Destiny 2's Superblack shader turns out to be massive time-gated grind

Welcome news about the returning Destiny 1 Superblack shader has been marred by the fact that Bungie will be time-gating the availability of the highly requested cosmetic.

Players have learned that getting the Superblack shader means acquiring all of the BRAVE arsenal that will be introduced with Into the Light.

In total, there will be 12 reissued weapons for players to get with brand-new perk pools. Each symbolizes an important part of the Destiny franchise; the problem is that only half will be available right from the start (April 9), with the rest being drip-fed to players, one per week, until May 21. 

During this week's Destiny blog post on March 28, Bungie confirmed that the Superblock shader would be tied with unlocking all 12 BRAVE arsenal weapons. On the blog, the Destiny 2 community team wrote: 

Shaxx will be there to welcome you and provide the quests to earn your first BRAVE weapons. By his side as always, Arcite has some bounties for Onslaught as well as a very special vanity reward once you have unlocked all of the BRAVE arsenal. One clue: it goes with everything...

OK, forget the clues—it's the highly-requested Superblack shader!

The community is quite upset about this decision. It's understandable, to a degree, to limit access to certain weapons, as players can choose whether it's worth their time to log in during a specific week. However, it's arguably a different story when it comes to one of the most sought-after cosmetics in the game, and players are forced to unlock every single weapon.

The silver lining so far is that Bungie has not confirmed whether the Superblack shader will go away after The Final Shape releases. The devs confirmed weapons would continue to drop from the Onslaught activity, a free-to-play three-man horde mode, so the shader may be available after Into the Light ends.

The only confirmed piece of content that's leaving when Into the Light ends are the special quests that grant limited-time variants of the BRAVE arsenal, which include an exclusive ornament. These come with a curated roll so they'll most likely only serve as collector's items as the community will be looking for a god roll via random drops. 

Into the Light will be released on April 9, being a free update for all Destiny 2 players as Bungie prepares for the upcoming launch of The Final Shape expansion.