Highlights
- Destiny 2's loot chests often disappoint players with underwhelming rewards, especially those found in patrol destinations, Lost Sectors, and Public Events.
- Certain loot chests, like those at the Lighthouse and in Raids and Dungeons, offer meaningful rewards, but they are challenging to reach.
- There is a lack of rewards from many loot chests in the game, highlighting a larger issue with the overall quality of rewards in Destiny 2's patrol destinations.
Destiny 2 has its distinct merits regarding what it brings to the table for the looter-shooter genre, but it isn’t without its own weaknesses. While the gunplay in Destiny 2 has always been praiseworthy, its approach to loot can sometimes leave much to be desired.
One recurring problem in Destiny 2 points out how poorly the game handles one signature principle among looter-shooters, which is the quality of rewards from opening loot chests. While a few particular loot chests in Destiny 2 regularly offer meaningful rewards, the majority of loot chests in the game can be severely underwhelming.
The Problem with Loot Chests in Destiny 2
Certain loot chests in Destiny 2 can be highly rewarding, although chests with lesser rewards generally outnumber those with worthwhile items. The loot chests that regularly offer substantial rewards are currently found at the Lighthouse for going flawless in Trials of Osiris, the finale of Dares of Eternity, and at the end of encounters in Raids and Dungeons in Destiny 2. Given that these loot chests are a challenge to reach, it makes sense that their rewards are of high quality, whereas the opposite is true for the other loot chests in Destiny 2.
As for the loot chests in Destiny 2 with poor rewards, these are found exploring patrol destinations, Lost Sectors, and Public Events. Also, the loot chest from the lowest difficulty of the Vanguard Strikes playlist has a habit of only rewarding Glimmer and Vanguard reputation. The infamously underwhelming loot chests in these particular activities are extremely common to encounter, which somewhat justifies their poor rewards, although it has still become an extreme issue in Destiny 2.
Under certain circumstances, even secret chests in Destiny 2’s Raids can give underwhelming rewards. When players open secret chests anywhere in a Destiny 2 Raid without having first obtained loot from completing the major encounters, the secret chests won’t give anything besides armor mods and Glimmer since these chests can only reward weapons and armor that players have already discovered. This situation only applies to the first time that players participate in a Raid, but in hindsight, it can still be very frustrating to not receive Raid rewards from these secret chests.
The lack of rewards from most of the lesser loot chests is generally a symptom of a much bigger problem. Destiny 2’s patrol destinations don’t hold up to the rewards from other available activities, which has been a long-running issue in the game for many years by now. For high-level players, most of the activities found in Destiny 2’s patrol destinations aren’t worthy of engaging with unless there is an ulterior motive, like bounties or seasonal challenges, that will make up for the otherwise poor rewards.
Lost Sectors on Legend and Master difficulty used to be the go-to spot for farming endgame materials and Exotics in Destiny 2, but there are much more reliable sources for these rewards now. Given the high difficulty of the Lost Sectors in Destiny 2 and the fact that the final loot chests can often give minimal rewards, it’s much more efficient to get these kinds of rewards from sources that aren’t loot chests.
Another issue is the RNG related to the rewards from loot chests in Destiny 2, whereas some of the loot chests are fully capable of granting high-quality rewards, but frequently fail to do so, forcing players to repeat certain activities. To the community’s knowledge, there isn’t a pity system in place for players who consistently get poor rewards in Destiny 2. Given how extreme this issue can become, a pity system could arguably go a long way toward restoring the reputation of loot chests.
Destiny 2 is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
