We’re into week two of Season of Plunder in Destiny 2, and some players are already gunning for the seasonal title. One of the requirements for that seal and title is to defeat 50 Ruffian enemies in the Expedition activity playlist. There’s just one problem — if you’ve been playing well enough, you might not have even seen a Ruffian in that activity so far. How do you get them to spawn? Well, it seems like you just have to slow down.
Ruffians spawn in Destiny 2‘s Expeditions throughout the activity, seemingly at certain intervals — when enough time has passed or enough treasure has been collected. You’ll receive a text notification on the screen informing you of their presence, then a visual marker will appear pointing you to the Ruffian — an Unstoppable Champion somewhere on the map. This is your cue to stop throwing treasure at the haul, haul yourself over there, and take it out. Because here’s the rub: if your fireteam keeps chucking those engrams at the haul while the Ruffian is present, there’s a chance you’ll fill it up completely, instantly despawning the enemy.
This is kind of a bummer! For one thing, it penalizes performing the activity efficiently. In addition, there’s no option available to load into Expeditions solo in Destiny 2, so you’ll have to either get a fireteam together or else plead or interfere with your matchmade team (by throwing treasure away from them) to get your Ruffian kills in. Plus, you have to at least tag the Ruffian for it to count for you — having your fireteam kill it without you won’t help. You need a whopping 50 of these kills for the Triumph necessary for the seal. Over the course of a whole season, that isn’t too bad, since you can get a couple per round of the activity. But it’s still kind of a pain with the way Expeditions are designed.
Destiny 2 is a game that’s struggled with unintentionally pitting players against each other in the past. Whether it’s Crucible Triumphs that ask players to operate selfishly or the ongoing bounty grind that makes players fight for kills, Bungie’s design has led to some player conflict in places where it shouldn’t really exist at all. Most players just want to get in and out of the Expedition activity as quickly as possible for the rewards, but those looking to complete the Triumph for Ruffian kills have an incentive to slow down the entire group to guarantee that they bag the Champions they need.
Of course, this wouldn’t be such a problem if Destiny 2‘s Ruffians didn’t immediately despawn when players hit the next objective marker in Expeditions. Why can’t they simply stick around? Why couldn’t the Triumph be for killing the Overload Champions that appear and halt the entire activity until they’re defeated? Why wouldn’t there at least be some kind of timer tied to the Ruffian leaving the area? I don’t know, but unless Bungie changes any of these things, if you’re going for the Scallywag title then your best bet is to simply play Expeditions in Destiny 2 a little more slowly.
