Destiny developer Bungie has assured players they will not make the same mistakes with the game's next DLC, House of Wolves, as they did with The Dark Below — namely the reward economy. One of the major complaints with The Dark Below was that players were able to purchase gear right of the bat that was comparable to the gear players took forever to grind for in Vault of Glass, the end raid in the base game.
Lead designer Luke Smith didn't go into specifics over at NeoGAF, but he did say things like "vendor gear invalidating the effort of [Vault of Glass] Raiders" and "upgrading an Exotic reseting [sic] its talents" are two things that will be addressed.
"Our philosophy about rewards/loot continue to evolve as we see how players play and react," Smith said. "We will continue to improve acquisition stories and frequency (My understanding of the perception is that Crota's End drop rates are much improved vs. Vault of Glass: footnote below), lessen the grind and get players to the fun parts of their arsenal faster."
Smith went on to explain that Bungie has been assessing item rewards and drop rates between Vault of Glass and Crota's End, and have found that increased drop rates and variability of perks on items are two things they want to increase moving forward. Smith also said the developer is looking to remove Shards as a "barrier" for players looking to equip upgrades.
"We're not intending to adjust the shard economy for this Tier — we don't want to invalidate player effort (again). But removing the barrier between that new drop you're excited to get and actually being able to equip it as a member of your arsenal are something we will do going forward," Smith assured.
House of Wolves is the second of two planned expansions for Destiny, and is included as part of Destiny's Expansion Pass. No official release date has been given yet.
