The Iron Banner went live in Destiny 2 this week, the first time since season three and the Warmind expansion launched a few weeks ago. This weeklong multiplayer event offers exclusive rewards to players who participate. But the Bungie community is currently up in arms that a new, Iron Banner-themed emote can’t actually be earned by playing the mode itself. Instead, it can only be purchased from the Eververse, Destiny 2’s real-money store.
The emote will cost players 1100 Silver, which sells for $9.99, and Bungie community manager Cozmo confirmed on a Reddit thread that the emote currently doesn’t drop from any other location.
In the same thread, some players expressed genuine excitement that they can purchase the emote directly, rather than having to open the random Eververse loot boxes that players can earn through in-game level ups or by purchasing directly. Other players felt less good about Bungie’s decision.
In a Reddit thread posted by user MageroSTC titled “The ‘Salute of the Iron Lords’ Emote Better Not Be ONLY Available From Tess [the Eververse vendor],” over 1,200 comments have been posted. Most of those comments are Iron Banner-inspired goofs, anger, or what seems to be genuine community disappointment.
In better news, players have found a way to break the new emote in fantastic ways, as can be seen in the GIF above.
Reddit user SonowRaevius seems to gather most of community’s complaints into one comment:
Just so everyone knows, no one is complaining that it is a direct purchase, what people are complaining about is:
-It’s an Iron Banner themed item, it should have been in the Iron Banner loot pool. Had this been some random other emote no one would have blinked an eye.
-This also is happening after seeing a vast improvement in loot, having things like ghost shells, sparrows, emotes, ships, and more shaders (including some exotics of these) spread throughout the world and vendors, instead of stuffed into loot boxes themselves.
-The price is too high. $10 for a single emote is not worth it. Had this been a fourth or even half the price many people probably wouldn’t see too much issue with it.
After initial feedback for Destiny 2, Bungie added many cosmetics back into the game as loot that can be earned, rather than just purchased. The community sees this new Iron Banner-themed emote as a step backward from Bungie’s recent initiatives.
Iron Banner has the same “old knight” aesthetic that it did in the original Destiny, with event-specific armor letting players look like all manner of ancient soldiers. The new exotic emote, called “Salute of the Iron Lords,” sees the crest of the Iron Lords appear in front of the player as a hologram, and the axe relic from Destiny: Rise of Iron appear in their hands.
Polygon has reached out to Bungie on if the emote will ever be available through playing Iron Banner, rather than a simple purchase.