Destiny's Treasure Cave Shut Down by Bungie

The infamous Treasure Cave that Destiny players have been farming for items has been shut down, Bungie announced today.

A new hotfix released today does away with the Treasure Cave not by removing it, but by preventing endless waves of enemies from spawning inside of it. "The Hive of the holy 'Treasure Cave' have realized the futility of their endless assault on Skywatch and have retired to lick their wounds and plan their next attack," reads one of the patch notes on Bungie's website.

"The social experience of a cave farming run is amazing: the herding to get a team of Guardians all behind the line and firing in the right direction, the rush to grab the loot, the scramble when the panic wave starts, the beckoning glow from inside the cave," the developer said in a statement about where the game is at after two-plus weeks. "The speed at which the community organized around this activity was inspiring and humbling to us.

"But shooting at a black hole for hours on end isn't our dream for how Destiny is played. Our hope is that social engagement in public spaces is only one part of the Destiny experience. Expect changes soon which decrease the efficiency of cave farming and correspondingly increase engram drops from completing activities."

This is significant because, since it was discovered, the Treasure Cave had become the most popular and efficient way of earning in-game loot. With it now shut down, players will have to begin looking for the next-best way of getting their hands on new items.

Also covered in today's hotfix are tweaks to respawn timers for other monster caves in the game, as well as changes to what you earn for dismantling Queen's Wrath gear. You can read the full notes below.

Activities

Missions

• Reduced drop rate of engrams following a hard wipe [fixed in 1.0.1.4]

Queen's Wrath Event

• Material rewards for dismantling Queen's Wrath gear will no longer provide ascendant materials, but missions will continue to drop Legendary items

World

Destinations

• The Hive of the holy "Treasure Cave" have realized the futility of their endless assault on Skywatch and have retired to lick their wounds and plan their next attack.
• Respawn timers for monster caves in Skywatch have been normalized to 40 seconds (increased from 6)
• Respawn timers for monster caves in Forgotten Shore have been normalized to 40 seconds (increased from 10)
• Respawn timers for monster caves in Ember Caves have been normalized to 40 seconds (increased from 10)
• Respawn timers for monster caves in the Shattered Coast have been normalized to 40 seconds (increased from 10)
• Respawn timers for monster caves in the Barrens have been normalized to 40 seconds (increased from 20)