It is time to face reality; Strikes in Destiny 2 serve very little to no purpose. There’s no other incentive to keep running the activity, other than receiving a weekly peak loot drop after completing three of them. This is in stark contrast to Destiny 1, in which Strike was arguably the most played activity in the game at the time. It’s time to discuss what happened and how a feature from Destiny 1 could make Strike worth playing again in Destiny 2.
Strike has gone through many changes over the years in both Destiny 1 and 2. The activity was a great place to raise your light level and earn the more famous weapons in the first game. Later, a feature called Strike-specific loot introduced in the Taken King DLC further enhanced this, and the percentage of players playing the activity skyrocketed.
Strike-specific loot was exactly what it sounded like: unique loot drops “nearly” for every strike in the game. This included weapons and even pieces of armor for each class in the game. A prime example was one of the most beloved Strike-specific loot drops, the Imago Loop Hand cannon from The Undying Mind Strike. This particular weapon causes thousands of players to run an activity over and over again to obtain one.
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The Imago Loop was arguably one of the most, if not the most The most sought-after weapon in Destiny 1 for several reasons. With the Taken King DLC, Bungie wanted to do a soft reset for the game; Thus, the weapons players had previously acquired were no longer usable for the foreseeable future. This included one of the franchise’s most infamous and well-known weapons, the Fatbringer Hand Cannon. The Fatebringer was a weapon from the Vault of Glass Raid and one of the best weapons to use in all sporting activities. Its unique perk pool allowed it to roll with Explosive Rounds and Firefly perks, which were the best to use at the time. Then, with the release of the Taken King DLC, Fatbringer was no longer allowed to be used in future content. The Imago Loop came into the picture shortly after.
The Imago Loop will be a near replica of the original Fatbringer, from the gun’s aesthetics to the perk pool. It also includes the ability to roll explosive rounds and firefly. With the reveal of Fatebringer 2.0, a slew of players will dive into the Strike playlist in hopes of playing Undying Mind Strike for the first time, as well as the imago loop drop with the Fatbringer roll. As it turned out, the Imago Loop would be one of many Strike-specific loot drops in the game, but it captivated everyone’s hearts in such a unique way that to this day, most Destiny 1 veterans remember it.
Jump in six years later, Destiny 2 is over five years old and still has no proper loot system for Strike. In response to strike-specific loot, Destiny 2 introduced Nightfall weapons instead. Nightfall weapons can only be obtained through Nightfall Strike, but you can only earn them one at a time. For example, in Destiny 2’s latest season, Season of Plunder, the game introduced two “new” Nightfall weapons, Mindbender’s Ambition Shotgun and Militia’s Birthright Grenade Launcher. Both guns were previously Nightfall exclusive weapons, meaning they were only obtained from specific Nightfall strikes. However, these have since been replaced by being able to earn these guns when they appear in a given week.
Nightfall strikes can be match-made just like regular strikes. However, the higher the difficulty the player chooses, he will eventually lose the option to play with others. Grandmaster Nightfall Strikes also delivered efficient versions of these Nightfall weapons. This sounds good on paper, but it leaves an obvious problem. What about regular strike? As mentioned earlier, Strikes currently serves only one purpose: to deliver a peak loot drop after completing three. After which, there is no other reason to run the activity.
Adding back strike-specific loot will give the playlist a breath of fresh air and motivate players to play more than three runs. They are not required to replace Nightfall weapons, which may be a separate category, but as players will agree, more guns are better than less. For example, adding the imago loop back would be great for players who can’t play Vault of Glass Raid but still want to use a weapon like Fatebringer. Whether they make these changes in future seasons or perhaps in the upcoming Lightfall DLC, these changes need to happen sooner rather than later.
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