Grind a convoluted system or pay over $12,000, your choice.
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Fans have been clamoring for a transmog system to be introduced into the Destiny franchise since almost the beginning. Starting in the next Season of Destiny 2, beginning around the middle of May, that wish will finally be granted. Of course, there's a catch. With Bungie, that almost always seems to be the case.

For those who do not know, transmog is a way for players to change the appearance of their gear to something else while keeping their current gear's stats. It's a way to have your character look how you want without sacrificing your powers and abilities. A lot of MMOs have it and they tend to be fairly well implemented all things considered.

Bungie detailed how their transmog system will work and boy is it ever a doozy.

Before we get too deep, here’s a quick list of steps that players will take to convert their armor appearance into Universal Armor Ornaments:
  1. Defeat enemies to earn Synthstrand.
  2. Spend Synthstrand on bounties to earn Synthcord.
  3. Convert Synthcord at the Loom in the Tower into Synthweave.
  4. Use Synthweave to convert an unlocked armor appearance (Legendary quality or lower) from Collections into a Universal Armor Ornament.
To start, players will begin earning Synthstrand when defeating enemies in Destiny 2. After earning 150 Synthstrand , players may visit Ada-1 in the Tower to acquire class-specific bounties, which will reward Synthcord.
There are no fewer than four steps that players must go through just to unlock the ability to change the appearance of one piece of armor. This is in comparison to say just spending Glimmer (in-game currency) to change armor appearance or even spending Glimmer to purchase Synthweave directly.

Bungie also outlined that there will be a number of ways to earn the base material, Synthstrand.

There will be five categories of Armor Synthesis bounties: Vanguard, Crucible, Gambit, Destinations, or Raids and Dungeons. Here are a few examples of bounties that you will see:
  • Vanguard
    • Complete playlists strikes using specific subclasses.
    • Accumulate points in Nightfall strikes.
  • Crucible
    • Capture zones in Crucible Control matches.
    • Complete Crucible matches and defeat opponents using specific damage types as a team.
  • Gambit
    • Send and defeat blockers in Gambit.
    • Defeat Primeval Envoys, high value targets and Primevals in Gambit.
  • Destinations
    • Defeat Nightmares on any destination or in Nightmare Hunts.
    • Defeat bosses while defending the Blind Well within the Dreaming City.
  • Raids and Dungeons
    • Complete the final encounter of any Raid or Dungeon.
    • Generate Orbs of Power in raids or dungeons.
They even go on to note that if you pick up the wrong bounty you will get a refund of only some Synthstrands if you abandon it. You will not be refunded the full amount.

But wait, it gets worse.

Bungie is placing an arbitrary limit on how many Synthweave you can earn in a Season. They say that you can earn up to only ten Synthweave per class, per Season. The only exception to this restriction will be in the introductory Season (this upcoming Season), where players will be able to earn up to 20 Synthweave per class. This means that in all upcoming Seasons, save for the next one, you will only be able to transmog 10 gear items in total on a character.

But wait, it gets even worse.

You will be able to bypass this 10 Synthweave restriction by spending real money to purchase Synthweave Templates from Eververse, the in-game real-money storefront in Destiny 2. Players can purchase Silver for real money and then spend that Silver on Synthweave Templates to the tune of one Synthweave Template for 300 Silver or a Synthweave Template Bundle (5 tokens) for 1000 Silver. Silver to USD is roughly a 1:1 conversion rate. Thus one Synthweave Template is $3.00 (USD) while a Bundle is about $10 (USD).

A fan did some quick calculations on what this means for players both in terms of time spent waiting to do the "free" 10 transmog pieces per Season and how much it would be just to purchase the Templates from Eververse for immediate gratification.

To transmog every current piece of legendary gear in Destiny 2, it would take fans 33.9 years to get everything for "free." If you wanted to spend Silver, you would have to spend between $7,000 (USD) and $12,200 (USD).


As if that wasn't enough, Bungie also announced today that they are increasing the cost of shaders from 40 Bright Dust (another in-game currency) to 300 Bright Dust in the next season. The good news here is that Bungie is now allowing players to apply shaders to all armor pieces at once. So uh... yay?

One last thing: The name of the next Season of Destiny 2 has been revealed via a leak. It will be Season of the Splicer according to information found by data miners.