Destiny 2’s seventh major expansion, Lightfall, launched not too long ago, and as is almost traditional for new Destiny releases, it proved to be a divisive piece of content among the fanbase. The introduction of a new subclass with Strand, for instance, was received well by players, but other aspects of the experience, such as the new Guardians Rank and the issues that brought to progression for veteran players, were criticized.
In a recently published blog post, Bungie has, to its credit, held its hands up and acknowledged some of Lightfall’s biggest issues, and provided details on how it plans on addressing some of those issues.
“With a solid amount of data now under our belts, it’s clear we missed the mark on some of our goals and needed to make updates based on constructive feedback,” Bungie wrote. “While the first batch of Guardian Ranks has proven to be an invaluable guide for New Lights, we want to improve the system for all players.”
Bungie says that it will be looking to make Guardian Ranks useful on a larger scale rather than focusing on just a single season of content. Part of that will be “building in shortcuts to renew ranks you’ve previously achieved even faster”.
“Players should be able to represent their accomplishments across a whole season, and those who’ve previously completed a Guardian Rank should be able to renew that rank quickly in the next season. The social signal should also have meaning each season,” Bungie writes.
To that end, going forward, players displayed rank will reflect the rank they earned for the previous season of content, until such time they earn a new rank for the ongoing season that’s higher. Meanwhile, ranks will only be renewed by completing blue-tinted categories in the Guardian Rank progression, while other categories will not be reset.
Bungie adds: “Commendation counts will be reset each season to reflect your experience with the newest content. Your Commendation score and breakdown will be tracked each season, and you’ll only lose a percentage of your Commendation score each season, rather than having it reset.
As the year goes on, it’s important that we track your achievements throughout the seasons. In Season 21, we’re adding a new display to the Journey screen that will show your recent seasonal history. This will include Guardian Ranks, Commendation score, Commendation breakdown, Seasonal Challenges, and Seasonal Triumph score.”
Destiny 2: Lightfall is available on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One, and PC. Next up is Season of the Deep, which is expected to go live in May.