Destiny 2: Sunsetting change explained

Last Updated on October 16, 2022

You remember that awesome weapon you got a couple of years ago, the season reward for that hard earned armor that no longer has any use or purpose, because its power level is too low to be of any use due to Bungie artificially shifting the meta using content gutters? Yeah, that’s no longer going to be a thing. And that’s a good thing.

“Sunsetting” (I call it a content gutter, as that seems more apt) is the concept that Bungie introduced a while ago, that basically places a cap on the Power Level of your items, in order to make sure that the most useful items in the game are the most current ones in the game.

Some might have seen this is a sly attempt to make current content a priority, and not to just let people use their old weapons and simply grind for the materials to infuse them to max level, and then stop playing the new content in favor of using their old gear at current content levels.

Cynics among you may have even guessed that this would also help Bungie’s bottom line by adding “necessity” to the current content of the game, maybe spending more money on Eververse etc.

In the end, it looks like Bungie have rolled this plan back, and they have decided to kill the idea outright.

What does this mean for you?

Well, it means that you no longer have to grind for the newest items and for the god rolls that usually take us the entire season just to get, refine, upgrade and make the best weapons (in particular) possible. It means you can find a weapon that works for you, and simply keep it and upgrade it through infusion to the power cap of the season.

Yes, there will still be a cap, but only a season soft-cap, and not an item hard-cap.

So, the weapons you are currently working on, farming, and trying to get your god rolls on, will still be relevant later this year in Season 14 and beyond, provided you can infuse them into the new cap, and Bungie doesn’t develop some other form of cap, or time-investment mechanic that makes this rollback moot. (not that the cynics among us would think that).

When will this take effect?

Immediately. now.

This change will be implemented right now with Season 13, meaning that any gear that you get now will continue to be useful into the future.

So, can we finally relax? Well, no. You still have a lot of content to go through this season, but if you are like me and you don’t have ALL day and all night to play, where you are balancing your Destiny 2 playtime with work, marriage, kids, other games, whatever.. you can now rest a bit easier that the work you are doing now will result in items that will be useful into the future.

The bad news.

Unfortunately, the bad news is that if you are also like me and you have that favorite hand cannon from Season 10, or a bow from Season 9 that you love to use, it won’t be reverted to a current cap, it will still be capped at the power level of it’s season.

The change is not retroactive, meaning that all previous items from seasons past will remain in our vaults, never to be really used again. And that’s sad.

But, this is still a move in the right direction for Bungie, and putting the players before profits in this day and age is always refreshing and good to see.