Destiny 2: Beyond Light is the second expansion to be released since their split from Activision. Shadowkeep, while it offered some great slices of content, had an overall lukewarm reception amongst the community for its campaign and lacking endgame systems.

In some aspects, Beyond Light has done a great job of addressing issues the community had with Shadowkeep such as lacking progression systems and an unsatisfying campaign. Sadly, this expansion fails spectacularly when it comes to core Destiny systems such as loot. Here are ten things best and worst things tied to Destiny 2’s Beyond Light expansion. This article is spoiler-free.

10 Best: Quality Of Life Improvements

A surprising amount of quality of life improvements have been made in Beyond Light that make the core experience much more enjoyable. A dark-themed UI was introduced that has made menu navigation much more enjoyable.

As for more important gameplay systems, quests have adopted the original Destiny’s format of “display quest objectives as they complete” while providing waypoints to the next objective automatically. It makes traversal and the overall campaign much more enjoyable. Finally, the addition of random powerful drops from typical core activities gives multi-hour sessions of strikes and Crucible games purpose again.

9 Worst: Busywork Quest Design

In traditional Destiny fashion, most of the new goodies tied with Beyond Light are associated with miniature quests that require players to complete various activities such as strikes or Public Events.

While it doesn’t feel as fatiguing as Shadowkeep, virtually every new item tied to the expansion has some sort of quest associated with it. These range from finding chests throughout Europa to killing enemies in strikes. There is even a progression system in the form of Sabotage quests that are shockingly similar to the Prismatic Recaster’s upgrade system seen in Season of Arrivals. If you grinded out Shadowkeep and following seasons quite a bit, don’t be surprised to feel some fatigue heading into Beyond Light as the grind is identical.

8 Best: Europa

The icy surface of Europa is one of the best settings Bungie has made for the Destiny franchise. Its large snowfields juxtapose the cramped ice tunnels and intricate Vex structures that are found just under the surface. The sheer size of Europa trumps Destiny 2’s largest zones such as the EDZ by a large margin.

Some have complained that the zone feels empty due to a lack of constant Public Events and rotating activities. That is a valid complaint, but Bungie has incorporated a plethora of secrets on this planet that have yet to be uncovered, some of which seem to be time-gated. It might not have as many secrets as the Dreaming City, but there is so much character tied to this moon that it’s hard not to marvel at the environment while blasting away dozens of Fallen with Stasis powers.

7 Worst: Item Grind

If you hated how Shadowkeep treated its weapon and armor grind, you will be surely disappointed in how Beyond Light handles its systems. In essence, both are the same.

A large swath of quests tied to earning guns and new Stasis abilities are tied to miniature quests that require busywork for a few minutes before they can be turned in. Since the perk pool on the new Europa guns is so large, prepare to spend dozens of hours farming for a perfect roll. The number of quests tied to unlocking the full potential of Stasis is also a sour note to the aftermath of Beyond Light’s campaign.

6 Best: Stasis

For the first time since Destiny’s Taken King expansion has the franchise added new elemental Subclasses to the franchise. Stasis is a breath of fresh air in the realm of support and damage-heavy Supers and abilities.

Besides the abilities themselves, the new Aspect and Fragment system is also a genius way of bringing back character customization to the franchise while allowing potential growth with the addition of new Aspects. Even if you aren’t a fan of the new Stasis abilities, the implementation of Subclass customization is excellent and needs to be implemented across the game’s Light-based Subclasses.

5 Worst: Destiny Content Vault

It would be hard to discuss negatives with Beyond Light without mentioning the sheer volume of content that has been removed. This update might have added Europa and the Cosmodrome to Destiny 2, but it came at the cost of nearly half the game.

Io, Mars, Mercury, and Titan have been removed from the game entirely alongside their associated quests, strikes, and campaign missions. As a result, three campaigns have been removed alongside two hidden Exotic missions, five raids, seven strikes, and even a few Crucible maps and modes. No matter how large Beyond Light is, nothing can shake the feeling that Destiny 2 is missing a massive chunk of content fans have become accustomed to.

4 Best: New Player Experience

Beyond Light also saw the overhaul of Destiny 2’s new player experience. Instead of being thrown into the deep-end of Destiny 2’s systems after character creation, players instead ease their way into the game by exploring the Cosmodrome with the assistance of Shaw Han, a new Hunter NPC that also acts as the zone’s vendor. Getting into Destiny 2 is now much easier than it was last year.

3 Worst: Sunsetting

Arguably the most controversial mechanic Bungie has implemented in Destiny 2 in recent memory is gear sunsetting. For those unaware, every non-Exotic weapon and armor piece in the game has an infusion cap that effectively gives the item an expiration date. This cap is usually one year after it was introduced. This seems fine in theory, removing much of the game’s redundant weapons while making way for new, more interesting variants.

In practice, Bungie decided to make most of the game’s weapon roster irrelevant in the expansion while replacing virtually none of the depreciated archetypes. Rapid-Fire Pulse Rifles don’t have a random-roll variant, there are only three Linear Fusions in the game that haven’t been sunset, four out of five Rapid-Fire Snipers are Solar with no Void alternative, only two Energy Scout Rifles can be used in the current expansion, and nearly every Submachine Gun in the game has been sunset. Only a major refresh in vendor and world loot could have fixed this issue.

2 Best: Difficulty

Difficulty in Destiny 2 is heavily focused around a player’s Power Level, which determines how much damage your weapons deal along with how much damage you take. It certainly plays a large role in the Beyond Light expansion, yet the DLC does a great job of keeping the game difficult despite that.

This is thanks to a few new enemies that debuted in this expansion that demand quick-thinking from you. Vex Wyverns are one of the most terrifying enemies to face due to their aggressive charges and strange weak spot location. Fallen Brigs also serve as great frontline fighters that the Fallen have desperately needed.

1 Worst: No Vendor Refresh

Every issue mentioned with sunsetting was made worse by the shocking lack of a vendor or world loot refresh this expansion. Excluding new Exotic and Trials Adept weapons, Beyond Light and Season of the Hunt introduced 25 new guns to the game.

For comparison, Season of Arrivals—Destiny 2’s fourth season in Year 3—introduced 20 new weapons with random rolls and brought 28 older weapons up to current infusion caps. Shadowkeep had 24 new weapons and Forsaken brought a whopping 98 guns to the game. What is happening to Destiny’s loot game? For a game that thrives off of players farming the best weapons possible, it’s shocking that a $40 expansion as large as Beyond Light brought fewer weapons than a $10 season.

NEXT: 10 Things To Do After You Beat Destiny 2: Beyond Light