Destiny 2’s grind is deeply broken but Bungie has the power to fix it

The launch of the Edge of Fate expansion saw Destiny 2 undergo some radical changes. While a lot of these were positives that set up almost a soft Destiny 3 reboot of sorts, the damage it has done to the grind and what’s now required of players is difficult to overlook.

Once an expansive sandbox that pushed Guardians to explore the galaxy, Bungie’s looter shooter has now been reduced to a single hub, The Portal. While this alone isn’t too bad, the implications of The Portal and how it was implemented have made it harder to get excited about playing Destiny than ever before.

The Escapist recaps

• Destiny 2: Edge of Fate was released on July 15, 2025.
• As part of the expansion, most activities are now in a central hub called The Portal. These are separated into Solo Ops, Fireteam Ops, Pinnacle Ops, and Crucible Ops, with different rewards being offered between them.
• New players are tasked with climbing from 0 to 450 Power, primarily by farming these activities in The Portal. Depending on efficiency, this process can easily take over 100 hours.
• Those who grind up to 450 Power will only stay there until Renegades is released in December 2025. Once this update arrives, everyone will be reset to 200 Power, requiring most of the grind to be done all over again.

Destiny 2 doesn’t respect your time anymore

The biggest issue with the grind in Edge of Fate is that it doesn’t respect your time. For most players, reaching 450 Power means mindlessly grinding Solo Ops. How long this will take depends on efficiency, but you can expect to invest well over 100 hours.

For those 100-plus hours, all you’ll be doing is farming Caldera over and over for the sake of gaining power. After all, doing literally anything else will slow down the grind, potentially doubling the time needed to reach the seasonal Power cap. Needless to say, this can get extremely repetitive and is torture for those who don’t enjoy grinding.

Funnily enough, I’m not one of those people at all. As an avid MMORPG player and someone who has obtained max stats on RuneScape of all games, something that takes thousands of hours, Destiny’s grind should be trivial by comparison. However, there’s one big difference that makes putting in the time to reach max Power not worth it to anybody.

Every six months, Destiny 2 will reset everyone’s Power back to 200. In other words, all that time you spent grinding up to 450 Power will be Thanos snapped out of existence, and now you’ll need to start over. This process will repeat with each major update, forcing Guardians to endlessly grind the same activities for the rest of their lives.

Where’s the payoff?

Okay, so the grind is tedious, and your progress is reset every six months. However, even that can be justified if the payoff is worth it. The good news is that Tier 5 gear, the biggest draw of going through the grind, is genuinely awesome. They give you enhanced perks, three perks in each slot, better stats, access to powered-up mods, and even boosted Origin Traits.

Unsurprisingly, Tier 5 gear is the strongest in the sandbox, making it a must for any endgame player. However, even this has its problems. With the Power reset, Renegades will also see new gear from this season lose its featured status. In practice, that means less damage on weapons, less damage resistance on armor, and a large penalty to your New Gear bonus.

This last one is the real killer, as wearing New Gear boosts the points you get from Portal activities. This is extremely important, as reaching an A grade in these activities is by far the fastest way to grind. However, if you wear armor from older seasons, reaching a top grade will require you to stack additional difficulty multipliers to make up for it, making otherwise simple activities extremely challenging.

Not only is this mentally taxing when you are trying to grind back up to 450 Power, but it also makes activities slower to complete, extending the grind considerably. Due to this system, players will inevitably stop using their Tier 5 gear from this season shortly after Renegades is released, as not doing so will make the grind much more tedious. This is especially frustrating for armor, as the powerful set effects provided often define meta builds.

Bungie needs to pick a side and fast

While there are a lot of issues with the grind as it stands, the real problem I have is that Bungie is trying to create two separate experiences that can’t coexist. Having a long grind but then resetting everyone’s progress when they feel like it isn’t fun, and the cynic in me would suggest it was designed to artificially maximize engagement rather than create a compelling experience.

Destiny 2 needs to either become a grindy game with a long-term payoff or a less grindy, seasonal game where your progress is reset every so often. The former would see it molded into a true MMO, placing the focus on long-term goals and pushing players into end-game activities in pursuit of Tier 5 gear. The latter approach would instead retain the looter shooter’s seasonal identity, making the grind feel less impactful but also much more accessible.

As things stand, this identity crisis is alienating players, resulting in some of the lowest player counts we’ve ever seen. While I’m certain the imminent Ash and Iron update will bump these numbers back up for a little while, the underlying issues will see those same people step away again soon enough. Repeat that cycle, and both Destiny and Bungie’s future could be put under serious threat, especially with Sony breathing down their neck.

As a long-term player, I’d hate to see that fate come to fruition. Hopefully, the leadership changes at Bungie will be a catalyst for the looter shooter’s comeback and give this wonderful game its identity back. However, that change needs to come sooner rather than later, before the jaded player base is moves on for good.

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References

1. Sandbox Tuning Preview for Ash & Iron (Bungie)