There’s a major obstacle to fun in Destiny 2. It’s called Power. Every activity is gated behind a character’s gear score, forcing players to grind hours of repetitive content, not for cool loot but to simply make an arbitrary number slowly creep up. Now that the sci-fi MMO’s player numbers are hitting historic lows, at least on PC, Bungie is reversing course on some of the most annoying new Power grinding mechanics added in this year’s Edge of Fate expansion to pave the way for better vibes when the Star Wars DLC hits in December. What Bungie actually needs to do is get rid of Power entirely.
That sounds like a drastic measure for a core mechanic that’s been guiding player activity in the series for over a decade. But drastic times call for drastic measures. Destiny 2 concurrent player numbers are dipping below 10,000 on Steam for the first time ever, and content creators are abandoning the game in droves. A boring and hollow Ash & Iron update last month sent morale into the gutter. “It feels like the Destiny community is in mourning today,” read a top post on the subreddit. “We have truly lost a loved one.” That hyperbole was 27 days ago. It hasn’t gotten better since.
Bungie is now pulling out an emergency band-aid to stop the bleeding. I’m not sure it’s big enough. It announced on X yesterday that seasonal Power gains will no longer reset, resources for raising the Power level of gear will carry over between updates, and the development team is going to roll out a “catch-up” for players starting next week that will bring everyone up to 300 Power. The max cap right now is 550. Will it stay that way through the Star Wars Renegades expansion launching December 2? That’s still a big question mark.
As we continue to develop Power and Progression changes for Destiny 2: Renegades, we'd like to announce the following changes:
– Seasonal Power will now carry over into Season 28 in December. There will not be a Seasonal Power reset as in past Seasons.
– Additionally, your…— Destiny 2 Team (@Destiny2Team) October 6, 2025
Players have greeted these changes with the slightest twinge of relief. These problems should never have existed in the first place, making solutions to them this late in the year feel less like a win than a temporary respite from things continuing to get worse. While Bungie is busy fishing out splinters, the larger wound remains, and I think some people are losing patience with anything short of wholesale overhauls. In this case, that means getting rid of Power entirely.
The mechanic has mainly served two purposes throughout Destiny‘s history: calibrate difficulty and give players a sense of progression. You make your Power go up to unlock end-game challenges and slowly make them easier. This year’s Edges of Fate flipped that logic on its head. Power is still used to gate content, but it also has no real bearing on things once you’re able to play it.
The main grind Destiny 2 currently funnels players towards is the Portal, a set list of activities with modifiers that let you earn better versions of existing gear. These modifiers essentially de-couple difficulty from Power anyway. The result was a grind that felt repetitive and bloated for no other reason than extending the average person’s play time.
Destiny 2 needs far more than just a few re-calibrations heading into Renegades. It needs to prioritize fun, accessibility, and rewarding people’s time investment. Stripping out Power entirely would go a long way toward all of those goals. Maybe existing fans would play less. Or maybe it would force Bungie to focus on content that’s fun for its own sake rather than just another way to make meaningless numbers tick up.
