Hey, do you remember that controversial Destiny 2 Starter Pack that Bungie started selling alongside the Season of the Wish update? You know, that over-valued Destiny 2 DLC that offered new players three – rather old and pretty mediocre – Exotics and a handful of average cosmetics for about $15? Well, it looks like everyone’s concerns (more accurately, everyone’s outrage) about the Starter Pack has paid off and Bungie is removing the bundle from sale on all storefronts indefinitely.
If you want to play one of the best FPS games out there, but you don’t want the stress any of the best battle royale games brings, Bungie’s Destiny 2 is the perfect place to spend your spare time. It’s also technically a free-to-play game, so it’s also a good option for those of you trying to avoid shelling out on new PS5 games and new Xbox games. It is, however, a game with quite a lot of paid content you need to get your hands on if you want to experience everything on offer – hence the ‘technically’. This makes Bungie’s FPS, which is already hard to catch up on thanks to six years of interconnected narrative content, a real nightmare for newcomers. If you want to know what’s going on, you’re essentially paying the same price as a new game for expansions – and quite a bit of the content from these expansions is vaulted and now unavailable regardless of that, too.
This, though, hasn’t stopped Bungie trying to make even more money from new players, which is something this game desperately needs; the Destiny 2 player count was shockingly low going into the Season of the Wish and has continued to disappoint after the seasonal update. Trying to offer new players a quick way to catch up at the start of the Season of the Wish, and ahead of the Destiny 2 The Final Shape release date, Bungie decided to release a Destiny 2 Starter Pack – valued at $15 – which gives you the following items:
- Traveler’s Chosen – Exotic Sidearm
- Ruinous Effigy – Exotic Trace Rifle
- Sleeper Simulant – Exotic Linear Fusion Rifle
- Exotic Ship – Cosmetic
- Exotic Sparrow – Cosmetic
- Exotic Ghost – Cosmetic
- Glimmer (125,000) – Resource
- Enhancement Core (50) – Resource
- Enhancement Prism (5) – Resource
- Ascendant Shard (1) – Resource
On paper, whether you’re looking to throw together the best Destiny 2 Titan build, the best Destiny 2 Warlock build, or the best Destiny 2 Hunter build, all of these items would help you. However, these three Exotics are far from the best Destiny 2 weapons available right now and it wouldn’t take anyone playing long at all to earn even more resources – and unlock better cosmetics – than the ones on offer. When you look at how much Destiny 2 expansions cost already (around $25 on average, when not on sale) and the fact that these prices have been a sticking point for the community for some time now, the decision to release a Starter Pack for $15 that is is essentially ripping new players off – who already have to spend upwards of $100 to unlock all the content available in Destiny 2 so far – has proven very unpopular with the playerbase.
Thankfully, however, Bungie’s acutely aware of the negative response this Starter Pack has received and – in an effort to maintain it’s already-tenuous relationship with the Destiny 2 playerbase – it’s pulling the Starter Pack from sale on all storefronts (Epic Games Store, Steam, Xbox Store, and PS Store) for the foreseeable future.
As you can see for yourself below, a statement on the decision from the Destiny 2 Team (which is echoed in this longer Reddit post about the Season of the Wish update) says that Bungie “heard your concerns and agreed that there are other parts of Destiny 2 that new players should want to dive into first before chasing these Exotic weapons, cosmetics, and upgrade materials”. It’s a paid bundle that, and we quote, was “not something bringing joy” – which feels like quite a tame way of phrasing the response to the Starter Pack.
If, though, you’re wondering what weapons you should be chasing, you can find out more about all the new Destiny 2 Season of the Wish weapons here. It might take a moment, but you shouldn’t have any trouble getting your hands on any one of these through regular gameplay during this season – without the need to shell out $15. There’s also a new Exotic bow up for grabs during the Season of the Wish, the Destiny 2 Wish-Keeper, that you’ll want to keep an eye out for. This Exotic is shaping up to be a much better weapon than what you get with the Starter Pack – although, once you know what you’re looking at, that really isn’t difficult.
Will Destiny 2 players see something like the Starter Pack pop up again in the future? Probably, Bungie isn’t afraid of paid DLC outside of major expansions. Does that mean it’s going to be better value for money when it does return? We can only hope, but there’s just no telling at this stage – Bungie hasn’t said much more on the subject. For now, then, all we can do is look forward to seeing what the Destiny 2 Wishing All The Best quest has in store for us and checking out the new Destiny 2 Season 23 Competitive changes, a series of updates that should breathe some new life into the Crucible.