A new exploit discovered in Destiny this week allows players to get certain microtransaction rewards without actually spending real money. Expect this one to be fixed pretty quickly.
UPDATE (2:04pm): Bungie has issued a hotfix to stop the exploit.
Original article follows:
Yesterday, developer Bungie opened up the Sparrow Racing League, a limited-time event in which players can race against one another for various prizes. As part of the event, they added an item called the SRL Record Book, which you can buy for 1,000 Silver ($10) at the Eververse microtransaction store.
The concept is simple: You go out and pull off some accomplishments, like finishing 25 races or hitting 500 gates, and your book fills up accordingly. Completing different achievements will net you various rewards, all cosmetic, like a sparrow and a set of neat-looking armor.
Problem is—as players on Reddit and elsewhere discovered—you can tick off these achievements and collect the rewards without actually buying the record book. Turns out they’re all achievable on the preview screen at the Eververse store, which you can access without spending a dime. Players who have gotten these accomplishments can just click each circle in the preview screen and get the rewards accordingly.
Naturally, players who actually dished out the $10 are pretty pissed about this whole situation, asking Bungie for refunds. (Minutes after this article was published, Bungie tweeted that they’re aware of the bug.)
The newest Destiny patch also came with a number of other problems and glitches. Don’t decrypt legendary boots until this thing is fixed.
You can reach the author of this post at jason@kotaku.com or on Twitter at @jasonschreier.