One Destiny 2 Vendor Sticks Out Like a Sore Thumb

Highlights

• Xur, the Exotic vendor in Destiny 2, is falling behind in the changing times and selling outdated gear.
• Exotic loot economy in Destiny 2 is unbalanced, making Xur less essential for players to collect Exotics.
• Xur frequently sells legacy gear with outdated perks, making him overdue for a rework.

While Destiny 2 has changed a lot over the years, Xur, the Exotic vendor available on the weekends, has fallen behind in the changing times. Notably, Xur has a habit of selling sunset gear in Destiny 2, which can lead to unaware players using weapons that are outdated and ineffective.

With the upcoming removal of Destiny 2‘s Legendary Shards currency, this NPC vendor may already be set to receive a slight rework in the near future. However, given how lackluster Xur has become, Destiny 2 should use this opportunity to give this NPC a long-overdue upgrade.

Destiny 2 Has an Exotic Economy Problem

In the original Destiny, Xur was infamous for selling one of the best Exotics in the first few weeks of the game’s launch. While Xur never ended up selling this particular Exotic weapon again, it became a tradition for players to visit this vendor when they appear every weekend, just in case. Flash forward to the Season of the Wish era of Destiny 2, Xur is nowhere near as popular as they once were, and rightfully so.

The main appeal of Xur in Destiny 2 is still to sell Exotics that players haven’t yet discovered. However, it’s now significantly easier than ever before for players to collect every Exotic in the game that doesn’t involve completing any of the Exotic quests in Destiny 2.

Xur is also one of the vendors tied to the Dares of Eternity activity, which is unrelated to the services they provide as a vendor for Exotic and legacy gear on the weekends.

One of the main issues with Xur ultimately boils down to being a symptom of a much bigger problem, that the economy of Exotic loot in Destiny 2 is no longer balanced. Given the current amount and generosity of sources for obtaining Exotic engrams in Destiny 2, Xur is no longer an essential resource for players to collect every Exotic in the game. Consequently, it’s time that this vendor was reworked to reflect how the state of the game has changed in recent years.

Why Xur Is Long-Overdue For a Rework in Destiny 2

In addition to Exotic gear, Xur also sells legacy gear that can no longer be obtained from other sources. However, most of this legacy gear is extremely outdated in Destiny 2’s current meta. For example, Xur has a habit of selling legendary weapons that have the Full-Auto perk, whereas an accessibility change from over a year ago has made this perk useless. Considering that players can enable full-auto firing modes for every eligible weapon type through the in-game settings, weapons with this perk essentially have a useless perk.

Since legendary weapons in Destiny 2 can only ever have two perks at a time, this makes Xur selling weapons that effectively only have one perk is quite disappointing. Not to mention, newer players who aren’t up-to-date on Destiny 2’s latest balancing changes are susceptible to purchasing weapons like this on the assumption that anything offered by this exclusive vendor is worthwhile.

Overall, Xur selling legacy gear is a great feature, considering that otherwise most of this gear can no longer be obtained, which gives players the chance to catch up on any of the craftable Legendary weapon patterns they may have missed. However, the fact that Xur frequently sells legacy weapons with outdated perks is highly problematic, which makes this vendor overdue for a major rework.

Destiny 2 has announced that the Legendary Shard currency will be removed sometime in the upcoming The Final Shape expansion, and since Xur primarily uses this currency, this vendor is likely to receive a rework when this happens. Destiny 2 should consider using this opportunity to address other problematic features of this vendor.