Destiny 2 Armor mods are locked behind Seasonal content
Destiny 2 users discovered that the most popular armor mods were locked behind seasonal paid content. This was for New Light (Destiny 2’s Free-to-Play version) and players who did not have the current Season Pass. The Redditor “TheyCalledMeSnake” brought this up in the DestinyTheGame Subreddit a few weeks back, but it has now become a topic of discussion within the Destiny 2 Community.
A Twitter user shared screenshots that showed how seasonal restrictions only allow players to access certain mods who have paid for Season of the Deep. The screenshots indicate that players need to reach Guardian Rank 7, (update: the article previously stated Rank 6), in order to unlock armor charges mods for class items. To unlock Guardian Rank 6 and a new challenge called Threats and Surges – named after the elemental modifiers – players must increase their reputation with the seasonal vendors. The catch is that players cannot gain Sonar Station’s reputation without owning the Destiny: Lightfallexpansion. Many players call the Destiny2 Free-to-play version of Destiny “free to try.”Buildcrafting can be an important part of the gameplay, but not being able to access mods is frustrating.
It is important to keep armor charge mods locked behind paid seasonal content, as they are vital for building solid builds and endgame games. Although Bungie’s paid-seasonal model includes story content, new activities, and weapons, most players consider armor mods standard content. Bungie also overhauled their mod system in advance of Lightfall and made all standard mods available to players beginning in early 2023. This included New Lights. This overhaul does not include the special mods players only get from raids. These require that they have their raid expansion, and players must earn them by playing.
Earlier this year, a This Week at Bungie Blog post titled, “Buildcrafting Evolution” stated that, “All mods are unlocked when you reach Guardian Rank 6.” However, the post did not mention that Guardians must complete a task tied to a specific seasonal vendor to achieve Guardian Rank 6.
Many Destiny 2 gamers, whether free-to-play or having previously paid for game content, received the Guardian Rank 6 when Lightfall was launched. They did not need to finish the Threats and Surges Challenge. The issue was not noticed by the larger Destiny2 community for a long time.
Destiny 2 players also knew that Guardian Ranks prevented them from creating and saving any new Loadouts. The ability to save up to four more Loadouts was contingent on players reaching Guardian Rank 6, as well. For some players, however, this restriction is too restrictive.
The complaints from players about mod paywalls coincide with Bungie’s efforts to monetize different parts of the games. Destiny 2 YouTuber “Aztecross” recently highlighted Bungie’s monetization effort in a video that criticized microtransactions.
Bungie did not comment publicly on this issue. However, several Twitter users expressed their frustration by tweeting to the official Destiny 2 Team Twitter Account.
Update:
Bungie’s Destiny 2 Team responded on July 11 to players’ concerns via its Twitter account.
We are aware that an armor mod is not available for those players who don’t own Lightfall, or Season Pass because of certain Guardian Rank Requirements. The team has been working to remove the Guardian Rank requirements as quickly as possible.
Bungie tweeted that it was an issue with an armor modification. In the tooltip of the “Threats and Surges” Guardian Rank 7, the reward is listed as “Armor Charge mods Unlocked”, implying the problem extended to other armor charge modifications.
