Creating a unique-looking guarding has always been a central part of the Destiny 2 experience. Look no further than Bungie’s fashion show contest that awards players with a special emblem for creating the most unique-looking character. Bungie has always wanted to give players tremendous amounts of freedom with their guardian’s aesthetic, and the new armor transmog system was meant to be the evolution of that idea. However, the new armor transmog system was released with Season of the Splicer and it’s safe to say that a healthy part of the player population is furious with how the system works in practice.
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The armor transmog system is also called armor synthesis. It’s is one of the most long-awaited systems in Destiny 2. It gives players access to almost any piece of armor they’ve ever earned over their Destiny 2 career and allows them to turn that piece of armor into a universal ornament that changes the appearance of any piece of armor in that same slot. So you could turn your favorite set of gloves from season six into a universal ornament that will change the appearance of any set of gloves in your inventory. This allows players to farm high stat armor rolls while never sacrificing the unique look of their personalized monster slayer.
When Season of the Splicer began, players are given access to enough synthweave material to easily craft two full sets of armor. This is when armor synthesis shines and the freedom of crafting a unique look feels great. The user interface is beautiful and lets you fully preview a full outfit before using the materials to create the ornaments. Armor synthesis was weaved into the story in a wonderful way as well — it reintroduced Ada-1 while bringing the Black Armory back to the tower. However, after players completed the armor synthesis introductory quest and blew through their free materials, the sinister side of armor synthesis reared its greedy head and sent players into a frenzy.
As it stands it takes at least 25 hours of killing enemy combatants to create enough synthweave to synthesize one full armor set. It will take most players closer to 30 hours to complete one full set and there is a seasonal cap of two full sets of armor. That’s essentially 60 hours of gameplay for one character and potentially over 180 gameplay hours if a player wants to reach the synthweave cap for all three of their characters. The only way to get around the seasonal cap or grind gate is to buy synthweave with real money in Destiny 2’s Eververse. When transmog was first announced before the season came out, players were mad about the seasonal synthweave cap. But after it was launched people quickly realized the cap wasn’t the issue because the grind to reach it is so inconceivably long, most players won’t get there.
The entire system is geared in a way that heavily promotes the use of microtransactions over gameplay. This is justified by Bungie because armor synthesis is strictly a visual modifier and doesn’t affect stats or make your character more powerful. While it’s not a pay-to-win microtransaction system, it still feels dirty, as having a visually appealing character has always been a core component of Destiny 2. For many players, character customization is just as important as the gunplay and lore.
Bungie hasn’t been silent about the community’s armor synthesis complaints thus far, but it seems like outside of removing the synthweave cap entirely or making the cap much easier to reach, the damage is done. Enabling a monetization heavy grind gate for one of Destiny 2’s core experiences feels unacceptable to many in the community and it’s hard to blame them at this point.
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