Destiny 2 fans waste hundreds of Iron Banner tokens due to bug

Destiny 2’s monthly PvP spectacular, Iron Banner, made its debut in the Season of the Splicer on Tuesday. This time around, Iron Banner vendor Lord Saladin brought with him several weapons: two reprised Iron Banner guns from past seasons, and two brand-new weapons, the Riiswalker shotgun and the Archon’s Thunder machine gun.

Unfortunately, a bug has prevented the new weapons from dropping like they’re supposed to. Even worse, Bungie wasn’t able to inform Guardians of the bug until after many players wasted their Iron Banner tokens looking for the new guns.

Iron Banner only shows up once a month in Destiny 2, and offers players a unique version of the Control gametype (capture the zones). When players complete matches, they earn Iron Banner tokens. Players can then turn in these tokens to Lord Saladin in exchange for Iron Banner weapons and armor. These Iron Banner items also drop from match completions, the seasonal Iron Banner quest, and bounties that Saladin offers each month.

At nearly 7 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, Bungie Help tweeted that Archon’s Thunder and Riiswalker are currently only available from Saladin’s new “Leverage the Void” quest. The weapons are not dropping after matches, bounties, or — worst of all — token turn-ins.

Unlike some other currencies in Destiny 2, Iron Banner tokens don’t expire between seasons. This means that players could theoretically save up tokens for the next time Lord Saladin brings something new. And that’s exactly what many (now angry) Destiny 2 fans did.

Players were able to dive into Iron Banner and spend tokens for nearly six hours before Bungie revealed the bug. This led to numerous posts on Destiny’s subreddit from players complaining about spending hundreds or even thousands of tokens without getting either of the new weapons.

Many other players took to Twitter to complain about what they perceived to be a low or unlucky drop rate.

Once Bungie announced the bug on its Bungie Help Twitter, players got even more frustrated.

Other players, included content creators, have started begging Bungie to refund their wasted Iron Banner tokens.

Bungie Help hasn’t offered an update on the bug since Tuesday, and Bungie’s community directors haven’t given an update either. Without any kind of update, it’s currently unclear if Riiswalker or Archon’s Thunder will make it into Saladin’s loot pool until next Iron Banner. With this complex of an issue, it’s also impossible to know if Bungie can refund players’ wasted Iron Banner tokens.

Guardians are currently playing the waiting game while Bungie delves into the bug behind the scenes. We’ll update this post if Bungie provides any updates.

Update (May 20): Destiny 2 community manager, Dylan Gafner, tweeted that the development team at Bungie won’t be able to fix the issue during this Iron Banner. Fans will need to wait until next month’s Iron Banner, which starts June 8.

The weapons should be back in the loot pool on June 8, although by the sound of dmg’s tweet, it could take longer to fix. Gafner didn’t mention any plans to refund Iron Banner tokens for players.