After a wave of backlash, Bungie says it’s “working through player feedback” and will revert the most-criticized Destiny 2 Portal reward changes planned for the Ash & Iron Major update.
Last week, Bungie shared a preview of a big Portal tuning pass arriving with Update 9.1.0 alongside Ash & Iron on September 9. The plan included lowering the Power earned per grade in Solo Ops by 1 compared to other categories and reducing rewards in several exotic missions: Encore (end-activity engrams down to two; mid-activity chests down to two), Starcrossed (end to one; mid to one), and The Whisper. (mid-activity chest removed)
Fans didn’t take that lightly. Across Reddit and X, players argued the Portal already felt too stingy and that nerfing the few satisfying grinds would push people away. “So, I have no reason to run Encore, Starcrossed, or Whisper anymore,” one user said, expressing frustration. “Gotcha. Thanks for essentially removing another 3 activities from the game, in an already very small playlist.”
“I’m starting to convince myself that Bungie doesn’t actually play this game,” another user replied. “It’s actually impressive how (outside being able to access past Season Passes) tone-deaf this is,” one said.
Between the official TWID thread on r/DestinyTheGame subreddit and a feedback post on X (Twitter) from Bungie’s principal communications manager, Dylan Gafner, the discussion drew nearly 4,000 comments, most pushing back on last week’s announcements.
After that wave of criticism, Bungie has responded, and there’s good news: key Portal reward changes are being reverted.
Destiny 2 Portal Rewards Reverted: What Bungie Said and What’s Next
Bungie has now walked back those two changes. In a post from the Destiny 2 Team account shared on X (Twitter) today, the studio said it has been “working through player feedback” and is reverting the Solo Ops Power-per-grade reduction and the Engram reductions for Encore, Starcrossed, and Whisper that were planned for Update 9.1.0. More details about how Bungie plans to improve the Portal rewards will be revealed in this week’s TWID. (tomorrow)
“We’ve been working through player feedback from the previous TWID and reassessing our announced rewards updates for the Portal,” the post reads. “We will be reverting the following changes which were planned for Destiny 2 Update 9.1.0.
“Planned reductions to Power earned for a given grade within Solo Ops have been reverted. Planned reductions of Engrams earned in Encore, Starcrossed, and Whisper have been reverted.”
As for the Ash & Iron free major update, it will arrive on Tuesday, September 9, 2025, bringing back the Plaguelands location from Rise of Iron, plus a new three-player activity, Reclaim, introduced via a “New Territory” highlighter quest. Here’s everything coming with this update.
What do you think about this? Are you happy with the rollback? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
