Destiny patch 1.0.2 brings changes to the Cryptarch and Engram experience

Bungie was quite serious in their intentions to balance out Destiny based on user feedback and they are working on a patch, due next week, which will tweak the Cryptarch and Engram experience. Basically, there will be less reasons to waste hours of our lives cave farming for Engrams and items.

According to the patch preview notes, Mr. Cryptarch will finally decode items properly and apparently be more generous, meaning that Rare or Legendary Engrams will never be “downgraded” below their current level, and have a better chance to decode at a level higher.  This will only go into effect for Engrams picked up post patch, so there’s no use in hording undecoded Engrams before then since they will be demoted anyway.

Engrams will also be dropped more generously as rewards in activities such as Daily and Weekly Heroic events and  the Tiger playlist.

We assume there’s plenty of bug fixes and other tweaks too, but these are the important ones for now.

Read on.

The 1.0.2 patch will go live next week, and includes several changes to the Cryptarch and Engram experience.  These changes guarantee that Engrams will always decode into items at or above the quality of an engram.

Only Engrams that drop after 1.0.2 are subject to this change.

Cryptarch Changes

Cayde-6 took the Cryptarch aside and showed him a sack of doorknobs. He decoded that mystery pretty quickly.

• Legendary Engrams will always produce Legendary or better quality items, including Materials or Exotics
• Rare Engrams will always produce Rare or better quality items
• Rare engrams will have an increased chance to produce Legendary quality items

Activity Changes

• Daily Heroics, Weekly Heroics, and Vanguard: Tiger Playlist activities will include Rare and Legendary Engrams in addition to their existing rewards

Item Changes

• Ascendant materials have been promoted to Legendary to closer associate them with the gear they are used to upgrade
• Legendary Engram items that exist in your inventory will be demoted to Rare quality when the patch goes live, so decode them while you can. But let?s be honest–even if you don?t, we all know they were blues already…