With findings in hand, the tester posted on Reddit with calls to the developers for a response, which the community received on Saturday. Bungie confirmed its use of an “XP scaler” and added that it was “not performing the way we’d like it to,” which meant the developer would remove that XP-scaling system upon the game’s next patch.
However, Bungie didn’t clarify how the developers actually would have liked for this XP-scaling system to work, nor what factored into it announcing any changes beyond the system simply being discovered.
Double your XP grind, double your fun?
A patch went live on Sunday, and one data-hungry player soon confirmed that all of the XP-scaling systems they’d uncovered were now gone. Players would now be rewarded XP as advertised in the game, no matter what mode was played or for how long.
But this patch introduced another unannounced change to the XP system. Bungie decided to tune the speed of XP gain by doubling the required XP needed to “level up,” from 80,000 points to 160,000. Patch notes didn’t mention this change; Bungie, once again, had to be questioned by its fanbase before confirming the exact amount of this XP-related change. (As of press time, the game’s public API does not report the updated XP-per-level amount to players combing data that way, which Bungie says will be fixed soon.)
Fan outcry to this system has mostly hinged on the lack of transparency from the developer, with the game neither displaying correct XP amounts while scaling was active nor officially guiding players to play better-gaining modes. Other players have pointed to official, paid promotions, like Bungie and Activision’s promotional deal with the snack food Pop-Tarts, which offered doubled XP gains in exchange for buying their food. “Did I technically get the 25-percent [XP] boost?” Reddit user Armlock311 wrote on Saturday. “Technically yes, but if [the] scaling mechanic was public knowledge before the Pop-Tarts event began, would you have spent your money on Pop-Tarts for the XP gain? I wouldn’t have.”
Other players have openly questioned how much this scaling system was driven by the game’s real-money economy. Destiny 2 players can spend real money on bright engrams, which can more quickly unlock the game’s loot box contents than can be earned via XP grinding. Bungie’s Saturday statement about the XP scaling system did not address this question from fans.