Bungie has confirmed yet another bug in Destiny 2

With the “weightgate” controversy just barely in the rearview mirror, Bungie has confirmed that there is indeed another bug plaguing Destiny 2 players.

This time, it’s the Episode: Revenant Tonic system, as the feature does not reward what it’s supposed to when gains are expected. Unfortunately, issues like this are growing in prominence, becoming an apparent new normal after Bungie’s consolidation and shift in priorities.

The Tonic system in Episode: Revenant allows players to earn reagants through gameplay, which are used to brew concoctions in The Last City. The idea is that these Tonics can be used to increase or target farm certain rewards and buff specific abilities and effects. In practice, however, it hasn’t really felt like the system worked. Each Tonic only lasts for a bit, and as if the constant application wasn’t annoying enough, it seems the feature isn’t even working the way it should be.

Tonics are the latest broken Destiny feature

In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Bungie formally acknowledged an issue with Episode: Revenant Tonics. The studio noted that Tomb of Elders Tonics weren’t increasing chances to earn the appropriate weapons. Bungie wasn’t ready to announce a fix date, instead telling players it would test and validate potential solutions before providing more information.

While the studio only notes that Tomb of Elders Tonics were affected, the whole system has felt off from the get-go. Just like with the extensive testing done to verify something was wrong with weapon rolls, the Destiny 2 community is at a point where they don’t take Bungie’s word for granted. Some have even gone to similar lengths as the “weightgate” scandal, testing Tonics over several days to form a dataset.

Tonics are the latest thing players have realized aren’t working correctly in Destiny 2, but the issue goes deeper than buffs simply not rewarding as many guns as they should. For the past few years, most, if not all, weapons released during a season were craftable. Players only needed to log on once a week, claim a free pattern from a vendor, and check out after they unlocked the blueprints for whichever weapons they desired. It didn’t make for the most engaging structure for a looter shooter, but it was at least consistent.

Bungie tried doing something different by adding more depth to the looting system, which I totally agree with. Still, the process was fumbled so thoroughly that players are begging the studio to return to the one-pattern-a-week crafting alternative. It’s a shame, as I imagine the studio won’t be so keen to attempt to innovate after a debacle like this.

Bungie’s losses are more apparent now than ever

It’s hard to discuss bugs and issues within Destiny 2 and not bring up Bungie’s layoffs between 2023 and 2024. First, in October of 2023, Bungie laid off an estimated 100 employees and delayed both Destiny 2‘s The Final Shape expansion and the upcoming title Marathon. Reporting followed that described a “soul-crushing” atmosphere at Bungie, including reckless decision-making, internal scandals, and a scramble to prove itself a good investment for Sony.

With Sony’s earlier acquisition of Bungie, a second round of layoffs in July of 2024 meant that incorporating Bungie employees into Sony was possible. Bungie noted 220 employees were laid off in the second round, with another 155 moving directly to Sony. Between the reported layoffs (about eight months apart), the studio lost around 475 employees. And that’s, of course, not including those who left as they started to see the writing on the wall.

Previous reporting noted that testing and QA were some of the first roles to go at Bungie and that reality is being felt now more than ever. That’s not to say that Destiny 2 was without bugs and annoying glitches in the past, but I don’t think I remember things being this bad since Curse of Osiris or maybe the early Shadowkeep days. Veteran Destiny 2 reporter Paul Tassi is even one of the extra unlucky players who can’t create Tonics at all on certain characters.

At the very least, Bungie is looking into the issue now. That said, it seems like more and more, the Destiny community is doing the heavy lifting of identifying potential issues in-game. It’s appreciated work by dedicated Destiny 2 players, for sure, but it should be Bungie’s job to take care of the game, not ours.