Destiny 2 players still want “atrocious” Tonics removed despite huge buffs
DexertoTowards the end of Revenant Act 2, Bungie gave Tonics a huge buff in response to community feedback, but this hasn’t been enough to convince Destiny 2 players they are worth keeping.
On December 17, 2024, the Destiny developer buffed Tonics by increasing their duration and making them always drop their associated reward. Furthermore, Tonics now increase the chances of rewarding gear from seasonal activities, making it easier than ever to farm Episode Revenant’s new weapons.
However, the criticism has continued, with many considering Tonics to be an inferior option to crafting. It’s not a universal take, and some even prefer an RNG-based system, but the wider sentiment is that Tonics are not the way forward for the franchise.
Tonic buffs fail to convince Guardians the feature should stay
Frustrated by how Tonics work, one Guardian expressed on Reddit, “The Tonic sh*t is the most atrocious feature ever introduced in Destiny.”
“I don’t even know wtf is going on. Please remove [Tonics] or insta-unlock them at the end of the season. This is horrible,” they continued, berating the feature for being too difficult to figure out, before elaborating, “Why tf are there 999+ tonics to make…. I am not new 7k hours, how tf is a new player supposed to play this sh*t?”
This viewpoint may be strong, but it’s by no means an anomaly. Some of the most upvoted replies in the thread expressed, “They’ve been a huge waste of everyone’s time,” as well as, “Yeah, it’s asinine. I gave up on that RNG BS. It’s incredibly stupid how you unlock them.”
Higher rarity Tonics are unlocked by crafting more common versions of the same potion. This is simple in premise, yet actually quite difficult to figure out, as Destiny’s cumbersome UI makes it a pain to know what unlocks what. Rather than a coherent unlock tree system, every Tonic is listed in order with no explanation as to what links together.
DexertoSome of the comments were even more extreme, with one such user confessing that Tonics were, “What made me quit, and I’m a day 1 vet,” which was a stance shared by several others in the replies.
These aren’t just baseless claims either, as Destiny 2 has been struggling to attract players throughout Episode Revenant. At its lowest, the looter shooter slumped below 10,000 concurrent players on Steam – a number that would have been unimaginable in years gone by.
Realistically, neither reworking nor removing Tonics alone will be enough to bring players back, but it’s a step Bungie may need to consider for the next episode and especially for its 2025 Roadmap. After all, Frontiers needs to be successful if we want to see Destiny become the game it deserves to be.