Recently, Bungie released new artwork for some of the carapace for Destiny 2, and well… an uproar began in the community. The official Destiny Twitter account put out a mysterious image: a stoic Guardian holding a coffee cup that read “The Guardian” alongside some truly grimy armor sets. And by grimy, we pretty much mean long-term soaking in swamp waters left to ferment under the sun for hundreds of years.
The armor features these strange organic growths that cover parts of the design; some players are calling it Nurgle Snot (a Warhammer reference), while others say it looks like dark matter fungus. Whatever it is, it defies that clean-and-sleek Destiny 1 design aesthetic that so many players were hoping for.
The replies were bursting with different angles on this concept. Some players are loving this style, with one eager Guardian averring, “The armor is fire! Need it asap.” Others were less delighted. One unhappy fellow replied, “perfectly good armor? mmm lets just add a buncha scuff on it despite a lot of players wanting more basic, D1 esq armor styles.” Ouch, that stung.
Speculation also flowed into the realm of where this armor is even coming from. Some suspect this armor set to be seasonal pass rewards; some say it is raid gear. An observant soul found an old piece of concept art suspiciously resembling, thinking aloud “Wait don’t tell me this armor set is this?” with a link to the art.
Now, the Halo jokes certainly came pouring in without much delay. “Thought this was a halo flood collab at first… I was ready to jump onto my screen,” shared one player. And really, that organic growth is a pretty strong flood vibe.
Price speculation is already running wild, with one cynical reply saying: “Probably gonna be $15.” Because, let’s face it, when has cool armor in Destiny NOT cost extra these days? Though to be fair, if it is seasonal pass content, you’d get it as part of that package.
What makes the really interesting bit are the opinions splitting between the very divisive design: One camp says this armor would look way better without all the gunk on it, while the other is all about that gross-but-cool look. Another player joked that they could just dye that growth red to make it look like SIVA, the nanotech plague from Destiny’s earlier days.
Bungie has been trying out a lot of wilder armor design choices lately, ones that venture way out from the military sci-fi taste of earlier Destiny. And what this latest leak (or teaser) proves is that they are seriously not afraid to get weird. Whether that’s good or bad… well, it’s up for debate.
The armor definitely looks like it fits into what Destiny has recently been leaning toward: design on the more fantastical and less grounded end of the spectrum. Remember when everyone flipped out over dinosaur armor? Or armor making you look like an actual knight? This is probably the evolutionary step in that direction, except with a teaspoon of biological horror.
No word yet on when we’ll see the armor in the game or what it’s rewarded for, but one thing’s for certain: When they actually release it, you’re going to stand out in the Tower. Whether or not that’s a good thing… Well, that depends on how far you are to love your armor looking like it crawled out an open manhole.
Basically, I think Destiny armor sentiment is “go big or go home.” This latest leak just on its own is further proof that the developers live and breathe this ideology. Love it or hate it, you can’t say it’s boring. Now if you will excuse us, we need to go wash our hands after looking at those screenshots again.
