Destiny 2’s Telesto event was confusing, according to some players who had higher expectations for Bungie’s surprise in-game/IRL crossover. Some Guardians found the event, which involved the often-broken weapon shooting bizarre patterns before gaining sentience and taking over the Destiny Twitter account, underwhelming compared to the scale of past Destiny events. Guardians who were excited about a large-scale community activity instead found themselves with a free emblem code and an alternate firing mode for the weapon in what gamers largely agree is one of the best FPS games on PC in 2022. The result amounted to confusion among Destiny 2 players about what the event was really about.
Destiny 2 has held several major large-scale community events, some of which caused some players to work around the clock to try to make sense of the puzzles as they appeared in the game. These include Niobe Labs, which would have unlocked a secret Black Armory facility (players struggled to complete the puzzle, so Bungie opened it before the community figured out the solution), and the Corridors of Time, which kept players busy for days wandering infinite rooms and looking at symbols.
When Telesto began showing unusual graphics within the game, some players got excited about the prospect of a large event. Even journalist Paul Tassi, who often covers Destiny 2 content, seemed prepared for the possibility of a major community activity.
Telesto’s ‘takeover’ of the Bungie Twitter account, in which the weapon appeared to have gained sentience and started to communicate directly with fans, only fueled players’ expectations.
However, Bungie community team member Cosmo dashed these expectations when he shared that there were no puzzles to solve, a statement reiterated in the team’s This Week at Bungie weekly summary.
Ultimately, the hype resulted in a free emblem, which players can redeem with the code 9LX-7YC-6TX on the Bungie Code Redemption webpage.
The reveal stunned some Destiny 2 community members, who found themselves confused as to why the company would stage such an event over a Telesto emblem giveaway.
YouTuber Aztecross, who dedicated significant time to figuring out whether there were codes in the weapon patterns on both his stream and a YouTube video, tweeted a gif in response to the emblem code that said, “Is that it?”
Similarly, Destiny 2 streamer JOverrated tweeted a different gif featuring a disappointed face and the text “was it all for an emblem.”
While the event was all in good fun, and the emblem is quite unique, some fans were disappointed there isn’t something more to the tease. Several took to Reddit to explain that their issues aren’t with the small, unexpected event, but that the lack of payoff added to their frustrations with the overall season itself.
“I think it was just the frustration of the season, the [Festival of the Lost], mixed with the hope of the community that there will finally be a secret event again. I can only imagine that some thought the joke went too far,” shared Redditor redoxly. The comment has more than 600 upvotes.
Others felt as though the takeover set high expectations but then served as only a promotion for a Telesto-themed t-shirt in the Bungie store. This complaint comes on the heels of complaints that the game’s recent Festival of the Lost event card also amounted to a ploy for Bungie to press players for money.
On the whole, the game is reportedly experiencing lower-than-expected player counts across the board. Players have expressed dissatisfaction with the game’s repetitive seasonal content and its annual Festival of the Lost event, which had several bugs and issues upon launch.
Even the major Arc 3.0 overhaul wasn’t enough for some players, following Solar 3.0 and Void 3.0 reworks in the previous seasons. The Destiny 2 season 19 release date of December 6 is coming up quickly and is expected to bring reworks to at least 25 of the game’s Exotic weapons, and some suspect this was a teaser for what Guardians can expect with the weapon overhauls. The is will likely impact our selections for the best Destiny 2 Arc 3.0 builds, the best Destiny 2 Solar build after the 3.0 subclass rework, and the best Destiny 2 Void subclasses.
Regardless, the sentiment remains that some players had higher expectations for the event. Beyond its history of community events, Destiny 2 is known for secrets and puzzles in raids and other in-game activities, which can take even the most elite fireteams hours to solve. Unfortunately, such a history of significant in-game surprises led players to have higher expectations for what was essentially a practical joke.
Hopefully, a relatively slow season means Bungie is simply preparing to draw the last few seasons’ storylines together in Season 19 as a precursor to the forthcoming expansion. The Destiny 2 Lightfall release date of 2023 is rapidly approaching. Ultimately, it would be exciting to see more Easter eggs and surprises in what is widely known to be one of the best PC space games sometime soon.