Good news for avid Destiny players: Forsaken won't make all of your Year One legendary gear obsolete. During E3 2018, I got the chance to sit down with game director Steve Cotton, design lead Lars Bakken, and project lead Scott Taylor to talk about Forsaken and, more specifically, its new hybrid PvE and PvP mode called Gambit. We'll have our impressions of Gambit for you later in the week, but during that conversation we touched on something that will bring relief to hardcore players. Gear dropped in Forsaken won't necessarily outclass the gear you've already acquired.
When The Taken King came out for Destiny in 2015, it reworked the way a number of core systems worked, and as a result Bungie opted to leave all old items locked at power threshold that couldn't reach the new cap. With Forsaken also set to overhaul key systems—random perk rolls are returning, weapon slots are being unlocked, mods are being improved—fans were worried that the same thing might be about to happen to the gear they've already amassed. But not so.
We are very comfortable saying that if you're working on faction rallies right now, or the things that are coming in the summer, that'll still be totally worth it...
Scott Taylor, project lead
"You'll be able to bring your Year One stuff forward with you, if you own Forsaken you'll be able to bring it up to the same [level]," Cotton told me. What isn't clear, however, is how your current weapons will stay relevant. Though it's pure speculation on my part, it's probably safe to assume there will be some kind of upgrade system that will let you bump up Year One legendaries. Perhaps we'll even be able to mod them in the same way as the new guns.
It's one of many questions that the three developers were unable to answer with any specifics. When asked about how the loadout system, which let's players carry any type of weapon they like—three shotguns, anyone?—would change the way different ammo types dropped, Cotton said it was something they were actively working on.
While there's still a lot of specifics still to clear up, it's good to know that all those hours grinding grinding Escalation Protocol for that shotgun won't be wasted once Forsaken drops. If you're an active player, you can continue to chug along knowing there'll be some way of upgrading your Year One gear. "We are very comfortable saying that if you're working on faction rallies right now, or the things that are coming in the summer, that'll still be totally worth it because you'll be able to bring that stuff into the new content," Taylor said. "But we have a lot more details to talk about there, but we can definitely assure people that'll be the case."
