Destiny 2’s dreadful Transmog system is changing next season, thankfully

The conversation around Destiny 2’s disastrous Transmog system (aka Armor Synthesis) clouded the beginning of Season of the Splicer in early May, but Bungie is making a major improvement for next season.

Synthstrand — one of the three “Synth” currencies in Destiny 2’s overcomplicated Transmog system — will leave the game on Aug. 24, Bungie announced Thursday in its weekly blog. Synthstrand is one of the more controversial elements of the current system. Players currently need to generate 150 of them to buy Transmog bounties. However, days after the Transmog system went live, players discovered that Synthstrand is time-gated, meaning that players will only ever get one every two minutes. Starting next season, the bounties will simply cost players 10,000 Glimmer, Destiny 2’s gold equivalent.

Once players buy the bounties, they’ll still need to complete the objective to earn enough Synthcord to turn into Synthweave for their chosen class. Each bounty players complete equals one piece of armor they can unlock for infinite uses in crafting their own signature looks. But despite the upcoming Synthstrand changes, players will still only be able to complete a maximum of 10 Synthcord bounties per class per season.

With the rate at which Bungie adds armor to Destiny 2, even players who purchase every season and expansion will never be able to unlock all the armor options for Transmog — unless, of course, they’re willing to pay extra real-world cash for Synthweave Templates, which allow players to unlock any armor piece for any class.

The Synthstrand deprecation is a welcome change for many players, and will eliminate some of the time commitment and friction required for players who want to cap out their Synthweave in each season. But when so many similar games offer a Transmog system for free, the lockouts, microtransactions, and overcomplication will remain an issue in Destiny 2.

Outside of the Transmog changes, Bungie also casually revealed two returning weapons coming to Destiny 2 next season: The Comedian shotgun and The Hothead rocket launcher. Both of these are fan favorites from the original Destiny, and players will be able to get them in Destiny 2 by running Nightfalls and Grand Master Nightfalls in specific weeks.

Bungie is also changing how Nightfall weapons rotate. Instead of a single weapon being up for grabs each week, Nightfalls will consist of a pair of weapons — one new and one old. In its example, Bungie suggested players might run into a week that offers both The Comedian and Shadow Price, or The Hothead and Hung Jury. The studio also promised some unique perk combinations for the returning weapons.

Destiny 2’s next season will start Aug. 24 — the same day Bungie unveils next year’s Witch Queen expansion.