The First Prestige Raid Controversy

The first Prestige Raid for Destiny 2 came out recently. The Prestige Raid is the same raid as before, only with a higher light level to make it more of a challenge. The first clan to complete it would be recognized within the entire community. The clan that did complete it used a glitch, known as the “Coil Glitch” because it involved an exotic rocket launcher, The Wardiff Coil.

Somehow, by using the Wardiff Coil, by equipping it and unequipping it, you can refill your power weapon ammo. Power ammo is designed to be rare in the game, only dropping at certain times, to limit how often you can use your power weapon. By using the glitch, the clan was able to have more power ammo than normal, which they used to overcome the increased challenge of the higher light level.

The Prestige Raid had already been put off a week because of a different exploit that had been discovered, and Bungie wanted to patch it. While they should have been aware of the Coil Glitch, they chose not to address it. Now some members of the community are calling for the clan to lose their first prestige raid status because they used the glitch. Bungie has declined to do so.

And I think this is on Bungie. Finding and exploiting glitches has been going on in Destiny since the first glitch was found. I’m sure the Coil Glitch will be addressed sooner now, but the fact that Bungie didn’t address it before releasing the prestige raid tells me they didn’t think it was worth patching.

I used a glitch in Destiny 1. There was a strike, The Shield Brothers, where you could avoid damage from the boss fight by standing in a certain corner. You could shoot the bad guys, but for some reason, they couldn’t shoot you. And there was another strike, The Wretched Eye, that I would have certainly used a glitch to complete it if it was possible to do so.

I don’t feel that the clan should lose their first completion status because of the glitch, though the controversy will follow them. It reminds me of the footnotes that will go down in history regarding baseball’s Steroid Era. You can argue that Barry Bonds would have hit that many home runs, and you can make the case that it was never proved that he indulged in the doping, but that asterisk is going to hang by his record, and never let us forget it.

But Destiny has a long history of glitches and exploits, and I’m sure that new ones will surface. It’s all part of the game, no matter what level you’re competing at. You just can’t forget, though, that it was done with a glitch, a hack, a cheat. And that someone, somewhere, did complete it without hacking or cheating. If you can live with the glitch, that’s fine for you, and I don’t think that we get a chance to say otherwise.