Iron Banner has been a beloved staple in the world of Destiny for many years, but it seems that this is the one game mode that doesn’t really seem to change at all throughout the game’s evolution. Since Destiny 1, Iron Banner has changed quite a bit with even a shift in the leaders of the mode going from Lord Saladin to Lady Efrideet taking up the helm to lead the event. In Destiny 2, however, we haven’t seen much a change at all in the game, with the exception of a solo queue playlist (which is appreciated, no matter how many times it is forgotten). This begs the question now: is it time for Iron Banner to change? Well, the answer to that question is a resounding yes, and here’s why!
Rewards
The reward system in Iron Banner is completely outdated in Destiny 2. Bungie has decided to (mostly) move to a brand new system that involves Umbral Engrams and a new device called the “Prismatic Recaster.” In this new-ish system that we’ve had since Season of Arrivals, you have the chance to find an Umbral Engram in the world, after you find one of these engrams you need to take it back to the Prismatic Recaster and there you can use a few different materials to “focus” each Engram. Focusing these Umbral Engrams allows you to more or less pick and choose your loot and minimize the loot pool that you’re pulling from. Iron Banner is by far the game mode that needs to be put on this system as soon as possible. The way that Iron Banner works right now is that you have four weekly bounties that you can complete across all three characters (if you have more than one), these bounties take a pretty long while to complete, so you’re either going to be in for some hardcore grinding to complete them all in one day, or they will pretty much just passively get done throughout the week. Completing these bounties will grant you XP, a Pinnacle piece of gear, and 50 Iron Banner tokens. Right now, we’re focused on these Iron Banner tokens that you get after completing these bounties; this token system is not how players want to be getting their loot and Bungie knows this, which is why we saw a shift in the regular Crucible reward system (also appreciated!) I can’t stand having to complete these bounties to then go back to Lord Saladin to turn in tokens for 10-20 Sidearms – it feels awful. I wouldn’t mind if completing Iron Banner matches gave you an Iron Banner engram that you could take back to Saladin to then focus said engram into a specific piece of gear – I think that would be great, or something similar to it. Either way, I hope that Bungie changes the reward system for Iron Banner very soon and I hope that it comes with The Witch Queen early next year.
Iron Banner Control
Crucible has a few different modes in Destiny 2: Clash, Mayhem, Elimination, Survival, Rumble, Showdown, Momentum Control, Team Scorched, and Control. Iron Banner also has a few different game modes that you can choose from: Control, Control, and Control. It’s time for Bungie to switch up the game modes that are available within Iron Banner, because we’ve had Control for years now and it’s getting quite old. I’m not saying that we need to have Team Scorched in Iron Banner – that just wouldn’t make any sense – although Mayhem Iron Banner would be pretty fun, don’t you think? All I’m saying is that we need to have Clash, or Survival, or maybe this would be a perfect time for Bungie to bring back Rift! Either way, we need Bungie to switch it up a bit, and that goes for the bounties and quests as well.
Bounties and Quests
The Iron Banner bounties and seasonal quests have been pretty much the same for as long as I can remember: eliminate a bunch of Guardians with specific weapons/abilities, capture a bunch of zones, play a bunch of games, it’s tiring doing the same things over and over again once, twice, or even three times a month (if you have multiple characters), and Bungie needs to add some variety to these bounties and quests. I would also love some repeatable bounties sometime soon, please?
Overall, Iron Banner isn’t in a terrible state, but the whole layout behind the mode is getting old and a lot of players are sick of doing it time and time again for the same chances at a piece of gear that they don’t want. I spent a solid 2-3 hours in Iron Banner grinding out the bounties on my Warlock and didn’t get a single piece of gear that I wanted from any of the bounties or the 250 Iron Banner tokens from Lord Saladin – instead I got a bunch of Sidearms and Hand Cannons. We need reward focusing more than anything in Iron Banner, and I hope it’s coming soon.
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