Is Destiny 2 Not Giving You As Much XP As It Seems?

When it comes to gaining experience in MMO-style games there are always going to be complaints about the quality of the experience gains, so much so that some people will feel as if the experience isn't being issued fairly. In the case of Destiny 2, some gamers feel as if the XP being issued isn't as much as it seems.

Eurogamer is reporting that gamers have been investigating the XP output in Destiny 2 after reaching level 20, and it turns out that after that threshold is reached, as players are gaining XP in order to unlock Bright Engrams (which replaces earning levels after you hit level 20), you will lose a lot more XP than you'll gain if you decide to actually grind for it.

Eurogamer points to a detailed Reddit post that goes through the rather complex numerical and math crunching required to figure out the scaling process of Destiny 2's XP output for those who are above level 20. User EnergiserX explains that as players attempt to grind out XP in public events, Crucible matches, or by taking on Patrols will actually undercut their XP gains. How much XP will you use in the game if you decide to repetitiously grind events and patrols? According to EnergiserX, you can lose up to 95% of your XP gains due to a scaling factor that kicks in for grinders.

The faster and more intense your grinding, the more reduced your XP gains. The scaler basically punishes those who attempt to put in more time and effort than others, creating a sort of communistic trigger designed to balance how much experience players can earn.

EnergiserX claims that the harder you work toward quickly progressing to unlock the next Bright Engram, you will face "dramatically diminishing returns."

While estimates and guesswork might work for some people, others needed hard graphs to showcase what was actually lost during the grind. Eurogamer links to the graph that EnergiserX put together based on values calculated by the Destiny tool, DIM, where it clearly shows that over the course of three and a half hours, the more grinding done to earn XP the more XP that was lost. Based on the chart he lost out on an approximate 130,000 XP over the course of those three hours.

So what exactly is the issue here?

Well, while the data is definitely illuminating it's not conclusive. However, Eurogamer poses the very frightening possibility that Bungie may be culling XP gains for people who grind harder and play more assiduously than other players. The question becomes: why would Bungie curtail XP gains with a scaler?

Well, Eurogamer proposed the rather harsh possibility that Bungie is purposefully ensuring that those who grind the most would receive smaller XP output relative to the amount of time they played in order to get those people to simply use the cash shop to acquire Bright Engrams instead of grind for them. It would basically turn Destiny 2's most fervent grinders into potential "whales," a highly sought after consumer who would spend big bucks to keep playing their favorite game. Additionally, it might influence some people to spend money on XP boosters in order to help them grind.

This frightening possibility led Eurogamer to reach out for comment from Activision and Bungie, but Bungie decided to respond via a blog post, stating that it would be deactivating the XP scaling system, effective immediately.