Here's a few suggestions I have for upgrading gear. 1: When you upgrade your exotic gear with Xur, there's a few other options that may make people happier. A: Don't reset the progress on the gear after the upgrade. B: Do reset the progress, unless they already put an exotic shard into it. And if there's already an exotic shard, don't charge another one. C: Instead of resetting the progress, just add another bubble to level up, which would increase the gear to the proper armor/damage and light and stats. D: Don't make anyone do anything to the exotics they already have, just roll out the upgrade to everyone who already owns the gear. It would be like a thank you note/ Christmas gift to people who have been with the game since day 1. 2: Make it so you can spend resources at the Gunsmith so he can add new armor/damage bubbles to your existing gear that you can then level up. Maybe it would cost 1 exotic shard for exotics per bubble? Then you could buy the shards from Xur but the gunsmith could do the work. 3: Breaking down gear should give you a percentage or fraction of all resources spent on it.