Destiny 2’s most powerful Exotic desperately needs reworking

Destiny 2’s The Final Shape garnered well-deserved acclaim when it launched back in June, but the game’s potentially final traditional expansion introduced one of the game’s most problematic Exotics.

After first debuting in the original Destiny, Exotic Class Items’ role in the sequel is vastly expanded over their original iterations – serving as a key component of Guardians’ Light & Dark-infused Prismatic subclass.

From a design perspective, Exotic Class Items are incredible, allowing all three Vanguard classes to mix and match two different Exotic armor perks, with Bungie even allowing cross-pollination between otherwise class-exclusive perks.

Exotic Class Items were added to Xur’s potential stock as an alternative means of acquisition.

They allow for a level of customization and build crafting unique to Prismatic and, naturally, have numerous different, viable combinations worth trialling.

But therein lies the rub. At its core, Destiny 2 is a looter shooter. Bungie wants players to chase lucrative rolls by engaging with its content for the chance of scoring that oh-so-sweet dopamine hit of finally landing a desired drop.

However, barring Exotic weapons, which have deterministic methods of acquisition anyway, no gun in Destiny 2 is of such fundamental import that a class feels incomplete without it.

Exotic Class items were designed to be exactly that for Prismatic, but players are forced to rely on their hidden luck stat to get the roll they want. Likewise, with so many different, viable rolls available, where is one supposed to store all of them?

A patch on the problem

Since The Final Shape’s release, and following frequent player feedback voicing dissatisfaction with the system, Bungie has attempted to make specific Exotic Class Item rolls easier to obtain.

Introducing them as a potential store item to time-limited vendor Xur was a welcome short-term fix while Bungie worked on dedicated Attunement to ease the pain of RNG as well as make them more readily available through events.

The introduction of Attunement helped, but didn’t address the root issue.

The result is an easing of their rarity, but no accompanying remedy to account for lack of storage. With over 60 combinations for each class and more than 180 in total for any hardcore player who rotates between three characters, 600 Vault space, shared with every other item that exists in the game, proves restrictive.

The fix? A ground-level rework to eliminate unnecessary bloat.

The final solution

Numerous suggestions have been thrust in front of Bungie by the community, the conclusion inevitably landing on integrating Exotic Class Items with a feature that’s existed in Destiny 2 since The Witch Queen – crafting.

The very same suggestion is a recurring presence on social media, including Destiny’s millions-strong subreddit.

“If only we already had some sort of system where, once unlocked, we could create new versions of an item with the perks of our choosing on it,” one user responded in a thread lamenting the need to juggle and find storage space for “20+ class items per class.”

If not crafting, others suggested Bungie “add each combination to the Collections screen” after they’re initially obtained, so that they can be retrieved at players’ convenience.

For now, the frustrations, while valid, are manageable, but Bungie may find itself regretting not addressing the issue sooner.

Especially as storage space becomes more of a premium with every passing update, and that’s not even accounting for any potential additions to the existing perk pools of each Exotic Class Item the developer may decide to make in the future.