Bungie’s strange Destiny 2 microtransaction for Lightfall progression might be unnecessary

Destiny 2 fans are hyped to dive into Lightfall, where they’ll be exploring Neomuna on Neptune while The Witness and Calus invade the unsuspecting citizens of this previously untouched utopia. Bungie has set the stage for a monumental warzone and slowly fed information to the press and fans leading up to the big event. One piece of information that Bungie has shared revolves around a new microtransaction they’re adding for Lightfall, and fans are divided on if this is something they should have a price tag attached to it.

Bungie made the microtransaction announcement yesterday in their weekly This Week at Bungie post. The optional microtransaction allows players to skip the Lightfall campaign with their side characters if they’ve already done it once on another character. Referred to as the Lightfall Campaign Skip Boost, it should allow the chosen character to immediately unlock Strand and includes high Power level gear for that character, only if the player’s main character has hit the new Light Level Soft Cap.

Related: Destiny 2 players are convinced Bungie has forgotten Gambit exists

The reason for this microtransaction was because player feedback about it said that it was tedious to go through the Beyond Light expansion campaign to unlock the Statis ability. It was the only way for players to unlock the unique power of their character, and it was a tedious challenge, with several tasks players had to complete to reach that point.

Thankfully, Bungie has been forward in sharing that they’ve addressed that grind for Strand, and there won’t be one, but the Skip Boost feels like an action that shouldn’t have a microtransaction attached. If anything, it should be a quality-of-life feature for players with multiple characters.

Again, this microtransaction is optional. If anything, it likely won’t be touched by die-hard players who are likely already planning to repeat the Lightfall campaign on Legend difficulty with every character they play. That’s also an excellent way to farm decent gear, and more casual players likely only have one, maybe two, characters they play.

Attaching a price tag to a Lightfall skip after playing it feels a little much, especially for Destiny 2, which has a price tacked onto nearly everything. In addition, it’s hard to remember that Destiny 2 is a free-to-play game because much of the content and ways to interact with the content are stuck behind a paywall. After someone has paid to play Lightfall, it’s a bridge too far to ask someone to play through the old content more than once unless they spend even more money.

The decision is a loaded one from Bungie because it does address a core problem Destiny 2 players had with Beyond Light. Unlocking Strand sounds like it is less than a grind than Statis, but adding a payment to an already large package feels like an odd step. Heck, we don’t know how much this feature will cost yet. It might not be too expensive, but any added cost will hurt players’ pocket books.

Bungie mentioned that they would monitor feedback on this feature when Lightfall arrives. The feedback likely won’t trickle in until after the first week or two, when players have beaten the campaign once and are neck deep in the Season of Defiance. We’ll have to wait and see how the Destiny 2 community responds to the Lightfall Campaign Skip Boost when it arrives and if it even feels necessary to have in the game.