Two of the greatest missions in Destiny 2 are undoubtably Whisper of the Worm and Zero Hour (Outbreak Perfected). The balance between enemies and puzzle design, the depth and complication of the jumping, the sheer madness of the terminals for the Zero Hour ship, all are examples of Destiny design at its finest. With the recent launch of the Harbinger Mission for the Hawkmoon exotic, I would like to touch on a topic where I think Bungie is missing an opportunity.
I was able, after some serious work, to solo and flawless this mission the weekend after it launched. I worked hard to learn it and wanted the challenge of trying to do it both solo and flawless. My first attempt failed because I was too scared to make the jump I knew I needed to make, and thus fell to my death in the jumping area before the final boss; as all scared jumpers do. My second attempt worked almost exactly as I wanted and with some careful invisibility (thanks Sixth Coyote Nightstalker) and well placed Xenophage shots, I got my Solo Flawless (sadly no emblem for it, just a Triumph). The reason I just went into such detail was to get to this next point. My solo flawless was accomplished in 51:32.
Now, I’m sure the Esoterickkk’s of the world will smoke that time and some people may scoff at an hour for that mission, but I’m very proud of doing it on my own, deciding my loadouts, taking my time, learning the mission and completing it both solo and flawless on only my eighth run through the mission. My point, which, I know, I’m finally getting to, is that none of this would have been possible in Zero Hour or Whisper. The fact that those missions had a 20-minute timer directly prevents what I just accomplished in Harbinger.
I’m not suggesting that Bungie should eliminate timed missions from the game. There is also a cool, gut-check moment as you watch the timer go down and you’re also staring at the boss’s health bar trying to figure out if you’ll do it or not. What I’m asking is for a way to turn the timer off. I would have loved the chance to tackle Zero Hour like I did Harbinger, but I’m not good enough to do it in 20 minutes. I do think I’m good enough to do it in less than an hour and could probably also do it solo flawless. Many of the players I know and people who I saw on LFG asking for carries, chose never to do these missions at all because of the timer. While many are good enough to do the mission, they simply aren’t good enough to do the mission in the time allotted.
To head off any arguments about the rewards, I’m not advocating that Whisper or Outbreak be handed out for a run without a timer. But what about 20 runs without a timer, or 50 runs without a timer? Bungie could limit the runs that count per character or account to three a week and thus people would have to commit to get the gun by doing it over months of time. Isn’t that enough of an investment in the grind/game? Shouldn’t there be a way for people to grind out the gun(s) without being constrained by the timer? Or if you don’t feel that way and are happily in the “get good gamer” camp, ignore the rewards entirely and I’ll just ask if those people shouldn’t have a chance to enjoy the mission in its entirety the way they want to? It would also help people learn the missions so they could get good enough to do the jumping and the enemies and eventually they could do it in under 20 minutes.
There is tons of content in Destiny hidden behind artificial game barriers (I’m going to touch on this for Raids in a different blog), many of which are necessary, but if I designed Whisper or Zero Hour, I would want as many people as possible to explore what I spent so much time and energy on. You can lock the rewards behind the timer if you must, but please don’t lock the experience behind the timer.
TL/DR – Can we please run without timers, even if just for fun?
