Despite its remarkable lore and crisp gunplay, Destiny 2 plays host to no small number of imperfections. Some of these problems have been around for literal years, to the point where players actively avoid anything to do with them. One of the most (in)famous examples of this is Destiny 2‘s Attrition activity modifier. After hundreds upon hundreds of hours in the game, it’s looking like a bigger issue than most first anticipated. In fact, it’s holding back Destiny 2‘s core gameplay loop.
For those who might not be in the know, Attrition is a special gameplay mutator that comes into play in select activities. When it’s active, it massively slows down the Guardians’ passive health and shield regeneration as a baseline. To alleviate this, killing enemies will sometimes generate special Light wells that heal you and give you some Super energy. Does this sound good on paper? Yes. But in practice, Attrition is one of the most hated activity modifiers in Destiny 2.
What was the point of Attrition, and why does it not work?
Attrition is, in theory, an easy way for Bungie to totally revamp select seasonal activities and Nightfalls with minimum effort. Simply by toggling this modifier on, Destiny 2‘s emblematic spellcasting/gunplay combo grinds to a staggering halt, forcing players to stick to cover and engage even the weakest of foes at a long range. Preferably, of course, with a reliable scout rifle and the like.
The underlying concept here isn’t terrible, because Destiny can sometimes turn into a fairly competent tactical shooter. In mechanics-heavy content, such as raids and dungeons, players sometimes do need to duck to cover and engage enemies slowly, with intent. Attrition should, therefore, do something similar, right? Sadly, it does not, and it never has.
As Reddit threads from months and years back plainly show, Attrition has only ever been an annoyance. Attrition-enabled content fails to meaningfully engage players in a way that even the highest-grade Nightfalls do. Instead, it simply forces them to play safe and slows down mission progress to the point of annoyance.
Players actively avoid Attrition content in Destiny 2
The discussions surrounding Attrition have come to a head once again very recently. One Reddit thread saw a huge number of Destiny 2 community members agreeing that it is, in fact, one of the worst activity modifiers in the game.
“It’s not challenging, it’s not engaging,” says Reddit user chainsaw_grizzly. “Matching with two other guardians that keep dying because they have no idea what Attrition is, is NOT FUN,” they explain, adding that seeing Attrition active simply makes them avoid the activity altogether until the modifier rotates out of the roster.
“It’s less a modifier and more just a straight-up debilitating handicap,” says 0rganicMach1ne. “Same with Grounded,” they added, referencing an entirely different activity modifier that forces players not to jump.
These discussions have recently come to a head due to Attrition’s presence in the newest seasonal content: the Altars of Summoning. Whereas Bungie usually keeps seasonal activities mechanically lean and straightforward, Altars (and the Imbaru Engine variant, specifically) are a notch above the usual seasonal fare. Add Attrition into the mix and you’ve got a recipe for disaster, especially with underequipped and unprepared players.
Making the best of the situation
Of course, players certainly can build a custom setup designed specifically to counter punishing activity modifiers. In the case of Attrition, that means coming up with ways to heal more reliably. Or, alternatively, to straight-up not take damage at all. And, certainly, one could argue that modifiers like Attrition and Grounded nudge players to think out of the box.
Yet, Destiny 2 is at its absolute best when it empowers players, rather than taking options away from them. Players don’t enjoy its raids and dungeons because they’re loaded with negative activity modifiers, but because they get an additional layer of engaging complexity on top of satisfying combat. Attrition, therefore, ends up de-emphasizing Destiny 2‘s strongest features, making it obvious why players wouldn’t be thrilled with it.
In a game that reliably delivers meaningfully challenging content, it’s hard not to become annoyed with modifiers that seem designed specifically to annoy. It is unlikely, then, that Attrition will ever stop being one of the most hated modifiers in Destiny 2. It cannot, because it doesn’t lean into the game’s combat and mission progression loops: it actively works against them.
