upcoming Lightfall as they release.
In the case of the majority of players who have access to Witch Queen and other previous expansions, there are up to eighteen opportunities to pick up pinnacle gear in a single week. While that sounds impressive, it should be mentioned that three of these come from the Trials of Osiris PVP activity, and several of the PVE activities require a fireteam of three to six players. For solo players especially, a certain amount of these activities are simply unavailable without heading to the Companion App's fireteam finder, or paying money to the scummy "sherpa" services.
Then there is the current Free-to-Play version of Destiny 2 to consider, which only has seven chances per week to earn pinnacle rewards, half of which only give a single point increase on total level rather than two. Fortunately, the King's Fall raid in Destiny 2 is the most substantial source of pinnacle rewards during Season of Plunder, and is free for all players. The result is that while the grind can already require a lot of work, many players will need to wait several weeks before being given enough chances to gain rewards that will level them up. This only becomes more of a slog when considering the constant fight players are pitted against with random loot drops.
How RNG Can Completely Rob Destiny 2 of Rewarding Content
The effects of RNG on Destiny 2 is nothing new for players, as the random rolls of everything from exotic gear to the god rolls on raid weapons are a major part of the slot machine that is the loot drops in the series. While Destiny 2 has made strides to reduce the redundancy and annoyance of RNG by guaranteeing new items from Exotic Engrams or allowing players to focus Umbral Engrams, the randomness still persists. Where this becomes a problem with the loot grind is when players start getting duplicate rewards while completing high-level activities.
When talking about duplicates for pinnacle engrams, the problem isn't getting the same weapon or armor piece with a different or even the same roll necessarily. The problem comes from getting multiple drops of the same type in a row, meaning that one or more pinnacle rewards wind up giving the player nothing of value when it should be a guaranteed method of leveling up. For example, if the first encounter in Destiny 2's King's Fall raid drops a helmet at 1575, and then the second encounter also drops a helmet with the same power, that second reward might as well have not been anything.
These duplicates can completely pull the wind from the sails of players who just spent the better part of an hour on a difficult encounter hoping to be rewarded with a higher level as a result. This can especially be the case for completing Dungeons like Destiny 2's Shattered Throne or Pit of Heresy, which will only reward a single pinnacle engram when on the weekly rotation. The result of this duplicate drop problem can make some activities not worth risking for the possibility of not getting a real reward.
Solutions Destiny 2 Could Implement by Lightfall
With the two mane issues with pinnacle engrams coming in the form of the weekly limiter and the possibility of duplicates, there are a few ways that Bungie could solve the problem of the game not feeling rewarding. One is to implement some of the daily activities that had previously been in older versions of Destiny 2 and even the original title. Even something as simple as a daily story mission that could be challenged at legend or master level for one or more pinnacle rewards could help ease the falloff that comes at the end of each weekly reset. Considering the way legacy content has been returning to Destiny 2 like the Vault of Glass raid, now could be a perfect time to bring back some older features like daily rewards.
On the side of removing duplicate drops from the pool in order to keep all pinnacle activities rewarding, a possible solution could be to set these rewards to check for the highest level equipment and remove them from the possible pool. However, this would make farming for stat-focused loot and rolling for Destiny 2's best God Rolls very difficult. Instead, it could be better to drop pinnacle gear as a type of umbral engram, allowing players to focus for the equipment they need. This way, there can still be some element of randomness for a low price, or confirm the exact weapon or armor a player actually needs for the cost of more materials.
Destiny 2 is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.