Destiny 2‘s Into the Light weapons received praise upon their reveal and backlash the next day when Bungie announced they’d be time-gated. The solution might be the Attunement feature, which will give these weapons a generous drop rate boost, as confirmed by combat area design lead Chris Proctor.
Speaking to the Podcast vs. Enemies podcast, Proctor revealed the drop rate for Attuned weapons will be 50 percent for each drop. Destiny 2 players can attune to any unlocked weapons from the BRAVE Arsenal, which will make it easier to chase a god roll or a limited-time edition of those weapons with an extra ornament and double perks. These limited-time editions will be available until The Final Shape drops, though the regular guns will stick around after the expansion.
“It sort of ends up feeling a bit like the Nightfall rotation, except that players get to choose what weapons are going to drop,” Proctor said. Higher-difficulty Onslaught runs don’t directly affect the drop rate for the limited-time variants, he added, but they do give more chests and more opportunities to drop those weapons.
The BRAVE Arsenal has been the talk of the town for the Destiny 2 community since its official unveiling in a March 26 stream. The weapons were mostly well-received, even if the addition of Hung Jury prompted some complaints. In a blog post yesterday, however, Bungie announced six of these weapons will be time-gated—a fact that didn’t appear in the one-hour broadcast at all.
Though Attunement will drastically improve the chances of getting desired rolls, the feature is only available for weapons you have unlocked. This means players can only choose one of six weapons for the first week, while a new one enters the pool every week after that. This ends on May 21, when the final weapon will be unlocked—which is just two weeks before The Final Shape launches.
The hidden time gate sparked outrage in the Destiny 2 community, as to be expected. The BRAVE Arsenal is riddled with highly coveted weapons from several points in Destiny’s history, but players are unhappy that they may have to wait six weeks to start farming their favorite gun. The time gate also considerably shortens the availability window for the limited-edition variants, since the final weapon’s “Shiny” version will only be available for a couple of weeks.
Time gates have been present in Destiny 2 for years, but they don’t generally appear in such limited-time windows. They’re commonly done with seasonal content and loot lockouts, though usually on a much larger deadline. Both the silence on the time-gated weapons during the latest devstream and the short time window to obtain these weapons seem to be at the core of the community’s frustrations, though the Attunement system might soften the blow a bit with its generous drop rate.
Into the Light will be released on April 9, bringing the new Onslaught wave-based mode and the BRAVE Arsenal. The Recluse, Succession, Edge Transit, Elsie’s Rifle, Falling Guillotine, and Hung Jury will be available in the first week, and players will have to wait a bit for the rest.
