The latest blog update at Bungie takes aim at changes to Destiny 2’s economy coming in Beyond Light. Things like planetary materials, tokens, and Powerful Rewards are all discussed, with some good, some bad news throughout.
However, one of the changes coming in Beyond Light has set off a certain segment of Guardians that love to play Destiny 2 a lot. These players are going to see their potential Bright Dust earnings per season drop by over 30%, and they’re not happy about it.
Bright Dust is Destiny 2's free currency--you get it just by playing. The way Bright Dust is dolled out now is in the form of weekly bounties. Each bounty rewards 200 Bright Dust, allowing players who play all three of their characters each week to rack up a tidy sum to spend on a rotating selection of Eververse items.
But that's changing in Beyond Light. Starting in November's expansion, Bright Dust will be rewarded for completing the seasonal pass. Everyone who ranks up to level 100 will get 7,500 Bright Dust, while paid players will get an extra 3,000. Weekly bounties are having their rewards reduced from 200 Bright Dust each to 100.
"With these changes, the vast majority of players will be earning more Bright Dust than before," Bungie wrote, and it's mostly true. The majority of Destiny 2 players only play a single character and they don't complete all of their weekly Bright Dust bounties. For those players, this will increase their overall Bright Dust gains per season.
Players that do every weekly bounty and play all three characters will have their Bright Dust earnings cut by a lot. According to Redditor albatkross0108 (who helpfully did the math), it's an overall reduction of 31%.
In Shadowkeep, doing every weekly Bright Dust bounty on every character would result in a seasonal gain of 49,500 Bright Dust. In Beyond Light, it drops to just 33,900 Bright Dust. And if you play just one character but do every weekly Bright Dust bounty on that character, there's no change in the amount of Bright Dust earned per season (18,300 Bright Dust either way).
Destiny 2 fans that make a habit of buying as much as they can for Bright Dust are angry at the changes, and rightfully so. Some are going as far as accusing Bungie of outright deception by trying to cast these Bright Dust changes in a favorable light when they're really just taking away what a player could get for free from playing.
It seems like Bungie is pushing players towards spending real money in the Eververse for cosmetic items, and given the priceyness of their stock, that’s not likely to sit well with Guardians who just shelled out $49.99 for the new expansion.