Bungie finally revealed Destiny 2’s new armor Transmog system, which lets players turn one piece of armor into another visually without affecting its stats. The studio broke down how the system will work in its usual Thursday blog, ahead of the feature’s launch on May 11. But some of the system’s limitations, specifically a limitation that seems designed to milk more money from players, led to streamers and fans alike storming Twitter to offer their feedback.
The Transmog system — which Bungie also calls “armor synthesis” — brings Ada-1 back to the Tower. Ada and her Loom will help players unlock the appearances of items they’ve already earned, converting them to Universal Ornaments that Guardians can equip on any armor piece.
But the process to convert these armor pieces is a bit convoluted, so say the least. First, fans will need to adventure into the world and kill some enemies, passively generating Synthstrand for themselves while they play. Once they have enough Synthstrand (150), they can buy special bounties for Ada-1 that offer Synthcord. Once Guardians finish their bounty, they can take their new Synthcord and trade it into Ada-1 for Synthweave — that’s the third Synth-like currency, if you’re keeping track.
Players can use that Synthweave to unlock armor appearances for the Transmog system. This applies to any armor in Destiny 2, be it Legendary or Common quality. There are a few armor sets that won’t be available at launch due to some technical difficulties.
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This is a lengthy process to unlock the appearance for a single piece of armor, but it’s not really players’ main issue with the system. Most fans take umbrage with Bungie’s artificial limit on how many items players can Transmog per season. Each player can earn 10 Synthweave each season (typically a three-month period) on each character class. That means dedicated fans can Transmog 30 pieces of armor total per season, with 10 per class. Bungie will double this limit for the system’s inaugural season, which will likely run until the fall.
Fans can seemingly circumvent this limit and the lengthy quest by using the real-money currency, Silver. A single Synthweave Template Token will run players 300 Silver ($3), while five Tokens will cost 1,000 Silver ($10).
Twitter exploded with thousands of Transmog takes as soon as Bungie’s blog went up. Most of them looked like this:
Ooooof that transmog THREE currency system is a yikes. Plus limited to 10 pieces per season? Extra yikes with a side of Eververse yikes.
1000 silver for a full set of Synthweave? I’ve reached my yikes limit.
I’m pretty sure this was my concern on DCP a few episodes ago. pic.twitter.com/6WbSHQylwL
— Tefty (@teft) April 22, 2021
I want a Destiny where I can grinddd. I want a Destiny where I can grind at my own pace. I want to grind as much as my heart wants. Slowly drip feeding content and time-gating things is not what I want.
Grind. This is what I want. This is what I miss. This is what I wish.
— Gladd (@Gladd) April 22, 2021
The 10 Transmog tokens per class, per season restriction seems to bother fans the most, while the overly complicated Synth currency system is more of a minor complaint. It’s one of the largest Destiny fan uproars since Bungie first introduced the weapon sunsetting system.
The system is only a few weeks out, but it’s possible Bungie could make some adjustments. The studio recently walked back weapon sunsetting and removed it from the game after only a few months. One of Destiny 2’s community managers, and the writer of the blog post, said that he and the team are collecting feedback about the Transmog system.
Bungie’s newest season, which still doesn’t have an official name, will launch on May 11.
