Bungie has shared a major new update about Unstable Cores in Destiny 2 ahead of the Renegades launch, teasing significant changes to the controversial currency.
Unstable Cores have been one of the biggest talking points in Destiny 2 since the Edge of Fate update earlier this year. Once your gear passes the soft Power cap (200), infusing new or lower-level gear upward requires not just Enhancement Cores and Glimmer, but also Unstable Cores. Players earn them by dismantling high-Power gear or via rewards in the Seasonal hub.
But this new currency quickly became frustrating. Players found the costs too high, especially once their bonus power crossed into the 300s or higher. Infusing even one piece of gear at those levels could cost thousands of Unstable Cores, making it harder to experiment with new builds or alternate loadouts.
Recently, Bungie walked back a major decision that would’ve made things worse. The devs originally planned to reset Unstable Cores (and Seasonal Power levels) with the launch of Renegades on December 2. That decision got reversed earlier this month, and now, we’ve got even better news.
Bungie Confirms Unstable Cores Will Be Removed Entirely in a Future Destiny 2 Update
Earlier today, the Destiny 2 Team account on X (formerly Twitter) shared a new update confirming the future of Unstable Cores, and it’s official: the currency is being removed altogether.
“We have landed on a plan to fully deprecate this currency,” Bungie said in the post. “Once deprecated, infusion will cost an amount of Enhancement Cores and Glimmer.”
According to the developers, Unstable Cores didn’t really serve the purpose they had in mind. Instead of enabling creative build decisions, the currency ended up being “too restrictive across power levels” and “failed to drive any interesting buildcraft decisions.”
While Bungie hasn’t locked in a patch date for the removal yet, there are some immediate changes going live tomorrow, with Destiny 2 update 9.1.5.1:
- A one-time chest in the Tower will reward players with 777,777 Unstable Cores to help them finish any last-minute infusions
- Infusion costs at higher power levels will be reduced starting with the update
Here’s the full statement from Bungie:
“Last week, we announced that Unstable Cores would not reset with the launch of Destiny 2: Renegades on December 2, 2025. We noted in the TWID that we would provide future updates on how we would rebalance the economy of this currency.
“We have landed on a plan to fully deprecate this currency. Once deprecated, infusion will cost an amount of Enhancement Cores and Glimmer. Overall, we’ve found that Unstable Cores have been too restrictive across power levels and fail to drive any interesting buildcraft decisions, whether they be powering up through Campaign missions and wanting to try different weapons, or going into Endgame content and looking to infuse lower-level gear to higher power levels.
“We don’t have an exact patch for this change just yet but are working rapidly to align on a target date. In the short term, we have two items of note shipping tomorrow with Destiny 2 Update 9.1.5.1. Our goal is to help players with smaller amounts of unstable cores infuse gear alongside Power and Progression changes going live tomorrow until the currency can be retired:
“We have added a one-time reward of 777,777 Unstable Cores to the catch-up chest that will be available in the Tower tomorrow at reset. We highly recommend signing in and using these before they’re removed! We are shipping a minor change that reduces the number of Unstable Cores needed for infusion at higher power levels until they are deprecated. We will provide additional updates when available.”
In other news, Destiny 2 has now fallen to its lowest player count in history, dropping even below the Curse of Osiris era, which Bungie once described as being just weeks away from shutting the game down entirely.
What do you think of the changes to Unstable Cores? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
