Bungie has removed the Encore exotic mission from Destiny 2 after players used it to power level too fast.
The Edge of Fate expansion is finally out in Destiny 2, and it came with one of the biggest resets the game has ever seen. Every player, no matter how long they’ve been playing, was brought back down to Power Level 10, kicking off a fresh grind all the way up to the new 450 cap.
That grind was supposed to take a while, but many players found a shortcut. One of the featured exotic missions in the Portal’s Pinnacle Ops section, called Encore, was giving out way more rewards than expected.
One of the featured exotic missions in the Portal’s Pinnacle Ops section, called Encore, was handing out way more rewards than intended. When combined with the Strand Grapple modifier, players were able to speedrun the mission in just 10 to 13 minutes per run, letting them shoot past Power Level 350 in just two days. You can check out how to farm worked in detail here.
But now? That farm is gone.
Bungie Removes Encore Exotic Mission From Destiny 2 Pinnacle Ops
Earlier today, Bungie stepped in to stop the farm. First, the developer removed the Grappler modifier from the Pinnacle Ops section of the Portal. A few minutes later, it pulled the Encore mission entirely and replaced it with Starcrossed, a more challenging mission that only gives two completion rewards instead of four.
On its official Destiny 2 Team account on X, Bungie explained the decision, saying that the Encore mission wasn’t working as intended. It was too easy to complete and was giving out way more rewards than it should’ve. Because of that, the devs decided to remove both the mission and the Grappler modifier from the Portal for now.
Here’s the full statement from the developer:
“We have identified an issue where the Encore mission is substantially easier to complete, and dropping higher quantities of rewards, than intended within Pinnacle Ops. As such, we have disabled the Encore mission within Pinnacle Ops and the “Grappler” modifier within the Portal. These will be reenabled at a future date. We will provide additional details when available.
The Destiny community has been quick to respond, and many aren’t happy with how this situation was handled. At the time of writing this article, which is just 30 minutes after Bungie’s post went live on X, it had already racked up over 600 replies, most of them calling out the developers for acting too late.
The core issue players are pointing out is the unfair advantage this has created. Those who managed to farm the Encore mission early were able to rocket past Power Level 350 in just a couple of days. That puts them in a prime position to start farming Tier 4 and Tier 5 gear, giving them access to better rolls, more powerful builds for the upcoming Desert Perpetual raid.
Meanwhile, players who didn’t get to take advantage of the farm now have to level up the slower, intended way, with fewer drops and less time.
Content creators and longtime players are speaking out. Streamer All_The_Players called the decision “really, really, really bad,” saying it left latecomers completely out of luck. “This allows the players who farmed it to 300+ an insane advantage to allow them to farm for Tier 4 gear, while other players who did not do so are left behind and completely out of luck,” they said. “This needs to be reverted.”
KackisHD criticized Bungie’s timing, saying if they weren’t going to fix it right away, they shouldn’t have removed it at all. “Either disable this in the first few hours or don’t disable it at all. Letting people do it for multiple days just to end up disabling it is so stupid.”
As mentioned above, this all comes just ahead of the launch of the new Desert Perpetual raid, which goes live on July 19. With so much of the raid prep tied to power level, players who farmed Encore early now have a noticeable edge going into the world’s first race.
What do you think? Did you manage to run Encore before it was removed? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
