Bungie, you're supposed to be better than this. :(

Some Destiny 2 microtransaction loot gives you a gameplay advantage

Thanks to Destiny 2's regional midnight console launch, and the fact that servers are now live and can thus be used by anyone with an early physical copy, dozens of streams are already broadcasting gameplay. Watching one, we spotted that the microstransactions store is selling items that directly affect gameplay.

Destiny streamer KingGothalion was inspecting the possible contents of Bright Engrams, which can be purchased for Silver, Destiny's real-money currency, at microtransactions store Eververse.

The possible contents of Bright Engrams include the following:

Ability cooldown armour mods: "Chance to contain an armour mod that decreases the cooldown of one Arc, Solar, or Void subclass ability." Can affect Super, grenade, or melee abilities.
Character stats armour mods: "Chance to contain an armour mod that slightly enhances a character stat." Can affect resilience (increases shield HP), mobility (increases movement speed), or recovery (shields regenerate faster).
Weapon stats armour mods: "Chance to contain an armour mod that slightly enhances the weapon stats of an equipped Primary, Energy, or Power weapon." Can affect handling (equip speed), stability (recoil strength), and reload speed (obvious).
Elemental weapon mods: "Chance to contain a weapon mod that changes the element of an Energy or Power weapon."

Well, I guess now we know why ability cooldowns were so long in the Beta.

Yeah, not only was it addressed by Bungie, but you're essentially complaining that armor comes with the new equivalent of Int./Dis./Str. and perks. You're quoting a PC gaming website, so they obviously don't know how this loot works (or the fact that the mod will not level your armor if/when it drops from the engram). And I'm not sure what "advantages" folks have with swapping out elemental slots. It's not like every enemy in a mission has the same shield.

And before anyone says "But you can earn them by grinding", I know. I can read.

Destiny 1 had the same thing, and somehow the people who spent more money weren't suddenly at the lighthouse every weekend. Huh, fancy that.

Make sure you buy your season passes, folks. /s

Sure did, and now you've guaranteed that I'll buy a stack of Silver in your honor, so thanks for that, man. I wouldn't have bothered otherwise. ;)

Where engrams had int/dis/str stats? This feels like an attempt at a scoop that failed.

Also, see Korny ^

Dumbest story of the week award goes to PCGamesN, I guess. This is almost identical to how it worked in Destiny 1. Like it or hate it, right or wrong, there's no story here, just par for the course.

Make sure you buy your season passes, folks. /s

I did! Dropped my $100 on the digital deluxe edition with season pass yesterday so I could get it preloaded and ready to go.

Assuming these perks are common on readily obtainable gear, I have no issues with it.

Obviously if they made equivalent armor unnecessarily difficult to obtain outside of these engrams, I'll change my mind. But the game hasn't been out long enough for me to know either way.

Is this with the day one patch? If so, then that means(?) Bungie is really toying with the "Play-to-Win" line, be it on purpose or not. Really pushing it. Yet, it feels to me like there may be something we are missing from the equation here. For now through it appears to be to be a; "Click here to get RNG some things early using real money (or in-game currency)".

Meh. A fair number of us are hours in before launch. Best wait and poke it ourselves before making a call.

Has Cody canceled his preorder yet? :P

Edit: Re-reading the article, I noted that I missed something. You can only buy from Eververse once you are Level 20.

It's important to point out that, after you reach level 20, Bright Engrams will drop whenever you gain a new experience level (like Motes of Light did in the original game), meaning that you can earn an unlimited number during the course of normal gameplay. The gear that uses these weapon and armour mods can't be equipped before level 20, either, so there's no reason to spend money on Bright Engrams until then.

So still gray, but a lighter shade.

- No text -

ignoring the microtransaction part, they've taken some armor perks out of the armor themselves and made them an extra add on. so now you can take a good armor roll and add a perk to it that is useful to you. in D1 you might use an armor piece b/c it was the highest light, but it had arc cooldown, instead of void or whatever.

If leveling up goes by as quickly as it did in D1, people will be swimming in these engrams anyways. Selling them is just something to take money from impatient people.