After the recent trend of permanent season passes like in Helldivers 2, it may be surprising that Bungie is following that same practice with Destiny 2‘s next major update. It’s not as shocking, however, that there’s a new currency involved in unlocking their items, as seen in an official blog post today.
With the release of Ash & Iron on Sept. 9, the Tower is getting a new kiosk dedicated to old seasonal passes, allowing players to purchase them way past their expiration date. All passes up to season 26 (Heresy) will be available at launch, the studio revealed in today’s This Week in Destiny post, with newer releases entering the menu one cycle after their end. The current offerings, for instance, will enter the menu on Dec. 2, with the release of Renegades.
You don’t have to worry about grinding through a second battle pass, however. The studio is making a new currency called Chronologs, which drops from the active season pass’ offerings. For instance, by obtaining the next rewards pass in Ash & Iron, players will get a new resource to unlock items from an old pass they might be interested in, or exchange Chronologs for other offerings like Deepsight Harmonizers. The new currency will drop from the free and paid tracks on the running pass.
Archived passes come with a discount, costing just 600 Silver as opposed to the usual 1,000. This also comes with 500 Chronologs, which is already enough to unlock “a handful of items,” according to Bungie. Legacy passes you already own will be available free of charge. Likewise, if you bought an item during a Flashback Sale—when old, archived season pass rewards became temporarily available for Silver—you’ll also receive the associated pass for free.
Archived passes only drop the big-ticket items, such as weapons, ornaments, and emotes, so no boosts, Ascendant Shards, Exotic Engrams, or armor pieces will be available. That’s a double-edged sword: there’s no need to earn filler items, but you also miss out on potentially useful resources.
It’s unclear if players can still access a season’s Exotic through the Monument of Lost Lights without having to spend cash, or if unlocking an ornament for a slot unlocks it for all classes, just like in an active season pass.
As a caveat, each archived season pass costs 600 Silver, which puts it in a finicky spot. Players without any Silver left over can’t buy one pass with the 500 Silver pack ($5.99), or get two passes with the $9.99 Silver bundle, which comes with 1,100 Silver.
The new Destiny 2 project seems like a good idea, but the earning rate of Chronologs might just make or break this new system. You can exchange this currency for other items, so there isn’t much reason for Bungie to be stingy with its acquisition. All in all, though, allowing players to obtain rewards they may have missed is bound to be a net positive despite the system’s growing pains, marking a rare win for Bungie so far.
