Destiny 2 has launched to a very positive reception so far, especially among fans of the original game (primarily because developer Bungie fixed many of Destiny’s most glaring issues for the sequel). But one change that Bungie made has left players fuming: In Destiny 2, armor shaders are single-use consumable items.
Shaders are cosmetic items that can be applied to armor to give it a color scheme that’s different from its original look. In the original Destiny, players often received shaders as loot drops from various activities. They could also buy shaders from vendors such as Eva Levante with an in-game currency called Glimmer. (In both Destiny and Destiny 2, Glimmer must be earned through play — you can’t buy it with real money.)
But the main thing to know about how shaders worked in the original Destiny is that they were permanent items. Once you unlocked a shader, it was tied to your account forever. Your entire shader collection was available for browsing at in-game kiosks, and your character could hold up to nine of them at once. Using shaders was simple — you could swap out your current shader at any time in favor of a different one, or remove a shader altogether to show your armor’s innate colors.
There was only one major gripe that Destiny players had with shaders: They were an all-or-nothing style choice. When you put one on, its color scheme was applied to your entire set of armor. Players were excited to discover in the Destiny 2 beta that armor shaders would now be applied to individual pieces of armor — you’d be able to wear different shaders for your helmet, gauntlets, chest piece and boots. More granular customization is always better, right?
Unfortunately, it turns out that there was another shoe waiting to drop. Shaders are consumable items in Destiny 2, which actually limits customization. Say you find a set of shaders that you like the look of, and put them on your armor. If you get a different eye-catching shader later and decide to apply it, then you’ve lost access to the initial one; you’ll have to hope that it drops for you again. The same situation holds true from the armor side. If you ever get stronger armor than what you’re wearing right now, you’ll have to get separate shaders for it. (Destiny is all about chasing better and better gear, so this system may discourage players from ever using a shader on their armor until they unlock a full set of raid gear — the game’s best armor, which will require a lot of work to obtain.)
Destiny 2’s shader setup has produced a huge backlash among fans, with one thread on the game’s active subreddit advocating that players boycott the game’s microtransactions “until shaders become unlimited use.” As of this writing, the thread has more than 41,000 upvotes.
Microtransactions are a related issue that’s causing consternation with Destiny 2’s player base. The game’s real-money currency, Silver, can be spent on an item called a bright engram, which is essentially a loot box. Shaders are part of the loot table for bright engrams, and cynical players are suspecting that Bungie made this change to shaders in order to ensure that it had something that it could continue to put in loot boxes. (It’s also easy to get bright engrams once you hit the level cap. So a microtransaction won’t get you anything you can’t earn just by playing the game.)
Destiny 2 game director Luke Smith addressed the furor in a series of tweets this afternoon, saying that Bungie wanted to make shaders “an ongoing reward for playing.” Because there are unique shaders and armor pieces available for each destination, said Smith, Bungie hopes the drive for armor customization will inspire people to keep playing the game:
With D2, we want statements like "I want to run the Raid, Trials, or go back to Titan to get more of its Shader" to be possible. (4/4)
— Luke Smith (@thislukesmith) September 7, 2017
After seeing Smith’s tweets, the author of the aforementioned Reddit post updated it to say they were sad that things apparently aren’t going to change.
“Well boys and girls it seems the new system is here to stay,” wrote Redditor WeilandM. “I’m not happy about it, but hopefully we are all just as whiny and melodramatic as we’re being made out to be, and shaders will end up being in ridiculous surplus (which will basically make them like they were in [Destiny].)
“At the end of the day, Destiny 2 is a fantastic game outside of this one annoying issue.”
Either way, fans are certainly making their voices heard. “The conversation about all the ways in which we play and are rewarded by the game will continue,” Bungie said in a blog post today. “We’re just getting started on this new journey. Keep talking. We’re always listening.”
For more on Destiny 2, read our review-in-progress and our extensive FAQ.
Update (Sept. 8): We’ve updated the article to clarify how to obtain bright engrams.