The Destiny 2 Strand unlock grind will be less tedious than the grind to earn Stasis and its Aspects and Fragments. Although Bungie team members previously suggested they learned some lessons from Beyond Light’s Stasis Aspects and Fragments unlock process, the confirmation that the forthcoming Darkness-based Destiny 2 Strand subclass will require less grind than its predecessor in the FPS game is a relief.
The changes mean players excited to explore Neomuna and other Destiny 2 season 20 content won’t have to shift their full focus to the Strand grind when the subclass launches on the Destiny 2 Lightfall release date.
Word of this change comes from a Bungie press briefing as reported by Fanbyte. In response to a question about whether unlocking Strand would be like unlocking Stasis, Bungie creative director Tyson Green offers a glimpse at what to expect.
“That’s a very sanitised version of ‘Will unlocking Strand be as painful as unlocking Stasis?’ No, it will not be,” the developer says. “It’s much cleaner, the way that it’s handled this time – it’ll be much more reminiscent of the way that you unlock the light subclasses, or the aspects of fragments for those.”
“There’s both more freedom in picking which aspects and fragments and grenades you want to earn first, and the way that you earn those is less frictioned and less time-consuming,” game director Joe Blackburn adds, suggesting players would likely see “fully operational Strand Death Stars” ready for the day-one raid.
Although players discovered and unlocked the Stasis subclass as they explored Europa as part of the Beyond Light campaign, fully unlocking its Aspects and Fragments meant a grind that involved using Stasis to defeat specific numbers of slowed and frozen enemies and combatants in Gambit, Crucible, and Vanguard strikes.
This meant forcing players to use their Stasis subclass to complete these tasks, even when doing so would go against their preferred builds or conflict with other modifiers, such as the day’s Vanguard burn. As a result, players found themselves repeating the same content to reach lengthy specific Stasis-related objectives, dissuading many people from obtaining anything beyond their most preferred Stasis Fragments.
Fanbyte reports that the Stand Aspects and Fragments unlock process will function differently. Players must play through the Lightfall campaign to access and learn to use Strand, but unlocking Aspects and Fragments will be less tedious, which is good news for players who disliked the repetitive Stasis unlock process. The sentiment is particularly true for Guardians with alternate (alt) characters, as unlocking Stasis Aspects and Fragments meant repeating the same objectives on multiple characters, which are also typically different classes.
While some players are against Bungie’s recent decision to charge players who have completed the Lightfall campaign for the opportunity to unlock the campaign on their alts, the process of unlocking a new subclass via the campaign on three separate characters can take hours. Therefore, some may see it as a fair trade to be able to unlock Strand for all three characters and immediately begin accessing their Aspects and Fragments upon completing the campaign, particularly for day-one raiders who are interested in experimenting with various builds before the popular World’s First raid race.
Regardless, the decision to limit the grind Strand grind shows Bungie is listening to Destiny 2 players. If you’re excited about what’s to come in Lightfall, check out our Destiny 2 Lightfall exotics guide for a peek at new weapons and armour coming to Destiny 2, one of the best multiplayer games for players of all skill levels.