The Adored.. Hawkmoon

As Season of the Hunt comes to a close, I spend its final weekend completing any remaining Quests and Triumphs I'm close to achieving. Yesterday, I was finally able to get Adored, a Legendary Sniper Rifle. At the beginning of the Season, players could choose from three Activities to grind through to specifically get this Weapon: Crucible, Strikes, or Gambit.

I chose Gambit. I like the Snakeskin Wrap that comes with the Weapon when you earn it in Gambit. However, when the Weapon dropped, it did not have the Snakeskin Wrap on it. Actually, this Weapon looks like it's from the Reef as it's wrapped in purple and gold colors. What happened?

I decided to visit the Drifter at the Tower to get more information only to discover that the Snakeskin Wrap for the Sniper Rifle has its own Legendary Quest. Thankfully, I've already completed one of three Objectives, which is banking Motes to 100%. I'm not sure how many Motes I needed to bank, but again, I'm thankful that's over.

However, I still need 20 Rapid defeats with a Sniper Rifle and 70 overall kills with a Sniper Rifle just to get the Wrap for the Weapon I just grinded for. This is another aspect of my favorite game that completely annoys me.

I played Gambit for weeks getting Sniper Rifle kills to earn this weapon. Now, I have to play Gambit, again, to get Sniper Rifle kills to earn the Wrap that goes on the weapon I earned. It makes no sense outside of the Developer wanting players to spend more time in the game.

While I don't mind spending time in the game, I don't want to spend that time doing mundane tasks repeatedly. By the time I get these Weapon Quests completed, I'm burnt out from using the Weapon so much. Perfect example...

Graviton Lance is a pretty good Exotic Pulse Rifle. I used it for months before the Catalyst dropped in-game. The Catalyst for each Exotic Weapon improves its Stats and/or Perks in some way. For Graviton Lance, the Catalyst significantly improves the Weapon's already impressive Stability. Also, a Perk entitled, Hidden Hand becomes Active which improves the Weapon's Target Acquisition.

Sounds great, right? It is great. However, when you receive the Catalyst, initially, it's not Active. You cannot Equip the Catalyst on the Weapon. In order to Activate the Catalyst, you have to complete certain Objectives linked to it. In this case, I needed to reach 100% in Enemy Defeats (I'm not sure how many specifically in number) and I needed a ton of Kills specifically with the Cosmology Perk.

What's the Cosmology Perk?

Cosmology: Kills with this weapon cause enemy targets to detonate and spawn Void projectiles that track targets

This should be an easy Objective to complete, but it's far from that for a few reasons. First, the Void projectiles that track targets have to kill the enemies. Sometimes, I projectiles only damage the targets and sometimes the projectiles miss the targets altogether. Secondly, when you initially kill an enemy, that enemy is may be knocked backwards, away from a group of enemies. In this case, the projectiles are too far away to track the group of enemies. You get no credit for Cosmology kills.

Thirdly, some enemies do not trigger the Cosmology Perk including Shanks and Vex Harpies. Meaning, when you kill an enemy the energy burst does not produce tracking projectiles. Finally, there are quite a few moments when the projectiles simply don't trigger at all. You kill the correct enemy type, no projectiles.

Needlessly to say, when I finally completed this Catalyst Objective I didn't want to use this Weapon for a while. It simply took too long to Activate.

Earlier today, I earned Hawkmoon and its Catalyst in one run of the Harbinger Quest. Thankfully, this Weapon only has one simple Objective: Reach 100% in Enemies Defeated. Again, I'm not sure how many Enemy Kills you need to reach 100%. I do know you have to only use this Weapon for the foreseeable future to reach 100% in a decent period of time. Otherwise, it's going to take you quite some time to complete.

I hope the Developers will continue to improve on how to challenge players to complete Quests and Catalysts. Right now, we defeat enemies to get the Weapon. We defeat even more enemies to Activate the Catalyst or get a Weapon Ornament.

Storytelling should be the integrated into these Quests. For example, since Bungie decided to add an unnecessary step to the Adored Quest by making players also grind for the Weapon Ornament, add a mini-Story to the process. Create something that makes the Snakeskin Wrap significant. Tell us backstory. Why is this item special?

Instead, they have players get Sniper Rifle Kills in Gambit to get the Weapon and then ask them to go right back into Gambit to get more Sniper Rifle Kills to get the Cosmetic for that same Weapon.

It's like they're intentionally trying to drive players crazy.

The real problem is, while Adored seems to be a decent Sniper Rifle, so far, I'm not Ranking it above the Ikelos Sniper Rifle. This Weapon drops pretty easily in Beyond Light. Players who don't have Adored will not miss much, if anything. Ikelos is my favorite Legendary Sniper Rifle, only behind the Exotic Sniper, Izanagi's Burden, overall.

Which means Developers need to improve new Weapons over what we already have to justify the lengthy Quest Objectives we tend to get.

Added to this, Weapons like Hawkmoon are not new to the World of Destiny. Hawkmoon was popular in Destiny 1. In terms of Story, it was supposed to have been destroyed. In Destiny 2, we have to re-grind for a Weapon we already grinded for years ago. Yes, you can focus your grind on getting the Weapon with new Perks, but the principle is the same.

Unfortunately, players are getting more and more re-issued Weapons with slight tweaks opposed to the new Weapons we were promised when Sunsetting was unveiled.

How well next Season begins will weigh heavily on how many players continue to play Destiny 2. While I am excited for new Weapons and Armor, I'm not thrilled with having the Cabal as the featured Enemy of the Season. Unless an interesting Cabal Character engages us, it's a tough sell. We'll see what happens on Tuesday, February 9, 2021.

-ecj