Destiny 2 is now facing its biggest endgame-related controversy yet, as Bungie has confirmed that the studio is investigating reports of cheating during the Contest mode raid race for The Desert Perpetual. Destiny 2 players were first able to set foot in The Desert Perpetual on July 19 at 10:00 a.m. PDT as the World First race kicked off.
Along with a slew of new content, gear, and activities, Destiny 2: The Edge of Fate carries on Bungie's tradition of launching a raid and World First race within the first week of the expansion's launch. After completing the first encounter of Destiny 2's The Desert Perpetual raid, players discovered that the raid is nonlinear. Players can interact with various spheres on platforms in the raid's hub area, which can be activated to grant access to three separate boss encounters that can be tackled in any order. Like previous raid races, Contest Mode was enabled for the first 48 hours following the raid's launch, and players who completed the raid during this race received a special emblem, along with all the other rewards from completing the raid's encounters. However, it appears that Destiny 2's cheating problem has reared its head once more.
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PostsOn July 25, the official Destiny 2 Team Twitter account confirmed that Bungie is investigating reports of cheating with fireteams who cleared The Desert Perpetual during Contest mode. Bungie reiterated that breaking the game's Code of Conduct to cheat and complete activities is a bannable offense, and players who benefited from teaming up with cheaters are also subject to consequences, which could also include a ban. The announcement has sparked some controversy in the Destiny 2 community, as players are now checking their raid clear status to see how far they moved up on the Contest mode leaderboard for The Desert Perpetual. For example, Twitter user T1Khan_ revealed that they moved up several hundred positions on the leaderboard to 172nd place from 510th, implying that many teams have had at least one cheater among them.
Bungie Launches Investigation into Destiny 2 Cheating Reports from The Desert Perpetual Raid Race
The controversy has prompted many Destiny 2 players to question the viability of Battleye as an appropriate anti-cheat measure for the game, since The Desert Perpetual appears to be the most heavily impacted raid in terms of cheaters. Some players estimate that roughly 400 out of 600 Contest mode clears involved cheating, and others are calling on Bungie to enact stricter punishments on cheaters in order to prevent Destiny 2 raid races from being affected in the future.
CloseThis isn't the first time that cheaters have affected Destiny 2, as cheating has been a major problem in PvP in recent years. When coupled with Destiny 2: The Edge of Fate's poor launch numbers, the cheating issue paints a tumultuous picture of the game's immediate future.
