addresses Bungie's recent adjustments in Destiny 2, focusing on player feedback regarding power progression, reward tiers, and upcoming changes in the Ash and Iron update. The host summarizes reverted nerfs, planned improvements to rewards, and ongoing concerns about gear systems and progression incentives.

Recent Bungie Communications & Update Changes

• Bungie reverted planned reductions to power earned from solo ops, maintaining current drop rates.

• Planned reductions of engrams in Encore, Starcrossed, and Whisper activities have also been reverted, keeping existing reward frequencies.

• The requirement to decrypt prime engrams at the tower has been rolled back, allowing on-the-fly decryption as before.

• Additional prime engram drop chances will be tied to the number of completion rewards in portal activities, potentially improving reward frequency.

Ongoing and Upcoming Changes for Power and Rewards

• Bungie acknowledged power progression is slower than intended and plans to increase progression speed, but detailed solutions are still pending.

• Raid adjustments: defeating all three bosses before the final boss in Ash and Iron grants an extra gear piece.

• Raid challenges will offer additional loot each week, with bonus seasonal power and tier upgrades based on achievements.

• Reward multipliers will use account highest power, not equipped power, but using non-featured gear still penalizes progression.

• Players express concern over being forced to abandon old gear, which discourages engagement.

Player Feedback and System Concerns

• Many players oppose forced new gear use and “soft sunset” practices, feeling punished for using older items.

• Suggestion: incentivize new gear by enhancing its rewards, rather than penalizing older gear users.

• Bungie is reducing loadout restriction modifier effectiveness but is advised to avoid making difficult content feel unrewarding.

• High-difficulty activities often lack proportionate rewards, disincentivizing player participation.

Power Climb Updates for Ash and Iron

• Leveling from 400 to 500 power will be accessible through any portal activity, with prime engrams required for 500-550.

• New reward bands: Platinum (450–499 power) and Diamond (500–550), with A+ grades needed for Tier 5 gear until higher ranks.

• After 500 power, Tier 5 loot becomes more frequent, especially for players progressing early in the season.

Replayability and Weekly Content

• All conquest missions will become replayable post-Ash and Iron, though only standard rewards are offered for repeats.

• Suggestion: high-difficulty conquests should weekly drop Tier 5 rewards to incentivize replaying challenging content.

Community Sentiment and Bungie’s Direction

• The community seeks meaningful changes to progression and rewards before the Renegades expansion to prevent further player decline.

• Bungie’s recent reversals are a positive step, but ongoing communication and willingness to adjust reward systems remain critical to player retention.

Recommendations / Advice

• Bungie should focus on making progression feel rewarding and avoid penalizing legacy gear usage.

• Future updates should better highlight playlist and progression changes impacting the player experience.

Destiny 2 Update and Player Feedback

Right, so after the twit last week, of course, there was a lot of frustration from players in the community because after weeks of complaining about the slow power climb, limited activities and what I would call general stinginess or meanness in terms of some rewards in the game right now. Of course, Bungie came out and nerfed a bunch of the best activities to actually gain power and stuff. They've now gone back a little further on some of those changes once again in some new communications we had this week. So ahead of this week's update from Bungie, where they promised more changes, they do have some additional things to point out. We'll round it up in the video as well as highlighting some of the other changes that are coming up for power and tiered rewards in the game.

So as always, you'll have to give me your thoughts. But if you enjoy the video, a rating really helps me out on the channel. And now let's get into it. So in terms of the update that we've just had, Bungie have said we've been working through player feedback from the previous TWID and reassessing our announced reward updates for the portal, and we will be reverting the following changes which are planned for Destiny 2 update 9.1.0. So this is the Ash and Iron update.

They say the planned reductions to power earned for a given grade within solo ops have been reverted. That basically refers to the nerf for solo ops, where it will be dropping lower power level gear than other activities. So that's good.

Also, they say planned reductions of engrams earned in Encore, Starcrossed and Whisper have additionally been reverted. That's good as well because, well, yeah, a lot of the time those rewards end up just being sharded for cause, because they tend to be dropping at lower tiers than most players actually want while running those activities. And the only time they are especially useful is during the power climb, right, where you're more likely to use tier 2 or 3 gear, which would have only served to make that power climb less enjoyable.

So I'm glad that they have changed those. They say there will be additional information in the twit regarding next steps in improving rewards for portal experiences. But we should keep in mind, this basically puts us back to where we are now, right?

So it's an improvement over what Bungie were going to do in Ash and Iron, but it's not an improvement over our current position. So it's a partial win, but there's certainly more to do. We should also highlight Bungie have said they're reverting the previously announced change for Destiny 2 update 9.1.0 that would require players to decrypt prime engrams in the tower. So when we get prime drops, we won't have to go to the tower to decrypt them. Again, basically putting us back at the position we are right now.

To highlight one of the positives for Prime Engrams in the update starting next month though, Bungie have said additionally, rather than giving a single chance at a Prime Engram at the end of each Portal activity, we'll now get multiple chances based on the number of completion rewards from the activity. So if you run something that has four completion rewards, there's a chance that all of them could be prime engrams. I very much doubt that they all will, but in theory, if you're running content that has multiple reward drops, this will hopefully be an improvement over the prime engram drop rate at this precise moment. The one thing I would ask Bungie though relates to the comment they made a couple of weeks back in the twid where they said in terms of power progression it's the most important topic right now and they are identifying adjustments they plan to make but importantly they said progression is clearly slower than we want it to be and we plan to generally increase the speed of progression for most players.

Now some extra changes they've discussed do actually potentially give us those kinds of changes. But, outside of things like Prime Engram rewards and some specific things they've mentioned for the raid, they haven't given us any specific details on how the general power climb might actually change. And I think, for the majority of players, that's probably the area where there is the most level of concern, right? Getting up to that sort of 400 power band.

Obviously the prime engram drop rate beyond that is also very ludicrous, but they've at least mentioned some changes which might help in that process. So I'm curious to see if, as they indicated in the previous comment, there will be a more general progression speed up. I'm hoping that we're going to hear about that very soon. Something positive in terms of the raid, Bungie had said, if we defeat all three bosses before beating the final boss, we'll earn an extra piece of gear after Ashen Iron.

On top of that, the first challenge will give an extra piece of loot from your first clear of an encounter each week in any version of the raid, and completing the challenge will unlock an additional one that provides bonus loot from just the epic raid. Importantly though, the loot from these challenge drops has bonus seasonal power and drops at an upgraded tier based on the number of active feats, so... That does mean that there'll be more powerful reward drops throughout the raid. Whether it will really be enough in terms of feeling rewarding on the power climb, we'll just have to wait and see.

But absolutely, endgame content like raids should be dropping higher tier rewards and be an effective way, a worthwhile pursuit in terms of actually upgrading power, right? So I'd say that is a good start as well. Plus, Bungie had said that they're changing the reward multiplier to use account highest power rather than equipped power. to determine the basis of the multiplier so basically more recognition of our max power level without us having to have that max power equipped at any given moment but they do say we'll still need to have new or featured gear to get up to a 10 scoring bonus and this is one of the things i like least about the featured gear system being penalized because you're using something from a previous season whether it's a heresy weapon or something from last year or in the future in Renegades because you're using something from Solstice or Kepler, whatever it is.

I just think it feels really bad that having those pieces of gear actually works to the detriment of power progression and other rewards in the game, right? It makes us work harder, essentially. And that's just one aspect of the new gear system and the kind of problems that it creates for players. If we look at this Reddit thread right here, we have players saying things like this: "I'm straight up not buying or playing Destiny if my gear is Soft Sunset in a few months time." And that's in reference to Renegades, when obviously there will be a power refresh, but there'll additionally be that component of if you're using your tier 5 armor from the previous season, you'll literally be punished.

in terms of your ability to make progress, whether it's through the difficulty and extra scoring that'll be required because you're using that gear, or because it's somehow influencing the drops of rewards at this new level, right? I'd much rather Bungie do things like add bonuses to certain activities that improve the potential tier of rewards if you use all new gear. Something like that, which still incentivizes using new stuff, but doesn't straight up punish you for not using it, would at least give players a sense of agency where they can say, well, yeah, okay, I'll use all the new stuff so that I can hopefully get better rewards this season, right?

It should be more of a boon and less of a limitation on our ability to actually make progress. I strongly feel about that. And I think Reddit threads like this indicate that if Bungie don't sort of change tact a little bit on the new gear system, I think it will have a really detrimental effect come Renegades in terms of players actually wanting to come back into the game.

So that'll be my feedback on that. We should remember though, Bungie also have indicated that they're essentially nerfing loadout restriction modifiers in the portal. If you apply the locked loadout modifier, they say right now the scoring value basically makes it too easy to earn good scores in Expert difficulty. I think Bungie should be careful making changes like that, because one of the problems with difficult content at the moment is that a lot of the time, early on in the power climb, it's just not as rewarding as it should be in terms of gear tier.

So my feedback on that front would be to focus a bit less on having your position in the power band actually influence the tier of rewards. A great example would be in the Renegades content, whatever that's going to look like. As one of the reasons that not many players have invested into the Kepler content is that you can run very difficult stuff like the Mythic Quest or whatever. and those higher tier rewards are either pretty stingy or nonexistent because you're not at the correct point in the power climb. And Solstice additionally proved that having higher tier rewards as a potential drop or for completely more difficult challenges actually incentivizes players to grind and it makes the power climb specifically more enjoyable.

So as some players have said, it's about the journey, but I strongly think the journey is more enjoyable if there are more chances to get sort of jackpot moments in the power climb where you feel like you've got something really rewarding. as opposed to all of it being reserved for the last phase of the power climb. So I hope Bungie touch on some things there. They have highlighted though, as we head into Ash and Iron, 400 to 450 will no longer be limited by Prime Engrams and we'll be able to level up to 500 via any portal activity. Beyond 500, again, we will be required to get Prime Engrams to get us up to 550, but hopefully they'll drop a little more readily with some of the changes Bungie have made to the feature drops.

Connected to this though, they've said players can reach Platinum and Diamond reward ranks which run from 450 to 499 power and 500 to 550 power respectively, and while in Platinum and Diamond you can earn A+ grades in PvE. with players needing an A+ to qualify for Tier 5 gear until Platinum 3, where A grades start giving Tier 5. Then at Diamond 1, B+ will qualify us for Tier 5 gear, and at Platinum 3, even a B will get us Tier 5. So as we head into Ashen Iron, basically, that means Tier 5 loot will start dropping much more readily, especially after we get to 500 power. So if anything, that's something to look forward to, especially for those who've already done a big power climb in the first half of the season.

Last thing though, they've said all conquests will be replayable after Ash and Iron, which I think is absolutely massive. Because at the moment, running them once and then being locked out of them just kind of feels like a waste, right? It feels like something that Bungie could actually harness to make weekly resets more interesting. My complaint though is that they've said you will earn normal scored portal loot for additional completions. Wouldn't it be awesome if, for the higher difficulty conquests, Bungie allowed us to play them on a weekly basis, but, especially for those 410+ conquests, I can't remember what they're all called in terms of difficulty, it gets a bit confusing, but, If completing those would give us a tier five piece of loot from that loot pool every single week, that would be a huge reason for players to go back and actually replay them.

That's the reason that some players go back and run the Kepler weekly missions on Mythic right now, because they're at a power level where they can get a tier five reward. It's actually quite a big investment in terms of time. to run through that mission to get one tier five drop, but players do it anyway because it actually comes with the potential of dropping something juicy. And I think that's what Bungie need to do with the conquest is a wasted opportunity at the moment, having them be playable once or replayable, but not really dropping the most exciting rewards.

So we've gone over quite a few things there. I wanted to intentionally pick out some of the positive power changes and reward tier changes that we're getting in Ash and Iron and offset them against some of what I think are going to be inevitably the problem areas based on feedback as it stands right now. Hate to feel like I'm whinging and making demands, but the reality is when we look at player numbers right now, player sentiment at the moment, if Bungie don't switch some of these systems up in a significant enough way for it to actually feel rewarding and different to how the game feels right now, that I think will continue to lose players all the way up to Renegades, and there'll be a lot of people who just don't jump back in for their next expansion. I think it's inevitable and very obvious. So Bungie need to continue announcing changes that indicate their awareness of how players actually feel.

That was the biggest problem with the TWAB last week, and it's the biggest positive for the communications that they've had since then, which of course don't make sweeping huge changes, but they at least roll back on some of the obviously bad ideas that Bungie had. and they need to continue in that direction. Because obsessing about getting players to just play the game mindlessly for the longest possible period of time, while it has worked a little bit over the past month or so, it's becoming obvious that it's not going to work moving forward at the same level that it does right now.

Make people want to play the game because the game is fun and rewarding. Same with the new gear thing. Make the new gear enticing enough and interesting enough that players want to use it. Then you won't have to force players to use it. So those are my thoughts, but importantly, give me your thoughts down in the comment section.

These would be some of the key things I'm hoping Bungie actually speak about and address in meaningful ways. And if there are less obvious components where obviously, you know, they're making certain adjustments to playlists, which... actually will have an impact on the power climb then i think they need to do a better job of highlighting that because it isn't always immediately obvious on paper so fingers crossed for some good words today from bungie if you've enjoyed the video and found the updates helpful a rating very much helps me out on the channel but otherwise cheers for tuning in and i'll catch you guys very soon