Summary
WhileDestiny 2has changed a lot over the years, Xur, the Exotic vendor available on the weekends, has fallen behind in the changing times. Notably, Xur has a habit of selling sunset gear inDestiny 2, which can lead to unaware players using weapons that are outdated and ineffective.
With the upcomingremoval ofDestiny 2’s Legendary Shards currency, this NPC vendor may already be set to receive a slight rework in the near future. However, given how lackluster Xur has become,Destiny 2should use this opportunity to give this NPC a long-overdue upgrade.
Destiny 2 Has an Exotic Economy Problem
In the originalDestiny, Xur was infamous for selling one of the best Exotics in the first few weeks of the game’s launch. While Xur never ended up selling this particular Exotic weapon again, it became a tradition for players to visit this vendor when they appear every weekend, just in case. Flash forward to the Season of the Wish era ofDestiny 2, Xur is nowhere near as popular as they once were, and rightfully so.
The main appeal of Xur inDestiny 2is still to sell Exotics that players haven’t yet discovered. However, it’s now significantly easier than ever before for players to collect every Exotic in the game that doesn’t involve completing any of theExotic quests inDestiny 2.
Xur is also one of the vendors tied to the Dares of Eternity activity, which is unrelated to the services they provide as a vendor for Exotic and legacy gear on the weekends.
One of the main issues with Xur ultimately boils down to being a symptom of a much bigger problem, that the economy of Exotic loot inDestiny 2is no longer balanced. Given the current amount and generosity of sources for obtainingExotic engrams inDestiny 2, Xur is no longer an essential resource for players to collect every Exotic in the game. Consequently, it’s time that this vendor was reworked to reflect how the state of the game has changed in recent years.
Why Xur Is Long-Overdue For a Rework in Destiny 2
In addition to Exotic gear, Xur also sells legacy gear that can no longer be obtained from other sources. However, most of this legacy gear is extremely outdated inDestiny 2’s current meta. For example, Xur has a habit of selling legendary weapons that have the Full-Auto perk, whereas an accessibility change from over a year ago has made this perk useless. Considering that players can enable full-auto firing modes for every eligible weapon type through the in-game settings, weapons with this perk essentially have a useless perk.
Since legendary weapons inDestiny 2can only ever have two perks at a time, this makes Xur selling weapons that effectively only have one perk is quite disappointing. Not to mention, newer players who aren’t up-to-date onDestiny 2’s latest balancing changes are susceptible to purchasing weapons like this on the assumption that anything offered by this exclusive vendor is worthwhile.
Overall, Xur selling legacy gear is a great feature, considering that otherwise most of this gear can no longer be obtained, which gives players the chance to catch up on any of thecraftable Legendary weapon patternsthey may have missed. However, the fact that Xur frequently sells legacy weapons with outdated perks is highly problematic, which makes this vendor overdue for a major rework.
Destiny 2has announced that the Legendary Shard currency will be removed sometime in the upcoming The Final Shape expansion, and since Xur primarily uses this currency, this vendor is likely to receive a rework when this happens.Destiny 2should consider using this opportunity to address other problematic features of this vendor.
