Destiny needs more "useless" grinds.

I've been playing Destiny a LONG time. I'm no D1 beta vet, but I've played through TTK and Destiny 2 since vanilla, I've even suffered through the CoO and Warmind releases.

This isn't to brag or to say my word should mean something, it's just to set the stage. Year 1 of Destiny 2, guns had set rolls. You got what you wanted, you used it. Year 2 we got random rolls, yay, exciting. Come Witch Queen, we got weapon crafting. Exotics aplenty and abound in-between all that. And... as a looter-shooter, I think we've sort of reached the 'apex'.

There is basically no better rocket launcher than Apex Predator or a BnS + auto-reload. There's no better protection than a Well of Radiance, even post-nerfs, because it's easy to use and doesn't require too much thought or effort. They can keep adding supers, perks, new weapons, even craftable ones but- what's the point? I still have a crafted Ragnhild-D that I use for PvE since 2022. I'm sure most of the people in this sub have a similar gun they crafted and never went back to using another. Two, maybe three loadout sets. A mid gun with niche perks isn't gonna entice 100k players to come back, and power creeping will only creep us so far.

Of course I'm not gonna say "stop making guns for us to chase <3" especially since new players are a thing (and a whole topic on their own, Destiny is BADLY in need of an operation: Actually Introduce New Players To The Story) but I think we need more grinds like fishing, or the treasures from Beyond Light. Stupid, purposeless grinds that let you brag about doing something not paritcularly skilful but that still show it off. I'd suggest cosmetic rewards but we all know Bungie is too stingy and lacking in manpower to do that, and Titles are meant to be special (even if Dredgen exists.) so just... reuse some assets?

Use the room with Micah-10 in the New Tower or the Farm (we literally used it in Lightfall, the map is updated for this lighting engine, there's no excuse to not bring it back.) to show off stupid acomplishments? 100 completions of Devil's Lair gives you a hanging House of Devils banner? 100 Hashladun kills displays a mini-kit of the Shadowkeep? Completing Spire 100 times gives you a hobgoblin head wearing a cowboy hat? No one looks at emblems, Bungie. But people do care about decorating little rooms with junk, because collecting trinkets is great. Tangible, visible, "worth inviting friends to my instance to show off that yes, I no-lifed this whole week to complete 1k crucible bounties and got Shaxx's broken horn (it's a replica)". People already have been asking for a living space for years, just reuse what we already have, reuse assets, I don't care, just give us something to grind for passively and actively if we choose to! The Hall of Opulence was literally this idea but better, I'm suggesting a patchwork solution!

Would this fix the game and bring back Final Shape release numbers of players? God no. But I know there's a lot of completionists and casual players who'd play for things like this. A certain other looter shooter does useless rewards like this all the time, and it's hard not to find players talking about them, sharing secrets, tips, and showing off their collections. Destiny needs that too. Ramble over. I just wish there was a reason to load into the strikes playlist and actually play normal strikes, or to re-play a dungeon I already got the loot I wanted for. It'd help bring back sherpas who want to show things off in their rooms, and if you want FOMO, you could even tie some to seasonal rewards to show how long you've been playing.

This is a ramble-pitch, not a fully fledged idea. I'm sure there's more than enough criticisms and refinement that could be done here, between the number of activities, the type of 'reward', the way you could decorate, item / space limitations, so on. But until then, I'll keep looking for a reason to play anything other than Onslaught: Salvation for season ranks or finally getting Hierarchy of Needs to drop.