I Hate Destiny 2 RNG, It's My Favorite Part Of The Game

Last night, I was trying to figure out how many times I’ve run Spire of the Watcher in Destiny 2. That dungeon was added during Season of the Seraph on December 9, 2022, which means 81 weeks have passed since I first played it. I’m not the most consistent Destiny player, but I’ve probably been around for at least half that time. Conservatively, I’ll say I’ve completed Spire of the Watcher around 30 times - at roughly 90 minutes a run - and I’ve still yet to earn its Exotic bow, Hierarchy of Needs. That’s a name that’s taken on an increasingly ironic meaning in the 18 months I’ve been trying, and failing, to get it.

RNG has been a major topic within the Destiny community lately thanks to the new Exotic class items. These items have randomly rolled traits from a pool of existing Exotic traits, and if you land on the right combination, you’ll have an incredibly powerful, build-defining piece of gear. The problem is there’s something like 80 different two-trait combinations you can get, and it’s not an easy item to farm.

Currently, there are only two ways to acquire an Exotic class item. You can complete the Dual Destiny mission, which requires two people and about 35 minutes, and you’ll be rewarded with one exotic class item at the end. Otherwise, you can complete Overthrows and open the chests scattered around the Pale Heart, and very occasionally (about once every 90 minutes), you’ll find one. Every one you get will have a completely random pair of traits. I personally have farmed about 20 of them, and have yet to find a single one with Spirit of Caliban. I’m looking for one with Caliban and Liar exactly, so my current results are not encouraging.

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People are pretty fired up about this grind, partly because some people just really don’t want to have to play Destiny with other people, but also because this kind of pure RNG grind isn’t very common in the game anymore. There are four dungeons and eight raids with Exotic weapons that drop randomly on completion, but most other things have a deterministic path to earning them. Between weapon crafting, vendor engram focusing, and spoils of conquest, you don’t have to get lucky very often anymore. If you put in the time, you’ll eventually get everything you want. In contrast, Exotic class items are a rare piece of powerful gear that requires both your time and the blessing of RNGesus.

Note: You can increase your chance of getting dungeon and raid exotics to drop by completing certain challenges within each activity. Older raids used to have bad luck protection that would increase the chance of getting the drop every time you didn’t get it, but new raids haven’t had this feature for quite some time.

Here comes the part where I give you my hot take. While I completely understand why people don’t like repeating the same activity week after week after week for a chance to get a weapon that never seems to come, I think there’s a part of you that does like it. There’s only a small handful of really hard to get items in Destiny, and it’s important to have those rare prizes so that people like us always have something to pursue.

I’ve been running Spire of the Watcher for over a year with the same friend, and every time we finish and discover we didn’t get the bow, we grumble and complain about how long we’ve been trying. Then we come back the next week and do it again. This is part of a routine we share, and we’re in it together for the long haul. Of course, I hope we get the damn thing eventually, but I’ll also be a bit sad when we do. Sometimes the chase is more important than the reward, and it’s important that Destiny always has something we can chase.

Ghosts of the Deep followed Spire of the Watcher in May last year. On my first clear, I was rewarded with its Exotic weapon, The Navigator. That was the one and only time I’ve ever done that dungeon. I was thrilled when I got the gun on the first try, but now? I’m not so sure I still feel that way. Maybe I’d like to have something to pursue in Ghosts of the Deep. It would at least be a change of scenery after my weekly journey through disappointment in Spire.

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