Destiny 2’s paid Character Boost is changing in Lightfall. When the new expansion launches, there will be two different kinds of Character Boosts available, depending on your progress. On🍃ce you hit soft cap with one of your characters, you&rsqu♉o;ll be able to boost your other characters up with a set of high Power level gear, just like normal. Once you finish the Lightfall campaign, there will be a new option to pay a fee and skip the campaign on your other characters, allowing them to gain access to Strand right away, and start with high Power level gear, provided your first character is at soft cap.
This should be great news for Destiny players. For years, the community has been asking for a way to skip the campaign on their alts, and now they have it. Not everyone plays more than one character in Destiny 2, but switching up your class can help you do a lot of things. It gives you more chances to get ra🍸re gear from raids and dungeons with lockout systems, it can make certain activities easier by giving you access to a wider variety of builds and abilities, and it extends the grind significantly. Sometimes you just want some variety, and Destiny can be a very different game depending on the class you’re playing.
The campaign has always been a barrier to running multiple characters. Destiny 2’s campaigns are great and have only gotten better over time, but like most MMO-style games, they’re only meant to be played once before you settle into the daily and weekly grind. I’m a Hunter main, but I’d love to dabble in Titan and Warlock too. The thought of having to replay the entirety of The Witch Queen campaign before I can start exploring the game as these classes is too daunting though, so I just stick with my main. Bungie has granted my wish, but as the monkey paw curls a wretched finger I’m forced to decide what I value♐ more: my money or my time.
I’m sensitive about developers designing problems and selling solutions. Once of the grossest, most anti-player things I’ve ever seen was when Ubisoft sold a permanent double XP boost for Assassin’s Creed Origins to speed up its 🌸deliberately laborious grind. I don’t think the paid campaign skip is exactly comparable, but it gives me the same feeling. Does this need to be monetized, or should Bungie have just allowed alts to skip the campaign for free?
When you pay to power boost your characters, you’re actually get🍌ting something. For 2,000 silver (roughly $20) you get a full set of high level armor that increases your character’s power level. The campaign skip is not automatic completion of the campaign. If you want the triumphs, gear, and anything else that you get for finishing Lightfall, you actually have to play it. It seems like a small distinction but it’s an important one. When you pay to skip the campaign you’re li🤡terally buying nothing.
I’d like to be principled about this, but there’s a good chance I’ll cave and pay for the boost so t🌞hat I can finally see what it’s like to Warlock and Titan. There’s a lot of noise being made about this decision right now, but I think a lot of players will end up begrudgingly paying for it anyway. Desꦚtiny’s monetization has always been a little iffy, and this is, unfortunately, a move in the wrong direction. I’m not mad Bungie, but I am disappointed.