Destiny 2 ditching its destination materials
Relic ironed out.
After eight years, the Destiny franchise is moving on from its various destination materials - the Spinmetal, Helium Filaments and Relic Iron you could zoom around on your Sparrow vehicle and harvest while patrolling the series' many planets and moons.
Some of my earliest memories from Destiny 1 are of looping the Cosmodrome for Spinmetal Leaves, hopping off my Sparrow to gather them, then heading off to the next node. Levelling your gear - which in turn levels your character - required plugging bits of these resources in, and I don't want to think about the number of hours I spent grinding these out.
Now, or rather as of Destiny 2's upcoming Season 19, the materials themselves will no longer be available to acquire - although you can still go zooming around on your Sparrow if you want to.
Bungie has laid out its reasoning for the change in its latest lengthy blog post, which in a nutshell boils down to the need for a simpler in-game economy system. There are too many things to collect and keep in your inventory, Bungie says, especially for new players.
The blog goes on to discuss how the removal of Dusklight Shards, Microphasic Datalattice, Helium Filaments, Baryon Boughs, Spinmetal Leaves and Glacial Starwort as obtainable destination materials will impact everything they're currently used for. And it's a lot - basically proving Bungie's point these things were a headache to keep track of.
Destination materials were a good source of Glimmer, Destiny's main currency, if you went hunting for them. To combat this, next season, Bungie will buff the amount of Glimmer gained from Public Events instead.
Weapons which required these materials will largely now require the universal Legendary Shards instead, while several Ghost mods centred on acquiring the materials will be removed. Destination vendors like good ol' Devrim are also getting tweaked.
And as for those farming loops? You can still do them, Bungie says, just don't expect any materials to drop. Instead, you'll get an undisclosed dollop of XP/Glimmer/reputation in reward.
While Bungie is announcing these changes now, there's no hurry to cash in your existing stocks - though their exchange rates will depreciate when Season 19 begins. Any remaining Spinmetal and other materials will remain in your inventory until further notice so you can sell/horde it however you please - or, just maybe, keep a few Spinmetal Leaves for posterity.