So once again the Iron Banner is upon Destiny 2 players, but once again the failed experiment of the Tribute game mode has entered the rotation. When Tribute debuted in December the community complained so loudly the half-baked and untested event was pulled and replaced after just one day into the expected week long timeframe. This time around Bungie is trying again to promote Tribute even though the whole mode just feels bad. In Tribute you kill enemies, grab the crests they drop, and dunk them into posts to earn points towards the team victory. Or something like that. Most of the players fly around ignoring the unexplained mechanics save the few who exploit them to camp the dunk points and promote cheap play. It's a mess, and nothing feels worse than being the one goof who is trying to actually play the intended way only for the rug to get pulled out from under you when the dunk point randomly teleports just as you are about to start your animation.
But there are two new weapons available in this week's Iron Banner. Well one new one of an archetype that we haven't seen before and one rehashed old one with a slick new perk pool to roll from, new enough. Unfortunately, the community is reporting drop rates for the new guns to be pretty cruddy on the first day. Which would be made worse if you had to grind Tribute to suffer the low drop rates, but here is the Super Good Advice: You don't have to play Tribute at all!
Like so many things in Destiny 2 it is completely unexplained in-game, but despite the mode defaulting to Tribute, you can hover over the name and select the classic PvP Control mode instead if you so desire. And yes, you do desire. Unless you're really into Tribute and think this will whittle the population down to objective based players the mode requires, but in the two games I suffered before realizing I could swap modes last night I did not find the lobbies with anything resembling objective based players. Just your classic "we'll turn whatever the mode is into Clash" runnin' and gunnin' guardians out there save the dunk point campers.
More info about Iron Banner can be found on the official site. Destiny 2's (probably) last expansion, The Final Shape drops this summer. Until then, eyes up guardian... and when they're up, swap the mode over to Control and I'll see you in there.
