Destiny 2: Engrams now determine your potential power the moment you pick them up

A tweak to how Engrams work in Destiny 2 mean that you'll no longer be able to accidentally screw yourself out of good gear when you decrypt them.

In Destiny 1, it was advantageous to equip your highest-light gear before heading to the Cryptarch, as the quality of the loot the Engrams would drop was determined by your light value when you decrypted them. This could be a tedious process, meaning that you'd need to spend time going through your inventory and maximizing your number each time you wanted to decrypt.

This has been changed for Destiny 2, thankfully, with a new system in place that determines your potential highest light count the moment you pick up an Engram. This change has been outlined as part of the latest This Week At Bungie update on Bungie's site.

Investment Designer Daniel Auchenpaugh outlines how the new system will work, and it certainly sounds like it'll streamline the process. He writes:

"Rewards determine their power at the time they're earned. This means that, when an engram drops in Destiny 2, it decides its power at the time it drops. Also, when we roll rewards, we look at your character's level and your best possible gear to determine the power of the reward. This is true for Crucible end-of-match rewards, Engram drops, Strike rewards, etc."

The best possible gear will count equipment that your character owns, even if it has been left in the vault or isn't equipped. This means that getting Engrams decrypted is going to be less stressful - you don't need to worry about the gear your Guardian is wearing or using, because your potential is being taken into account. Wouldn't it be nice if all things in life worked that way?

Destiny 2 releases next week on September 6 for PS4 and Xbox One. The PC version will follow on October 24. Check out our huge Destiny 2 guide for everything we know about the game right now.