The Evolution of Buildcrafting in Destiny 2
For several years, as both the feature lead for the Armor & Expressions team and then Rewards Area Sandbox Lead, I oversaw the continued expansion and player adoption of our new player buildcrafting systems. Key to that expansion were three new subsystems built into seasonally-released armor mods.
Key Elements
Charged with Light
The Charged with Light mods were built on a straightforward builder-spender economy. Players could choose mods that determined what triggers caused them to build up stacks of the Charged with Light buff. Other mods then allowed the player to choose which triggers would spend those stacks, gaining a benefit determined by the mod. A third category of mod introduced meta-system adjustments, allowing the player to tinker with the number of stacks they could have, how quickly they gained stacks, etc. Each armor energy type had a different subcategory of mechanics; for example, Void mods all had more-powerful-than-average effects but came with stat penalties, while Arc modes unlocked a second perk if more than one Arc mod was equipped. Charged with Light was retired with the Lightfall expansion, evolving into the Armor Charge system that now encompasses all armor mods.
Warmind Cells
Themed on the technologies of Rasputin, the Warmind of Mars, Warmind Cells took armor mods in a new direction, spawning objects in the world around which the mods could interact. Warmind Cells could only be spawned by certain weapons, or by equipping particular mods with different triggers. Once a Warmind Cell was spawned, it could be shot to blow up and cause area damage. However, other armor mods allowed for new interactions: picking up Warmind Cells and throwing them, shooting them to create pulses of suppressing energy, or simply radiating a damage bonus against nearby enemies. With the release of Lightfall, Warmind Cell mods were retired, but much of their functionality formed the basis of the tangled mechanic introduced for the Strand damage type.
Elemental Wells
Building off of the principles of both Charged with Light and Warmind Cells, elemental wells were small, collectible objects that were spawned by triggers determined by which mods were socketed. Like the other two systems, each different armor energy type spawned different elementally-flavored wells with distinctive triggers and benefits for wells of that type, and meta mods could cause the wells to seek out players across the battlefield, spawn more wells, or have longer lifespans. Additionally, there were mods that blended all three systems, allowing you to become Charged with Light by picking up elemental wells, or generate elemental wells by destroying Warmind Cells. When Lightfall dropped, Elemental Wells were retired, with some of their functionality absorbed into the unified Armor Charge system, with other mechanics moving over to the new Strand tangles, Solar flares, and Void breaches.