Highlights

  • Destiny 2 has been facing various issues and doubts surrounding its commitment to improvement, including the recent departure of Game Director Joe Blackburn.
  • While Bungie has made efforts to listen to player feedback and make changes to the game, the newly introduced Riven's Wishes have been underwhelming and feel like a chore due to their reliance on outdated content.
  • The rewards from Riven's Wishes are desirable, but the requirements for completing them, such as defeating large numbers of combatants or repeating older activities, may not be worth the effort compared to other content in the game. The overall approach could have been more player-friendly.

Destiny 2 has been on the road to recovery for quite some time now, as the once-exemplary live-service title started to show some cracks with the release of Lightfall and how flawed its story was, but concerns regarding other aspects of the game kept coming. With the Bungie layoffs, lack of communication regarding rewards, PvP, and Eververse cosmetics, and then the delay of The Final Shape, the community started to doubt the company's commitment to the game and making it the best it can be. Destiny 2's Season of the Wish came, and some concerns were put to rest, seeing how good The Coil activity was and still is, but others remained - and now the weekly Riven's Wishes drop the ball once more.

Destiny 2 Game Director Joe Blackburn is leaving soon, as announced on social media yesterday, and this too sparked debate among players about what to expect from the future of the game. What some recent changes show is that Bungie is listening to the players, with changes being made to the gameplay loop or even PvP getting new content, but the newly introduced Riven's Wishes turned from a promising endgame grind to a chore really fast as the various objectives surfaced online.

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Destiny 2's Endgame Grind Shouldn't Rely on Outdated Content

Why Destiny 2's Weekly Wishes Don't Work

The gameplay in Destiny 2's activities is often subject to the flavor of the month builds and Exotics, as well as what is being used in rotation for things like GM Nightfalls, but it has steadily evolved over the span of several years. The endgame in Destiny 2 is now in a decent enough space that it doesn't need major overhauls like other elements of the game, especially with new Dungeons and Raids being released with every season - possibly with every episode in the future.

However, some activities and locations are widely considered outdated for gameplay purposes, be it because the mechanics are effectively from different eras of the game or because their effort-reward ratio is not great. For example, some players may not want to run Raids multiple times to try and get red-border weapons, so farming Destiny 2's Spoils of Conquest and getting those specific guns at the end of the run may be beneficial. In the case of Riven's Wishes, they are weekly account-wide missions where players are tasked with completing some objectives that seem to mostly revolve around outdated activities, like Heroic Events in the Dreaming City.

The current selection of weekly activities surfaced online, including:

  • Complete three Rift Generators and Dreaming City activities (Week One)
  • Open seven Ascendant Chests (Week Two)
  • Defeat 1600 Combatants in Legend or Master Lost Sectors (Week Three)
  • Complete Tier 3 Blind Well and defeat 1500 enemies in Blind Well (Week Four)
  • Defeat 80 Taken Bosses or Pauurc, the Farseer's Heir (Week Five)
  • Complete the Prophecy Dungeon (Week Six)

Why Riven's Wishes Are a Chore in Destiny 2

Mara Crow and Petra standing before Riven in Destiny 2

Destiny 2: Riven's Wishes May Not Be Worth Doing

While the rewards from Destiny 2's weekly Wishes missions are great, the requirements are mostly a chore, requiring players to spend time doing some of the least-liked or oldest content in the game just to get some loot in the dead months before The Final Shape's release. What follows is that a highly-anticipated and rewarding piece of content may not be worth doing.

One of the best rewards from Riven's Wishes is the ability to choose one of Last Wish's red-border weapons in Destiny 2, essentially getting a red-border for free without having to complete a Raid. Still, tasking players with defeating 1600 combatants in Legend or Master Lost Sectors, or completing a dated activity like the Blind Well multiple times, is not much of an upgrade compared to beating a five-year-old Raid. Riven's Wishes had a lot of potential, and they still do for those who'd rather get loot like the event-exclusive Mementos, but the overall approach could have been much more player-friendly than it really is.