New and Not So Improved
Bungie renamed the hard mode of their activities “Prestige” for Destiny 2. This was done to signify that pinnacle endgame activities would continue to scale up with the ever-increasing power cap, keeping them relevant for longer. This plan didn’t pan out as well as Bungie had hoped for over the past year, and as a result, they have been at the drawing board to revamp our conception of prestige activities. This week, the new Prestige difficulties released for the two raid lairs Eater of Worlds, and Spire of Stars. They fall in line with the mentality of a similar system in Prestige Nightfall strikes, which utilizes modifiers to change up the experience and provide additional replay value.
The raid selection menu in the director. Leviathan flanked by its two raid lairs Eater of Worlds and Spire of Stars.
For Prestige raid lairs, there are 2 weekly rotating conditions. One is a rotation of 1 of 3 modifiers specifically designed for raids. This week’s modifier is “arsenal”, which restricts you by removing all reserve ammo from your weapons. You also only start with one magazine in your kinetic slot and empty energy and power weapons. Expending your kinetic weapons magazine refills your energy weapon’s magazine. Then expending your energy weapon refills your power weapon.
This sounds like it might be manageable, but in practice, they are the most jarring modifier conditions in the game so far. It’s something that you can never get used to because of a decades of forming first-person shooter behaviors. Behaviors like reloading early to ensure you have a full mag, or switching to your power weapon to get out of sticky situations. Here, if you want to use your power weapon, you’ll need to expend your kinetic ammo, then switch and expend your energy ammo to gain power ammo. Thankfully this is just one of the 3 modifiers created for prestige lairs, so next week’s should hopefully be a bit more bearable.
The other condition is a “curated loadout” modifier. This restricts you to specific weapon selections. For example, this first week requires a pulse rifle for your kinetic slot, a sub-machine gun for the energy slot, and a grenade launcher for your power slot. This is designed to get you out of your comfort zone and to provide added challenge when the most optimal weapons like rocket launchers or shotguns aren’t allowed.
The new prestige lair modes are the best example of a system that sounds great on paper, but ultimately fails. Not in execution, but in what it represents, and what it infers about the future of raid difficulties. We can only assume that this prestige system will carry over to year 2’s raids and raid lairs, and I think this is a misstep without some adjustments.
My first clear of King’s Fall, Destiny 1‘s 3rd raid.
Back in my [raid] day…
In Destiny 1, we had a normal and hard mode for raids. The normal mode was fairly accessible, but the hard mode turned things up. Not only did they feature higher level enemies, but they also added a layer of new mechanics to each encounter, adding an extra layer of challenge. The hard mode raid also provided the higher level gear, allowing you to eventually neutralize any kind of delta scaling. So the challenge of hard mode eventually only existed in the added encounter mechanics.
Raids are my favorite activities in Destiny because not only are they the most lucrative source of loot, they offered a path to mastery; a feeling usually reserved for PvP players. For instance, in Leviathan, I took pride in mastering my role in the Calus encounter in Leviathan throne room. In the throne room position, the first enemy comes from the middle door, and the second one comes from the back left door. Then a group of adds come from center door again. I go in with a hand cannon and a roaming super because I’ve found that works best for it. I was able to build a sense of precision and muscle memory that is satisfying to execute every time.
We have lost that sense of mastery with prestige raid lairs. This why I’m torn. I like the idea of interesting combinations of challenges that actually feel like challenges. Bungie needs to find a way to provide the pursuit of mastery presented with the old hard mode, while having this new system available as an optional challenge. The challenge should come from the game’s end, not restrictions to my kit that I’ve formed based on my optimal play-style. Maybe it could replace the new challenge system, which is not even utilized in the raid lairs. I want modifiers and curated loadouts to work, but not at the expense of true encounter challenge.
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