In preparation for the release of Lightfall (opens in new tab), Bungie seems to be supplementing its annual "This Week at Bungie" series with an additional article that delves deeper into the upcoming changes to the expansion. Last week we had a game-changing update on what is happening to Buildcraft (open in new tab). This week's update may not be as dramatic, but it will be no less exciting for those invested in the fashion side of the end game.

In a post about the game's upcoming economic changes (opens in new tab), Bungie finally revealed its long-announced "Legacy Focusing" system, where players can acquire old weapons and armor sets that no longer drop from the core game activities The company revealed how players can acquire old weapons and armor sets that no longer drop from the game's core activities. A new section has also been added to Ada-1's armor store, which will allow players to purchase old shaders in rotation, three per week for 10,000 glimmer at the time of Lightfall's release.

"Finally," players say, "you can get a Bergian Knight.

If you want a visual representation of which shaders are coming back, see this Reddit post. It is worth remembering, however, that because of the impenetrable way the shader palette is displayed and applied, it is essentially impossible to puzzle out what any set actually looks like unless you preview it in-game. Here are some cold-hearted classics, such as the aforementioned Bergean Knight, its sibling New Age Black Armory from Season of the Forge, Dark Omoron from Season of Arrival, and old faction shaders from around Year 1, when the faction actually existed are a few. I know what you're thinking: "Where's Carminica? Hopefully there will be more options in the future.

As for legacy gear, quite a lot of investment will be required. In Crucible, Vanguard Ops, and Gambit, there is a cost for armor that has not yet been unlocked. There are cheaper and better ways to acquire armor and you can reskin them thanks to Transmog.

For weapons and armor from Nightfall, Iron Banner, and Trials of Osiris, more investment is required. For the ones you haven't unlocked, there are pieces of each:

The difficulty here is the engrams. You gain one when you rank up, but the points required increase with each rank. The jump from Guardian I to Heroic II (which earns seven engrams) is only 1,925 points, but the next seven, from Heroic II to Mythic III, require 5,625 points.

Each set has five pieces of armor, so collecting a full set of Iron Fellowship, for example, would require 35 engrams. That means 10,000 rank points to reach Legend and reset again. That's quite a time investment.

Whenever Bungie releases a new system, especially one with an economic cost, there is usually something that infuriates the player base. In the case of this system, the effort involved in unlocking the old sets would definitely be it; from Bungie's perspective, the cost would be reasonable. Once all the sets are unlocked, there is little point in interacting with the legacy-oriented armorside by transmogging. That said, doing so is a long-term goal, meant to be done over many seasons. But players have historically been impatient with such timescales.

Again, the price of already unlocked gear will drop to 3 engrams. 21]

Bungie will also be rolling out Zavala's current non-legacy focusing system as part of the rollout to the current non-legacy focusing system acquired with the Grand Master Strike Add the ability to focus Adept Nightfall weapons. However, focusing an adept weapon requires the expenditure of 10 adept cyphers. Earning a Platinum Award in a GM run (by defeating all the champions) will earn you only two of these awards. In other words, you will earn 5 GMs per focus, and in most cases, farming GMs remains the better, more profitable route.

There are also several notable deficiencies in legacy focusing. Most notable on the weapons side is The Palindrome, an adaptive frame hand cannon that is no longer available in the Nightfall rotation. It was a desirable choice, especially in PvP, as it had perks like quickdraw and rangefinder and could slot in adept mods. Perhaps that's why it hasn't been resurrected yet; Bungie has recently made moves to keep guns relevant to the activities they earn. When Mindbender's Ambition (another nightfall weapon that became an actual terror in Year 2 Crucible) returned this year, its perks were completely reworked to reduce its effectiveness in PvP; I wouldn't be surprised if Pali gets the same treatment.

On the armor front, the Iron Symmathy set is not returning. Unless it is scheduled to circulate as an Iron Banner reward next year, I can't speculate on why this is not coming back.

Aside from a few sore points, it is nice to have a way to unlock old gear. It was always annoying to see the weapons I was chasing disappear from the loot pools at Trials and Nightfall. And between this and the changes planned for Buildcraft, it's clear that there will be plenty of long-awaited quality-of-life changes in the coming month. Despite these changes, I hope the launch of Lightfall is a smooth one.