The Honor System In Destiny 2 Is Getting A Few Upgrades

Commendations were intended to be a method of recognizing other players who may have been helpful or contributed to a great experience in some other way. As such, it was anticipated that they would be an exciting new feature introduced during the Lightfall era in Destiny 2’s timeline. However, the way the system actually operates results in players blindly spamming commendations without consideration, in part because of the method in which they are integrated into progression systems. Although Bungie has already made some adjustments to the way commendations count toward Guardian Ranks, even more alterations are on the horizon in the near future.

The number of commendations you obtain will start over from scratch at the beginning of each new season, but only a portion of your total commendation score will be reduced from one year to the next. Together with your score, the breakdown of your commendations, or the distribution of the total number of commendations you obtain throughout the various categories, is something that is monitored from season to season. Your “recent seasonal history” will be displayed in a new section of the Journey screen, which will be added in Season 21, as shown in the image below. This new section will help you keep track of the progress you make over each season. Not only will this show your commendation score and its breakdown, but it will also include your seasonal Triumph, seasonal challenges, and Guardian Ranks.

Bungie has acknowledged that the current system is “too closely tied to progression.” The company has stated that it has work to do but that “plans are already in motion” in response to this criticism. This admission comes after the number of commendations needed to advance through Guardian Ranks 7-11 was lowered. “We’re re-tuning several values so active players can be much more cautious about who they do or don’t want to offer a commendation to,” Bungie added. “This way, they won’t have to worry about the quantity of commendations they’ve already given holding them back from their goals.”

Before the most recent patch, players were required to hand in 20 commendations to Hawthorne every week in order to be eligible for a Powerful reward from her. As a result of this change, there is now only a need to quickly commend a maximum of five colleagues before an athlete is allowed to depart the field of play in a competition. Nevertheless, there is an additional problem with higher Guardian Ranks. The Leadership commendations that are required to achieve ranks 10 and 11 are going to be tallied retrospectively beginning in Season 21, which will be one of the changes that will take place in the game.

That means that any of those commendations you acquire while you are still at lesser ranks will be counted after you reach it to those final two ranks. The final two ranks are Lieutenant Colonel and Colonel. Last but not least, “Best Dressed” is the name of a brand new commendation that will be distributed “in the coming weeks.” Along with this, there will be an updated “eligibility” for commendations depending on participation in an activity. This appears to be an attempt to prevent users from abusing the system in order to flood it with commendations.