Destiny 2’s Exotic class item chase may be better after a bug fix and a long-requested change

Exotic class items have been one of the most coveted and contentious items in Destiny 2 since their release a couple of months ago. Following a recent patch, though, Bungie wants to improve the acquisition process by fixing a current bug affecting drop rates—with more changes coming in the future.

Due to a bug, the final chests after taking down an Overthrow boss in the Pale Heart can’t award an Exotic class item, Bungie acknowledged today. The Destiny 2 glitch also stops these chests from boosting their drop chance. The studio is aiming for a “near-term hotfix.”

“We are also looking into giving players a way to chase specific perks in a future update,” the team said, though the hotfix is first on the docket. If done properly, this is major news for guardians, though it will still be some time before (and if) this change gets implemented. It’s unclear if this will mean some form of bad-luck protection or a system closer to crafting, which are two common solutions from the community. The plan may also deviate from these options.

The glitch directly follows yesterday’s Update 8.0.5, which tinkered with the drop rate of Exotic class items in the Pale Heart. Previously, opening any chest in The Final Shape’s destination would provide an escalating chance to get a class item. Now, that increased drop rate from opening chests is exclusive to drops from Overthrow.

The fourth chest in that activity, however, doesn’t boost drop chance, and can’t even give an Exotic class item in the first place. This hampers a farm for a highly sought-after item with huge buildcrafting potential—a farm that was already struggling since Bungie fixed a double-rewards glitch in the activity’s infancy.

Each class item has two perk columns with eight rolls, so there’s a one-in-64 chance of getting the precise roll you want every time you obtain a class item. Each of the three classes has its own class item, so if you have three characters, that long grind becomes even longer.

Even when Dual Destiny was awarding two class items per completion (as a glitch), the RNG could still be brutal. Some players took to farming regular chests in the Pale Heart, opening a mind-numbing amount of chests to get a single roll.

Fans have called for numerous changes to the Exotic class item acquisition system after the Dual Destiny mission premiered, though there’s been hardly that much progress there. The latest patch added a single extra drop from your first Dual Destiny completion per character on any week, which is still not enough to offset the absurd odds.

While Overthrow is at the core of the Pale Heart, players who engaged with The Final Shape likely already farmed the activity to exhaustion while chasing the Khvostov 7G-0X Exotic, with more clears required to wrap up a series of repeatable post-campaign quests from Micah-10 and even to unlock Dual Destiny.

Exotic class items are in dire need of more changes, though Bungie is aware of some of the fan base’s pain points. The bug fix might help, depending on how effective it is, but the studio is also looking at more ways to tweak the experience in the future—though it may be too late by then.