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How bad is the grind in Destiny 2?

  • Thread starter Deleted member 801069
  • Start date
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Deleted member 801069

Unconfirmed Member
I started playing Destiny 2: Beyond Light about a week ago since its on gamepass so the game and expansion were free. I've been having a good amount of fun, but I'm starting to get the impression that this game might become a serious grind. I've put about 40 hours into it and am only recently starting to grasp the scope of the grind of this game. At least I think I am.

Does Destiny 2 have a heavy grind? If it does, I might just end up dropping the game entirely because there is simply too much stuff on gamepass to dedicate most my time to one game. I already paid for the season pass which will make it kinda a bummer to abandon the game this quickly, but I was hoping this game would be much more of a casual experience. Keeping up with bounties is already starting to become a headache.

If I want to have a decent time with the PvP and multiplayer aspects of the game, is this game going to become a major time sink?

edit: I should add that this is my first time every playing a Destiny game. Never played Destiny 1 nor have I ever played Destiny 2 in the past.
 
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Deleted member 801069

Unconfirmed Member
It's the definition of heavy grind. Seriously.
fml

well it's been a fun week. it's starting to seriously interfere with my other games tho. I realized this morning I’ve been seriously neglecting Yakuza 0 which is no bueno

sucks that I paid for the season pass 2 days ago but I think it's best if I just cut my losses and move on before I sink more time into this
 
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LordOfChaos

Member
Don't major expansions usually come with a thingy that lets you consume an item to be the right level for it?

I ran through the majority of the campaigns solo, and most of the mainline campaign stuff isn't too grindy, but the lesser "do step x to get y" quests can be. If it's loot you're after, well that's a choice.
 

Nikana

Go Go Neo Rangers!
fml

well it's been a fun week. it's starting to seriously interfere with my other games tho. I realized this morning it's been almost a week since I played Yakuza 0 and that is no bueno.

sucks that I paid for the season pass 2 days ago but I think it's best if I just cut my losses and move on before I sink more time into this

There's a lot to get in destiny but the issue for many is that once you get it, that's it, the funs over. It doesn't change your build or class in anyway. It becomes a collect-a-thon.

Either you're into it or your aren't.
 
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Deleted member 801069

Unconfirmed Member
Don't major expansions usually come with a thingy that lets you consume an item to be the right level for it?

I ran through the majority of the campaigns solo, and most of the mainline campaign stuff isn't too grindy, but the lesser "do step x to get y" quests can be. If it's loot you're after, well that's a choice.
yeah I start off at level 1050 or some shit. I've recently ran out of enhancement cores, which is an incredibly basic but necessary item, and the grind to get more has been a nightmare. the bounties from the NPC that rewards them take hours each. and I need a lot of them.

this is just one example of grindy stuff I recently ran into that does not seem avoidable
 
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Deleted member 801069

Unconfirmed Member
There's a lot to get in destiny but the issue for many is that once you get it, that's it, the funs over. It doesn't change your build or class in anyway. It becomes a collect-a-thon.

Either you're into it or your aren't.
the campaign story has been fun, but once you're done with, how much content is available story wise?

have I seen pretty much all he quality stuff when it comes to story?
 

Arthimura

Member
It's very grindy to get the good weapons.

I'm was in a guild last year and people didn't play anything but Destiny 2.

And besides the community being good, people expect you to have the optimal weapons to do each content, so prepare to grind for 1+ month to get a weapon, sometimes even more.
 
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VertigoOA

Banned
You can catch up in two weeks easy. The harder thing is missing the exotics really but BL might give you a reset on those

Accurate. The power grind is painless (and not so meaningful) and can be done casually.

The time sunk into the game, which is misinterpreted as a grind, comes from chasing desirable items.
 
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Grinchy

Banned
The whole point of Destiny is the grind IMO. I can't imagine playing it if you don't like grindy loot-based games.

It's a game you play for months. As long as you keep paying them for "expansions..."
 
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Deleted member 801069

Unconfirmed Member
Accurate. The power grind is painless (and not so meaningful) and can be done casually.

The time sunk into the game, which is misinterpreted as a grind, comes from chasing desirable items.
Sounds like semantics

Grinding for items is still a grind
 
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Deleted member 801069

Unconfirmed Member
It's very grindy to get the good weapons.

I'm was in a guild last year and people didn't play anything but Destiny 2.

And besides the community being good, people expect you to have the optimal weapons to do each content, so prepare to grind for 1+ month to get a weapon, sometimes even more.
This is pretty much exactly what I was looking for

Thanks for the heads up

Gonna quit now before I sink more time into this

Game is pretty great tho, would be at the top of my list if I was looking for a major online time sink
 

Eliciel

Member
the grind is really heavy, mainly, because in order to maximize your outcome you basically not only have to maximize outcome by right order of Powerfuls and Pinaccle Gear rotation, but you also have to rotate among all characters and keep on doing it on a weekly basis to min-max your outcome . If you have this min-maxing in you Destiny 2 could be your game. Personally I have done this since day 1 and I love Destiny, however, slowly but steadily I am getting drawn into other games and for me the latest add-on (Beyond Light) has catched my attention for a maximum of 1+ week. Now it has all settled down already as I do not really feel the need any more...which brings me to my last point... at the end of the day, a lot of the activities work without the absolute end-game hard cap etc. You can really do well in a good group even without the hustle grind up to end of the line gear..
 
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Nikana

Go Go Neo Rangers!
the campaign story has been fun, but once you're done with, how much content is available story wise?

have I seen pretty much all he quality stuff when it comes to story?

Some of the campaigns got ripped out to my knowledge with the latest dlc and I am not sure if they are accessible.

Once you have completed the newest campaign and what's available story wise it's mostly side stuff from there on out. The exotic quest can sometimes be a little more in-depth than regular stuff but often have you doing the same things with certain strikes or patrols etc.

The only thing I can say is don't sleep on Gambit mode. It's a lot of fun and very competitive without having that annoying first person shooter lurning curve for manny.
 

cormack12

Gold Member
Sounds like semantics

Grinding for items is still a grind

That's what the endgame is though. You get great items to take on tougher challenges. You do the tougher challenges to get better items. Getting to the point of endgame is painless, getting the equipment to get the hardest content on farm status is the main 'grind' but there are only so many ways to progress at the endgame. Even if you rerun raids you don't get to reopen loot chests etc. So when you get to 'endgame', you can do your equivalent of weeklies in a night. It doesn't require you to be on every night etc.

If you're enjoying it Id give it a go either way.
 
So, the thing with the Destiny grind is complex to answer... but here goes...

Most activities you'll be able to do within a week depending on how many hours per day you play...

The highest level activities like say the Raid or higher level Nightfalls? Maybe two weeks?

The real grind in Destiny is if you want all the things... like I want every gun and piece of armor that matters, that's what keeps me playing, the game is at a point where so many activities reward powerful rewards though that you can get to an appropriate light level without even having to do things you don't want to, this is NOT what Destiny used to be like
 

AgentP

Thinks mods influence posters politics. Promoted to QAnon Editor.
This is the worst DLC and season event ever IMO. So many bounties and repetitive missions.
 

Dynasty8

Member
If you've been having a good amount of fun, then I wouldn't really call it a grind. The game doesn't "force" you to grind unless you really want to unlock some of the best exotic weapons and a few other cool optional things. You can pretty much enjoy all the campaigns, Strikes/Nightfalls, Crucible, Gambit, Dungeons, and even Raids with zero grind. Dungeons and Raids in Destiny are absolutely incredible and worth doing. (Dungeons are 3 players max, Raids are 6 players max).

It's a very underappreciated game tbh. The gunplay, art design, music/sound, and unique raid mechanics is unlike any other game out there. I would recommend finding a Sherpa Raid Group over at: https://www.reddit.com/r/DestinySherpa/

It's one of the funnest experience I've ever had gaming.
 
Grind from 1050 to 1200 is fine. Grind from 1200 to 1250 will take some weeks if you’re not doing it optimal. Grind from 1250 to 1260 is hell.

Grind to make up your arsenal it’s mostly fun as you can wait for Xur or just do the exotic quests.
 
The base grind like light level and reaching the endgame cap isn't that hard after you catch up with the game's mechanics. The problem of the game is as some others said it's a collect-a-ton experience at the end of the day. You'll be heavily playing while leveling up and gearing your character, but it can become a borefest after you do all the meaningful things like exotic quests, raids, seasonal content, Iron Banner, Trials.

Hardened players and veterans just know that the game can be boring after 1 month of content drop, not even Destiny Youtubers/Streamers can live out of it exclusively. So I recommend you playing until you see yourself dropping it and come back when you crave for it, it just becomes easier if you're up to date with the content.
 
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Ballistic

Member
Cores are unnecessary for leveling. Just equip your high blues and go. This expansions leveling has been the easiest ever. I had all 3 characters raid ready for the 1st time ever. The trick is leveraging all characters as you move up. Don’t use your powerful s until 1200 and do so sparingly as prime drop like candy.
 
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Deleted member 801069

Unconfirmed Member
I've never heard some one stop playing a game because there is too much content.
Serious? Just within the past few days we’ve had threads about people quitting Valhalla because the main story quest line is too long and that the game has way too much content

Too much content is one of the most common complaints I see on gaming forums

Also, grinding and running raids/strikes all day does not equal content.

That’s like saying WoW has endless content because people can do raids on a weekly basis indefinitely
 
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8BiTw0LF

Banned
I want to try Destiny on game Pass but can someone explain to me what this game is about. I don’t understand it.


skylinepark-text-havefun.gif
 
The level grind to access harder content gets annoying. The randomness applied to end game repetitive grinding for gear you actually want is straight up frustrating. It does not need to be like that and it's a large reason fireteam/clan mates and I stopped playing it. We're going to return for Beyond Light and some Shadowkeep when the next gen patch comes to give 4K 60fps goodness but it won't last long with us if it's the same old grind with a random chance of getting what loot you actually seek.
 
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The level grind to access harder content gets annoying. The randomness applies to end game grinding for gear you actually want is straight up frustrating. It does not need to be like that and it's a large reason fireteam/clan mates and I stopped playing it. We're going to return for Beyond Light and some Shadowkeep when the next gen patch comes to give 4K 60fps goodness but it won't last long with us if it's the same old grind with a random chance of getting what loot you actually seek.

Nah, it needs more RNG, legit every new gun has a non-RNG way of getting it pretty much, it's annoying. Exotics in particular, they totally ruined any excitement from getting an exotic engram.
 

Griffon

Member
I've never heard some one stop playing a game because there is too much content.
Except that's not the case. Beyond Light's content is minimal and as soon as you finish the very short story-based missions, it's all mindless grind of the same shit over and over again.
 
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Dynasty8

Member
I want to try Destiny on game Pass but can someone explain to me what this game is about. I don’t understand it.

It's a unique game. Sci-Fi shooter from the original makers of Halo, with some cool fantasy elements thrown in. The game is a live service game, so it's constantly getting updated like an MMO. Those who like it are really into the game. It's very fun if you're willing to get into the universe and playing with friends is a blast.
 
Nah, it needs more RNG, legit every new gun has a non-RNG way of getting it pretty much, it's annoying. Exotics in particular, they totally ruined any excitement from getting an exotic engram.

Why do you want a gamble on something you're going after. It's boring AF to replay a RAID for a chance at what you need. Why waste hours to just have to replay the same exact thing again for another roll of the dice? Finding an engram out and about, fine. But content driven loot should be the harder path to just achieve what you seek.

Things like Wish Ender were some of the best gameplay and loot path to select what you wanted to go after and actually get it.
 
Why do you want a gamble on something you're going after. It's boring AF to replay a RAID for a chance at what you need. Why waste hours to just have to replay the same exact thing again for another roll of the dice? Finding an engram out and about, fine. But content driven loot should be the harder path to just achieve what you seek.

Things like Wish Ender were some of the best gameplay and loot path to select what you wanted to go after and actually get it.
No I'm not with you at all on that. My favorite times in that game where when I had multiple raid crews and we'd do multiple raids a week for a chance at exotics. This was in the D1 days and the only problem with those was they constantly nerfed prior raids so you usually only had one that was giving you high power gear. Still was way more fun having dedicated raid teams and doing that a lot compared to what it's like now where there's only a few things you actually want from a raid while there's lots of activities to do most of them aren't anywhere near as deep as raiding. destiny one raids no matter how many times we did them I always felt like I was getting a little better it was much more interesting than the content they want you to spend your time with now to get guaranteed rewards. Don't get me wrong I play every DLC because as shallow as the new content is it takes a little bit to reveal how shallow it is. I'm pining for the age where you could play the same content for months on end.
 

Neolombax

Member
It has a certain degree of grind but I personally dont think its as hardcore, its not as grindy as say Warframe or Black Desert Online, I think. Its grindy if you want to specific weapon or armor rolls and perks, its grindy when you want to try and get the Raid exotic (the other Exotic weapons will more or less drop if you play the game and eventually the RNG will grant you this, or just wait for the Exotic vendor to sell what you want).

I dunno, during the last season I played a while in the beginning, stopped mid season to play Tsushima and EDF, came back intermittently when an event or exotic weapon quest dropped, and then really only played during the last 2 weeks or so. It was fine.
 

Kerotan

Member
It's not too bad. Just do the story content, get going on the quests and there's endless amounts of fun. When you've mastered it try and get into a team to teach you a raid. Use the destiny app. There are sherpas who'll be willing to help.
 

Tschumi

Member
i'm not going on destiny 2. it sounds like just the brand of digital crack that WOW was. I tried to play destiny 1 on my ps3 a few weeks ago but it never freaking logged in properly (only ever got it working once) and I'm glad about that.

I'll just say I feel... somewhat good for bungie, and reckon it's about right that a team who built their reputation on well crafted games can get a perma cash cow a la blizzard.
 

sainraja

Member
Cores are unnecessary for leveling. Just equip your high blues and go. This expansions leveling has been the easiest ever. I had all 3 characters raid ready for the 1st time ever. The trick is leveraging all characters as you move up. Don’t use your powerful s until 1200 and do so sparingly as prime drop like candy.

Could you explain more, like what do you mean by leveraging all characters as you move up, not use your powerfuls until 1200?
 
Could you explain more, like what do you mean by leveraging all characters as you move up, not use your powerfuls until 1200?
He's saying you can vault all your best gear and move the guns over to your Hunter and your Titan if your man is a warlock for instance. You're light level is an average of all your gear so you can grind one character up and then give them the other character the guns and they can grind up much faster and you can just keep doing that. but you have to do one character of each class if you do more than one of the same class you don't get more powerfuls to get. You can do any random activity before level 1200 and level up so he's saying save your special powerful activities for when you hit 1,200 light level. the thing is there's so much to do in the game now you're probably not going to do everything there is to do in a week anyways especially on three characters.
 

Vindicator

Member
The grind is real, at least it feels good thanks to the stellar Gunplay + Sound Design. Just don't get lost in the Hamster wheel, no need to go after every item, especially titles or cosmetic stuff.
 

Faenrir

Member
Yeah...and it looks gorgeous in Eyefinity, too (no stretching or anything, at least on the main screen).
 

sainraja

Member
He's saying you can vault all your best gear and move the guns over to your Hunter and your Titan if your man is a warlock for instance. You're light level is an average of all your gear so you can grind one character up and then give them the other character the guns and they can grind up much faster and you can just keep doing that. but you have to do one character of each class if you do more than one of the same class you don't get more powerfuls to get. You can do any random activity before level 1200 and level up so he's saying save your special powerful activities for when you hit 1,200 light level. the thing is there's so much to do in the game now you're probably not going to do everything there is to do in a week anyways especially on three characters.

Thanks for clarifying that. I have two characters that I am working on in Destiny 2 (more focused on the Warlock character) and recently I tried handing some of my weapons over to the Hunter but I could swear (will have to double-check now) that the power levels of the weapons adjusted accordingly.
 
Thanks for clarifying that. I have two characters that I am working on in Destiny 2 (more focused on the Warlock character) and recently I tried handing some of my weapons over to the Hunter but I could swear (will have to double-check now) that the power levels of the weapons adjusted accordingly.
No weapons have static power levels unless you infuse them and you can only infuse up.
 

Fitzchiv

Member
Everyone was reset to 1050 light level, along with vaulted weapons, so the grind is equalled out really. There are a few tricks to speed it up though. To 1200 it's relatively quick, but after that is a slog. I'm not that sure the game is rewarding enough to justify it at the moment, with the changes to engram availability from vendors etc.
 
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