‘Destiny 2’ Three Of Coins Issue And Fix Explained By Bungie As Community’s Discontentment Grows

Bungie responded to complaints Monday concerning how Three of Coins is supposed to work in Destiny 2. PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC gamers have been bewildered at how the new consumable item is supposed to work, and Bungie’s explanation will likely not excite.

As previously covered, Three of Coins was added to Xur’s inventory with the 1.1.1.1 update delivered to all platforms last Tuesday. The consumable is supposed to increase a Guardian’s chance to earn an Exotic Engram during any activity for four hours. However, players reported disappointing results, with some reporting no visible increase in Exotics or none received at all.

Bungie investigated the issue and shared the fact it discovered an issue where Heroic Strikes were not seeing an increased chance of earning Exotics with Three of Coins compared to Vanguard Strikes. Unfortunately, this issue won’t be addressed until early 2018 thanks due to the Christmas and New Year holiday season. This isn’t terribly surprising, as many software companies operate at near skeleton crew capacity during this time of the year.

What Are The Exotic Drop Rates?

Interestingly, Bungie also revealed how much the Three of Coins increases a Destiny 2 player’s odds of receiving an Exotic Engram without sharing what the base drop rates. Players can expect a 50 percent chance increase. That may not be as huge a boost as some had hoped given the Exotic drop rate is already relatively low. For example, if the Exotic drop rate for an activity is 10 percent, then the Three of Coins only boosts that up to 15 percent. If the drop rate for an activity is only 5 percent then the boost makes it only 7.5 percent.

Different Destiny 2 activities have different chances of dropping Exotic Engrams, and it is not known where those rates currently sit. In fact, part of the sense that Three of Coins are not having any effect may be due to adjustments made in the 1.1.1.1 update and the lack of details on where the Exotic drop rates sit.

Public Events saw their Exotic and Legendary drop rates decreased in last week’s update, per Bungie’s patch notes. These particular events have been a huge farming source in Destiny 2 because they can be completed quickly and give good rewards in that time frame. If Bungie decreased the Public Event Exotic Engram drop rates for Public Events, then it is likely the Three of Coins boost only brings the rate back up to where it was prior to the update. Perhaps even slightly less.

Strike and Crucible playlists activities were supposed to receive an increase in Exotic Engram drop rates. Bungie again did not specify a number here, however, and the issue with the Heroic Strikes not applying the Three of Coins buff means players have no idea what to expect.

Issues And Transparency

It has been an unfortunate comedy of errors with Destiny 2 since the release of the Curse of Osiris expansion. Bungie promised to be more transparent after apologizing for not disclosing how experience rewards were throttled in-game just prior to the expansion’s release.

Unfortunately, the new DLC saw new issues such as Prometheus Lens wrecking Crucible during the first week, base game content locked away from those who hadn’t purchased, and the delay of the return of Faction Rallies. Meanwhile, there are still unaddressed issues such as a hidden “Juggler” perk mechanic that limits ammo drops for the equipped weapon type and the ever-lingering major issue of Eververse going from a way to fund free content in Destiny 1 to a permanent microtransaction-based end-game feature for Destiny 2.

The Destiny 2 community is particularly agitated with both the game and Bungie at the moment. It will be interesting to see how the developer manages community expectations over the coming months, as there will be at least a three- to four-month gap until the second expansion of new content is released.