Destiny 2 May Be Stuck in 'Reputation Hell' Forever

Destiny 2 is facing end-of-service after Bungie laid off the entire team and released a final update on June 9, which may mean some issues go unaddressed. Many fans are sharing their reactions about the events at Bungie this week on social media, and there is a general sense of disbelief about what happened to Destiny 2. Once the exemplary live-service game, it was dismissed as “not meeting financial expectations in the past few years” by Bungie leadership in the recent message from the company.

In fact, Bungie released a statement about the final update for Destiny 2 on June 9 and the effective immediate cut of hundreds of jobs at the company this Thursday, June 25. The layoffs at Bungie, blamed on Destiny 2, left many fans shocked despite the many rumors about developers losing their jobs in the previous weeks. The game is now in a strange state, as it apparently isn’t even in maintenance mode. Instead, most Destiny 2 developers were let go, and the hotfix planned for June 30 may never come.

Destiny 2 Gets Disappointing Update Following Recent Success

Destiny 2’s Monument of Triumph final release has been a smashing success, but the gets a sad and disappointing update.

Destiny 2’s Vanguard and Crucible Reputation May Be Stuck in Grind Hell

One of the effects of Destiny 2‘s Monument of Triumph update is that some activities were made more easily accessible with the return of the Director, allowing players to choose freely what they want to play. With the removal of activity streaks, though, Crucible Reputation and particularly Vanguard Reputation are now comparably much harder to raise than before. For every Crucible match, players get multiple Ciphers to use at Shaxx’s, and the same goes for Vanguard Ciphers at Zavala’s. The problem is that Reputation gains are much slower across the board, and obtaining Engrams to spend Ciphers on is a slog for many fans.

Scratch & Peek

Identify the cover art while scratching off as little foil as
possible.

Players have been complaining about this issue on Reddit and social media, like Twitter. A player by the name of Zwixern shared a Reddit post about the situation for Vanguard Reputation, stating how frustrating it is now to rank up. They exaggerate their hours in Monument of Triumph in the post, as mentioned in an edit, but they still state that after around 100 hours of playing, they were only at Rank 8. A commenter suggested that it’s because of the removal of activity streaks, while also suggesting that Reputation gains don’t scale based on how difficult Destiny 2 content is. Completing Quickplay or solo Ultimate Alerts doesn’t seem to have an impact on Reputation multipliers.

The sentiment is shared by many players, to the point that a fan by the name of yesdog96 asked in a comment on Twitter to a post made by Principal Comms Manager at Bungie dmg04, if this was being addressed on June 30. The reply was that the team was looking into it, but they couldn’t promise a fix.

Unfortunately, two days later, the layoffs at Bungie took place, and most Destiny 2 developers were hit, including contractors and QA testers. As such, Destiny 2 will be adding Iron Banner armor and modes on June 30, but no hotfix will be released. After the layoffs, the comms account for the game stated that the TWID and hotfix would be delayed, with no specific dates.

Another player shared a post on Reddit under the name of sceptic62, and they broke down the current Reputation gains and how long it takes for a full reset for both Crucible and Vanguard. They estimate around 50–60 games of Crucible for a full Rank 17 reset, whereas around 120 activities are required for Rank 17 at Zavala’s. This means 17 Engrams along the way, for what could be over 40 hours, depending on speed. Considering that support for Destiny 2 is ending abruptly, it’s hard to imagine that something will be done about Reputation gains. Even though the game will be playable for as long as Bungie keeps the servers online, earning Vanguard and Crucible Engrams will most likely remain a chore.