How pay to win is destiny 2?

[Archon]

Played Destiny 1 quite a bit back in the day and had a blast. I hear one has to drop quite the truckload of cash to have fun in destiny 2 though... is it reasonable to expect around $60 or so to have fun with the game?

[Azor]

for pve is pretty much "pay to have fun". Most content is locked behind DLCs.

for pvp it's 80% f2p since you can get all of the top meta weapons for free. However, trials and its weapons are locked behind the latest expansion (Witch Queen after 02.22)

Also, 9 light subclasses are locked without DLC.

So yes, it's pay to have fun unless all you want to do is play the Control and Survival PvP modes.

VERDICT: BUY DLC

[Archon]

That's good to know, so just stay up to date on DLC and have fun. Thank you

[Mez Koo]

Most of the time you'd need to earn the gear to use in the game whether its exotic weapons from quests or weapons and armor from activities so its more of pay to have the ability to get the gear rather than just straight up pay to win.

But if you're looking to get back into the game there is a lot you can do for free until Witch Queen launches while you decide if you want to buy into it or not: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2691498745

[DakotaThrice]

The free version is more of a trial version of the game than a free game. That said try it out for a couple of weeks and see how you feel about it. By the time the new expansion rolls around you should have a better idea of how willing to invest in additional content you are as well as which content you actually want.

Paid players get access to addition content and gear but regardless of how good some of that gear mag be it doesn't give anybody a direct advantage.

[RoxxasTheDemonslayer]

the general game is open. all destinations currently availible are open.

Some of the Quest lines are 90% locked, as are most of the vaulted special weapons, and several instannces. (which is stupid)

Im fairly sure the Forsaken Questline is currently Fully open though... but only to the ..20th?

where the Zone tied to it will apprently be archived.

[Ediicius™]

its not a paywall... its just returning players that hit what youd call a pay wall. most of us that kept up with the game over the years have only spent 10 bucks here and there where as returning players need to spend over 150 bucks.

[PhellAsleep]

Originally posted by SpiritualConclave:

its not a paywall... its just returning players that hit what youd call a pay wall. most of us that kept up with the game over the years have only spent 10 bucks here and there where as returning players need to spend over 150 bucks.

So multiple $10 paywalls that accrue over 4 years to over $150? If $10 isn't a wall should we use another word... Paygate? Payfence?

Also, I would sincerely appreciate it if you would drop a link to the $10 option to "keep up" with Witch Queen. I'm serious. If there's a $10 option to get the game, I am completely oblivious of it and would love to get the expansion for that price.

[Emurinus]

In terms of pay-to-win? Surprisingly small. Outside of outlier exotics here and there, such as Gjally and (formerly) Anarchy, most if the gear you get in game doesn't make you any better than a F2P player. Even if it did make enough of a difference, you still need to grind for good rolls for it in 99% of cases as it's not simply handed to you.

Subclasses are the only major game changer imo, as 2/9 of the Forsaken middle tree light subclasses are meta (Well & Thundercrash) while everything else is mostly an alternative. Even Stasis is not meta anymore after the massive nerfs, though Shadelock and Revenants still have good utility in PvE.

Pretty much everything else content-wise is pay to play rather than pay to win, as both free and paying players ultimately reach the same end point.

Basically, unless you're playing collector or want to experience the story more, you can get by without DLC; although, if you have to buy anything, then the Forsaken pack is your best bet.

[Loki Autism]

I do not recommend forsaken, half of it's content is going next month. if there's nothing else to play and you're that bored get beyond light, you at least get the stasis subclass

[Lano-17]

For me, the distribution of mods feels like the biggest divide, armor mod synergies can make some builds really shine ( im sure with more experienced players can still do great without the perfect mod synergies ).

[grumpstar]

to be perfectly frank when you pay to access this game you are not buying it. you are buying a convoluted license to access thier software that they peddle and modify access to at thier whim with not liability for its performance other than the promise that they will generally want to make the game functional into perpetuity as they are looking for your next 'purchase'. I think the best way to label this game overall is pay to access. almost like a sub but you just pay for the next 2 years now basically.
so dont 'buy' this game thinking you can backlog it beyond a certain considerable amount of time has passed. its in a perpetual albeit kinda slowish conveyer into oblivion.

[Mister Wiggles]

If you're asking in retrospec to free to play Vs a paying player then there is no comparison.

This game as a free to play game is just a generous trail that doesn't run out. You get a taste but that's it. You have to pay to experience everything in destiny so in essence it is pay to win only because it assumes all players are paying players or will be eventually.

[Oku]

Originally posted by Mister Wiggles:

If you're asking in retrospec to free to play Vs a paying player then there is no comparison.

This game as a free to play game is just a generous trail that doesn't run out. You get a taste but that's it. You have to pay to experience everything in destiny so in essence it is pay to win only because it assumes all players are paying players or will be eventually.

That's like trying to say a game that offers a free demo is P2W or FF14 selling expansions is P2W: both of which are nonsense claims.

P2W = a system in which you buy an advantage over other players, typically with the more money you spend, the bigger the advantage. Pokemon Unite is P2W, because you can literally spend real money to give huge boosts to your pokemon's stats in a MOBA environment. One of those Korean MMOs where you can buy "augment gems" or whatever to infinitely boost the power of your weapon with exponentially increasing odds of failure unless you pay real money to ensure each upgrade has a 100% success rate is P2W.

Destiny 2 isn't Pay 2 Win. There is nothing you can buy that gives you an inherent advantage over everybody else, even in Crucible. Anybody that tries to go "durr hurr but what about *insert weapon I don't like* that is from an expansion" is full of it. That's not P2W, it's paying for additional content.

The idea of what constitutes P2W has become so muddied lately as people try over and over again to apply the term to any game they personally dislike without any respect for the actual malicious design of systems like that and how important it is to actually be able to identify them and avoid products that participate in such systems.

[Metrikzero]

if you avoid/afk weekly crucible, you'll likely have a lot of fun with very little money spent. pvp in this game is one of the worst examples of pvp I've ever seen. PVE games that add PVP tend to reward the grind. Bad players will win more than they should simply due to the gear and mods they were willing to grind for. Oddly, console players have a tremendous advantage due to the aim assist for controllers, all you have to do is aim in the general area of the screen that a player character enemy is in and hits always register as precision. if you are a PC player, you are forced to play with the nearly aimbot consoles players because crossplay cannot be disabled for PC players. I'd recommend warlock as a class if you decide pvp is all you want to do, it's pretty clear that is the class that the devs play most. PVE and Gambit are very well done for the most part.

[Chariot]

Originally posted by Keth:

Originally posted by Mister Wiggles:

If you're asking in retrospec to free to play Vs a paying player then there is no comparison.

This game as a free to play game is just a generous trail that doesn't run out. You get a taste but that's it. You have to pay to experience everything in destiny so in essence it is pay to win only because it assumes all players are paying players or will be eventually.

That's like trying to say a game that offers a free demo is P2W or FF14 selling expansions is P2W: both of which are nonsense claims.

P2W = a system in which you buy an advantage over other players, typically with the more money you spend, the bigger the advantage. Pokemon Unite is P2W, because you can literally spend real money to give huge boosts to your pokemon's stats in a MOBA environment. One of those Korean MMOs where you can buy "augment gems" or whatever to infinitely boost the power of your weapon with exponentially increasing odds of failure unless you pay real money to ensure each upgrade has a 100% success rate is P2W.

Destiny 2 isn't Pay 2 Win. There is nothing you can buy that gives you an inherent advantage over everybody else, even in Crucible. Anybody that tries to go "durr hurr but what about *insert weapon I don't like* that is from an expansion" is full of it. That's not P2W, it's paying for additional content.

The idea of what constitutes P2W has become so muddied lately as people try over and over again to apply the term to any game they personally dislike without any respect for the actual malicious design of systems like that and how important it is to actually be able to identify them and avoid products that participate in such systems.

The only case of crucible paying for an advantage (If you can really even call it that) is some skins giving a very slight range increase due to a longer barrel length.