I’ve been playing Destiny since the early days because it offered something truly unique: a living world, meaningful exploration, social experiences, and exciting loot. But the new Portal system introduced this year has unintentionally stripped away much of what makes Destiny… Destiny. I’m urging Bungie to phase it out, because right now, it’s doing more harm than good.
The Portal system funnels almost all gameplay into a single menu, replacing the sense of place that came from visiting destinations and selecting activities from the Director. Instead of feeling like Guardians exploring a rich universe, we’re clicking a playlist. The world feels empty and disconnected because there’s no reason to go anywhere or engage with the environment. Destiny used to feel like an adventure. Now it feels like a UI.
On top of that, Portal relies on repetitive modifier grinding instead of delivering new, handcrafted content. Boons and banes don’t create meaningful variety they just force us to replay the same strikes and missions with artificial difficulty tweaks. It’s not fresh content, it’s recycled content with rules attached. Many players are burning out faster than ever because it feels like homework instead of fun.
Worse, Portal actively discourages social play. Destiny has always been about community and teamwork, but Portal is often most efficient when played solo. Raids and dungeons have become side activities instead of the core experience. Players have even said the game feels lonely. When an MMO style game stops encouraging teamwork, something is seriously wrong.
The reward structure adds insult to injury. Progression and loot are locked behind Portal activity tiers, so if you don’t like the system, you fall behind. You’re not allowed to play your way you’re forced into the same grind as everyone else. The freedom to choose your own path, a core pillar of Destiny, has been replaced with “do this or get left behind.”
This system also takes away player choice in general. You can’t simply queue a normal strike for fun, or easily pick specific missions. The Portal dictates what you play and how you play it. Destiny always thrived on freedom and variety; now the game tells you exactly what to do, and it becomes repetitive fast.
And let’s be honest: the community has been very clear. Steam reviews, Reddit discussions, YouTubers, streamers, casuals, hardcore players so many people are saying the same thing: the Portal doesn’t feel fun. It feels like a chore. It makes the game lifeless. Long time loyal players are quitting because the heart of the game feels gone.
The worst part? Bungie already knows something’s off. They’ve publicly acknowledged that Destiny feels “isolated” and “lonely” lately. They’ve hinted at shifting focus back toward group content in future expansions. That alone proves the Portal is working against the identity of the game. So why keep it as the core system?
Destiny succeeds when it gives us adventure, world immersion, social interaction, and meaningful activities not when it traps us in a modifier menu. I’m asking Bungie to please phase out the Portal system or limit it to an optional challenge mode, and restore freedom in the Director, meaningful world exploration, and activity diversity. Bring back the feeling that every corner of the game matters not just one playlist.
Destiny still has so much potential. But if the Portal remains the center of the game, more players will leave before that potential can be realized. Please listen to the community. Give Destiny its soul back.
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This and also beg the OG Halo and Destiny devs to return even if it means paying them more money. The game will never recover or be as good without them
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Yes please
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Destiny feels isolated and lonely because that's who they have constantly catered to for several years now. The anti-social solo players. They never make significant changes to the clan system. It's been the same dead broken pos for 10 years now. Solo players complained about having to find people to play dungeons and raids with to get the best gear, so they add in systems that further allow solo players to get some of the most powerful gear that used to force people out of their comfort zones and interact with the community. Also the excuse of "oh well lfg is toxic" is a copout. In my experience I would say maybe 5 percent is toxic. I have hundreds of sherpas, messaged randos in the tower or on a planet to see if they wanted to do a raid or dungeon and i can count on one hand how many bad experiences I've had. It's randos being anti-social and taking the slightest bit of criticism as toxicity. It's partly killed raid gear off and the value of raiding when you can get god rolls that -blam!- all over raid weapons from some crap seasonal mission or iron banner. My best friends to this day I met back in my first D1 VoG run. I was looking for people to play vog with because I wanted to hit max level and the gear was cool. So I found a group of other new players and 1 sherpa willing to deal with us. I still have lunch and shoot the -blam!- regularly with alot of that original fireteam to this day.
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I said it back then when they announced the portal and I will say it again today. The Portal was a mistake, the same way Social Media like Twitter was a mistake for the youths mental health. They should simply get rid of it. Rip the band-aid off. Go back to the drawing board. Instead of the Portal being "the only option", it should be a page of "recommended options". But it shouldn't make 99% of the game useless as it does now.
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They need a return to form, let us have our pleasant and simple activities with decent rewards, and without all the massive nonsense debuffs for us and OP buffs for enemies. I joined "Destiny 2", not "dark souls with guns 2" FFS!!
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Portal has made destiny a chore rather than a fun activity you did once admin stuff (campaign, levelling up, etc) was dealt with. More suited for a mobile experience you can enjoy if you’ve 15 min on the train to work. Not the D2 playerbase unfortunately.
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Absolutely agree with this. The Portal system has streamlined Destiny to the point of sterility — it’s efficient, but it’s killed the heart of what made the game special. The magic used to come from being in the world: traveling to destinations, seeing other Guardians out in the field, and choosing how you wanted to spend your time. Now it all feels like clicking through a spreadsheet. The grind feels artificial, the rewards feel hollow, and the social fabric that held the game together is unraveling because the most “optimal” way to play is alone. Bungie needs to recognize that convenience isn’t the same as engagement — Destiny thrived when it felt alive, unpredictable, and connected. Bring back freedom, bring back exploration, and let players experience the world again instead of navigating menus. The Portal might make sense as a side feature, but as the core of Destiny, it’s suffocating the soul of the game.
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They need to bring back world exploring, maybe make daily public events with special drops. The tower now is a barren wasteland, the old days you could visit a destination and see and even help other guardians is gone.
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💡 How to Revive Destiny 2? Give Us the “Exotic Heart”! Everyone keeps talking about how to “fix” Destiny 2 — less monetization, more content, better balance. But what if the solution is the opposite? What if Destiny needs to become overpowered again? ⸻ 🩸 The Concept: The Exotic Heart Every Exotic weapon and armor piece could have a chance to gain an Exotic Heart — an ultra-rare, mystical upgrade that takes the item to a whole new level. These Hearts can’t be crafted, focused, or targeted. They’re pure RNG, incredibly rare drops — the kind of loot that makes you scream in disbelief when you finally get one. ⸻ 🔥 Examples: • Hard Light – Exotic Heart: Kills trigger weakening explosions. Kills on weakened targets cause an additional blinding explosion. Also: no damage falloff. • One-Eyed Mask – Exotic Heart: Keep all original perks, plus a permanently active radar, even while aiming. ⸻ 🧠 Why This Could Work Destiny 2 has become too predictable. Everything is balanced, controlled, and carefully tuned. The “Exotic Heart” system would bring back mystery, excitement, and prestige. It would give players something legendary to chase again — that wild dream of finding the perfect, one-of-a-kind version of their favorite Exotic. In short: ➡️ More chaos. ➡️ More fantasy. ➡️ More Destiny. ⸻ 💬 What do you think? Would this system be genius or completely broken? Would you love the idea of your favorite Exotic having a hidden, god-tier version out there in the wild? Or would that level of RNG and power creep destroy balance? And honestly? If Destiny is going down, let’s go out with a Gjallarhorn moment — a final, glorious explosion of chaos and fun that reminds us why we fell in love with this game in the first place. 💥
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I totally agree. So many areas of Destiny no longer have a meaning to exist. It's like looking into a world atlas, but having no reason to step outside your village. Sad times for a once wonderful gaming experience.
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It needs to combine with what we previously had. It should be a condensed and easy to understand “shortcut” to each of destiny’s activities. It would be a far better use of resources and time to allow both the open world and portal systems to both grant useful gear.
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🤣🤣🤣 🤡 Yall haven't learned any lessons yet, eh?
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Kinda makes you feel unwanted. 😏
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If the portal was gone the complaints would be the same doing super old content with nothing new to replace it, there are no new players, people already have the narrative incentive to drop the game and what was in EOF was so small it wasn't even the bare minimum if anything under the old system the grind would be objectively worse. We have more agency in terms of how much time we have to get drops no longer under the whims of weekly lockout so duplicates don't hurt nearly as much. Heck we can now grind old dungeon and raids till we are blue in the face and get what we want. But the quality of what is there does not change. It's not that the portal is bad its the brain dead decision for it to be the only way to level. Take out advent guarde in everything and be able to level doing literally anything people would still feel the same.
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The fix put the menu in the tower for now. It just flows wrong it's confusing. It just for people that don't know how to play.
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Prior to the implementation this forum was full of complaints about pinnacle gear being locked mainly behind non-MM team-based endgame. Now that the concept has changed to allow anyone with enough time regardless of their experience or skill to fully level up there are complaints again. TD:DR - no matter what B does, someone will always be complaining.