I have a love-hate relationship with my Destiny 2 vault. Though it serves a somewhat useful function. It allows you to dump all your unneeded items in a single place, freeing up limited inventory space, but letting you keep stuff around just in case. You see, for a while now, Destiny 2 has used a random roll system that makes some guns and armor better than others. Although, unless you’re a PVP monster, it’s not always clear what kinds of perks are truly the best. Hence dumping stuff in the bank and telling yourself you will definitely, absolutely, one day double-check it all for an elusive “god roll” you might have missed.
This is a big, fat lie. It’s a lie I’ve perpetuated to myself for over two years now (since Destiny 2 launched on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One). In all that time, I never once glanced at or even remembered what was in my stupid vault of purple trash and under-powered Exotic gear. It’s just a virtual bedroom closet: an object that only exists to be cluttered, so that I may feel good about thinking about one day organizing it. Praise me, for I am openly cognizant of my flaws, but do nothing about them!
Well, with the release of Destiny 2: Shadowkeep, I finally did do something about this particular issue. Because I’m always more willing to do basic chores inside video games than in my own real life.
More Destiny 2 & Shadowkeep:
- How to Get Your Dreambane Armor Back if You Dismantled it in Destiny 2 Shadowkeep
- I Accidentally Did JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Cosplay in Destiny 2
- Destiny 2 NASA Emblem Guide – How to Get Orbital Cartographer
What I did was burn everything to the ground. That is to say, I “sharded” every piece of equipment in my vault — every gun, sword, helmet, and pair of magic pants. It’s all gone now. All that remains is a faux papercraft mask of the grumpy Cryptarch, Rahool, that gives Destiny players even more trash. It’s a holdover from a Halloween event that I barely played and can’t remember at all. It never served any functional purpose. Now, though, it serves as a monument to all that I no longer have, because there will always be more and better weapons to loot in Destiny 2. I am Marie Kondo with a shotgun, but the same satisfied smile. For this crappy blue weapon that will also return to dust in 20 minutes does, in fact, bring me joy.
This was possible because Shadowkeep reset every players’ gear to level 750. All. Of. It. Everything on your person, in your bank, or stuck in limbo at your mailbox got the boost (if it wasn’t already that high or higher). Not to mention all new protective gear is now under the blanket of “Armor 2.0.”
In theory, this means the random stats assigned to old gear — those potential God Rolls — are all that matter anymore. In practice, though, it put everything on an even playing field. I had not and would never actually sort through my five pages of densely described arsenal, cross-referencing it against Reddit theories and Discord conversations. I’m not that patient. Nor am I truly that hungry for a Bygones with six percent better reload speed than the 17 others I will loot on the moon this week. That’s not what I’m here for.
Goodbye, My Green Shaders
Seeing those numbers so starkly flattened was the wake-up call I finally needed. Because until I emptied out my Destiny vault, I couldn’t actually use it in any meaningful way. It was too cluttered to find anything. Now that it’s clean, though, I can be more selective about what I do and do not put in there — at least for a little while. The vault is still just a big, blank block of squares. You can’t really use it for much more than holding garbage that might be valuable one day, even if you want to. It needs some entirely new sorting options, or the ability to access it from anywhere in-game, before I… stop using it as a dumping ground for third-party mobile apps that do just that.
In the meantime, I’m perfectly happy with my spoils. “Sharding” gear refers to the Legendary Shards you get in exchange for dismantling equipment. You also receive in-game currency and crafting materials. And I’m swimming in it all now (relatively speaking). The surplus allows me to pull gear I’ve already nabbed from my “collection” in order to level up alternate characters more quickly, and alleviates annoying quests. I never did pick up Bad Juju in Destiny 2, for instance. It’s locked behind a tremendous grind. You’re supposed to run daily bounties that discount that grind. But now I’m just set on in-game cash.
Most of all, though, I’m just happy to be free of that niggling feeling. I’m happy to have one fewer thing to think “I should get around to that eventually” about. Maybe it wasn’t the most meta choice to break up with my Destiny vault, but it did make me very happy. And it’s one of those little reminders that games (big-shot loot shooter ones like Destiny anyway) are supposed to make you feel good.
