Bungie has patched an exploit that allowed Destiny 2 players to claim a Twitch bounty offering in-game seasonal XP indefinitely.
For Destiny 2 players, this is a pivotal week. Bungie released the 3.4.0 patch yesterday, which included a number of significant changes to the game. Then, on Thursday, a new story trailer for Destiny 2’s The Witch Queen expansion was released. In the run-up to the release of The Witch Queen, players are returning to Destiny 2. Unfortunately, this type of behavior frequently leads to problems, including exploits. One such example, a Twitch-linked infinite seasonal XP exploit, has now been fixed.
Bungie and Twitch recently teamed up to create a one-of-a-kind Destiny 2 bounty reward. To receive the said special reward, Destiny 2 players’ can give a Twitch streamer two subscriptions while watching them using the official Twitch Destiny Extension.
The prize included 5000 glimmer, three enhancement cores, three Twitch Watchers’ Shade shaders, an exclusive emblem, and, most importantly, 12,000 XP. It was Windows XP that proved to be a problem.
Some Destiny 2 players were able to turn in their reward bundle in-game over and over again after completing the Twitch bounty for whatever reason. Because the exploit is technically infinite, Destiny 2 players were able to complete unending ranks of seasonal XP with the reward. The glitch was described as allowing 100 season ranks per hour, and a large number of Destiny 2 players took full advantage of it.
Bungie, on the other hand, has since patched the exploit. Bungie is said to have turned off the bounty so that it can no longer be claimed, which means there’s no more infinite XP to be had. Those interested in participating should save their Twitch subscriptions. It’s a broad response to the exploit, but the best — and quickest — response is to disable the entire system until Bungie can figure out what went wrong. Without the exploit, the bounty is likely to return in the future.
At this time, it’s unclear whether players who took advantage of the exploit in Destiny 2 will face repercussions. Bungie will almost certainly be able to track who claimed more rewards than they deserved, so it’s a possibility. Bungie may choose to remove all undeserved rewards while leaving players unpunished in other ways. There’s also the possibility that it doesn’t do anything.
Players in Destiny 2 have a history of inventing new ways to earn rewards, some of which should be considered exploitative. It traces its roots back to the infamous Destiny loot cave. It’s all part of the fun of making a looter shooter, because players are naturally motivated to earn loot and progress as quickly as possible. Those who took advantage of this new exploit are likely to have invested hundreds of hours in Destiny 2, and they’ll return to earning XP the traditional way afterward. Gamers are amusing in that way.
