Bungie introduced the tonic system into Destiny 2 in Episode Revenant, which is a way to focus farm weapons from activities. While focusing is good, the system itself has some flaws and today I want to compare the tonic system to the Onslaught system, to compare the two focusing systems in Destiny 2.

Looking back at Destiny 2 over the last 10 years since the original game released, the loot reward system has revolved around luck. You’ll run an activity, then hope you get the weapon drop you want, with the rolls you want. Over time, Bungie has introduced more and more systems to narrow down the loot pool and remove the luck from the loot chase. Over the past year 2 systems have been introduced; the tonic system with Episode Revenant, and the weapon focusing options with Into The Light, just before The Final Shape was released. Both systems have their pros and cons, and today I want to look into them in more detail, and provide some contructive feedback for Bungie.

Tonic focusing

The tonic system was introduced with Episode Revenant and it allows us to modify activity rewards and enhance artifact perks. Bungie removed the seasonal upgrade grid a few seasons back and have since been experimenting with new ideas for how to get seasonal loot.

We have a couple of Tonic; Volatile tonics which enhance artifact perks and Enriching tonics which allow us to focus specific weapons and drops from activities like Onslaught Salvation and Tomb of Elders. Tonics have rarities; Uncommon (green), Rare (blue), and Legendary (purple), although unlocking these different variations isn’t exactly clear in the game.

First we have to craft Tonics, and then we apply them. We did have an introduction quest to run through the process of crafting tonics, and soon after there was some pretty strong feedback saying it was a confusing process. The process is as follows

• Interact with the tonic table next to Eido
• Select the tonic to craft, making sure you have the right ingredients (or reagents)
• Interact with the tonic tester
• Activate the tank to spawn tonics

Once you’ve been through that you then have to use the tonic. This can be found on your inventory screen, you have to select a crafted tonic, which then applys it for a duration, for example 60 mins. Then during that timer you enter an activity and hopefully farm your weapons.

You don’t have an inifinite supply of tonics, you have to have reagents, which act as the ingedients for the tonics. These can be found in activities like Onslaught Salvation and Tomb of Elders and they drop from enemies, or from loot chests once you have defeated a boss. Eido also has some quests called Fieldwork, where you have to go to a destination and complete simple tasks and you’ll be rewarded with a bundle of reagents.

I like that Bungie is trying something new here. Bungie listened to years of feedback saying we wanted something different compared to the upgrade table of past seasons, and here they are trying something new and experimenting. However, there are a few things about the tonic system that make it jarring for me.

The number of steps involved and the naming convention makes it hard to understand. I have to go to the table, craft a tonic, have the ingredients called reagents, then go and test it, then it pops out of the machine and then I have to apply it. I think the system would benefit from streamlining, not to the extent of selecting an item from a grid, but Bungie could do away with a few steps, plus improving the naming to help make it clearer to the audience. I don’t think it helps that it’s not clear that Tonics are working, for example you may apply a tonic and often you won’t get the weapon you focused, you’ll get something else.

Onslaught focusing

Onslaught focusing was introduced with Into The Light, allowing us to target specific weapons in a pool of greatest hits from Destiny 2. The process was releatively simple, we’d pick up a quest, complete that and then unlock focusing for a specific weapon, and all we had to do was approach the statue of Shaxx in the Tower and ‘turn on’ focusing. While the focusing was on, our drops would be more likely to be that weapon, and often it felt like it was working. The drops wouldn’t 100% be that weapon all the time, but focused weapon drops were frequent enough to make it feel like it was working as intended.

The tonic system suffers from the ambiguity, where as the Onslaught system felt clear, simple and straight forward. Since Onslaught moved to the Vanguard menu, now those focusing options are available at Zavala in the Tower, so if you missed out on Into The Light, then you can still experience this streamlined focusing system today.

I can see the arguement that it’s too simple and straightforward. Just selecting a weapon from a menu and getting that weapon may become boring over a longer period of time, which is why Bungie is experimenting with extra complevity when it comes to the system. The Onslaught system was good for Into The Light, this was an event at the end of the Light and Darkness Saga, leading us into The Final Shape.

We do have other focusing methods in the game, albeit a little different from these relatively new systems. Raids and Dungeons have loot tables, so you know what you’re going to get from specific encounters and bosses. Quests have introduced loot indicators which tell you what to expect at the end of the quest to set expectations. We’re far removed from the original Destiny system of random loot from most activities.

Focusing loot is likely here to stay, and I think the answer lays somewhere between Onslaught and Tonics. Onslaught is very clear, simple and easy to understand… but the long term effects on the game and how I play the game aren’t clear. The tonic system is a well-meaning iteration, but it’s far too convoluted, and I’m not sure it’s working 100% of the time, which lowers my confidence in the system, and makes me not want to engage with it. I hope Bungie keeps iterating on the Onslaught focusing system, and I loot forward to loot focusing methods in the future, especially with Frontiers coming in 2025.

Let me know in the comments what you think about focusing options, and what you want to see in the game. I’d be interested to hear from you if you’ve played other games and have examples outside Destiny 2.