Joe Thomaselli
Strikes have gone through several changes over the years throughout both Destiny 1 and 2. The activity was a great place to increase your light level and earn more legendary weapons in the first game. Later, a feature called Strike-Specific Loot introduced in the Taken King DLC enhanced it further, and saw percentages of players running the activity skyrocket.
Strike-Specific loot was exactly as it sounded: unique loot drops for “nearly” every Strike in the game. This included weapons and even armor pieces for each class in the game. A prime example was one of the most beloved Strike-Specific loot drops, the Imago Loop Hand Cannon from the Undying Mind Strike. This particular weapon would cause thousands of players to run the activity repeatedly to obtain one.
Imago Loop was arguably one of the most, if not the most, sought-out weapon in Destiny 1 for multiple reasons. With the Taken King DLC, Bungie wanted to do a soft reset for the game; thus, the weapons players had previously earned were no longer usable for the foreseeable future. This included the Fatebringer Hand Cannon, one of the franchise’s most infamous and renowned weapons. Fatebringer was a weapon from the Vault of Glass raid and was one of the best weapons to use in all game activities. Its unique perk pool allowed it to be rolled with the Explosive Rounds and Firefly perks, which were by far the best to use at the time. Then, with the release of the Taken King DLC, Fatebringer was no longer allowed to be used in future content. The Imago Loop came into the picture shortly after.
The Imago Loop would be a near replica of the original Fatebringer, from the aesthetics of the gun down to even the perk pools. This includes the ability to roll Explosive Rounds and Firefly as well. With the reveal of a Fatebringer 2.0, huge numbers of players would dive into the Strike playlist in hopes of first playing the Undying Mind Strike, as well as having the possibility of Imago Loop drop with the Fatebringer Roll. As it turned out, Imago Loop would be just one of many Strike-Specific loot drops in the game, but it captured the hearts of all in such a unique fashion that, to this day, most Destiny 1 veterans fondly recall it.
Jump six years later, Destiny 2 is over five years old and still has no proper loot system for Strikes. In response to Strike-Specific loot, Destiny 2 introduced Nightfall weapons instead. Nightfall weapons can only be acquired through Nightfall Strikes, but you can only earn them one at a time. For example, in the latest season of Destiny 2, Season of Plunder, the game introduced two “new” Nightfall weapons, the Mindbender’s Ambition Shotgun and the Militia’s Birthright Grenade Launcher. Both guns were previously Nightfall exclusive weapons, meaning they were only obtained from specific Nightfall Strikes. That has, however, since been replaced by now being able to earn these guns when they are featured in a given week.
Nightfall Strikes can be match-made similarly to regular Strikes. However, the higher the difficulty a player chooses, they will eventually lose the option to play with others. Grandmaster Nightfall Strikes even given Adept versions of these Nightfall weapons. It sounds good on paper, but it leaves one glaring problem. What about regular Strikes? As mentioned earlier, Strikes only currently serves one purpose: to give a pinnacle loot drop after completing three. After which, there’s no other reason to run the activity.
Adding back Strike-Specific loot would give the playlist a breath of fresh air and incite players to play more than three runs. They don’t necessarily need to replace Nightfall weapons, which can be a separate category, but as players would agree, more guns are better than less. Adding back Imago Loop, for example, would be great for players who cannot run the Vault of Glass raid but still want to use a weapon like Fatebringer. Whether they make these changes in a future season or perhaps even the upcoming Lightfall DLC, these changes need to happen sooner rather than later.
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