‘Destiny 2’ Was Wrong To Completely Abandon Gambit For Four Years

While there’s a constantly debate about Crucible in Destiny 2, and the neglect Bungie has shown the PvP side of the game for years now, if we’re doing the meme of the kid splashing in the water with a skeleton at the bottom, Gambit is that skeleton.

Bungie has at least made gestures toward bolstering PvP over the last few years. A tiny handful of maps. New modes. New Iron Banner and Trials loot. A new competitive ladder. It’s not great but it’s not nothing.

And it’s not what they’ve done to Gambit. Gambit is the only mode in the game that has not just gotten no real support, but actually has had things taken away from it, as two of its paltry six maps were vaulted and never returned. Ideas like Gambit Prime roles turning into armor mods never manifested. The best we’ve gotten from Gambit are some balance passes and seasonal playlist weapons.

Season of the Drifter, the last time anything was actively added to Gambit (Gambit Prime, the Prime roles, new maps) was in March of 2019. The last major truly major change to Gambit was the merging of the base version and Prime with Beyond Light in 2020 (also when we lost the two maps).

While Gambit has become the epitome of a community meme now, have you…actually played Gambit lately? It’s in a really, surprisingly good spot, and it makes me deeply sad that the mode has been essentially 100% abandoned by Bungie for years now. Why is it good?

Games Are Short – With Crucible matches usually going to 8-10 minutes and the new Vanguard Ops philosophy doing 10-15 minute strikes and battlegrounds, 5-6 minute Gambit matches are common and feel breezy.

Enemies Feel Balanced – I remember a time when Gambit enemies were hitting weirdly hard compared to everything else and felt way too chunky. But now that time is gone, given the difficulty increases elsewhere, and Gambit enemy clearing feels like a bit of a breather from how beefy enemies have gotten in the rest of the game.

Subclasses Gone Wild – The 3.0 subclasses have felt really fun with Gambit, whether you’re clearing entire sides with Arc jolt, Void volatile rounds or Solar explosions. But I have to say I am having a blast with Strand and its new grapple, which allows you to swing around the Gambit map like never before, plus use tangles like Warmind Cells to nuke and suspend enemy clusters. It feels great.

Invasion Toned Down – While getting killed by an invader is always annoying, the mode has finally reached a timing sweet spot where invasions do not feel overly oppressive like they did for most of the game’s lifespan.

Primeval Burning – The Prime-like health gates put into the primeval means that burning is not as truly insane as it once was, though certainly you can take the boss down fast once you do get through the gates.

No Singularly Annoying Weapon – I remember a time when Gambit was essentially ruined by a single weapon at a time, Queensbreaker once, then Sleeper Simulant. Now, both for invasion and Primeval killing, I don’t think there’s just one thing ruining the mode. Of everything Xenophage is probably the most annoying for its one-shot invasion kills, but with invasion toned down overall with the timing and elimination of wallhacks, it’s not as bad as it once was.

Gambit is often…pretty fun now. And compared to longer, most exhausting playlist activities, it’s a breeze for farming rep, materials, pinnacles, transmog bounties, really whatever. Give it a shot if you’ve totally abandoned it. Like Bungie abandoned it. Which I believe is a big mistake.

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