After days of backlash over Destiny 2’s “new” Iron Banner armor, Bungie has officially responded, pulling a paid Eververse set and making it a reward players can earn instead.
Over the last week, Bungie found itself in hot water again, this time over armor. When Destiny 2’s first Major update, Ash & Iron, launched, players quickly realized the “new” Iron Banner armor wasn’t new at all. It was a reskin from 2018’s Warmind expansion.
What made things worse was that an artist posted a new concept art for an Eververse-exclusive paid armor set that had some Iron Banner branding on it, which led many to believe that Bungie had moved this armor set from Iron Banner, where players would have to pay real money to get it.
Frustration boiled over fast. Reddit threads and social media filled up with players accusing Bungie of favoring monetization over meaningful rewards. And now, Bungie has responded, and it’s actually good news.
Bungie Pulls Ancient Majesty From Eververse, Makes It the New Iron Banner Armor
The update came directly from the Destiny 2 Team, shared in a post on the official X account earlier today. In short, Bungie admits that the balance between paid and earned cosmetics is “off” this season, and it is changing course starting today.
The armor set originally shown as the Ancient Majesty bundle, which was going to be sold in the Eververse store, is now being given to all players as this season’s Iron Banner reward set. This replaces the originally planned “Iron Beryllium” set, which, again, was just an old reskin from the Warmind expansion. Bungie says the Iron Beryllium visuals will return later in the season.
There are a few temporary hiccups. Right now, the new Iron Banner gear will still show the old Beryllium icons in-game. Also, since the Ancient Majesty visuals don’t line up with the Beryllium name and bonuses, Bungie says they’ll fix the mismatches in a future patch.
Check out the full look at the Ancient Majesty armor below.
Here’s the full statement Bungie shared today:
“We’ve heard your feedback on the current Iron Banner armor set as well as the overall state of unique and compelling earned rewards. The overall balance in paid and earned armor cosmetics is off for this season and we’re aiming to adjust our approach to earned rewards in the future.
“In the short term, today we will be changing the visuals of Iron Banner’s Iron Beryllium set to instead use those of the upcoming Ancient Majesty set, shown here. The Iron Beryllium set’s original visuals will be available in a later update. The Ancient Majesty set will now become the Iron Banner set and will not be made purchasable on the Eververse store.
“There will be a temporary issue where the gear will still show the Iron Beryllium set’s original icons – we will fix this in a future patch. We also note that the theme of the set’s name and Set Bonuses may not match the new visuals – we’ll aim to update this as well.
“In addition to last week’s incremental Ash & Iron reward increases, we’re also working on bigger improvements to progression via the Portal on top of the Update 9.1.0.1 changes going live today. We will share additional information about these efforts in this week’s TWID on Thursday.
“Expect additional communication over these next few weeks as well as a roadmap to communicate how we will roll these plans out over time.”
Bungie also said it is continuing to improve Ash & Iron progression and will share more details in this week’s TWID blog, set to go live Thursday. The first Iron Banner of the season begins later today after the weekly reset.
What do you think about Bungie’s decision? Does this feel like a genuine fix or just damage control? Let us know your thoughts.
