As its name infers, Destiny 2’s recently launched Black Armory expansion adds plenty of new weaponry to the game. However, this heavy focus on new weapons unfortunately exacerbates an existing problem for some dedicated players. When Destiny 2’s Forsaken expansion launched a few months ago, it rendered all of the game’s Year One armor obsolete. And despite the ongoing protests from fans, Bungie hasn’t announced any plans to fix that problem.
Destiny 2 Year One Armor Problems
Thanks to Destiny 2’s Collections tab (another feature that came with Forsaken), players can reacquire any previously found equipment items. Players can find Year One equipment in the Collections tab right alongside the newer Forsaken and Black Armory items. However, due to the armor perks system that also came with Forsaken, Year One armor is essentially obsolete. Not only are Year One armor pieces lacking the newer Forsaken perks, they also don’t have as many perks.
Players can still technically equip and even infuse Year One armor pieces up to Forsaken/Black Armory power levels. However, their severely diminished perk loadouts make Year One armor pieces vastly inferior to armor from newer expansions. This is especially unfortunate for more fashion-conscious players who like the older Year One armor designs. Currently, such players have to choose between maximum combat efficiency or looking the way they want to look.
A quick perusal of the official Destiny subreddit reveals dozens of threads requesting that Bungie update Year One armor. There’s this thread, and this one, and here, and here. That last thread also notes how even more current armor can’t be consistently upgrades due to Destiny 2’s expensive infusion costs.
Bungie has made some great strides in improving Destiny 2, especially with the Forsaken expansion launch. However, rendering all Year One armor obsolete was certainly a mistake. I look at my old Year One Titan shoulders which are actually reasonably-sized and I just sigh in disappointment. In many ways Destiny 2 lets me play how I want to play. I just wish I could also look how I want to look without sacrificing combat power.