Destiny 2 players who were hoping not to farm for Pinnacles until next year may have to say goodbye to that idea. Bungie is raising the power bands once more in Episode: Revenant, giving players another 10 levels to grind through those drops, the studio said today.
According to today’s This Week in Destiny blog post, Bungie is reinstating the seasonal Pinnacle grind, which went away in Lightfall. In the old system, each season pushed the maximum potential level by 10, a rank only achieved by obtaining Pinnacle drops from limited sources. Lightfall made it so players only had to grind Power once a year, but the developer is backtracking.
The decision mentions The Final Shape’s changes to power scaling, including a feature that scales the fireteam’s level to five levels below the highest in the party. Since this particular addition went live in June, Bungie is turning back on this system.
“Before the Lightfall expansion, increasing Power caps by 10 each season provided new goals for end-game players to aspire to and added value to completing pinnacle activities such as Raids and Dungeons,” the blog post reads.
The change will raise the grind necessary to make the most out of seasons. Under the current system, players gain a season-long boost to levels called Artifact Bonus, which lets them increase their Power Level beyond the cap—and enough to take on certain activities and challenges.
The shift in Episode: Revenant will be even more dire. This bonus goes away every few months, requiring players to acquire it again once a new season or episode takes place. Now, players have 10 more levels to grind if they want to boost their Power far enough, in addition to the old artifact grind.
This is in line with the studio’s apparent directive to gravitate Destiny 2 toward more hardcore players, including the addition of Contest Mode to its next dungeon. This event usually happens with the release of raids, so players can participate in the Race to World’s First.
Contest mode locks the activity into a harder difficulty for the first 24 to 48 hours, and players can’t opt out of it. If anyone wants to try a raid on the first day or two, for instance, they must be prepared for a long activity with enemies far above their level.
The plan for Destiny 2’s future may just be to increase the grind, based on the direction from previous official communications. With the upcoming loot tier system, players may have to grind for different sub-rarities of the weapon or gear they want. Since this will potentially extend to armor, too, players who have been using the same pieces for years may have to farm new sets.
The power band increase in Revenant will be the easiest time fans have had to grind seasonal Pinnacles since all drops count for all three classes as of The Final Shape. Still, the Sisyphean grind for Pinnacle drops seems to have contributed to Destiny 2 burnout, and Bungie can’t afford to lose players. The studio is hardly in a favorable position: Destiny 2’s future looks dreary after a second brutal wave of layoffs at Bungie, a dwindling, agonizing player count, and the cancellation of some of its projects.
The Final Shape’s second episode, Revenant, kicks off on Oct. 8, with a contest-mode dungeon coming on Oct. 11.
