It took a while, but Bungie is tweaking Destiny 2’s transmog system

‘We will deprecate the passively-earned world currency, Synthstrand’

Three months ago (!) Bungie revealed their plans to roll out a Destiny 2 transmog (cosmetic shift) system, and man was it a drag.  Now, it’s changing.

Here’s the exact phrasing that Bungie uses in their latest blog:

“Effective at the start of Season 15 we will deprecate the passively-earned world currency, Synthstrand, that was used to purchase Armor Synthesis bounties from Ada-1. In its place, these bounties will be purchasable for 10,000 Glimmer instead.”

Breaking this down, this eliminates the most painful step of the Destiny 2 transmog process, which involves grinding out random enemies to kill for the Synthstrand currency. Now you can just buy bounties for straight cash, which grants you Synthcords, which you can convert into Synthweave at the Loom in The Tower. Then you use that to craft a Universal Weapon Ornament. So it’s still kind of bonkers, but less so.

Bungie says that they “hope” this will make the Destiny 2 transmog system less grindy, reducing the time needed to fill out the cap (which is still baffling) each season. The publisher explains that it makes the system less complex, and opens up slots for currencies instead of forcing you to juggle multiple. As usual, Bungie will “continue to monitor the conversation” about Destiny 2 transmog as the next season (15) comes to fruition.

It’s still a bit fiddly, but it’s an overall improvement. Destiny players are always asking for more gold [glimmer] sinks, so this lines up with what the system should have been in the first place. Forcing people into grinding out what is essentially a free-to-play three-step currency scheme for Destiny 2 transmog, when some other games just…let you do it instantly for in-game gold was extremely extra.

But that’s generally how Destiny has operated since the IP was created. The developers try something wacky that no other game does for the sake of it, people ask “why?”, then it gets reverted. Seeing the Destiny 2 transmog system revert like clockwork weeks after the fact is just a Thursday in Destiny land.