Ok so I've been going through many threads on the forums since Destiny has come out and being as yes this is an FPS and Bungie has had many very good FPS games, namely the Halo series but this is Bungie's first looter shooter. Sure there are some mmo bits in it but not enough that I would consider it anywhere close to an mmo. But you stupid idiots all have it backwards. In looter shooters, RNG IS EVERYTHING. I know this isn't Borderlands 2 but I'm going use it to teach you guys why you all sound ridiculous saying that getting exotics from Xur is the actual earning. In Borderlands 2, there were special mini bosses, as well as bosses, and even raid bosses, that had their own specific loot pool. Now don't think that you can just kill the boss once and get your legendary and be on your way. No. No no no. You kill the boss for a slight chance at anything on his loot table. Matter of fact, anything in the game (or specific DLC) can drop anything in the game (or specific DLC) to some degree. But bosses had the best chance to drop the gear by a wide margin. Let's say you only have the game and no DLC and you want a Conference Call. The last boss is the best place to try and get it. It's in his loot table. But you can get it anywhere. It's just most likely to drop from him. So you go and you kill the Warrior level 50. He has a huge loot-splosion but darn, you didn't get the Conference call or any legendary for that matter. Too bad. Now you must try again..... And again. And again. And again and again and again and again. This is what's known as farming the boss. You could farm the boss for an hour and not get a drop. But let's say you finally get a Conference Call after five kills (super lucky drop). You check the stats. No element, damage is ok or whatever and all that good stuff. Are you done? Sure, I guess if that's all you wanted. But your friend has a Conference Call that shoots fire bullets and has much higher damage than yours. Why don't you have that? You think hey since it only took five kills I'll just kill him five more times. You then proceed to farm for the next three hours and only get two more Conference Calls from him. Neither of them have as much damage as your friends gun and one of them is electric elemental damage. So what does it take to get higher damage and fire element on the Conference Call? Well in borderlands 2 all the guns were made up of different parts from different manufactures. Come to find out some parts work better than others on some brands of guns and not so good on different guns. This is where your fun in farming begins. Because to get the best stats on a gun means it has to have perfect parts. And then you kinda also have to hope it drops in the element you want, on too of it even dropping at all. On shotguns there were about six different parts if I remember correctly and those six parts could be made by one of like 8 different manufacturers or something. So the gun has to drop. It has to have the element you want. And it has to have parts that compliment eachother. What does that mean? Well if you want a perfect parts Conference Call in a certain element (or all four xD) you'd better throw away your calendar because you'll be farming the Warrior for the next three months praying the RNG gods praise you for your hard work. Then after all the killing, the farming of The Warrior on the hardest difficulty (without DLC) you finally get a perfect parts Conference Call in the element you want, thank god you don't have to see his face ever again! You know what you'll say? I -blam!-ing earned it. I made RNG my bitch. I slapped RNG on the ass so hard she turned around and said is that all you got big daddy? Because I have LIKE FORTY MORE GUNS FOR YOU TO FIND. I'm rambling gotta get back to my point. Why does my Borderlands 2 story matter? Well if you'll notice, Atheon has his very own set of drops that only he can drop. You may have heard of some of them like Atheons Epilogue, the raid AR. he also has a raid Pulse Rifle, shotgun, sniper rifle, rocket launcher, machine gun, and I think he has a fusion rifle, pistol, and scout rifle too. One of every weapon. And he also has a sparrow a ship and a shader, as well as the ability to drop non-bounty exotics. I don't know if every exotic is duplicate of the next with the same stats and perks but I know the Legendaries can have some variety in them. Kinda like perfect parts from earlier. Which means if you want Atheon's Epilogue with all the perks that you like, getting the gun the first time is step one. Then you'll have to get another one and see the differences between them. Keep the one you like and dismantle the one you don't. Or vault it for an alt, whatever. But with all the different perks I've seen in this game already, if you want a 'perfect parts' Atheon's Epilogue it could take you and a very, very dedicated raid crew months just to find the best version of that gun you possibly can. Then, and only then, will you have truly earned it. Same thing goes for the Exotics. Get one and check the differences between it and the ones your friends have, or the one Xur sold you last week. Because the smallest difference in impact or rate of fire is what's going to pull you over the top in the crucible. Then everyone else will cry because they have the cookie cutter exactly the same exotic as everyone else that Xur sold them, and you'll truly be the special snowflake you've always wanted to be. And you will have earned it. Not to mention that you get coins thrown at you from all directions. TL;DR Go actually read the post, you moron.