Why Destiny: The Taken King Won't Let You Upgrade Your Legendary Gear

Destiny's next expansion, the Taken King, launches next month, and it brings a bunch of additions and changes to the game. This includes Bungie's controversial decision to lock current legendary weapons and armor at their current power levels. In other words, in The Taken King, you won't be able to boost your favorite legendary gear up to the power of the expansion's new guns and armor.

In an interview with IGN, Bungie's community manager, David "Deej" Dague, explained that the decision came down to what they wanted players to experience in the new expansion. Although the developer knows that people are attached to their guns, the studio also wants to move people forward into trying out and upgrading new gear and weapons. It's adding a huge number of weapons to the game, and its decision to not let you upgrade your current arsenal comes down to Bungie wanting players to use the new guns.

"In The Taken King, we are delivering to the Tower the largest arsenal that this game has ever seen," Deej said when asked about the choice to prohibit upgrading of current legendaries. "That includes Destiny Year 1. New weapons, new Foundries of weapons, Hakke, Omolon, Suros. Customizable, upgradeable... That's the Destiny experience: 'I have a new gun that I'm upgrading, awesome.' It's the act of discovery that makes being a Guardian interesting, and we're leading people down that path again... When you see Oryx, it'll make Crota seem like a distant memory of a fonder time. You're going to need more powerful weapons to meet these rising threats, and that's the experience we wanted to give people in Year 2."

But Deej also promised players that their favorite weapons won't become irrelevant after the expansion launches. He said that there are still plenty of situations where they can be used effectively. "If you love your Fatebringer, there are still a lot of great places you can use it," he stated. "In normalized Crucible [competitive multiplayer], where power is on an equal playing field, your Fatebringer is still going to be a force to be reckoned with. There are still patrols where it'll be relevant, obviously when you go back to play the old raids, it'll be time to dust off that old Vision of Confluence... There's always a perfect tool for any job in Destiny. So those Year 1 weapons are absolutely going to be relevant, don't dismantle them, there's still going to be a time when you need to use them."

The Taken King launches on September 15, and it adds a bunch of new content in addition to significantly changing the base game. For example, Peter Dinklage has been replaced by voice actor Nolan North as the voice of the Ghost companion, the Light level system has been abandoned, and quests and bounties are getting overhauled.

Check out our interview with Destiny's lead concept artist, who speaks about the decision to replace Dinklage and to include a one time level boost for all players. Keep an eye on GameSpot for more news about The Taken King in the coming weeks.