Bungie Nukes ‘Destiny’ Loot Caves, Engram Drop Rate Increasing Eventually

The Old Russia loot cave in Destiny is a slightly infamous method for PlayStation and Xbox Guardians to try and obtain rare drops faster than normal. Another such loot cave was recently discovered and just so happens to line up nicely with the bounties for the just launched Queen’s Wrath event and some of the regular Vanguard bounties. On Thursday, Bungie officially nerfed the loot caves to discourage players from camping.

“The Hive of the holy ‘Treasure Cave’ have realized the futility of their endless assault on Skywatch and have retired to lick their wounds and plan their next attack,” Bungie wrote in a set of patch notes.

The hotfix patch on Tuesday increases the amount of time between spawns. This affects not just legendary Skywatch loot cave in Old Russia, but all the rest as well.

• Respawn timers for monster caves in Skywatch have been normalized to 40 seconds (increased from 6)
• Respawn timers for monster caves in Forgotten Shore have been normalized to 40 seconds (increased from 10)
• Respawn timers for monster caves in Ember Caves have been normalized to 40 seconds (increased from 10)
• Respawn timers for monster caves in the Shattered Coast have been normalized to 40 seconds (increased from 10)
• Respawn timers for monster caves in the Barrens have been normalized to 40 seconds (increased from 20)

The Ember Caves spawn times is probably the one that bites Destiny players the most because it synched up so well with the Queen’s Wrath bounties and various Vanguard bounties. The loot cave there spawned Fallen enemies, including a Major. It allowed players to breeze through monotonous bounties such as Extermination Protocol that required 200 headshots on Fallen. You can see it in its former glory below.

The good news is that Bungie is not just nerfing the loot caves, but also intends to address the reason the reason why players were farming them to begin with. Loot drops in the game are completely random. So, even if you pick up a Legendary Engram, there’s a chance you may end up with an Uncommon or Rare item when you take it to the Cryptarch. That will eventually change, according to these dev notes.

“The social experience of a cave farming run is amazing: the herding to get a team of Guardians all behind the line and firing in the right direction, the rush to grab the loot, the scramble when the panic wave starts, the beckoning glow from inside the cave. The speed at which the community organized around this activity was inspiring and humbling to us.”

“But shooting at a black hole for hours on end isn’t our dream for how Destiny is played. Our hope is that social engagement in public spaces is only one part of the Destiny experience. Expect changes soon which decrease the efficiency of cave farming and correspondingly increase engram drops from completing activities.”

Unfortunately, there’s no word on when the updated loot drops will come. Bungie stated that some issues “may not be addressed for a month or two.” Hopefully, that is not the case when it comes to loot drops since the loot caves were just nerfed.

What do you think of these changes by Bungie? Sound off in the comments below.

[Images via Bungie]