This time last year, Bungie announced it was already slimming down the number of materials needed for weapon crafting in Destiny 2. We then said goodbye to Adroit, Drowned, Energetic, Mutable, and Ruinous elements. This left us with four major types of currencies: Resonant Alloys, used for frames; Ascendant Alloys, for Enhanced traits; Harmonic Alloys for raid-exclusive traits; and Resonant Elements for installing perks.
In a blog post today, Bungie has announced (hot off the presses, apparently) that the team plans on completely removing Resonant Elements from the game when Lightfall releases later this month.. This means you will no longer need to grind a dedicated currency just to swap perks on your guns. Though specifics weren’t included, “Glimmer, Enhancement Cores, etc.” will replace those costs.
The main way of getting these materials was by either dismantling a Deepsight weapon for 100 Elements or completing the attunement for 300 Elements. With these going away, you might ask what’s the purpose of attuning weapons now? Especially since Bungie already removed it as a requirement for progressing weapon patterns. The answer? They’re killing that too. There is no longer any need to use a Deepsight weapon simply to attune it. Keep it, or dismantle it, the choice is yours.
There are no plans to change Ascendant Alloys apparently, but sometime during Year 6 Bungie plans to overhaul Resonant and Harmonic Alloys as well.
While a lot of players thought weapon crafting was going to be the first truly MMO-esque feature for Destiny 2, since launch it’s slowly been hallowed out and simplified, no deeper than any other shooter or action adventure game. It’ll be interesting to see where Bungie takes it in the future.
And if all this lingo confused you, here’s a quick recap on the materials from Bungie:
- Resonant Alloys
- Resonant Alloys are required in order to insert an intrinsic frame (adaptive, aggressive, precision, etc.). While each weapon has a type of intrinsic frame that cannot be changed (you cannot convert a precision frame into an aggressive frame, for example), at higher weapon levels you are able to select intrinsics that have Masterwork-like stat bonuses. Resonant Alloys are primarily obtained by dismantling weapons, but can also be rewarded for completing activities.
- Ascendant Alloys
- Ascendant Alloys are required for Enhanced Traits. Ascendant Alloys can be obtained from weekly Witch Queen campaign missions and Throne World Offensives. Alloys can also be purchased from the Cryptarch or Banshee-44 in the Tower.
- Resonant Elements
- Resonant Elements are required for Perk Components. All perks require Resonant Elements.
- Harmonic Alloys
- Harmonic Alloys are required for raid-exclusive Traits on crafted raid weapons. Harmonic Alloy can be obtained by dismantling Vow of the Disciple raid weapons.
