Since the launch of the ‘Edge of Fate’ expansion for Destiny 2, developer Bungie has been hard at work addressing numerous issues sparked by this update. Following significant backlash from players and dropping user counts on Steam, the studio has just made another noteworthy reversal: the complete removal of Destiny 2’s Unstable Cores.
Unstable Cores were introduced as new infusion materials intended to enhance the Power level of gear. Bungie’s trend of implementing new currencies continues, but this particular one has encountered heavy criticism. Sky-high infusion costs, challenging modifiers in activities, and rewards tied to equipped Power made experimenting with builds quite frustrating. Players found themselves needing to infuse equipment, but the exorbitant costs in cores made it nearly impossible to maintain several viable builds.
The problematic nature of this system became evident when high-level infusion required thousands of cores, while the game’s battle pass offered only a handful. The community’s disdain for this approach was almost universal, prompting Bungie to reconsider their strategy.
“Bungie has drawn up a plan to eliminate this currency entirely,” a recent update states. “Once removed, infusion will require a specified quantity of Enhancement Cores and Glimmer.” The studio acknowledged, “Unstable Cores have imposed too many limitations concerning power levels, hindering interesting buildcraft decisions, whether during Campaign missions where players might want to experiment with different weapons or while engaging in Endgame content and infusing lower-level gear to reach higher power levels.”
In light of this, the cores will indeed be phased out, although the company has not yet provided a specific timeline for this change. To help mitigate the transition, a one-time bonus of 777,777 cores will be distributed. Alongside this, a smaller patch aimed at reducing infusion costs at “higher Power levels” is set to be released prior to the broader deprecation update and economy overhaul. A suggestion has been made: why not lower all costs to just one (1) core, given the consensus that this system has been overly cumbersome and unnecessary?
Earlier this month, Bungie acted quickly to retract yet another unpopular modification stemming from the latest expansion. Players expressed serious concerns about the newly implemented Power levels, which saw a reversion to extensive level grinding in an incomplete framework, and these will not reset with the forthcoming Renegades update. As Bungie comes to terms with the fact that Unstable Cores detract from the fun, they have also recognized that changing the Power grind won’t be feasible at this juncture.
Meanwhile, Destiny 2 has fallen out of Steam’s top 100 games by daily active users, hitting a record low of 16,416 concurrent players earlier this month, according to SteamDB. At the time of writing, its peak over a 24-hour period is barely better at 16,821. There’s been much discussion in the community regarding how these numbers are lower than the previous low encountered during the infamous Curse of Osiris expansion.
While Steam represents only one platform for Destiny 2, it is clear that a significant number of players have left the game in large numbers. With Bungie reversing major mistakes week after week, alongside various necessary yet ineffective adjustments to other problematic new mechanics, the situation is evidently concerning. The game appears to be in disarray, and I’m not alone in opting to bide my time until these anticipated fix updates arrive.
Andy writes – Borderlands 4 has successfully achieved what Destiny failed to do: I’m back on the looter shooter bandwagon, and it feels like reliving my 60 hours in Borderlands 2.