Destiny to Let You Customize Your Armor Using Four Easy Steps and Three New Currencies

Yesterday, Bungie announced that starting next season, players in Destiny 2 will be able to change the appearance of their armor, something that you would expect every Destiny player would welcome. The implementation of this feature leaves a lot to be desired.

Destiny 2 is as much a game about light, darkness and really sick guns as it is a game about looking really cool, which is why it always grates when the most powerful armor I have is also the doofiest. When Destiny 2 developer Bungie said last year that transmogrification—the video game parlance for being able to change the appearance of armor so it looks like one set, but has the stats of  another—was coming, I was overjoyed. The actual mechanics of how this system would work were unknown until yesterday, when Bungie released the details in their weekly "This Week At Bungie'' blog post. The reaction from Destiny 2 players was less than stellar, and I don't blame them.

As described in the blog, in order to use the appearance of one piece of armor on another piece of armor, you need to do the following:

1. Defeat enemies to collect something called Synthstrand. 
2. Spend the Synthstrand on bounties to collect something else called Synthcord.
3. Then, once you have enough Synthcord, you need to convert the Synthcord into Synthweave, which is what you actually need in the first place.
4. Spend your Synthweave to transmogrify the appearance of a piece of equipment 

That feels like a lot of steps and new resources. If you're earning Synthweave you're also limited to ten of them per season. The blog post from Bungie does not mention a limit to buying Synthweave, though, and they will be available to purchase at the Eververse store for real world money.

A representative for Bungie told Motherboard that they were unable to comment.

Destiny 2 players, who have been asking for the ability to change armor appearance since the first Destiny, aren't exactly happy with how this system is supposed to work. The main complaint is how convoluted it all is. Why can't you just earn Synthweave directly? Why do you need to convert the thingamabobs into whatchamacallits? While all video games have an element of technobabble and tedious questing, this feels over the top. 

Bungie has not said whether or not there is a limit to how much Synthweave you can buy at the Eververse store. Given how complicated it will be to earn Synthweave, some players feel like they're being coerced into spending real money on this feature rather than earning it through game play. Players have noted that other massively multiplayer online games, like Final Fantasy XIV or World of Warcraft do not have such complicated methods for changing armor appearance.

All I've ever wanted was to be able to play Destiny 2 and have my Hunter not look like a doofus. Unless the transmogrification system changes, a doofus I shall remain; I'm sorry, I'm just not gonna do all that.