Destiny 2's Dreadnaught suffers immensely from the lack of an open world and bad design

The Nether in Dreadnaught is one of the most rewarding Destiny 2 activities from Bungie. Players can run the Nether activity alone or in a team in both standard and challenging difficulties. By the end, there are Adept seasonal weapons or guaranteed god rolls in craftable weapons, which are essential in any build. However, aside from loot, several secrets are hidden in different corners of the Nether for the seasonal seal.

For players hunting for the secrets within the Dreadnaught, having each location locked behind an encounter completion is a massive wall and an annoying feature. The Nether is arguably the best seasonal activity that Bungie released in the entire Final Shape expansion. Unfortunately, it is held back by the design choice, lack of accessibility, and spawns dependent on RNG.

Note: The article is subjective and reflects the writer's opinion.

The Nether and Dreadnaught should have been an open-world location in Destiny 2

Dreadnaught was initially an open-world location in Destiny 1, released alongside The Taken King. Hence, with the announcement of its return in the current Episode, many players thought that maybe they were getting yet another open-world version of the Dreadnaught, similar to how the Leviathan was managed in Season of the Haunted.

Open-world Leviathan in Destiny 2 (Image via Bungie)

However, The Nether is nothing but a very linear activity that contains different levels and sections, all locked behind an encounter/task of a specific section. This means if players do not complete the tasks of one region, they cannot progress any further, and so on.

This choice of locking each region has kept players from freely exploring the Dreadnaught and completing the secrets for the seasonal seal.

When it comes to letting players run The Nether as a seasonal activity only, having a linear path can be considered normal by the community.

However, when the game asks a player to complete puzzles, find collectibles and secrets within the same activity, then the design of keeping the tilesets locked becomes questionable.

How the current Dreadnaught is ruining Destiny 2 players' experience

The Nether currently has five locations: Hall of Souls, Founts, Mausoleum, Hull Breach, and Trenchway. Between these five, only four can be spawned in, including Hall of Souls, Trenchway, Hull Breach, and Mausoluem.

Hence, if any players want to complete triumphs present within either the Hull Breach or the Founts, they must complete the following tasks in order:

Spawn in either one of the four locations.
Complete the tasks that can take up several minutes.
Pray that maybe the next encounter will be within the Hull Breach or the Founts.
If not, finish the tasks in the second region, which will take another 15-20 minutes.
Then, if luck is on your side, the specific region you want to explore might be the next destination in the run. If not, then run the activity again from the start.
If you are a solo player, then the time to finish each region might take longer.
If you are in a team, chances are high that the other two players might not be looking for the same secrets as you.
The only option left for a player is to find a dedicated fireteam that is looking to hunt the same secrets. This can be done from a friend circle or the fireteam finder. The chances of getting like-minded players in the latter are very low.

All of these issues can be easily solved by keeping The Nether as a dedicated activity by itself, and releasing the Dreadnaught separately as an open-world Patrol area.

Tasks in the Hull Breach of The Nether in Destiny 2 (Image via Bungie)

While launching a solo instance of The Nether, you will find an "Explore" tag beside it. But the tag doesn't mean anything if players are locked into one region and are not allowed to 'explore' the entirety of the Dreadnaught.

For example, in the image below, I spawned in the Hull Breach, but I want to explore Founts for secrets. But, due to a Taken Barrier, I cannot explore anywhere else.

Taken Barrier locking out in Hull Breach of Destiny 2 (Image via Bungie)

Hence, my only option is to complete the tasks as a solo player in Hull Breach and then open the way to the next region, which may or may not be the Founts.

Bungie also announced that Hull Breach will become the only spawning area for now, keeping other fixes in mind for weeks to come. The main root of the problem, however, remains unsolved, and players will still be locked out of other regions.

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About the author

Soumyadeep is a Journalist on Esports & Gaming at Sportskeeda, specializing in Destiny 2, and Gacha games. He holds a diploma in Computer Science and is also keen on digital illustrations and motion graphic designing. He enjoys spending his free time learning new languages and digging into MMORPGs, manga, and light novels.

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Edited by Sijo Samuel Paul