After nearly a decade, Bungie is finally killing off Destiny 2’s planetary materials.
In its usual Thursday blog, the studio revealed that starting in season 19 — which starts Dec. 6 — the various collectible materials found on in-game planets will be going (mostly) away. Players have been collecting some of these materials, like Spinmetal, since the original Destiny, and have used them for a variety of uses over the course of the series. Currently, these materials are exchanged for Glimmer (Destiny 2’s default money) and Upgrade Modules, which players use to level up their gear.
Starting next season, players will still be able to turn their old materials in for Glimmer, but they won’t be able to earn anymore. Upgrade materials and Exotics from the catch-up kiosk will no longer require planetary materials at all, and will instead require more Legendary shards, which players acquire by dismantling old gear.
As for why Bungie is making this massive change, the studio says it wants to simplify the economy for players who are just getting into the game. There are six planetary materials in total that players will no longer be able to pick up starting in December:
- Dusklight Shards
- Microphasic Datalattice
- Helium Filaments
- Baryon Boughs
- Spinmetal Leaves
- Glacial Starwort
Once players have exchanged all of these materials, they’ll instead be able to exchange other resources for Glimmer, like the Dreaming City’s Dark Fragments or Herealways Pieces from Europa. Those in desperate need of Glimmer will also be able to dive into Public Events on planets. Starting in season 19, Heroic Public Events will reward between 10,000 and 12,500 Glimmer per completion. Normal runs will net players a little less than 5,000 Glimmer.
As for the material nodes on the planets, players will still be able to collect them. However, instead of picking up the material and putting it in their inventories, the game will automatically exchange the pickup for Glimmer and XP — much like Fynch in Savathun’s Throne World. However, old planetary vendors won’t be getting the same planetary reputation system that Fynch has — at least not just yet.
As for the rest of the blog, Bungie revealed some great artwork for the new Gundam-inspired skins coming to the game with next week’s Halloween event, Festival of the Lost. (We still don’t know much about what players will be doing in Festival of the Lost this year). The studio also revealed a host of PvP-focused weapon changes to individual weapon archetypes, which we recommend checking out in the blog itself.
