TLDR: Current loot system sucks. Changes needed so pve is actually fun. Right now we've got a supposed loot grinder that's really heavy on the grinder but light as hell on the loot. Numbered list of suggestions below wall of text. ____________________________________________ The main reason people feel unrewarded for their time is because most of the drops from the game don't feel impactful, and how uncommon it is to actually get legendaries and exotics which even then don't feel like a big deal. Besides that rare moment of excitement seeing a yellow engram drop, only to find it's a duplicate of something not worth using, new loot is almost never exciting. The disconnect from the wording of activity rewards and the actual value of the rewards is stark. For example, doing a public event and getting a chance at "rare gear" isn't rare at all--blues drop often and they aren't even remotely worth wearing outside of sub-level 50. Another example: killing high-value targets and reading the message, "A high-value target has dropped its plunder," only to get 100 glimmer and 2 dusklight shards. Plunder? It feels like being the butt of an inside joke by Bungie. The only reason people even do stuff like public events, regular strikes or heroic story missions anymore is because doing X of them will give a powerful engram. Even that often feels unrewarding because it's usually just a minor boost in light level and otherwise of no value, despite being legendary gear. I do like the concept of random rolls on gear, but a lot of the perks are terrible (e.g. primary ammo finder, air assault) or don't seem to even do anything (e.g. unflinching sniper aim, heavy ammo finder). This makes it almost impossible to acquire a full set of gear with complementary perks, let alone having multiple good sets of gear. And then there are exotics. A lot of them actually aren't that good. Most weapons aren't worth taking up the one-exotic limit because of the handful of truly powerful, exotic weapons that you would miss out on being able to use. Even if you aren't seeking to use "meta" weapons, the amount of fun, unique and powerful-feeling exotic weapons is small. Exotic armor isn't much different. Even ones with intriguing-sounding perks and seemingly unique functions often suck and feel no different from not having exotic armor on at all. The low drop rates of exotics, combined with time-gated loot drops, the large amount of bad exotics, the large amount of bad perks on legendaries and the majority of drops being blues, the player is left feeling let down almost every single time they get a drop. Once in a while you might get a powerful engram that's a weapon you want, and for a moment feel hope, only to see you got a sniper rifle with hip-fire grip and extended mag (which often doesn't even increase mag size). I've got a handful of suggestions to make loot almost always valuable, so then the player would actually feel like their time is worth being spent playing. 1. Blues shouldn't drop after level 50 or be an activity reward at all. 2. The perk pool for both weapons and armor should be combed through, with bad perks or bad perk pairings being removed entirely (e.g. remove stuff like air assault entirely, hip-fire grip should never be on precision weapons, snapshot sights should never accompany hip-fire grip, outlaw should never accompany drop mag, etc.). 3. Buff potentially useful perks that underperform (e.g. hipfire grip on SMGs or auto rifles should actually make them relatively accurate when not aiming down sights, headseeker should actually function like the perk is worded, high-impact reserves should make the bottom of a mag genuinely powerful, etc.). 4. List the actual numerical values for all weapon stats and perks so the player knows exactly what they're getting and can tell if a weapon or perk isn't working correctly. 5. Increase the drop chance of legendary gear. 6. Tweak exotic perks so virtually every exotic is worth using and would be worth building the rest of your gear around. 7. Release catalysts for every exotic weapon. With those changes, pretty much every time an item dropped the player would actually feel rewarded, their time spent would feel justified, and there'd be actual excitement checking out perks on fresh drops. Every drop could be useful, or at minimum could be put in the vault for use later on when complementary drops are acquired. Players could actually build multiple, useful sets of gear with "themes" that make pieces of armor and weapons complement each other. Exotics would always be exciting to get and actually mean something, not just be glorified legendaries. Players would actually look forward to pve activities instead of feeling like they're just working a second job. There'd be genuine replay value to every activity in the game. I doubt there'll be substantial changes for Destiny 2, but hopefully Bungie could leave a reply that they're aiming to implement a more rewarding and exciting loot system for Destiny 3, if not before then.