Bungie's Crafting U-Turn: Why Seasonal Weapons Are Stuck in RNG Hell

Destiny 2 weapon crafting changes spark debate, as Bungie's seasonal overhaul frustrates looter-shooter fans and strains vault space.

You know, as a professional looter-shooter enjoyer, I’ve seen my fair share of questionable decisions. But Bungie’s latest move with Destiny 2’s seasonal weapon crafting has me scratching my helmet harder than a Thrall in a disco. We just went through the whole Revenant episode, where they yanked craftable seasonal guns and replaced them with the buggy, underwhelming Tonic system. The community screamed into the void—sorry, I mean, provided constructive feedback. And what’s Bungie’s response for Heresy, the next episode? "Hold my Ether." They’re doing it again. I feel like I’m stuck in a time loop, and not the fun Vex kind.

The Great Crafting Purge: From Savior to Scapegoat 🛠️➡️🗑️

Let’s rewind. Bungie’s reasoning, as per their 2024 End-of-Year Developer Update, is that weapon crafting slowly made regular loot drops feel... well, worthless. And I get it! Once you’ve grinded out those five red-border patterns for a gun, every subsequent drop is just instant shards. The magic of the random roll is gone. The Enclave becomes your personal weapon factory, and the thrill of the chase flatlines. But here’s the kicker—seasonal weapons are the perfect candidates for crafting! They’re usually just slight, incremental upgrades. They’re the stepping stones, not the final boss loot. Making them craftable gives players, especially the New Lights, a guaranteed path to a decent weapon. Instead, Bungie seems to be throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

The Vault Space Ticking Time Bomb 💥

Oh, you think the decision is just about player sentiment? Think again. This move is a stealth nerf to our vaults. Let me break it down:

• With Crafting: Get pattern → Craft god roll → Shard every future drop without a second thought. Vault space = managed.

• Without Crafting: Get a "good enough" roll → Hoard it → Get a slightly better roll with enhanced perks → Hoard that too → Vault explodes.

We’re being pushed back into the dark age of hoarding multiple copies of the same gun, "just in case." Bungie says they’re "looking at solutions" for vault storage, but those are tied to the big Frontiers expansion later. So for all of Episode 3: Heresy, we’re just supposed to live with the impending clutter? My vault is already 98% full of sunset weapons I can’t let go of for sentimental reasons (RIP my original Midnight Coup). This isn’t helping.

Revenant's Legacy: A System in Tonic 🍸

The Tonic system in Revenant was supposed to be the savior. The idea was: make seasonal weapons more common and focusable to make up for the lack of crafting. Sounds good on paper! The execution, however, was classic Destiny.

Promise	Reality	The Result
Common Drops	Buggy drop rates	More frustration than loot
Easy Focusing	Tonics were scarce	The grind felt pointless
Worth the Chase	Weapons were mostly average	One standout (Bitter/Sweet) saved the season

Now, Bungie is pinning its hopes on the "Heretical Arsenal" for Episode 3. Is it just a renamed, slightly tweaked Tonic system? Will it actually feel rewarding? Or will it be another case of "we hear you, but here's a new currency to grind instead"? The skepticism is thicker than a Cabal's hide.

Why This Hurts New Players the Most 🆕

This is the part that bums me out the most. For veterans, it’s an annoyance. For new players, it’s a potential roadblock. Seasonal activities are often the most accessible endgame content. Craftable seasonal weapons provided a clear, deterministic goal: play the activity, get patterns, build your arsenal. Now? They’re thrown back into the pure RNG pool with the rest of us. In an already overwhelming game, removing a reliable progression path is a strange choice. We should be handing new players tools, not more lottery tickets.

The Road Ahead: Heresy and Beyond 🔮

So, where does this leave us heading into 2025? Bungie seems dug in. No crafting for Revenant weapons (confirmed), and it "seems it won’t return in Heresy either." The stance appears rigid, potentially lasting all the way until Frontiers. This creates a huge risk:

1. Player Burnout: If the Heretical Arsenal grind is a slog, engagement will drop.

2. Loot Fatigue: Average weapons + hard-to-get god rolls = why bother?

3. Eroded Trust: Doing the exact thing players loudly disliked twice in a row is a bold strategy, Cotton.

As a pro gamer who lives in this world, my advice to Bungie would be this: Don't remove the safety net, fix the trapeze. If crafting devalues world drops, then improve world drops! Make them more unique, with perks that can't be crafted. Leave crafting as the reliable path for the seasonal, introductory gear. The current path feels less like a thoughtful evolution and more like a stubborn reversal. My Ghost is getting anxious, and honestly, so am I. Here's hoping the heresy is in the episode name, and not in the loot philosophy. 🙏