Destiny 2 - The Struggles of Being a Solo Player

what's up guys my name is timbo and welcome back to some more destiny 2. today i want to spend some time talking about the current solo player experience destiny 2 is primarily a cooperative game but a big chunk of people play all by themselves either by preference or because they don't have friends to play with and i think almost all of us have been a solo player at one point or another and have felt some level of fomo destiny 2 like most games has a lot of prerequisites to obtaining gear and weapons but sometimes grinding to the proper power level isn't enough sometimes people get deterred from playing certain content because they don't have others to do it with and because of that miss out on the satisfaction of blowing up 100 thrall with gallohorn so what's the solo player experience like in destiny 2 what are the common struggles and are there ways to improve this going forward this is a topic i rarely if ever hear people talk about which is crazy because only like 7 to 15 of destiny players have completed a raid meaning the vast majority of people play the game alone sticking to matchmaking where it's safe i feel like i've got a well-rounded perspective on this because i've been a solo player i've tried lfg i've also had five plus max level friends to play with so i'm hoping i can represent all sides fairly here my destiny timeline goes as this when destiny first came out i played completely by myself but i was also in that weird in-between group of people because i didn't want to play the game casually i followed it online i wanted to do vault of glass and nightfall strikes and get the thorn from fogoth if anyone remembers that original quest but i didn't have anyone to do that stuff with during the days of the dark below i got recruited from random people in the tower something i don't think anyone does anymore and made some friends i casually hopped around a few different groups before landing on one that i really clicked with and from the dark below forward i had people to play with that were just as into the game as i was i got to do crota vault of glass scolas trials of osiris king's fall wrath of the machine all the activities that require a pre-made fire team and this is when i loved destiny the most some people from that group stopped playing shortly after leviathan and destiny 2 and from that point forward so did i for the most part i kept up with the game but i just hopped in once a year whenever the next big expansion came out if you go back and look at my videos you can see this change reflected in my content when my friends moved away from destiny i started making videos on other games despite buying and playing every major destiny 2 content release i never did last wish i never did the raid layers scrooge of the past or deep stone crypt i did do garden of salvation once or twice with evan f but that was mostly just because i wanted divinity so with that being said you're probably wondering how i have all this raid and dungeon footage and i will explain that later i want to start off by going over what content solo players cannot obtain when destiny first came out you needed to complete raids to reach the maximum level that's no longer a thing and i think overall the game has become a lot friendlier towards solo players the only thing in the game you cannot get as a solo player are raid weapons raid gear dungeon weapons dungeon gear adept nightfall weapons a few ships emblems shaders flare essentially and certain seals like conqueror i might have missed something but i think that's it i'll throw hawk moon and dead man's tail in there too cause those missions are very hard to play solo bungie has made solo playlists for trials of osiris and iron banner there are plenty of ways to get pinnacle loot drops and some of the best weapons in the game are simple world drops like cartesian coordinate i will admit the exotic missions in dungeons and raids are some of destiny 2's best content and gal horn's freaking awesome not going to pretend it's not but strictly looking at quantity for a second here the vast majority of destiny 2 content is available and obtainable for solo players i think raids should definitely be in the game but i also think raids and content like it that requires you to have a full high level fire team is one of if not the biggest reason why people stop playing destiny from my own experience and from literally every single person i've ever talked to that has played destiny at one point or another if they've quit they've all done so for one of two reasons one the game became too expensive or two they didn't have anyone to play it with the interesting thing is that destiny has largely remained the same price for eight years yearly forty dollar expansion with a more expensive deluxe edition and seasonal content or dlc that costs around another thirty to forty dollars per year even at its most expensive points like right now destiny 2 is still cheaper than a netflix or hbo max subscription something like that and considering bungie has content coming out constantly all year round i don't think that's too far-fetched of a comparison so if the game itself isn't getting any more expensive why do people say that i think people feel as though they're not getting their money's worth out of the game they pay the same amount as everyone else but since they can't do the raid or dungeon or whatever they feel less incentive to grind and continue playing past the campaign which is honestly where most of the fun and value of destiny 2 is without five or more people to play with that are grinding alongside you the incentive to keep playing and keep paying dies out now i know what some of you are thinking what about lfg we shouldn't feel sorry for these people because technically they can do the raid they can complete that exotic quest they're getting in their own way and you know what i partially agree with that but then begs another question if players want to complete these activities and have the resources available to them why don't they use them aside from general social anxiety or the desire to play with friends instead of strangers there are a few reasons why lfg doesn't work for a lot of people i can sum the biggest one up in four simple letters kwtd forcing someone to know what to do or get kicked is just not cool i'm not here to shame anyone that does it frequently but it is a very commonplace thing that is kind of toxic i understand people put it there because they might have other things going on and don't want to take the time to teach someone they want a smooth run but everyone is a beginner at one point or another everyone has a first run and everyone should have the opportunity to learn there have been times where i've joined an atheon checkpoint for example and within like five minutes i'm reminded why i never use lfg i know a lot of this is random and not everybody's like this but some destiny players have an intimidating god complex issue there's a difference between teaching and carrying teaching allows that new person to contribute so that in future runs they can improve and hopefully become a teacher one day having half the team sit there dead while you go shoot all the oracles by yourself doesn't help anybody wipes are okay mistakes are going to happen unfortunately it's more common for people to tear one another down kick them from the group or have them sit out then work through wipes and mistakes as a team i will say this about bungie's find a fireteam feature though it does work incredibly well as a matchmaking service for nightfall strikes or legendary's fraternity or pressage or even grasp of avarice there are tons of people casually running through these activities without a mic so you can just hop in and do your thing like you would with any other match made activity one of the biggest reasons why i'm making this video is because there is clearly a desire from solo players to get raid loot there are tons of tutorials on how to glitch into raids to earn loot people used to solo encounters like this because it was impressive but it's now clear there are lots of people that do it because they prefer exploiting the game bungie has made changes to how hidden chests within raids and dungeons work because of this and i'm not going to venture down the rabbit hole on whether or whether or not that is ethically correct to glitch the game but that really does say something the raids are some of destiny's best content and people would rather cheapen that experience than take the plunge in an lfg group like i said earlier i've been a part of dedicated raid groups before so i understand that they too might be deterred from allowing new players to join and i'm hoping people can find some sort of middle ground here be honest when you hear new do you hear bad do you associate new players with being bad i'd be willing to bet a lot of people do which i mean we all kind of do it in a way maybe i don't know but it just isn't true even datto or esoteric or whoever you think a good destiny player is is new at one point i'll just say this destiny raids and dungeons are a whole other beast compared to 90 of the game's other activities you need to be of level you need to have guns that do dps you cannot load up the game for the first time in half a year and try to beat avarice with a blue hand cannon using behemoth titan in college people will joke around how you can always spot a freshman because they the orientation lanyard around their neck this is the destiny equivalent of being a noob if you're new to a raid be respectful to those willing to teach you do your research on what weapons are good this season which exotics and subclasses to use do the grind prepare be of level if you enter into a raid group and tell them you haven't done it before but you've got a threaded needle with vorpal weapon and celestial nighthawk or something any reasonable team will feel just fine about letting you play with them experienced players can be mean yes they shouldn't be but new players should come ready to contribute i don't feel like people say that like ever in my own search for fire teams rick cackas recommended i join a certain discord server it's an active one and there you're not allowed to put kwtd and people are significantly more chill if you're in a position where you're looking for groups but are kind of turned off to bungie's find a fire team i think joining a community discord that is more new player friendly with moderators and rules is it's a much better place for you to be i would share the one that i use but i don't want to potentially have hundreds or thousands of people flooding into somebody else's discord on my behalf without asking i have thought about making my own if that's of interest let me know in the comments and i will do so i guess it probably won't be super fancy but the quality of people you meet there will certainly be a lot better considering you all have this this channel in common sometimes the model of destiny kind of sucks it's great when you play with friends but it's also just as sucky when you're unable to finding five friends to play a game at the same time is hard enough but finding friends that are just as into the game as you are and maintaining that for years is incredibly rare and raids aren't a one and done activity it requires constant grinding if you want to get all the loot i understand why new players get discouraged and why veteran players get deterred and closed off to helping new people out bungie can maybe do a little bit to improve the current experience but a lot of it is just the harsh reality of playing with random strangers on the internet luckily there is a lot of content to do solo and there are better communities out there to join if that is something you would like to do thank you for watching this video if you enjoyed it let me know by dropping me a like if you're new here make sure to subscribe feel free to leave your thoughts about this topic down in the comments i will respond to as many of those as possible as per usual i hope you all have an amazing rest of your day and as always i'll see you in the next [Music]

Channel: Timbo

Views: 601,306

Keywords: timbo, destiny 2, destiny 2 gameplay, the witch queen, the witch queen gameplay, destiny 2 raids, solo player, solo raid, destiny 2 dungeon, vault of glass, grasp of avarice, guide, void 3.0, destiny 2 vidoc, gjallarhorn, bungie

Id: 4WNBxLaAZzQ

Length: 13min 26sec (806 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 11 2022