You may have seen a lot of videos and Reddit posts making the rounds about Destiny 2: Beyond Light‘s upcoming content vaulting. Depending on who you talk to, it’s either guaranteeing a new chapter for Destiny 2, or it’s the biggest slap in the face from Bungie.
But what exactly is happening? What is Content Vaulting and how is it affecting the game overall? Well, the truth of the matter is, it’s going to change Destiny 2 pretty drastically. Buckle up, we’re gonna be here for a minute.
Vaulting in a Nutshell
We did briefly go over what Content Vaulting was, at least the barebones version of it, back when Beyond Light was initially announced. Effectively, it works like this: Certain locations are going to go away starting in November when Beyond Light releases. Of the current locations, four will be getting put into the Content Vault.
These four planets are Titan, Io, Mercury and Mars. Part of the reason that these four locations are leaving is due to the ongoing narrative of the Pyramid Ships and the destruction they will cause. Another reason for it is that Bungie is struggling to maintain the game’s massive scale. Saying how it’s becoming far too much of a struggle for their team to stay on top of technical issues while constantly doubling the size of the game.
However, where Content Vaulting comes into play for the benefit of both parties, is how Bungie can seamlessly bring the content back. Whenever the story or an expansion calls for Io, or Nessus, Bungie can just pull it from the vault and temporarily bring it back to players.
Everything Old, is New Again
Speaking of bringing things back for story structure and consistency; Bungie is also using the Content Vault to bring back older locations/loot from D1. Starting in Beyond Light, they’re bringing back the Cosmodrome from D1. Now, we’re not sure if that also means the Plaguelands will be coming back, but it’d be real cool if it did. Also a potential that Venus will come back, as The Vault of Glass will be coming to D2 with Beyond Light as well.
Obviously it won’t just be a return to D1’s Cosmodrome with nothing new added. We can expect new Lost Sectors, new loot, updated graphics, updated enemies, new multiplayer maps and much more. And if Bungie does include the rest of Earth/Venus we could also get a few other notable things: Archon’s Forge, Wrath of the Machine Raid, Prison of Elders, Revamped classic Strikes and updated/returning loot.
A Chance to Revisit and Experience
Hopefully it goes without saying that this is a slightly double edged sword. Personally, we love the fact that we’re getting both a brand new destination in the form of Europa, and the return of Cosmodrome for that nostalgia. And we do believe that Bungie will be able to balance old/new to give us lots of new stuff to chase after.
While we don’t know for sure on the status of Plaguelands and Wrath of the Machine, the promise of going back to the VoG has us giddy with excitement. It’s an opportunity not just for veteran players to go back and experience it all over again and get new stuff, but a chance for new players to try it for the first time. Bringing friends through VoG or just seeing all the fresh excitement for players that never got to experience the Cosmodrome.
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Fresh eyes and fresh voices will breathe new life into the D1 content making a return.
Loot is also where things are getting more than a little tricky with people when it comes to Content Vaulting. We’ve sung the praises for long enough I think, we need to discuss what this could mean for the rest of the game, and how it could really hurt.
Say Goodbye to Your Pursuits
You might have already guessed what one of the biggest issues is with Content Vaulting; Exotic and planetary specific Quests. See, in Destiny 2, you can pick up these ultra rare, long and grinding quests to earn an Exotic weapon. Some of them aren’t too bad, like earning MiDa Multi Tool, but some of them like Lumina can take literal weeks to earn. Problem is, to earn these, you need to have specific planets.
Starting the quest for The Last Word, Outbreak Perfected or a host of other weapons requires that you go to Titan, Io, Nessus or Mars. Granted, Nessus will still be available for the foreseeable future, but you get the point that I’m trying to make.
These are some of the absolute best weapons in the entire game. Weapons like Outbreak require you to go to several different planets, and Titan is where you pick it up to begin with. Izanagi’s Burden, the RNG quest itself, is still one of the most sought after weapons inside of Destiny 2. Capable of absolutely insane amounts of damage against bosses, and highly sought after by just about everybody. Sadly, one of the steps requires that we go to Io a few times. Meaning that we can’t even get that much done. Several Exotics are going to be left by the wayside, at least in a small way. Bungie’s solution is twofold: You can buy it from the revolving inventory of Xur or the Cryptarch.
So there is at least some way to eventually get them, but if you think that Bungie is going to just give people Izanagi’s eehhh we’re not so sure about that.
Tip of the Iceberg
Might have already figured out, that also means that we’re losing an absolute ton of legendary and planetary specific loot. Some of it is going into the loot tables from engrams and rewards packages, but not all of it. And even some of it that is, is getting Sunset starting in Beyond Light.
Sunsetting is where players are starting to feel a little more betrayed by Bungie’s decision making. Basically, Sunsetting is the permanent leaving behind certain weapons so that Bungie can start introducing older builds or bring brand new ones. Without the added difficulty of reworking existing weapons over and over again.
Unfortunately, it also means that these weapons are going to be completely obsolete moving forward, unless Bungie brings them back. Which they could very well do in future expansions of hotfixes, but most likely not. These aren’t just small weapons either, we’re talking things like Recluse and Mountaintop, meta weapons that have been staples for years.
Oh and you’ll have to re-earn every single god roll legendary weapon that is getting sunset. Love that new Gnawing Hunger that you grinded out? Ha, too bad, time to go back to the Reckoning or try to luck yourself into one from an Umbral drop.
People Aren’t Happy
Now, it should go without saying, but there are still two schools of thought on Sunsetting and Content Vaulting overall. Judging from Reddit and Content Creators, the general view on it is pretty negative.
Most players really don’t want to have half of their vault reset and taken away for them to have to go re-grind. Or even worse, to not even have the option to really use them anymore due to viability issues.
Second point of view on this, is that Bungie and Destiny 2 desperately needed a shift and a large scale revision to the loot pools. We were getting tired of hunting the same things, hoping that the next Meta would look favorably on it. Then when it didn’t, we’d have to dismantle all that hard work and grind out some other old weapon again.
Truth be told, we were getting really freaking bored with the same old, same old from the core Destiny 2 experience. While we loved the Forges, the Raids, Competitive Crucible and events, it was always the same loot. Forges never got an updated pool, planets always stayed the same, Vanguard weapons have just been in a whirlpool since Year 1. So tiresome and so boring.
Destiny 2 can finally feel fresh for the first time since Forsaken
At the very least, with Sunsetting and Content Vaulting, we’re being given the chance to hunt down and discover new stuff. Which has always been the core experience from Destiny since the first year of D1. Don’t forget, sunsetting happened in D1 when Taken King and Rise of Iron came out. Nobody complained about it because we ended up getting the reveal for Destiny 2 at the time, so there was something new to look forward to.
Gotta ask then, what exactly is the difference here? From where we’re sitting, the only difference is that we’re still calling it Destiny 2. Beyond Light is bringing a ton of changes and some of those changes you may not like. Harsh reality of Destiny 2 is that it was getting increasingly stale from a narrative, loot and incentive perspective.
With the Content Vault and Sunsetting, Destiny 2 can finally feel fresh for the first time since Forsaken. Now, to you that may sound incongruous or annoying, to us that sounds like Destiny 2 is on the right track.
For more news and updates on Destiny 2, stay tuned here at Scoophash!
