Destiny 2 should remove Power Level as years of creep makes the system meaningless

Bungie’s Power Level system for Destiny 2 is a way for the developers to easily gate content off behind level caps. When the system was introduced, it was an effective addition, but now that the game has seen years of feature creep and more powerful loot, the system no longer works as it once did.

With the new Year 11 roadmap making major changes to the MMO, and calming down its complexity, there are plans for the game to rework Power Levels in the game. However, some fans are calling for the system to just be scrapped as loot remains king.

Should Destiny 2 kill Power Level?

In a post on the Destiny subreddit, fans discussed the game’s system and how its become “meaningless” over the past few expansions. With activities rising in Power requirements every season, meaning players can’t easily grind back through old content, the system just stays as a simple difficulty level locked behind grinding.

“Power truly doesn’t mean as much as it once did. If it ever meant anything at all,” one player said. “Most activities in the game cap you at -x below the activity anyway. Where previously you could be roughly +30 above the activity and it made a difference.”

Exacerbating the system is the fact that low-level players can easily grind up to the required Power Level in a Fireteam. While harder for solo players, grinding with a Fireteam means that the game’s Power cap for activities never really matters.

A few years ago, Destiny 2 didn’t have this issue, but the game’s levelling systems have always been spotty. But do fans actually want to keep the system in place or not?

Players aren’t vibing with it

In the subreddit, dozens of fans expressed the same desire for removing the game’s Power Level or at least heavily reworking it.

“I’ve advocated for getting rid of gear power and just having artifact power, but honestly if the number went away completely and the new difficulty controls they’re building replaced all of that I wouldn’t be remotely unhappy,” a player said. “Power is pretty meaningless at this point and serves only as a gating mechanism for content people want to do, but are now prevented from doing because they need to do some other grinding first.”

“It’s been that time for a long time. It is a meaningless grind designed to inflate engagement,” said another.

On the other hand, other players want Destiny 2 to dive deeper into its RPG elements, While this would also require a complete reworking of the game’s Power Level system, it would be more complex and feel more rewarding. After all, as far as looter shooters go, D2 is very light on RPG systems.

With Marathon the top priority at Bungie and the fate of Destiny 3 still unknown, fans still have years of D2 content to look forward to. Hopefully, one of these days, there will be enough of a change to its levelling systems to make a difference.