14 DAY TRIAL // Bungie has confirmed that it's going to roll out a major update for Destiny next week, in the form of patch 1.0.2, which brings plenty of major changes to the loot system, as well as to the Cryptarch non-playable character that can turn the mystery engrams into actual items for players to use.
Destiny launched at the beginning of the month, and even before then, Destiny made it clear that the journey to the level cap of 20 is just the beginning for players, as afterwards they can only progress by collecting better and better gear during missions, co-op strikes, and much more.
However, the actual loot system was way too reluctant to offer players great gear even when they found legendary-level engrams, as once they were decoded by the Cryptarch in the main Tower zone, they mostly turned out to be blue-level items, which weren't all that great.
The current loot system needs improvement, Bungie admits
Seeing as how this loot system made many Destiny players seek out the infamous treasure caves to accelerate their farming process, Bungie has now confirmed that patch 1.0.2 is going to drop next week and bring big changes to the item drop mechanic and the Cryptarch.
"The 1.0.2 patch will go live next week, and includes several changes to the Cryptarch and Engram experience. These changes guarantee that Engrams will always decode into items at or above the quality of an engram," Bungie revealed on its website.
Bear in mind, however, that only engrams that drop after patch 1.0.2 is applied will be affected by these changes. Also, existing legendary-level engrams found in a player's inventory will be demoted to rare quality, so you might want to get them to the Cryptarch and see if you're lucky with the random system.
The Destiny Cryptarch will respect engram quality when giving out items
Bungie confirms that, with the new update, the Cryptarch on Destiny's Tower will finally respect the quality of the engram when decoding it and transforming it into an item. As such, legendary engrams will always produce an item with legendary quality or better, including materials and exotics.
Rare engrams will produce rare quality or better, but they also have an increased chance to produce legendary quality items.
Changes to activities and ascendant materials are also coming
The new patch is also going to implement a few tweaks to the activities in Destiny, as Daily Heroic events and Weekly Heroic ones, and the competitive multiplayer Vanguard: Tiger playlist will offer, besides their regular rewards, rare and legendary engrams, so players have new incentives to experience them.
Meanwhile, Ascendant materials will be promoted to legendary status, such as to reflect that they can used to upgrade such items.
As of yet, it's unclear when the new patch is going to be available for download for Destiny so expect to hear more next week.