Back to the daily grind
Destiny 2’s season of Arrivals has had a bit of a rocky start with players once again taking to the Black Armory Forges to grind out the seasonal levels but not in the way that you might think. A longtime exploit of the Forges has been that you can go AFK during the activity and due to the ignition only being around 50 seconds long before it ends, without someone taking part in the event, it keeps it below to 2-minute kick timer that Destiny 2 has. Players have been using this exploit to collect Umbral Engrams that can be used to boost your light level due to another exploit that has yet to be patched.
Bungie has patched this exploit today by taking the Forges out of the auto-matchmaking rotation so when you complete a forge, either AFK or actively, you then have to re-queue to find a new match. While this hasn’t actively stopped people from doing AFK Forges it does deter some of the lazier players who wanted to fire up Destiny 2 and leave it running overnight to power level as fast as possible. It’s still not safe to head back into the Forge activity yet as there are still AFK players everywhere who seem to be actively re-queueing after each ignition just to take the easiest way to level and even when they take the ‘honourable’ route and lower their light level below 750 they still match with higher level players who are trying. Additionally, PC players can make use of macros to keep AFK farming.
Bungie has taken the stance in the past that players who exploit errors in the game to advance won’t be punished as it doesn’t fall under the purview of cheating so to anyone who partook in AFK farming you’ll most likely get off scot-free. Some people have been calling for bans but so many people had taken part in this exploit I don’t see any harsh punishments coming and this exploit has been allowed pretty much since the release of The Black Armory so it’s not the first time players have taken to forges to AFK grind.
Despite this blip on the radar, Bungie is still on track with their release plans for future content so be sure to check out their current roadmap here.
