Destiny's Iron Banner rewards were weak because of a bug, Bungie reveals

Destiny: The Taken King's first Iron Banner event was a bust in terms of its drops, and it turns out that the event didn't fulfill Bungie's promises about rewards because of a "nasty bug," the studio admitted in its weekly update today.

When the Iron Banner went live last week alongside the arrival of Destiny version 2.0.1, Bungie said that players would no longer need to buy Iron Banner gear from Lord Saladin; instead, they would be receiving those legendary items as end-of-match drops. But that didn't end up being the case, and players took to forums like the Destiny subreddit en masse to complain about the paltry rewards they were getting.

"Last week, it was clear to us that you were frustrated by the Iron Banner reward drops, and rightly so," said Lars Bakken, design lead on Destiny. "It turns out that, when we started digging into the issue, we uncovered a nasty bug that affected how Legendary drops happen throughout the Crucible, including Iron Banner."

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Bakken promised that Bungie is doing its best to "ensure that the next Iron Banner will work as intended, and be even better than before," and he added that the studio's eventual changes will "make your entire Crucible career more rewarding."

Today's weekly update also included reports from other developers about upcoming tweaks to Crucible bounties and quests. Bungie is looking to reduce the difficulty of bounties that are "too hard to complete, demand too much carnage at once, or put too much requirement on other players," according to senior designer Andrew Weldon. Senior designer Leif Johansen added that Bungie will shorten and simplify the "glacially long" quest line called "Crucible Forged," which debuted in The Taken King. Players will make progress whether they win or lose, and will be able to complete multiple steps of the quest at once.

Bungie said that all of the aforementioned changes are set to arrive in update 2.0.2, which the studio is planning to release before Thanksgiving. And now that this week's patch 2.0.1.2 fixed the glitch associated with the Nightstalker's Shadowshot super — well, kind of — Bungie confirmed that the delayed return of Trials of Osiris will occur Oct. 30.

Tomorrow, Oct. 23, is when the hard version of King's Fall, The Taken King's raid, goes live at 10 a.m. PT. Bungie didn't provide any specifics on the hard mode's new mechanics, but lead designer Gavin Irby did say that the studio "shied away from simply increasing sandbox difficulty (not that it won't be harder)." In addition to tougher enemies, players will have to contend with "one more plate to spin," according to Irby.

For more on Destiny: The Taken King, read our review.